theCancerus

Author: ican

  • Firefox Download Day 2008

    Spread Firefox team is now aiming for Guinness world record of most software downloads in a 24 hours for Firefox 3. They had recently launched a Firefox 3 t-shirt competition which saw 1,852 submissions.

    In this attempt they are aiming to beat the 2 million download in a day for Firefox 2.0, they want to have 5 million downloads in a single day.

    Their attempt to record will be verified by Guinness world record team and two judges Corey Shields and Paul Vixie.

    The date of release is not yet set(some time in June most probably), but they are asking people to sign a pledge that they will download it on the Download Day 2008.

    I have put my pledge, and so is other 93,551 other people(as of writing this post) . So what are you waiting for go and pledge now if you have not already done it.

    One request from the community

    Play nice. Help us set this record the right way.

    Please do not build download bots or any kind of dishonest mechanism. We rely on and trust our community to spread the word.

    This event makes me wonder how Microsoft will release their Internet Explorer 8.

    Download Day 2008

  • akJoomGallery : simple image gallery for Joomla

    Update: released the  version 1.1.0 with updated prettyPhoto and jQuery plugin. Download link below now links to updated version. If you need to download the old version from google code.

    Adding image galleries inside your Joomla! pages is now super simple with the “akJoomGallery” Plugin.

    You don’t need a specialist knowledge to use this mambot/plugin. akJoomGallery allows you to use images in your content item as image gallery. With it’s help you can convert any content item/page into a cool image gallery.

    The idea for this plugin came to my mind when we needed to show a quick image gallery to client, and we need something lightweight, with more control over how the image is shown in the gallery page itself. We could have used other big gallery components but I was not interested in something simple and quick. Check out the implementation of akJoomGallery.

    akJoomGallery

    This plugin is best suited to those situations where someone want’s to add few thumbnails while writing the content, and would like to display the large size images when users clicks on them, without leaving the page.

    How To Install

    1. Just download the akJoomGallery plugin.
      1. [download#8#nohits]
      2. [download#9#nohits]
    2. In Administration panel of Joomla goto Installers ->Mambots(for Joomla 1.0.x) or to Extensions -> Install/Uninstall(for Joomla 1.5.x) .
    3. Upload this package file and Install.
    4. Now go to Mambots -> Site Mambots ->akJoomGallery or Extensions -> Plugin Manager->content – akJoomGallery and publish/enable the plugin based on the version you are using.

    akJoomGallery: Simple Image Gallery For Joomla

    Now, enjoy the simplest image gallery with lightbox effect.

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  • How to create multicolor text image on the fly

    This tutorial explains how we can create dynamic images with multicolor text in PHP.

    We will need GD library and FreeType library to be enabled for this functionality to work.

    I have assumed that you already know PHP, and understand how to use it.

    Check the example below to see what we want to create.

    Amit Singh

    Before we start the tutorial, let’s check if GD library support is available on your system or not.

    Type phpinfo(); in a php file, and check the output.

    phpinfo_gd

    You should see something like that you can move forward, else goto php.ini and remove the comment from extension=php_gd2.dll. Now check phpinfo() again to verify that every thing is ok.

    Now, let see how we can create dynamic images using PHP.

    CODE

    Header ("Content-type: image/png");

putenv('GDFONTPATH=' . realpath('.'));
$font = 'nevis.ttf';
$fontSize=20;//in point;

$title1= 'Amit';

$title2= 'Singh';

$str=$title1.'   '.$title2;

$onecharwidth  = imagefontwidth($font)*($fontSize/8);

$totalwidth  = $onecharwidth * strlen($str);

$height = (imagefontheight($font)*($fontSize/8))*2;

$img_handle = imagecreatetruecolor($totalwidth, $height);

$white = imagecolorallocate($img_handle, 255, 255, 255);

imagefill($img_handle, 0, 0, $white);

$black = imagecolorallocate ($img_handle, 0, 0, 0);

$gray = imagecolorallocate ($img_handle, 100, 100, 100);

imagettftext($img_handle, 20, 0, 10, 20, $black, $font, $title1);

$posarr=imagettfbbox(20, 0,$font, $title1);

imagettftext($img_handle, 20, 0, $posarr[2]+$onecharwidth, 20, $gray, $font, $title2);

imagepng ($img_handle);

imagedestroy ($img_handle);

    (more…)

  • akWpLightBox : simple lightbox for wordpress

    I always strive for simple solutions to all my problems, akWpLightBox plugin is result of one such endeavor.

    For quite some time now I was looking for a plugin which is lightweight, and can show images in lightbox like effect, in my blog.

    The effort of creating a javascript functionality for that was putting me off, then few days back I saw the prettyPhoto, it is a jQuery based plugin for creating the lightbox effects for the images.

    This made my job pretty easier, now I can have my lightbox effect, all i needed to was convert it into a wordpress plugin. So I did some modifications to the prettyPhoto to suite my needs, and here is the result of my work. Check out an working example below.

    Example of akWpLightbox

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  • Center align a container in IE

    Today i faced a problem while trying to center align my main div in IE6.

    The Problem

    #main
{
    width:960px;
    margin:0 auto;
}

    This made my div to align itself in the center in firefox and Internet Explorer 7 but, it failed to do the trick for IE6.

    (more…)

  • A case for Crowdsourcing

    I have read the sitepoint article by Matthew Magain”Design contest made me a better designer” and the response of Anthony Zinni in “99design stoops to new low attempts propaganda” via Design Intellection’s 99designs and the Harmful Effects Thereof article.

    I wrote a quick response on Anthony’s article, but I decided to do a proper follow up In this article.

    I think Crowdsourcing is good idea for participants. I will make this case by using a simple scenario.

    A Scenario

    I have just finished (assumption just for this case only) my studies, and I am looking for a job, I want to make a career in designing(again for this case only) I know I am good (but how to prove it?), my grades are not good, I don’t have contacts to get me started.

    (more…)

  • 8th important MySQL tool missed by Six Revision List

    7 Applications to Make Working with MySQL Databases Easier article from Six Revision list following useful tools for working with MySQL, this order is based on my preference while using these tools

    1. phpMyAdmin
    2. DB Designer 4
    3. WWW Sql Designer
    4. Instant Sql Formatter
    5. MySql GUI tools
    6. EMS Sql manager for MySQL
    7. TurboDbAdmin

    You can read about them at six revision’s article.

    I have never used last two tools, instead I have used the Toad for MySQL. It has some nifty features. The one feature that I liked was the single click grouping feature of resultset. Though I still prefer to use phpMyAdmin.

    Now to reason of this post, if you look at the list above, you will find the tools for general database management(like phpMyAdmin, EMS Sql Manager etc), ERD diagram creators(like DB Designer and WWW sql designers) and other log viewing and controlling tools(like mysql gui tools).

    You might be wondering what is missing?

    (more…)

  • Get Power of Social Networking Using Google Friend Connect

    Google has released a preview of Google Friend Connect, a service which will allow you to add social networking features from Orkut, Facebook, iLike, hi5 and many more.

    All this by simply adding a piece of code from http://www.google.com/friendconnect and Friend connect will do the rest.

    Social networking can’t get simpler then this, and trust Google to do the simple things.

    User will be able to sign in using their Google, Yahoo, AIM or OpenID accounts. A site owner can choose the features that are available for it’s users to use.

    This is how it works

    Firend Connects working

    Everyone wins in a friend connected web:

    • You, the site owner – Google Friend Connect gives you a snippet of code that, when put into your site, will equip the site with social features, including the ability to run third-party social applications. Moreover, it enables your visitors to log in with existing credentials, see who among their friends is already registered at that site. It also gives them one-click access to invite friends from their existing friends lists on other sites, such as Facebook or orkut.
    • Your site’s visitors – Visitors no longer need to create a new account or develop yet another friends list just to use the social applications on your site. We create the infrastructure that allows one login to be used across multiple sites and the ability to reuse existing friend relationships that the visitor has already established elsewhere.
    • OpenSocial developers – With Google Friend Connect, any website on the web can become an OpenSocial container. Their social applications can now run on social networking sites and anywhere else on the web that uses Google Friend Connect. By placing these applications on sites where users already visit, these application will be seen and used by more users more often.
    • Social networks – With Google Friend Connect, social networks thrive as hubs of activity while giving their users more opportunities to bring their friend relationships to other websites while simultaneously bringing their friends and activities from outside the social network back in — with people having the ability to publish their activities across the web into the activity streams of their social networks.

    Now the bad news, it is available to limited number of website owners for now, even then I am excited about the possibilities Google Friend Connect brings with itself.

    Check out more details about Google’s friend Connect Service

  • Pangea Day, Just Pay It Forward

    Live cinema was shown all over the world for 4 hours, in India the timing for telecast was 11:30PM to 3.30AM. I watched the events at ThoughtWorks office in Pune. People started coming by 10 o’clock, as their was lot of time before the event so we sit watching the IPL match between Chennai Super Kings and Kings XI Punjab.

    At 11 o’clock the organizers showed the video of Jehane’s unveiling the plan for Pangea day at TED event. Though event was also telecast live on Star World, we watched it live on Web.

    While watching the program, I kept thinking about the technical aspect that made Pangea day possible, the amount of co-ordination required to synchronize events from six different locations. I thought if only I could also be part of technical team that made all this possible, alas for now I would have to be content with being a passive viewer.

    Their were many prominent speakers, some beautiful and thought provoking movies, but my takeaway from the event was the Eboo Patel’s closing statement

    Take different action, Tell different stories.

    -Eboo Patel, Executive Director Interfaith Youth Core

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  • Simplest Css Hack Ever

    “What?!! the dawn of IE8 is upon us and someone is writing about css hack for IE”

    Well… my response is simple, you don’t need to use this it’s just for your knowledge. 😉

    I have been using this trick for two years now, as most of the other magical css hack were above my head.

    I discovered this accidentally, and it might not be an hack also, but i use it a lot in my work.

    So what is this hack?

    Simple, just put ‘//’ in front of any valid css declaration, most of the other browser will treat this as comment and ignore it, while our friend Internet Explorer will not treat this as comment and render the property.

    <style>

.test{
     color:red;
     //color:green;
}

</style>

<p class='test'>I will be green in Internet Explorer, red in all other browsers</p>

    The only thing that you must note is the sequence of statements. The declaration that you want to override in IE should come after the declaration for other browsers. What it means is that if you put the //color:green first in above example then even IE will show the color of text as red.

    Example:

    I will be green in Internet Explorer, red in all other browsers.

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