php_penguin

Well i've been thinking of a few pranks... more of a "wtf" than "evil" but yeah: * swap all the persons cds into other cases * straighten out the metal hook on all their clothes hangers * take out all the fuses from their electronic goods any other ideas?

its a little bland tbh. its not ugly, it just doesnt have any wow factor.

USA? here? seems a recipe for disaster!! What are your interests with web design?

i use windows live mail, and my spam all goes into the junk box. i almost never get spam into my inbox, maybe once or twice a week.

yes, the CMS is a pretty standard one, so it seems an obvious choice.

is this only visible to south east residents? or whole UK?

well with jQuery there are already plugins which do the D&D and the star rating jobbie, but certainly things worth covering. I haven't tried the draggable blocks around before now, but its definitely worth considering. thanks, keep them coming.

yeah you can call me penguin. just don't call me PP...

More about the book... and a request for ideas Intended audience: people who already have a background in programming, but not in the jQuery library, and not in methods of creating dynamic websites with PHP. It won't cover the HTML/CSS side of it very much, unless I use antiquated/odd tags/labels/styles. Layout of the pages: (not entirely sure about this) left hand side page will be all method (eg why we do this, what this code does etc) right hand page will be mostly code, diagrams and so on So heres my request for ideas. I will be writing each section as a task (i want to do this, how do i do it?). I am asking for ideas for this... which specific tasks do you reckon are good to cover. Preferably, entirely client-side, entirely server-side, or ajax tasks?

easiest ways to avoid neck ache are: * lie down, look up... * get other people to lie down and describe it to you * get a webcam and point it upwards, and watch it from a warm indoors * place a mirror on the floor and looks downwards instead any of these work, its up to you really

its scary how many sites you know just from the logo, when you think about it... no doubt there are even more brands...

who doesn't want to be thinner, faster, and have a bigger harddrive??

wow... a mac... I agree that mac are overusing black as a design element - white has been the apple thing for too long now. lol, check this video out:

i'm not too sure about overflow, but try something like overflow: auto none; or overflow: none auto; these might work, but im not guaranteeing anything!

IE6 still accounts for over a third of the browser market. Admittedly this percentage is falling, but it will be another 3 years at the current rate before it reaches <5% It is a bad idea for a business to persecute someone just because they can't/won't update their computers - remember that not everyone is as computer literate as us.

i use firefox near all of the time. It is the defualt browser on Ubuntu, but i can also run Opera and a couple of others. I test on FF, IE7, and OP. I know that i should be testing on IE6 as well, but I don't have access to a computer with IE6 - all mine (about 8 in the house) are updated.

and do you really need inline styles? try using a css style sheet, or even just a <style /> in the top of your page...

yes, it would. you merely pad the images till they are the size of the container.

yes i run Ubuntu, currently v 7.10 (semi-beta release). It's not that i have anything against windows.. the moment they come up with something that works better than linux i will happily pay for it, but i spend too much time crashing on windows, whereas linux is maybe once or twice a year...

what you could do (if PHP is more your forte) is add padding to the image in the thumbnail generation section. Basically just resize the image to be width + height of 150px (is that right?)

Yes, this is something I am thinking about doing seriously - not just a couple of chapters.. I am aiming for about 300 pages, or around about 10-15 chapters. I am thinking that the first 1/4 or 1/3 willl be devoted to client-side programming, the next 1/4 or 1/3 will be the server-side programming techniques. The final 1/2 or 1/3 will be about how they work together efficiently. Each chapter will be based around a task, each getting progressively harder and more complex.

This isn't gonna be a huge tutorial, rather it's just meant to explain a method which isn't initially obvious to newbies When developing an application, it is often useful to be able to add features easily without disturbing the rest of the site or control panel area. The concept of a "plugin" fits nicely into this stage, the idea being that it is installed, activated, and it works without fuss. To do this requires a couple of somewhat odd ideas, which sometimes take a while to grasp. These are: * each section is entirely seperate as code. * each section shares common ground * each section can have an effect on another section .. also .. * the underlying code has 3 sections - the framework, the controller, and the printer. (MVC basically) * the framework provides the common functions to all plugins * the controller is each of your plugins - they add the functionality to the site. * the printer is what outputs your site to the browser. So lets look at these in some more detail... * each section is entirely seperate as code. this means that each plugin should not "collide" with other plugins, unless you explicitly tell it to do so. this can be achieved through keeping each plugin in its own seperate file, and keeping strict naming protocols. For example, each plugin may have its own prefix for each variable (eg for a gallery plugin, it might be glry or even gl * each section shares common ground basically this means that writing a plugin should be made easy by using framework functions to access/modify data, in order to create a similarity between them. * each section can have an effect on another section what use is an image gallery plugin if you can't use it in other sections? there should be an easy way to modify the front and back end of other plugins * the framework This provides common functions to all plugins, in order to speed up plugin creation and make it easy to edit plugins in the future. This also aids with file size * the controller functions/code which ensures the plugins required are used in the correct places * the printer this has functions which allow you to modify page sections, specifically page sections related to individual plugins So what does this all mean? I still don't know how to make plugins and now my brain hurts!!! Well I'll cover all the code stuff when i'm not so knackered - it is 5am after all...

Yes, i have to agree with Expat. Your current site is really nice. And yes, there is not much by way of a pitch. It doesn't really convince prospective clients that you are really driven to produce a great site for them, its more of a showcase of past work...

Hi, I've been on the forums for a few days now, for those that have noticed. Finally getting round to typing an intro to me... I am 18 yrs old, male (big surprise eh?), and live in North Wales, United Kingdom. I have been web designing/developing since age 11 roughly. I am more of a developer than a designer, but i can design good looking sites when i want to. I just prefer to code. My skills (resisting the urge to write 1337 5Ki11Z... oh wait) are as follows: * PHP, coding for 6 years. Pretty good at it. I know most of the capabilities, and can code most "common" sites pretty efficiently. * MySQL, writing long queries doesn't faze me, and I'm quite at home in a world of LEFT JOIN and so on.... * XHTML, since the start (well HTML). Using divs and such rather than tables is pretty much the norm, and i don't shirk from it. * CSS, a symbiote of XHTML. Once again, no problem. * JavaScript. This is my weakest point, I'll be honest. Well, not if you give me the jQuery library... So questions, and don't just ask "why are you such an arrogant pig?"!

Hey there, I am thinking of writing a book, with the topic "Building web applications with jQuery and PHP". That may even become the title... imaginative I know. Just wondering what your opinions are on books you have read recently. What helped you learn, what annoyed you. How much code do you want to have written out for you, and how much do you want to figure out for yourself? Just any tips you have would be great