lonetechie.com

Test browser compatability with multiple versions of IE

LoneTechie — Tue, 13 May 2008 00:37:21 +0000

Although in the past it has not always been the case, these days you must test your sites against multiple browsers for compatibility and proper rendering. At a bare minimum my test are against IE 7, IE 6, FireFox 2, Safari (windows), soon to be IE 8 and sometimes Opera. If you can test against all of these and your site still looks and works right I would say you have covered your bases pretty well. That may not be the best way, but again in my experience that covers 98% of who will visit your site. One issue you will run into almost immediately is how to test your site against multiple versions of Internet Explorer on the same machine. Microsoft offers a Virtual Pc (Free) image that is made expressly for this reason. All you need to do is download it and mount the image and you are testing!

Debug your javascript in style

LoneTechie — Wed, 07 May 2008 01:06:05 +0000

So basically today I wanted to plug a plug-in (no pun intended) that I have really found to be invaluable to debug javascript. The plug-in is firebug for FireFox. In my recent dive into Dojo words cannot describe how convenient and handy firebug is. The debug console alone is enough to make it worth while because Microsoft just doesn’t have anything like it at the moment. No need wasting my breathe explaining what all it does, click the link and see for yourself. If you develop in javascript at all you’re missing out big time not using firebug.

My first thoughts on Dojo

LoneTechie — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 21:25:21 +0000

There is a little known (to me) javascript library out there called Dojo I dove into this week. Basically it is a massive open source javascript library focused on UI and AJAX. So visiting their website(very nicely done btw) and checking out some of the examples I was pretty impressed with what could be done pretty easily. My goal during the whole process was to build a drag and drop + resizable widget which is useful for some projects I’m working on. After a few days of tinkering I have learned a lot and see that advantages of Dojo. It can be painfully simple to do common task using Dojo, although you need to get your hands a bit dirty if you need additional functionality out of a widget. I was unsuccessful in getting my widget working without modifying the resizable widgets source. I guess I’ve made new widget now altogether.

To date my main criticism of dojo is the documentation. I’m not going to go so far to say there isn’t any, but it is really lacking for someone that wants to do more than just the simple examples they have shown. The book of dojo is a nice run broad rundown of things while the most useful part of it is the examples you get when you download the scripts. On the dojo website they mention a few books out now, so I may jump on that.

It is also worth noting I have been trying to get this same functionality out of Microsoft’s ASP.net Ajax with minimal success. I have found using a .net update panel combined with the ASP.net ajax controls can be a significant headache if you want to extend the basic features even minimally. One would assume the onResize event invoked by a resize control would be able to trigger an update panel, think again.

Microsoft IIS blamed for mass SQL injection attacks

LoneTechie — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:32:01 +0000

So in the past week slashdot has made two post over this including many other sites. Apparently there is a bot running the net attempting sql injection on a specific brand of sites. Nothing to write home about correct? This one is nothing particularly special in that if your asp page is open to sql injection and you run MSSQL server you are open to the bot. The bot floods the database with a specific javascript include which runs malicious code when it is pulled from the database.

What is particularly annoying with all of this is that bad coding practices are the root cause for all of this. You have sites like slashdot blatantly spinning the issue around on Microsoft. Sorry, I have criticisms of MS just like everybody else, but this is flat our preventable by sanitizing your queries. Instead of writing a sensationalist post spouting big 6 digit numbers and throwing around the word vulnerability, how about trying to understand the problem. When I first saw this article being a webmaster I naturally wanted to find out why the REAL issue was instead of wading through a page of spin.

If you want the REAL story on what this is all about read this well written explanation of the problem.

Cool space images from NASA

LoneTechie — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 22:57:30 +0000

I’m just throwing this out there for those interested in space flight. Nasa has a great gallery called Image of the day that makes for great desktop backgrounds. The images are current, some are less than 24 hours old if you check during a current mission.

3d head tracking with Wii

LoneTechie — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 21:45:18 +0000

Not sure how I missed this video this year, but mark my words, this will be the next big thing in gaming after the Wii. I would look for nintendo to be the one to pull it off. Very very cool though.

ASPimage to Imageglue Wrapper class

LoneTechie — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 01:53:27 +0000

Well, I have talked about it for 3 weeks now, here it is. I am releasing my Imageglue wrapper class for ASPimage.dll. This is near complete replacement for aspimage.dll. Please read my previous post on the issue regarding W3wp.exe and dllhost.exe crashing.

If you are using ASPimage in a production environment I highly recommend the superior component from websupergoo.com called imageglue. This wrapper allows you to use your aspimage code and use imageglue as the driving component instead.

I have not had a lot of time to work on this. It has most of the corresponding functions you need to use aspimage. If there continues to be a lot of interest in this I will look into completing it. This code is in production right now and has generated about 3,000 images already!

classimage.asp

Javascript 2.0

LoneTechie — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 01:30:20 +0000

Jeremy Martin posted up a nice run down of the proposed Javascript 2.0 spec:

Well I suppose it’s an undeniable fact about us programmer-types - every now and then we just can’t help but get excited about something really nerdy. For me right now, that is definitely JavaScript 2.0. I was just taking a look at the proposed specifications and I am really, truly excited about what we have coming.

This is a pretty big deal all in all. Web 2.0 and AJAX type sites are all driven with javascript. Looking over some of the proposed additions it should be something to look forward to!

Learn photoshop the fun way

LoneTechie — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 03:48:59 +0000

Certain people I know have challenges with photoshop. This guy named Donnie(real name?) has a surprisingly educating and hilarious set of videos on youtube with tutorials on how to use photoshop. I have watched most of them, they are all funny. Here is the latest one.

New Camera Canon A560

LoneTechie — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 01:38:59 +0000

I got a new camera for a trip i’m taking this summer. It is a Canon A560. Overall I’m very pleased with it. I’m a big fan of the A series, I have owned an A60 for a few years now and it has been a good camera. The 560 has been pretty much everything I expected and more. Very easy to use and maintains the same basic control setup as the old A series. Turns on 2x as fast as my old one, holds 2 less batteries, 3x as large screen, 2.5x the megapixel. I look forward to using it some more! I was particularly impressed with the macro mode. I snapped a photo of a penny just playing around and was stunned how sharp it came out.