I am continuing to be impressed with Telerik’s
UI for PHP. There is an abundance of tutorials and demos for each of the UI
components. I am leveraging one of them, the Kendo Grid, at HP for an internal
web application I developed. The Kendo grid supports the common features that
one would expect – sorting, paging, and grouping the data based on selecting
one of more of the column header labels.
Coding the supporting PHP
page is a little tricky at times, but hanging in there and not giving up pays
off with a beautiful, highly functional UI.
Lately, I am experimenting with NFC (near field
communication) tags to see if they could prove useful in HP's classrooms. First
off, NFC tags have been compared to RFID (radio-frequency identification) tags that have seen use in
areas such as inventory control. An NFC
tag is a specializedtype
of RFID device that operates in the 13.56 Mhz
frequency range. Both types of tags hold electronic data, but near field
communication tags operate over much closer distances between the tag and the mobile
device that reads the tag’s payload. This closer
proximity requirement for NFC tags is why mobile device manufacturers
use this technology for payment processing - keeping the data transmission
distance short and less likely to be pilfered
by outside devices.
At any rate, for my first experiment, I programmed an NFC tag to open a special URL, and only if
the mobile device is connected to certain
WIFI networks (e.g. hpguest or hpinternet), and finally, only between certain hours
of the day.
NFC programmed tasks: 1) Post
a tweet, 2) Launch Brain Candy URL, and 3) send an email to me.
1)
2)
3)
I find that NFC tags are
quite interesting. This quick experiment showcases only a drop in a bucketful
of things that can be done with these tags. I see them as a powerful new tool
in my developer’s toolbelt. I’ll keep you posted on what I do with NFC tags
next.
Mixing a bit of PHP that reads in a city-country list from a MariaDB database and the Google JavaScript Geocoding API, I created a quick way to take a peek at some cities throughout the world.
For a Friday the 13th celebration, I am showing some code that combines a small bit of PHP-based code and the Kendo UI (http://www.telerik.com). This code tests if the date is a Friday, and if it is is a Friday, is it a Friday the 13th. Based on a Boolean field, $isFri13, the Kendo UI displays differently - if today's date is a Friday the 13th, you will see "It's Jason's Day" blocked for the entire day. Double-clicking on the event will open the event's details, with the delete and save buttons removed (display: none). On other days, you will see "It's NOT Jason's Day" and you will be able to delete or edit the event.
I have been working with a cool open-source utility that is a powerful way to build application setup installers - Inno Setup. I combined Adobe AIR to build a desktop application that insulates the setup creator from the inner workings of Inno Setup. The Adobe AIR application collects the bare minimum info that Inno Setup leverages and creates the .iss file that the compiler reads to build the final setup.exe application installer.
Created with Adobe Flash Professional CS6, this example application demonstrates a kiosk-style (e.g. auto-running) application that displays information from the Chemical Periodic Table of Elements. The amount of time each element is displayed is configurable.
Welcome to my latest article - "Creating a Hybrid Photo Uploader with PHP, HTML5, and mySQL". I had fun putting this example application together, mixing in some things I find interesting (file uploads with PHP, converting an uploaded color photo to a black and white version leveraging a HTML5 Canvas and some JavaScript, previewing the photo prior to uploading with JQuery, and storing the data in a mySQL database. The app not only runs on desktop browsers but also on my Android phone (I'm using KSWeb for the PHP/mySQL that runs on my Galaxy Note). The complete code is available as an archive zip file. I hope you find this information useful. Thanks for reading, by the way. Now, on to the meat and potatoes of this post.
You gotta check out Adobe's Brackets, the new open source web development code editor built for and by web developers. It's evolving more everyday, so keep a close eye on this one.
Recently I was looking at Node.js and one of my Flex-based file upload examples, and thought it would be worthwhile to do a side-by-side comparison of the two techniques. As a huge fan of Flex, I really like to work with it, but Node.js is an interesting technology too.
My sweet son was born in the Philippines on July 12, 2010 and the road to his receiving his USA passport and his CRBA (Consular Report of Birth Abroad) was, at times, a winding path that was narrow and tedious to navigate. Today, his passport and the CRBA arrived, and it turns out he was a citizen at birth, but the USA did not recognize him as such until Nov. 10. I'm not complaining at all, as the process should be done carefully - citizenship is such an important right granted to us.
Just want to warn potential clients to avoid XOOM Money transfer service. They choked off my financial lifeline at the worst possible time. They actually cancelled a transaction after sending me an email saying, available for pickup, without even the courtesy of any notification. I really believe the company must be run by morons. I was a very good customer of theirs and they were making money big-time off of my transfers. Their low transfer fee is deceiving - unreliable is all I can say. The saying, you get what you pay for, applies here. Western Union is expensive, but at least they care about their customers. Stay clear of XOOM if you value your time and actually getting your money.
Finally, from my point of view: competition between database products (in this case, Oracle's and mySQL's) benefits the field of database technology evolution, so I recommend the petition's choice - "MySQL must be divested to a suitable third party that can continue to develop it under the GPL".
I see real value in giving subject matter experts the ability to create their own eLearning content. With Adobe Captivate 2, this is as easy as 1, 2, 3.
From the Adobe website:
"Adobe Captivate 2 software enables anyone to rapidly create powerful and engaging simulations, software demonstrations, and scenario-based training without programming knowledge or multimedia skills. Based on the industry-leading Adobe Flash® platform, Adobe Captivate 2 automatically generates interactive content in Flash format, without requiring users to learn Flash."
This preview release showcases native integration and deployment of CFML on the Microsoft .NET platform - offering native hi-performance integration with COM, ASP.NET, ADO.NET, C# and Visual Basic.NET.
Well, a few of the BCBST elite (at least in our own minds) graduated from the New Horizon's "Java Enterprise Connectivity Class" last Friday. We're now poised to turn our ASP's to JSP's, so keep one eye open for the transition over the next year.
A perfect match of "the blues", New Atlanta's Blue Dragon is a available as a free CFML application server for true rapid application development on a J2EE (and coming soon .NET) infrastructure. BCBST sites could benefit from both the ease and power of CFML and did I mention... it's free!
Hey Everyone! I found a great site that has free or low cost tutorials on all sorts of web-related topics including PHP, Flash, Dreamweaver, ASP, et. al.
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