Recent Updates

  • Standalone Internet Explorer 6 for Testing

    by Castwide on 7-29-2009 4:02 AM • 0 comments

    It finally happened. Every Windows computer in my office is running Internet Explorer 7 or higher. Unfortunately, IE 6 still accounts for too much traffic to ignore. Instead of rolling back on one of my workstations, I decided to look for options that would let me run both versions. The best solution I found was MultipleIE from TredoSoft. Read More

  • Secure Persistent Login Cookies

    by Castwide on 7-12-2009 8:39 AM • 0 comments

    Today I ran across an article by Barry Jaspan where he describes a method for making persistent login cookies more secure.  It's definitely worthwhile reading for anyone implementing an authentication system that allows users to store their logins. Read More

  • FCKeditor 2.6.4.1

    by admin on 7-9-2009 8:52 AM • 0 comments

    If you're anything like me, you don't go looking for updates to your software unless you discover a bug or some other problem.  I went to the FCKeditor site to see if there was anything to be done about the annoying bug that made the page scroll anytime you hit the enter key. Read More

  • Giving the Clients What They Want

    by Castwide on 2-12-2009 1:01 AM • 0 comments

    When selling software or development services, your first instinct might be to agree to any feature the client requests. This can seem like the right thing to do from a sales standpoint, especially if you're trying to land a contract that you expect will lead to more work in the future. In the IT world, however, this approach is often a terrible idea. Read More

  • New Pagemill Coming Soon

    by Castwide on 12-12-2008 12:58 AM • 3 comments

    Version 3.0.0 of the PHP Pagemill is currently under development and should be released before the end of the year.  Among the new features: Read More

  • Dynamic SQL Queries

    by admin on 12-4-2008 4:22 PM • 2 comments

    In most of my web development, I use parameterized queries instead of a full-blown ORM for databases. Even though I'm a big proponent of OOP, most ORMs require too much boilerplate for my taste, and I like to have easy access to manipulate SQL queries directly (granted, of course, the benefit of parameterization to secure queries against SQL injection). A recent project, however, has proven that writing query strings by hand can become more of a pain than it's worth. Read More

  • Three Things You Should Understand about SEO

    by Castwide on 12-3-2008 3:58 PM • 0 comments

    Web site owners can spend fortunes on search engine optimization. As someone said in The Cavern of COBOL, "You can't spell 'snake oil' without 'SEO'." Three common problems I see in SEO consultation: Read More

  • XML and JSON

    by Castwide on 11-27-2008 10:38 PM • 0 comments

    I've been looking into an alternative method for serializing data in PHP instead of the serialize() and unserialize() functions. Those functions are fine for serializing objects, but I wanted to find a solution that was more portable for simple data. Two obvious answers are XML and JSON, but I wasn't sure which made more sense for this particular scenario. While looking for insight, I ran across this article on Ajaxian. Read More

  • Entering Tabs in Web Forms

    by Castwide on 11-21-2008 12:06 AM • 0 comments

    The typical behavior of the tab key in browsers is to move focus to the next selectable element. It makes sense in most scenarios; but sometimes—for example, when you're writing code in a textarea element—you might want to indent your text instead. Here is some JavaScript that makes it possible to change the behavior of the tab key. Read More

  • Updates and Recurring Bugs

    by admin on 11-14-2008 10:10 AM • 0 comments

    I've finally upgraded this blog to the newest version of the Phrameworks Kernel. In the process, I encountered a bug in something that has given me numerous problems in the past: character encoding. Read More

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