Category → Web Development RSS
Redirect to iPhone site with htaccess
This is my implementation of how to redirect to an iPhone optimised website using Apache rewrite rules and cookies. Although this redirect can be achieved easily through server-side scripting, websites that implement heavy page caching need to redirect at the request level. Read more →
How to create a spell checking web spider
Recently I found out my employer was paying a third-party company to regularly check the spelling on their website and send them a monthly report. So I thought I would write a simple spider that could to do the same thing and save them money. Read more →
Validate an ISSN using Perl or JavaScript
Last week I wrote about validating an ISBN, so this week I thought I would post the code to validate an ISSN. Read more →
How to check if an ISBN is valid in Perl or JavaScript
The cool thing about an ISBN is that its last digit is a "check digit", which validates the rest of the number. How does it work? "It is calculated on a modulus 11 with weights 10-2, using X in lieu of 10 where ten would occur as a check digit." More info. Read more →
Computer namer
Last week I was working with rails, and decided to test how much I had learnt to date. I picked a small website idea I had had aeons ago, and wanted to see how quickly and easily I could put it together in rails. Read more →
Generating a calendar using XSLT
Recently I was tasked to build an interactive calendar in XSLT. I wanted the calendar to always start on a Sunday as well as have clean markup. I couldn't find any good examples on the web while I was building it, so I decided to post the base of my solution. Read more →
How to setup virtual hosts on Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Whilst developing a new project it can be convenient to setup a virtual host on your local machine. For example, if I wanted to have a local development/demonstration version of a website I'm developing (e.g. http://learnhowtojuggle.info), I could setup the following virtual host: http://learnhowtojuggle.dev. Read more →
Learn How To Juggle
Last Thursday I was talking with Dean about ideas for new sites. Most of them were silly ideas and would never work, but there was one I felt I could accomplish successfully. Read more →
A better technique to stop spam?
A couple of weeks ago I wrote an entry on how to outsmart comment spam with javascript. Although this is a good technique, it has a drawback - code maintenance. If there is a change to the mark up of the form, it is more time consuming to alter the javascript than the HTML. Read more →
Outsmarting comment spam
It is often hard to find the right balance between stopping comment spam, and encouraging users to leave comments. For example, although captcha's are effective, I don't like asking my users to enter a (sometimes cryptic) code to leave a comment. Read more →
Exclude Your Images from Image Search Engines
Google, Yahoo!, MSN and many other search engines, provide image search services. If you're concerned about intellectual property theft or bandwidth leeches, you can ask these search engines not to index your images. This is a common practise and will not effect your ranking within normal text searches. Read more →
How to install the W3C Link Checker on Mac OS X
The W3C Link checker is a great online service for validating links. It is also freely available for download and use locally. Read more →
8 Tips to combat Global Warming (for NERDS)
As a computer nerd, I've been trying to think up ways I can help the environment and reduce the impact of global warming. If you have anymore tips that I haven't listed here, please leave a comment. Read more →
PHP: Explore your server through a PHP file browser
In the past I've had to delete files from my server where the file permissions were set to apache and I could not override them because the host did not alllow terminal or shell access. So I quickly put together a PHP script that allowed me to navigate through the file system and unlink (or delete) files as the apache user. I haven't had to use the script for a while but I still think its pretty nifty to use when you want to explore a servers file system. Read more →
How to install Tomcat on Mac OS X
A while back I wrote a post on the ubuntu forums on how to install Tomcat on ubuntu. It was very popular (if I do say myself) so I thought I would post the instructions on how to setup tomcat on Apple's OS X. These instructions work for 10.4 (Tiger) and 10.5 (Leopard). Read more →
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