Theory / Ideas Tutorials

  • Dear Developers, Don’t Hardcode Copyright Years

    Keeping your website current is extremely important when your goal is increasing return traffic. One easy place to make your website look current is in the copyright text at the bottom of the page. This is a rather obvious and easy thing to do, but some sites have overlooked their copyright year.

  • Confessions of an Eccentric Web Developer

    A few weeks back, Reinhold Weber played some Usher and spilled his confessions onto the pages of his blog. I thought this was a great idea and I have some web confessions of my own to share:

  • 5 Rules For Using Audio/Video Media on Your Site

    I don't create many sites that feature multimedia. Most of my customers don't have a need for audio or video on their site but we occasionally get a request to add an advertisement or webinar. That said, I've scoured the internet enough to have seen good, bad, and ugly uses of multimedia on the web. The following are my guidelines for using multimedia on a website.

  • Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon Using MooTools 1.2

    As you can probably tell, I try to mix some fun in with my MooTools madness but I also try to make my examples as practical as possible. Well...this may not be one of those times.

  • NSFW Blocker Using MooTools and CSS

    One of my guilty pleasures is scoping out the latest celebrity gossip from PerezHilton.com, DListed.com, and JoBlo.com. Unfortunately, these sites occasionally post NSFW pictures which makes checking these sites on lunch a huge gamble — a trip to HR's office could be just a click away.

  • My Thoughts on CSS Naked Day

    I've received numerous questions about this over the past two days so I might as well address it. As you probably know, this Wednesday was CSS Naked Day. CSS Naked Day's "official" website says the following about why you should do this:

  • Does Open Source Mean You Can’t Bitch?

    You didn't pay for it. You didn't have to steal it. You didn't need to search hard to find it. And you probably didn't contribute. It's there, free for you to have at no monetary cost. Is the true cost of using open source software the fact that you can't bitch about what you've been given? Is it acceptable to be unsatisfied with the software?

  • Using PHP Generic Objects To Organize Your Code

    I like using PHP classes to keep my code organized and easy to maintain. I know that they consume more memory than simply using an array or variable system, but if memory is an issue, I'd get more memory. Saving time by coding in a maintainable fashion is more important to me than upgrading a server. I've written a very generic, flexible PHP class that I use in my PHP code to get and set variables for use within the page.

  • 6 AJAX Rules To Live By

    AJAX, or Asyncronous JavaScript And XML, has been around for a few years now. Web Developers have done some really great things with AJAX, but I've also come across some horrible uses of AJAX. I've coupled together my experience as a Web Programmer and a lowly web user and have come up with six AJAX rules to live by.

  • 5 Simple Ways Programmers and Designers Should Give Back

    The best online occupation-related community is no doubt the programming / design community. Our community works endlessly to help others through programming issues, create open source software for all to use freely, and foundations are created to keep pushing the web forward.