Archives For author

My friend Lucas Tetrault needed to put together a design portfolio site and he came to me to help him construct it. Lucky for him I knew a thing or two about jQuery, CSS, 960 grid, and HTML or he could have had an awful time working with someone else. He provided me some fancy photoshop files that made the build so much easier. I think he promised to pay me in gold, but to my dismay, we determined that pizza pockets would do the trick!

If  you would like to see the final product, check it out at http://phoenixwave.com

The truth is… it really doesn’t matter. The values are all the same really, but mixing the measurements together can give you unexpected results. The key is to be consistent.

The table below is a guide that shows font sizing conversion for web development using CSS. Whether you prefer points, pixels, ems, or percent, this will help you decide what value to use.

Read the rest of this entry »

The following list is an overview of the correct order to install drivers on Dell desktops and portables. After reinstalling Microsoft® Windows®, follow the order listed when reinstalling drivers. Read the rest of this entry »

Example of how to take the selected option in a list and pass the value via javascript.

<select onchange="alert(this.options[this.selectedIndex].value);">
	<option value="1">1</option>
	<option value="2">2</option>
	<option value="3">3</option>
	<option value="4">4</option>
	<option value="5">5</option>
</select>

You see it a lot, but sometimes it can do more harm than good. Click here, while descriptive can also be elusive at the same time when it comes to search engine optimization. As early as 2001, the Quality Assurance Interest Group at  W3C was recommending that you do not use click here as a link indicator. Consider the following links…

Each link would take to you the same place and imply that they are links denoted by the underlined text. As a general rule, most people understand that underlined text is a link and do NOT need to be instructed to click here. The difference is that the second link will now associate the URL with the action Purchase SuperWidget instead of Click Here. While I am on the subject, you should also refrain from underlining text in your website if it is not a hyper-link, it can be confusing to your reader as they might think it is a link.

With the importance of search optimization these days, every little bit you can do will go a long way.

Using the Modulus PHP Arithmetic Operator, you can easily assign an alternate class to a repeated element. Depending on whether a number is odd or even, you could choose which color to make each row by assigning the css style selector to the repeated tag.

Example PHP Function

This function will output the text string “ alt“. It is best used inside the class attribute of your HTML element if the number passed to this function is an even number.

function doAlt($n) {
    if ($n % 2) {
        echo(' alt');
    }
}

Example HTML Markup

for ($i = 0; $i <= 4; $i++)	{
	echo '<div class="row'.doAlt($i).'">Row '.$i.'</div>';
}

Example CSS Styles

.row {
background-color:#000000;
color:#FFFFFF;
width:300px;
}

.alt {
background-color:#1B2426;
}

Example Output

<div class="row">Row 0</div>
<div class="row alt">Row 1</div>
<div class="row">Row 2</div>
<div class="row alt">Row 3</div>
<div class="row">Row 4</div>

As a web developer constantly having to deal with differences in browser compatibility, there is no doubt that Internet Explorer 6 is a thorn in my side. The thing that I hate the most about IE 6 is the fact that people use it. If you are one of them, please stop. Right now, before you read any more of this post.

Go ahead, make my day…

Both Digg and YouTube have announced that they’re cutting back on IE6 support. Facebook already gives you suggestions for better browsers if you try to log in with IE6. You won’t be able to Digg articles or browse YouTube via IE6 in the near future. By far, the best news in my inbox was this email I received recently.

Read the rest of this entry »