Gen X Design | Ian Selby

All Things Web 2.0

Archive for April, 2008

Found this via Ajaxian, it’s a nice calendar widget that lets you click and drag ranges in calendars. Check it out:
Timeframe, by Stephen Celis

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  • Filed under: Asides
  • The Standard PHP Library (SPL)

    Adam turned me on to SPL, here’s a good write-up. Essentially, SPL is a MUCH better way to deal with OOP in PHP 5 through faster, more seamless interactions with the actual PHP engine.
    Zend DevZone: The Standard PHP Library

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  • Filed under: Asides
  • ALA: Data Visualization

    As always, another great article from A List Apart… this time on data visualizaton. Check it out:
    Accessible Data Visualization with Web Standards

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  • Filed under: Asides
  • Nothing’s cooler than writing a bad-ass site or application and watching it gain popularity and a significant user base. By the same token, nothing’s more frustrating than watching your app fall on its face when its running under high load. If you’re like me, you know how disheartening this can be, as it usually means that its time for a hard dose of reality: your code probably isn’t as awesome as you thought it was.

    Or is it? There’s a whole slew of things that a person could point a finger at regarding slowly running code. The most-oft thing that gets called out is code with a lot of overhead (a ton of includes, excessive logic, and the like), and right behind that is poorly designed databases (unoptimized indexes, no indexes, ridiculous amounts of joins, blah, blah, blah). Well, let’s assume for a minute that you’ve got a fair amount of experience under your belt, so you know your code is pretty damn optimal, and you also have a DBA buddy that took a look at your database and helped you tweak it up a bit. What do you do if this isn’t enough? Before you say, “throw more / better hardware at that mo-fo”, why not take a moment and learn about APC: Alternative PHP Cache…
    (more…)

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  • Filed under: PHP
  • Firefox 3 Beta 5 Out!

    If you haven’t been using the Firefox 3 Betas yet, now’s a good time to start! This latest release brings major speed improvements to the JavaScript engine, along with some other goodness. Full release notes here:
    Firefox 3 Beta 5

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  • Filed under: Asides
  • See Me @ AjaxWorld '08 West

    AJAX RIA - Server-Side JavaScript - All the Cool Kids Are Doing It!

    PhotoStream

      Griffin Playing in Alamo SquareThe Painted Ladies, and the City in the BackgroundThe Painted LadiesMore Golden Gate Bridge GoodnessAlcatraz IslandThe Golden GateGive Mommy KissMommy & Griffin Playing at Crissy FieldDaddy and Griffin Leaving Crissy Field

    Asides

    • Firebug Lite 1.2 Released

      If you've ever used Firebug for JS development, you know how indisposable it is. If you haven't, you're insane, and you need to start using it now! Firebug Lite was created to be able to embed a more limited version of the library in non-firefox browsers. Previously, you couldn't do much with it outside of the console. functions and use a JS command-line. Looks like that's a thing of the past with the new release. It's pretty much as functional as the actual Firefox extension, and is well worth checking out:
      Firebug Lite 1.2 Released (via Ajaxian)

    • BgPatterns.com - Cool Background Image Generator

      While its generally not my style, I would have loved to have something like this several times in the past. Slick, easy, classy, fun, and actually worthwhile. Check it out:
      www.bgpatterns.com

    • savethedevlopers.org - Save a Developer. Upgrade Your Browser

      "Say No To IE 6!
      Our current campaign focuses on assisting users in upgrading their Internet Explorer 6 web browser. This campaign will result in former IE 6 users having a more enjoyable experience on the web while (hopefully) creating a less stressful and complicated environment for web developers by hastening the retirement of an outdated browser."

      http://www.savethedevelopers.org/

    • Evernote - Awesome Note Capturing Software

      I know, yet another note capture / organize program... but this one's different. It's got really powerful OCR software (it will pull text from images, even handwriting) that automatically finds words in your images and indexes them, making it easier to find later. Works on the web, your mobile phone, and PC or Mac. Best of all, it's free!
      Evernote - Capture. Sync. Find

    • Magic Toolbox - High Quality JS Tools

      Nice little suite of JS tools... they're commercial, but reasonably priced. The names kinda imply what they do: Magic Zoom, Magnify, and Thumbs. Definitely worth a look:
      Magic Toolbox

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    About Me

    Gen X Design has been my freelance development and design company for some time now, and my services are sometimes available.

    Recently, I've been too wrapped up in work to pursue my own interests. To that end, I've made some changes in my life, re-worked this site so I'm happy with it again, and have decided to get back to writing and developing.

    I have a passion for all things Web 2.0, love shiny icons and gradients, and live in the San Francisco Bay area. I work for Aptana.