Latest thoughts

Codanotes for annotating websites in Safari

A Safari extension by Panic that lets you draw, use a highlighter, edit text and add sticky notes to a web page and then email it to someone. It’s free, so get your clients to install safari and start using it. The little touches are what makes this a fun to use, and as such a great bit of interaction design.

Panic also creates Coda, a text editor for Mac, and Transmit – the only FTP client I have ever felt willing to part with some cash for.

Capcom Deadrising 2 sites are live

A few weeks ago at Clinic/Small Japanese Soldier we launched Tape it or Die, the main promotional website for the release of Capcom’s zombie-slaughter console game, Dead Rising 2.

The site is supported by a great back story of four zombie-obsessed characters who run the blog, and are on their way to Fortune City (a fictional Vegas-like city) for a party and to attend Terror is Reality, (a Gladiators-style zombie-slaying arena game).  With Tape it or Die and the Fortune City website we also launched the official Dead Rising 2 product site. read on…

I sped PHP and WordPress on Ubuntu 9.10

Ubuntu logoThe server running this site is a the most basic virtual server available running at Slicehost.com.  I recently rebuilt the slice from CentOS to an Ubuntu distribution for the hell of it. But since then, I have found things a little slower than before, especially with WordPress.  I needed a fix.

read on…

Observed and noted

via delicious

  • The value of HTML validation | NCZOnline
    Nicholas C. Zakas puts his position on HTML validation. I think that like anything, understanding the rules and why they exist is important – having the confidence/right to break them requires enough knowledge of what you are doing. Also, slavishly following a specification or doctrine is dangerous. (Not just in front end development!). But beware the inexperienced designer that gets wind of the idea that validation is not important. Give them an inch…
    (tags: html validation w3c opinion)
  • JavaScript Patch #4: External Scripts
    Another point for the "Drupal is shit" argument: A seemingly simple feature, allowing the drupal_add_js() method to accept an external URL, has been an active ticket here since October 2006, and still hasn't made it into the stable codebase. This points to either a bloated framework, or a broken process, or both. Apparently tabled for the D7 release, but I'm not hanging around to find out.
    (tags: drupal javascript development)
  • Copy File Field Value to Dynamic File Field Value
    I'm trying to do a background upload in a form that contains other data. So the upload should go on once the file is selected and the user can continue with the other input fields. Much like gmail does it. For various reasons I can't split my file upload field into another form, so I was hoping to clone/copy the input form to a new JS created form and submit it there. As discussed in this post, cloning a file input field doesn't copy the value in all browsers. The workaround is to simply move the field to the new form, not clone it.
    (tags: javascript ajax programming)
  • i'm under construction: Ajax file upload with pure JavaScript
    working on a file upload script for a job, and on investigating the values returned in the Firebug console I became curious about what data I could get about a selected file. Which led me, via Google, to this. Interesting.
    (tags: javascript firefox ajax programming)
  • NEW HAPPENINGS
    Playful ("A day of cross disciplinary frolicking") was my favorite event last year. I had a really good refreshing and inspiring day off work and listening to some great speakers.
    (tags: playful09)
  • HTML5: Deja Vu on Ajax
    HTML5 is the new Ajax which was the new DHTML. All just terms for wizzy browser capabilities. Apart from discussing this question, this article is a good reference to HTML5 and related technologies
    (tags: html5 reference)

subvisual.net is where Adam Davis documents his days as web developer and creative technologist in London.