Archive for August, 2008

Facelift bug! Browsers aren’t caching images. *FIX*

August 30th, 2008

Bryson on the forums found a pretty big bug today that is causing images not to be cached by web browsers.

This means that each time a user returns to your web page or hovers over a link they are being forced to re-download the generated image.  The image is still being cached locally by Facelift so the images aren’t being regenerated.

This is a pretty huge bug in my eyes and you can either download the fixed version from the download page, or make the following changes yourself:
» Read more: Facelift bug! Browsers aren’t caching images. *FIX*

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Just discovered a better/faster way to get the directory size on linux

August 28th, 2008

I’d always read that to get the total size of a directory (and everything below it) on linux you use du -ch | grep total

This works but gets slower the more files/folders a directory contains.  Then I remembered the tail program and presto — my life just got easier. du -ch | tail -n 1 will give exactly the same output as grep total and takes no time.

I know a lot of people who find this will be like… duh! But oh well, I’m happy about my discovery and now feel like I’ve accomplished something today.

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Posted in Linux, Operating Systems

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Bug in IE with Facelift v1.2 beta 3, released fixed version

August 25th, 2008

Shortly after putting up v1.2 beta 3 for download I noticed a problem. It has been fixed and Facelift is back to working in IE again. If you’ve already downloaded v1.2 b3 you can make the change yourself or you could download v1.2 beta 3-2.
» Read more: Bug in IE with Facelift v1.2 beta 3, released fixed version

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Advanced Facelift Techniques – 3 Options Examined

August 25th, 2008

Facelift offers several options to handle many different situations.  In this post, we will take a look at a few options that may be useful to your situation. In this post realFontHeight, findEmbededFonts, and checkImageSupport are covered as well as a slightly more in-depth look at the FLIR.init function.
» Read more: Advanced Facelift Techniques – 3 Options Examined

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Posted in Web Development, facelift

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Facelift v1.2 beta 3 is now available

August 24th, 2008

A lot has gone into Facelift v1.2 beta 3 to make it a lot better than previous versions.  This will be the last beta before v1.2 final.

Upgrading

To upgrade, move the following files to your facelift folder: flir.js, generate.php, and inc-flir.php. Also copy the files in the plugins directory if needed.

config-flir.php has not changed and therefore does not need to be modified.
» Read more: Facelift v1.2 beta 3 is now available

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Advanced Facelift Techniques – First Letter of Paragraph Effect

August 20th, 2008

Facelift can be used for more than just adding decorative headers to your web pages.  Combine Facelift with a little bit of Javascript and you can really do some pretty cool things.  This is the first part in a series of posts detailing what you can do to take Facelift further.
» Read more: Advanced Facelift Techniques – First Letter of Paragraph Effect

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Posted in Web Development, facelift

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Fun with Facelift – An experiment to add fonts to textboxes

August 20th, 2008

I was bored tonight so I decided to throw something together that I’d been thinking about:  Combing Facelift with an input textbox.

I quickly threw together a proof of concept and it actually came out pretty well.  Of course, this really doesn’t have any real world application but it is kinda cool.

Open the Dynamic Font Textbox Test Page

Facelift v1.2 b3 is coming very soon and I’ll also be including an upgraded and fixed QuickEffects plugin.

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Detecting if images are disabled. (CSS On / Images Off scenario)

August 17th, 2008

It was recently brought to my attention that Facelift Image Replacement wasn’t displaying in all browsers properly when images were turned off.  It seems I only tested this scenario in Firefox 3, which beautifully handles the situation.

The rest of the browsers weren’t so nice.  Safari displays nothing, IE displays a box with the alt text in an ugly small font, and Opera puts a box around the text.
» Read more: Detecting if images are disabled. (CSS On / Images Off scenario)

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Posted in Web Development, facelift

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Hosted Facelift solution: flirPremium AND Ask for donations?

August 16th, 2008

I’m very happy that people are finding Facelift useful. It is starting to pop up on websites around the internet and it is quickly gaining popularity. A lot of time and energy has gone into the creation and maintenance of Facelift and I hope to continue this for as long as it is needed.

A lot of free software projects around the internet simply ask for donations to keep the project going. However, personally, I’ve never been a big fan of donations, at least not for my projects. After all, I am creating these projects for purely selfish reasons and making them available to others. So, I thought, “How could I get compensated for the work I’m putting into Facelift and give something (besides Facelift) in return?”
» Read more: Hosted Facelift solution: flirPremium AND Ask for donations?

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Facelift v1.2 beta 2 is available

August 16th, 2008

Facelift v1.2 beta 2 is available and is definitely the best version yet with bug fixes and features galore.  Hover and complete UTF8 support come to mind.  Instructions to upgrade are at the end of this post.  Download Facelift v1.2 beta 2
» Read more: Facelift v1.2 beta 2 is available

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Version 0.5.5 of Wordpress facelift plugin is available

August 11th, 2008

And it can be downloaded at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/facelift-image-replacement/

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The Facelift Drupal plugin is now available for 5.x and 6.x

August 11th, 2008

The Facelift plugin for the popular CMS is now available for versions 5.x and 6.x and stable.  Get to downloading Drupers!

http://drupal.org/project/flir

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Oh IE, why do you fight me so? Hover/mouseover just isn’t quite right

August 9th, 2008

I’ve been working on facelift v1.2 and one of the upgrades is element hovers.  And I’ve done it!  Or so I thought… they work like a dream in all browsers except Internet Explorer.  They just wouldn’t change colors.

After investigating further, I found out that IE doesn’t apply the :hover CSS changes until AFTER the mouseover event is done.  Which means, you can’t get an elements :hover style.

After playing around for a bit, I did discover a less-than-elegant solution to this problem that I’m going to have to implement, even though I don’t want to.  Using setTimeout to retrieve the currentStyle will allow you to get the proper value during the event, even when setTimeout’s delay is set to 0.  I’m not sure why this works, but it does.

I’ve setup a test page that illustrates the problem and the solution.  View “IE Mouseover currentStyle Problem” Test Page.

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Posted in Web Development, facelift

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Facelift plugin available for Drupal

August 6th, 2008

For all you Drupal users out there I have some good news.  A beta plugin to integrate facelift with your drupal installation is available as of today.  Bryan Ollendyke started the project and it is available for download at http://drupal.org/project/flir.

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My new favorite music website

August 5th, 2008

I was talking to my good friend from France, Vincent, the other day and he did me two favors in one.  He recommended I listen to Portishead and sent me a link to do so at www.deezer.com.

When I first opened the site I thought it was going to be like an Amazon.com where I get to hear a short sample of the music and not really get a good idea of what it is all about.  That was not the case.

I listened to the entire Dummy album by Portishead and am now a Portishead fan.  If I had a dollar to my name I would run out and buy their newest album.

Some out there may be asking how does Deezer do it?  I don’t know.  But if I can go to a record store and listen to an entire album I should be able to do it online.

Thanks Vincent!  And thanks Deezer and Portishead!

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Posted in Music

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Mawhorter.net forums have been launched.

August 5th, 2008

I’ve created http://forums.mawhorter.net/.  Use them to discuss any issues you may have with any of my projects.  If you need help, have a suggestion, or anything else — the forums are the place to go!

I decided to go with PunBB because… well, I didn’t really have a reason.  I’ve installed most of the other forums but haven’t used PunBB so I figured I’d give it a shot.  It installed without issue and it took a bit of time to customize.  But it is up and running!

So head over to http://forums.mawhorter.net/ and register! Be amazed by the amazing lack of customizations I’ve done to the PunBB default theme.  And above all, have fun.

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Posted in News, Projects, clidesdale, facelift

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Facelift on Ajaxian!

August 5th, 2008

Ajaxian has written a short piece about facelift today.  Thanks guys!

Facelift on Ajaxian

Anyone else want to shamelessly promote facelift?  Let me know of your post and I’ll post a link to it!

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Posted in News, facelift

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Facelift v1.1.1 is available

August 4th, 2008

The best version yet!

Changelog

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Posted in Projects, facelift

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I hate moving.

August 2nd, 2008

I don’t have any internet right now due to my move from Detroit to East Lansing.

I will be back online Sunday between the hours of 6 AM and 11:30 PM courtesy of Comcast.

I’m planning on releasing an updated to facelift shortly after and possibly a new plugin that will allow for drop shadows, strokes, pattern fills, and other Photoshop-esque techniques.

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Posted in General, News

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