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sharptube

Feb 19th, 2009
by Forrest.
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For the past week, I have been working on creating a content management system, using a template I found on oswd.org. As I was writing the boring stuff, I thought about several more interesting components I could create. The first thing that came to mind was an easy way to display a video from any of the more popular video sharing sites.

So I started this.. a YouTube player wrapper written in ASP.Net (C#). Yeah, I know… there is nothing earth-shattering about sticking some javascript in a usercontrol, but there is a lot more to come. I plan to add support for other popular video sites (hulu, vimeo, etc), as well as rendering options.

All currently available Youtube video parameters have been exposed as properties of the usercontrol. Once properties have been set, call initializeEmbeddedYoutubePlayer(). Grab the code folder for an example.

Whenever I get Amazon’s EC2 figured out, I’ll have it up for demo. Until then, I promise it works! You can download it and run the code yourself.

UPDATE: Link to Sharptube Example

http://code.google.com/p/sharptube/

Yahoo! Pipes

Sep 29th, 2008
by Forrest.
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Yahoo! Pipes is extremely powerful. I heard about it a while back, but never really payed any attention until recently.

I was tired of the lack of news on my tech tab in Google’s start page, so I headed over to Pipes to create my own feeds. After watching the how to video I was off.

Google Chrome

Sep 26th, 2008
by Forrest.
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I’m a bit behind on this post, but if you haven’t tried it yet, I would suggest taking a look at Google’s new browser, Chrome. It is still in beta, but then again, beta is what Google says it is.

Pros: The program loads a lot faster than Firefox, but that is probably because I have so many plugins in Firefox, and none in Chrome. Pages load a bit quicker, as well.

Cons: It is still very young, so there currently no official plugins or themes. Themes are less important, but I simply can not give up Firebug or Webdeveloper in Firefox when I’m developing. Finally, I have had problems with it crashing due to flash content, but other people I have talked to are not experiencing this.

link

Webmonkey Maps iPhone App Developer s Frustration – Webmonkey

Sep 26th, 2008
by Forrest.
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Webmonkey has a great post up about how frustrating it is to develop for the iPhone. I have spent a little time in the SDK, and it is downright confusing. Granted, I have not given it enough effort due to time constraints, but it is the most puzzling development I have ever attempted.

link

Master Page Name Mangling

Apr 11th, 2008
by Forrest.
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I just read over some of my oldest posts, and found this gem. While I stand by it still, the code is unreadable, and using some class names that will not be relevant to your project. Mayhaps a better approach would be to create a class to implement in pages where needed.

Again, this is really only needed when time is at a premium and you have legacy javascript that accesses page elements by ID that will be mangled by master pages.

Obviously, the best course of action is always to use the coding tools you have and not hack around them. Sometimes, that is not an option. That was the situation I was in when I wrote those posts. Shakespeare’s gotta get paid, son.

Pixelpost

Apr 11th, 2008
by Forrest.
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Pixelpost is a cool gallery system that cuts out all the extra crap. It is just your pics with back and forward buttons.

You can see my current pixelpost install @ http://pixelpost.forrestledbetter.com.

Zenphoto sounds promising as well. We shall see…I have tons of pics that need to be posted. If I can ever get a minute to breathe, I’ll sit down and figure out which is best for my needs.

One gripe about pixelpost: I have found that even though changing skins is quick and painless, sometimes it just completely forgets how to manage CSS.

I downloaded a bunch of different templates/skins, and was switching back and forth to see which I liked the best, and quite often it would end up without formatting of any kind. Not having the time to troubleshoot, my only option was to reinstall and hope for the best.

It is still in early stages of development, so I don’t mean to knock this awesome software, but in the interest of objectivity, I thought I would share.

Firefox update

Apr 11th, 2008
by Forrest.
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My post on Firefox is severely out of date. The only one of the plugins I listed in that post that I still use is Webdeveloper. I have a few to add to the list as well:

  • Firebug. In my opinion, the best plugin to date. I’ll even take it a step further…it is the most useful free tool for a web developer, ever. Used in conjunction with the web developer plugin, trouble shooting time – especially concerning javascript and CSS – is greatly reduced.
  • Screengrab!. Grab a screenshot quick, without copying and pasting into paint or the gimp.
  • MeasureIt. Need to know how tall that image is, or how much room you have for a button/text/dancing baby? MeasureIt!
  • ColorZilla. Eyedropper color selector that will paste whatever format you need right into your clipboard. Hmmm…spend time tracking down what class/id you’re currently looking at, then find it in your multiple css files OR click twice. Your call. There is no wrong answer…wait, yes there is.

Enable Right Click

Jun 6th, 2007
by Forrest.
3 comments

UPDATE: Do not keep this script enabled, only use it as needed. It could cause some issues while browsing, as it loops through every HTML element on the page.

Greasemonkey script to reenable right clicking on sites that disable it for “security” purposes:

EnableRightClick.user.js

Code:
// ==UserScript==
// @name           enable right click
// @namespace      http://forrestledbetter.com
// @description    enable right click
// ==/UserScript==

if (document.all)
{
	iElements = document.all.length;

	for (i = 0;i < iElements;i++)
	{
		document.all[i].setAttribute("oncontextmenu", "return true;");
	}
}
else
{
	iElements = document.getElementsByTagName('*').length;
	aElements = document.getElementsByTagName('*');
	for (i = 0;i < iElements;i++)
	{
		aElements[i].setAttribute("oncontextmenu", "return true;");
	}

}

Functional Javascript

Apr 19th, 2007
by Forrest.
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I found this blog on del.icio.us I think. This is by far the best explanation of the various ways to use functions in javascript. Don’t stop with this one, look at all the other posts. There is some pretty advanced stuff here, and javascript isn’t going anywhere any time soon.

Beryl-Themes.org

Mar 27th, 2007
by Forrest.
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Beryl-Themes.org   Lots of good stuff here.

After getting used to Beryl at home, I truly HATE working on my XP desktop when I’m in the office. I’ve spent quite a while working with classic asp, and am working more and more in .net, but I would likely drop it all for open source languages if I could set up my own rig at work.

My current work desktop has dual processors and dual monitors, but now it feels like I’m playing old school Atari when I have a next gen box at home. It is plenty fast…I just miss all all the niceties I’ve gotten used to with Beryl and KDE.

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