Cross Browser Testing – Its All Wrong

It was not long ago that I got all excited when I came across the XenoCode virtualized browsers. This seemed a neat idea. At the time one could download an executable (they seem to only be available in-browser now) and run one of the major browsers without interfering with the operating system or confguration you … 

 

Accurate Ems

Whilst supporting browsers that have no full-page zoom and keeping the accessibility at a maximum, the use of ems in your style sheet is a must. This is not a difficult thing to do and you can still think in terms of pixels, thanks to great tools like the Em Calculator. A word of warning … 

 

Captcha Audio with ASP.NET

The subject of captcha images has been well covered. There are plenty of available resources for creating those warped letters. I created such a control that is a combination of quite a few different ideas and was quite proud of it until not thirty seconds after demonstrating it, someone asked whether it had a ‘play … 

 

CodeIgniter Error CSS Classes

When version 1.7 of CodeIgniter was released, they introduced a new form validation class that vastly simplified things. I particularly liked the new way in which any errors that occurred during form validation were displayed on screen. Where as before, an error message for a field was displayed as follows: <?=$this->validation->myfield_error?><?=$this->validation->myfield_error?> It seemed much neater … 

 

Windows UAC. Get Over It.

The slating of Microsofts UAC has recently been reborn now that the early adopters of Windows 7 have found security flaws in the new version. It reminded me of the outrage that occurred when it was first introduced in Vista and at this late stage, prompts me to point out something that was conveniently overlooked … 

 

PuTTY Auto Login at Media Temple (gs)

For one of my projects, I use the Media Temple Grid Service for hosting. They offer ssh access to the hosting, which is superb and coupled with svn repositories, enables me to keep all the source there too. Using a nice, secure complex password to log on with the ssh client, my IDE and my … 

 

jQuery Plugin Callbacks and Events

I have written a fair few plugins for jQuery for both work and side projects. As any developer should, I am always trying to improve my techniques for creating them so that they are as efficient and maintainable as possible. Up until recently, my usual technique for callbacks and events would be to include the …