Posts by admin
“He who controls the spice controls the Universe”
Twitter has announced that it will, in the near future, wrap all links posted in tweets with their t.co wrapper (details here). This gives them, as they state, the opportunity to be proactive in blocking spam or phishing links and … Continue reading
Categories: Front Page and tags: link shortening, t.co, Twitter
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PHP isset() vs array_key_exists()
I’ve seen isset( $my_array[ 'key' ] ) used as a synonym for array_key_exists( ‘key’, $my_array ) quite a few times. They aren’t equivalent, so unfortunately you can’t take the former as a shortcut for the latter! The difference is that … Continue reading
Categories: Scrapbook and tags: php
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PHP Function: string cleanse
A code snippet for cleaning a string so that only certain characters are allowed through. A call like: string_clean( ‘stri3ng87s 11and n642umb1ers’, “abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz” ); …will return: strings and numbers Code: function string_clean( $string_in, $permitted_chars ) { $string_search_pos = 0; $string_out … Continue reading
Categories: Scrapbook and tags: code, php
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Code Challenge – Results
So – competition closed, and disappointingly, I only had one entry. Despite this, I wish not to take any merit from Colin, whose ‘Roids were fun, colourful and super-swiftly submitted. He abused my “Don’t touch the code harness” rule, but … Continue reading
Categories: Uncategorized and tags: code challenge, php
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Experiments in Mobile Web App Frameworks
I presented at last night’s SuperMondays event, giving some thoughts on attempts to get a mobile (iPhone) web application working and the direction I’ve taken in trying to build a framework for further development. It was great to chat about … Continue reading
Categories: Front Page, Lab and tags: framework, mobile, SuperMondays, talks, web
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SuperMondays: Flash Talks – 29/11/2010
I was privileged to be able to chair last night’s SuperMondays event, a series of flash (nominally five minute) talks. The line-up was as follows: Alistair McDonald – An over-engineered solution to a problem that never exited in the first … Continue reading
Categories: Front Page and tags: event, Newcastle, SuperMondays
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Code Challenge: Wallpaper!
Winter has well and truly made its presence known and it’s time to get creative behind drawn curtains; so here’s a quick, fun code challenge for you developers: * Write a script in PHP to generate desktop wallpaper * Prize: … Continue reading
Categories: Front Page, Lab and tags: code challenge, php
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SuperMondays – Flash Talks
I’ll be doing a 5 minute talk on Monday 29th at Newcastle Beehive for the SuperMondays event. It’s free, and looks like a great line-up: Lee Duddell — why most websites are rubbish to use and what you can do … Continue reading
Categories: Front Page and tags: events, mobile, Newcastle, SuperMondays, talks, web
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In the lab: Torunnify.com
I set myself a little project to produce a ‘web-app’ as a 30th birthday present, using my Twitter-authentication code for user logins. I’m pretty pleased with it. Since it was rapidly developed, it doesn’t have niceties like proper error reporting … Continue reading
Categories: Lab
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The Battle 2010 – Codeworks TAAD
Yesterday evening’s ‘Think and a Drink‘ event took place at Newcastle College’s performance academy. ‘The Battle’ competition ran over a three stage tournament. Eight competitors started the first round (each provided with a Mac and Photoshop) – this halved to … Continue reading
Categories: Front Page and tags: Codeworks, events, Newcastle, The Battle, Think and a Drink
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