EronInJapan » admin

Code Snippet Resources

admin — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 06:32:29 +0000

There are many sites on the internet now where you can find useful code snippets for your favorite programming languages. A very comprehensive list of these sites can be found HERE.

Utilizing these resources can be a great way to quickly get familiar with the syntax of new languages or brush up on ones you already know. I don’t recommend blindly copying these snippets and putting them into your critical applications without thorough testing and verification. When used responsibly, they can be very helpful building blocks to quickly get your new applications up and running. Some sites even have features to rate, store, and organize your favorite snippets for easy access from any computer connected to the internet.

I highly recommend new and seasoned programmers alike to make use of these wonderful resources and, if you are so inclined, help out your fellow programmers and
contribute your own snippets as well!

Standards-compliant Flash and YouTube Embedding

admin — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 03:13:38 +0000

If you’ve ever wondered why the markup provided by Flash or YouTube to embed their content don’t validate in the W3C Validating Service then you aren’t alone. Luckily for us there are developers out there who have put a lot of time and energy into creating and testing standards-compliant markup for embedding this content in your web pages. You can read more about how they came about their solutions here: Validating Flash XHTML and Validating YouTube XHTML.

Without going into the wrong way to do it, I will just post the “correct” markup below.

Validated Flash XHTML

Validated YouTube XHTML

Save The Developers – Retire IE6

admin — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 19:10:28 +0000

I was amused to come across this post which talked about the Save The Developers campaign. The campaign notified users of IE6 who visited the site that by upgrading their browser to IE7 they could save web developers all over the world a lot of headaches and frustration. Any web developers out there will know how much time and effort it usually takes to ensure that your design is compatible with Internet Explorer 6. It’s usually not a fun experience and it does limit what can be done on your site if you want to ensure 100% backwards compatibility.

I was hoping to take a look at the Save The Developers website but the domain (http://savethedevelopers.org/) seems to have expired and is now being parked. Darn.

Searching the web, I was able to find some information on current browser statistics from the popular web developer site W3Schools. More detailed browser statistics look to be available from other websites which require a paid subscription but I’ll stick with what I can find for free for now. Please be aware that these statistics only include visitors to the W3Schools website.

2009	IE7	IE6	IE8	Firefox	Chrome	Safari	Opera
June	18.7%	14.9%	7.1%	47.3%	6.0%	3.1%	2.1%

Glad to see that IE6 keeps losing market share, but it looks like it’s web developers will need to continue supporting it for some time to come.

Another ray of hope from Asa Dotzler at Mozilla. He wrote here that usage of IE6 has been surpassed by IE8, making IE6 the least popular IE still in widespread use. Good news. He then goes on in another post here about his browser predictions where states that he expects IE6 to be virtually non-existent by the end of 2010. I can only hope that he’s right!

Automatic Lossless Image Shrinking

admin — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 11:29:55 +0000

I just ran into this post which talked about a wonderful WordPress plugin to help increase the performance of your site or blog. The plugin automatically runs any images that you upload through the Smush.it service which generates a lossless image that can be considerably smaller than the original. There is no loss of image quality so you have nothing to lose! I’d recommend to install this plugin as soon as possible so your visitors can quickly enjoy a more responsive website.

Download: Smush.it For WordPress Plugin

More Info: Smush.it Homepage

Install Wordpress In A Subdirectory

admin — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 08:44:39 +0000

Have you ever wanted to install WordPress in the root directory of your website without having to keep the source files there? Well it’s possible and quite simple. With just a few changes you will be able to store the WordPress files in a subdirectory while keeping the blog accessible from the root directory. Here’s an easy to follow guide taken from the WordPress website:

http://codex.wordpress.org/Giving_WordPress_Its_Own_Directory

Welcome To The New EronInJapan.com

admin — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:48:04 +0000

Welcome to the newest incarnation of EronInJapan.com.

The site has gone through many changes over the years, most of which have been behind the scenes and for my personal use. I’m now taking a different direction with the site and have made it publicly available.

This site will focus on life in Japan (as you may have guessed), technology tips and information, as well as serve as an introduction to who I am and what I do.

I hope you enjoy the site and will find it useful.

-Eron