Author: shun

Testing Localhost Developments in Internet Explorer via Parallels on Mac OSX

Developing web applications can be a frustrating job solely because so many people still use various versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer — possibly some of the worst browsers compared to most of the other modern browsers in terms of adherence to web standards. But I can’t just not test my applications against them simply because I hate them… So the war continues…

One of the problems of testing web apps under Parallels with IE is, instead of testing development URLs such as

1
http://localhost/

, usually IP addresses have to be used, like such

1
http://192.168.0.100

, to reach OSX’s localhost server (because

1
localhost

on Windows would entail having an actual web server running under Windows). The problem with that is that some applications such as WordPress need to have a full absolute path in order for it to work properly (especially when dealing with themes). I’ve tried a couple of workarounds, but nothing is as simple as using Apple’s own Bonjour technology.

I found a post that explains how to set it all up. Even though his example deals with running Ruby on Rails, the idea is exactly the same for other development environments such as PHP and Java (enable port 80, 443… etc). Now I am a happy camper…

via [the naked brain]

Unobtrusive JavaScripting

Recently I’ve been looking into ways to make my code more maintainable after having to support an old site I did and some Actionscript code from someone else. One of the things I found and REALLY liked was the idea of using Javascripts in an “unobtrusive” manner. Basically all it means is to take out those Javascript event calls like

1
onClick

,

1
onMouseOver

and such from the presentation layer (CSS style sheets and HTML tags), and use other means to achieve the same effects.

What I’ve found useful and have been using ever since are these classes:

1. Prototype
2. script.aculo.us
3. Behaviour

There are tons of extensions and subclasses written for them, making them super useful when you want something done quickly and effectively. I especially like Behaviour for its simplicity and the ability it affords me to completely separate Javascripting from tangling with my HTML codes (hard coded, dynamically generated or otherwise).

There are other useful ones such as jQuery and moo.fx, but I’ve been pretty happy with those other three core packages so far.

Incidentally, Apple’s revamped site also has a lot of new Javascript-driven effects that are pretty interesting to look at and experiment with. Another really clean and simple site I like is Panic’s Coda product site. Really very effective use of Javascripts in presentation.

There’s always so much to learn with so little time… What to do!!

The Simpsons Attacks 7-11 Stores

I guess only geeks can truly appreciate the humor in The Simpsons. Even though I don’t really like Fox as a channel (especially its news reporting), I do like The Simpsons and Futurama. Fox’s latest public stunt is to rebrand a series of Seven Eleven Stores in the United States into Kwik-e-Marts. They also carry limited supply of merchandise and food found only in the cartoon. Unfortunately all the good stuff were all sold out when we visited this past week. But the store was packed with geeks, some of whom were there to stock up on those nuclear-looking pink dough nuts.

Bryan with Homer

Funny Tag Lines

Photos from My Trip to New York

I finally got a chance to process some pictures I have stashed away for a couple of months with Apple’s Aperture. And as proposed, I also posted some images I took of New York when I visited on my Flickr account. It was interesting going back to Manhattan with a fresh pair of eyes after having been away for a few years.

Subway Stand

The New Meets the Old

Grand Central Station

Alicia and Uncle B

Alicia and Jason came by yesterday for a little while to hang out. Bryan was very excited to see them again. He gave Jason a special nickname: “Uncle B.” Unfortunately his desire for a good nap won over his excitement, and he had to take a break.

When Bryan woke up, Jason and Alicia had already left. But from the living room, I could hear when Bryan woke up, his first words were: “Ah-yi, un, un, Uncle B!” (Ah-yi is an endeared name for “aunt” in Mandarin). He was sooooo disappointed that he missed seeing them!

Sometimes it’s interesting to observe little children’s emotions and reactions towards certain situations. In Bryan’s case, he was utterly shocked that Jason and Alicia disappeared! It was unfathomable to his little mind. His face looked as if he was saying: “Get out! What do you mean they’d gone home? There were just here!”

Farewell to David

David’s wife sent me an IM out of the blue this afternoon; a few short but uninformative lines of text got me all confused…

I was confused because we weren’t expecting to hear that David had just passed away. He was a good friend of Grace’s in Taiwan when they worked at Land Rover.

Everything happened so quickly. Within days of discovering the liver cancer, the disease rapidly took over everything. And he was gone.

We chatted a few times and thought one day I’d finally get to see this guy who loved cars so much and had an outlook about life firmly grounded with realistic expectations, not dreamy clouds like us artist types.

This reminded me of a quote from Steve Jobs’s commencement speech at Stanford:

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

Coincidently, over this past weekend someone emailed me to thank me for making the speech available for download. And he asked specifically how I felt about this quote. I didn’t think much of it then. But David’s passing drove home an important point Steve Jobs outlined above — life is too short to waste doing what you don’t love doing.

So this is a farewell to David. And kudos to his grounded approach to life and everything else… something I should start looking into having turned 32 just yesterday…

RedBull Makes Me Tired

When I went to NYC, Moto told me that he started drinking RedBull from time to time to get the much needed energy when he has tight deadlines. So when I started coding for this crazy Flash project, I asked Grace to get me a couple of cans to try them out… Unfortunately, it didn’t do jack for me, much like coffee, Mountain Dew or any other highly caffeinated drinks… As a bonus, my body decided to make me even more tired after drinking something that’s supposed to keep me going…

So what does one do when external stimuli fail as miserably as the mental will to stay awake? Cold shower…. Never fails (but only for a couple of hours until that “freshness” wears out).

After a few days of 4-hour sleeps, my neck started hurting like hell. Only a few more days to go before this sucker is over… well, the deadline was supposed to be this past Friday, but they neglected to communicate how certain features should work to me, which made this already bad experience even worse… But I digress… On the bright side though, nothing beats having a client pay you to learn something you’ve always wanted to learn but never had the time to… I think I picked up more Flash in 2 weeks than I ever did with the only Flash class I ever took as an Undergrad at SCAD. Good times.

Two Weeks in Flash Actionscript

This is my second week coding full time in Flash Actionscript. Sooner or later I’d have bumped into things that would drive me crazy… And here’s a small list of what I’ve encountered:

1. XML feeds, masking, embedded fonts, css styles (for the XML feeds) and scrollable areas is a combination for hours of fun headaches. One can easily spend all night trying to figure out why something doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to… Certain things are very poorly documented by Adobe (formerly Macromedia).
2. Flash is most useful when used with Actionscripts… Some designer/coder wannabes try to do Actionscripts but instead have code littered all over the place… It’s just NOT cool!
3. Sometimes what seems easy can be more than a handful when you try to code for it… Simplicity can be deceiving in Flash/Actionscripting….
4. Components are your friends. Use them whenever you can. Customizable ones are totally worth every penny if you had to buy them. Just weigh the time you could have spent on it if you had to code that biatch yourself…

I also learned a couple of client-management tips from Jiann… Even though Brian tried to warn me about some of these things, I’ve had some pretty pleasant clients that I didn’t think running into one of “them” was in my Karma…

1. Clients are always right even when they give you some of the worst designs, features and requirements to work with.
2. Trying to beautify, improve upon or enhance anything this type of client gives you only will give you more grief later… because he’s just going to ask you go fix it back to exactly the way he had it… never mind how stupid, unusable, ugly or impractical the design elements or features are.
3. It’s all about ego, pride and control. Some clients want to feel they are in control and will ask you to do crappy stuff even though they knew your solution was better.
4. Stand up to unreasonable requests and demand overage. Or else feature creeps will never stop if the pay is on project basis. Some clients think they own you if they are paying you… Just say “NO” to abusive clients…
5. Being over-confident in your ability to pick up new programming skills can make you lose valuable sleep and family time… 🙁
6. Never mind that you have just achieved miracle doing something nobody thought was undoable given how short the deadline is. This type of client will always look for the smallest fault and overlook the fact that you just completed some of the most important features of the site.

Ok… now I feel better….

Back to coding…

One Week Developing Flash Actionscript

After having developed in Flash for almost a full week, I can honest say that….

1. Flash rocks.
2. Actionscript is not too shabby.
3. Flash can truly do some wonderful stuff.
4. I am looking forward to seeing what Apollo and Flex can do…
5. If inherited from the wrong hands, Flash/Actionscript is a bitch to maintain and extend… All you Actionscript code “litterers”… you know what I am talking about…. Please freaking code everything in ONE FRAME! Take advantage of Actionscript’s Object Oriented design. Damn it…

Again, I can’t thank Murdza and lynda.com enough for bringing me up to speed so quickly on this…

Awesome Check Delivery Status Widget

Developers who write apps for the Mac OSX Platform never seizes to amaze me with their innovative approaches to how things ought to work…

The Delivery Status Widget is one of those apps that’s just way cool. This is something I’d never expect seeing having written on the Windows camp (the snobbish Apple side of me speaking)… On Windows, I used to hate having to install unnecessary applications because you just have no idea what it’s doing to your system (“fantastic” DLLs, “awesome” registry keys… etc). Sometimes uninstallers even screw up the system… But of course, that was back in 2004, how much has changed… Now Windows is more stable than EVER before… (yeah, right).

Delivery Status Widget

Speaking of widgets, it seems like Vista has some cool stuff going on albeit being just copies of the Mac OSX Dashboard widgets in looks and functionalities. But it’s like this… what do you expect out of Redmond nowadays anyway. Chee-hoi claims that “under the hood” Vista is going to really kick ass. That may be the case if whatever Microsoft promises can be fully materialized before people just start walking away and do themselves a favor by getting a Mac…. that or before Microsoft’s bloatware and vapor ware just implodes. 😉

Yeah, I know… It’s Wednesday… and my snobbish Mac side has already taken over… Bad Mac, HEEL!

via [Gizmodo]