Two Down, One to Go

Two Down, One to Go

May 23

So there’s only one assignment left for this year. Oh and two exams but that’s different. However the last assignment is a bit of a bugger, Javascript. Not the most invigorating subject but oh well it has to be done. I’m not really the biggest fan of JS, I admire what can be cone with it but I’m not a form believer in it. Considering JS can be turned off with the flick of a switch a whole site can be destroyed in seconds. Not exactly the nicest idea really. So Javascript can take a back seat when I design sites.

Anyway enough of the slight dislike towards Javascript. Summer is coming, it’s already getting hot and I’ve already been for a beach session. Things are looking good. All the work I’ve handed in has achieved a pretty high mark so I’m really happy with all of that, I’m just a bit worried about the upcoming exams as they aren’t my strong point. But who knows what could happen with them. I’l have to wait and see.

2 Weeks left and counting.

PS. My new PC is a beast

Autoindex Dark Theme

Autoindex Dark Theme

May 06

Autoindex is a popular and simple PHP script written by  Justin Hagstrom. It was intended for quick deployment onto any server with quick and simple configuration options. Usually i will theme it up to suit the rest of the site, or to whatever I feel like. So this small simple theme is perfect for anyone who wants a dark looking theme for autoindex.

Since this was more for a personal project, testing isn’t far a wide. I have had a quick look on the common browsers, if you want to diverse into the world of obsure browsers for testing, be my guest. As for the common ones, they all display it ok. Some elements of the CSS may not work with some browsers as I have used pseudo selectors as well as a few bits of CSS3.

Working In…

• Internet Explorer 8
• Google Chrome
• Firefox
• Opera
• Apple Safari

Download

Autoindex dark theme v1

Installation

Unzip the file, and paste the folder “dark” into your autoindex themes folder /templates/

Enjoy!

Upgrades and Downgrades

Upgrades and Downgrades

Apr 17

So I managed to get my Web Hosting down to £2.49 a month with mysql which may sound normal, but mysql is usually only in mid range to high hosting packages. So that’s saved £8 a month. Well that was the downgrade, even though in a way it was an upgrade…

I’ve just ordered a new computer for University as my current one is beginning to show its age when I’m running around five Adobe programs, iTunes, Messenger and whatever else I need. So it’s finally time to upgrade from the Pentium 4 ‘Prescot’ core to a high end Dual Core. I was going to get a Quad core but I’m not going to be using it for gaming much so  two cores are fine.

Work has been a bit slow over Easter, lacking enthusiasm at the moment. But I’ll get back into it.

Linux and Chrome, a shakey start

Linux and Chrome, a shakey start

Mar 31

So last week I installed the βeta of Google Chrome for Linux, and yes I know it’s a “βeta” and can’t really start moaning but seriously, I’ve used hundreds of programs in βeta and have never found them to be so problematic. I currently use Chrome on Windows so I know it’s not an cross-platform problem. Chrome for Linux has serious problems. Even more so, the more I use it the worse it seems to get, it’s like it’s a rusty car slowly falling apart the more it’s used. A lot of the problems are actually encountered when entering Google sites like Gmail, Google Calendar, Chrome Extensions. Google uses certain bits of CSS which cut down image loading like the one shown to the right. It’s a good technique which I use myself quite often.

When i visit parts of Google where techniques like this are used instead of Chrome dealing with the CSS and seeing that only part of that image should be used, the whole image is used about 400 times on the page as different parts are used all over. Making the page a little hard to read.

The other main concern is that Both Google Mail and Calendar don’t load with Chrome. Calendar doesn’t even know what browser its being viewed in, and throws a message at the user explaining this, and Google mail gets all the way to 99% and decides that it doesn’t want to do anymore and freezes. Even the HTML version breaks. Why?!

Countless errors with pages only using the most basic of designs even seem to struggle, I wonder if this is just me or if others get the same problems. It’s a dying shame as Chrome for other OS’s is working well and has taken over the use of Firefox, a long running top browser for many years.

I currently run Linux on two desktops and one laptop, all seem to have these problems with Chrome. Let’s hope the wizz kids at Google get them fixed soon, else it’s back to Firefox.

Ok so my little rant is over, for now Firefox is back, but not for long.

March? Oh it's almost gone

March? Oh it's almost gone

Mar 22

So March has been pretty slow, I’ve only had two small assignments to do, apart from the Login System mentioned in the post before there are a few more along the road which aren’t entirely huge, the only large one I can think of is Digital Media for Mike which seems quite large, but I think it’s completion time shouldn’t be as long as the first Media assignment. There’s not much else to say really, except now the weather is looking better, there’s some nice looking sunrises when I walk to the bus stop, I’ll be getting back into photography hopefully.

From If to Else

From If to Else

Mar 15

So the latest assignment for PHP is involving making a Register and Login System for clients to view and control their settings. It’s not exactly on the same scale as creating an RPG, I think these two assignments were the wrong way around, or maybe the first one was to gauge the level of skills in the group, not sure. As I had already started work on a CMS it was quite easy to use some of the basic parts of it to show as the final piece.

I’ve just finished functionalizing the main administration script that controls pretty much everything that’s not classed as aesthetics. So that’s about 90% of the CMS completed. I’m going to add user list displays for anyone classed as Administrator, everyone else won’t even be given the link in the navigation (more dynamics). On the subject of the navigation, the actual links are built entirely through php, this means that each section of the site can have different nav bar links and some parts contain sub nav bars with links relating to the current content. So basically I’m forcing as much dynamic scripting as I possibly can into this project. I don’t think it will be as effective otherwise. More to come soon.

Sorted. In The Bag. Done

Sorted. In The Bag. Done

Feb 28

So it’s finally done. I’ve complete building The Demons Lair which has taken a while to get fully completed. There’s been so many set backs that I was beginning to get worried I’d never finish it. But low and behold, it’s all in the bag! That doesn’t mean that I don’t want to add anything though, I never got around to adding enemies which made me slightly disappointed, I just didn’t have enough time to add it and make sure it’s bulletproof.

So yes as the picture is showing above, I’m happy that’s all out the way.

I’ve just started work on the next scripting assignment which seems more to my liking. It’s a web tool instead of a game which is much more interesting to design and code so I’m enjoying starting this one. The basic outline is too have an administration page to control users who have registered with the site. These users will be able to access certain content which can only be accessed by being logged in. Simple really, the registration form needs to have all the standard error trapping and validation as any other form would have, this goes for pretty much anything where there’s an input box basically. Anyway moving on, the premise for this project is simple, so I’m in no worry about completion on this one, the game assignment was such a vast project it began to get problematic near the end. Hopefully this won’t be the same.

February has been an off an on month, there’s been so much to put together lately time to myself has taken a back seat, however now that I have cleared one of the monster assignments I think I can take a breather. Bring on March.

Tempus Fugit

Tempus Fugit

Feb 18

After that last post outlining the fiasco’s that I had encountered. I had to really knuckle down and re-write the parts that were causing issues. The problem with my main foreach loop was that it was trying to do too much in one go. I first tried to split the foreach loops up but with no luck. Finally the only way to get it all working correctly was to remove one of the MySQL queries from the code and replace it with an array from the game session, and for some stupid and extremely annoying reason white space was finding its’ way into my arrays… I’m not sure, it’s one of those php things which is always a pain to sort out. But now it’s done so all is good.

The actual game fully runs at the moment, however there’s no win scenario so it’s a bit pointless doing much on it at the moment. I should have the full version complete by tomorrow.