maxpagels.com » Programming

JavaScript: The Good Parts

Max Pagels — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 08:46:41 +0000

By Doug Crockford. One of the best Tech Talks I’ve ever watched.

(via Mr.doob’s blog)

Java: Comparators

Max Pagels — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 12:55:14 +0000

A good tutorial.

Text file dictionaries

Max Pagels — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 09:02:27 +0000

I learned about this just last week: Linux/Unix/OSX operating systems have a built-in English dictionary text file located at /usr/share/dict/words.

Twitter4J

Max Pagels — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 13:02:09 +0000

A fantastic Java library for Twitter.

The Opposite of Fitt’s Law

Max Pagels — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 10:42:08 +0000

If we should make UI elements we want users to click on large, and ideally place them at corners or edges for maximum clickability – what should we do with UI elements we don’t want users to click on? Like, say, the “delete all my work” button?

A fantastic post, as usual.

ACM-ICPC 2010 results

Max Pagels — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:13:47 +0000

Number one? Shanghai Jiaotong University, solving seven of eleven problems (PDF).

No more ADC memberships

Max Pagels — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:08:07 +0000

They are being replaced by an all-encompassing Mac Developer membership ($99 per year).

We recently introduced a new Mac Developer Program that replaces ADC Premier, Select, and Student Memberships. If you are a current ADC member, you can continue to access your resources and benefits through the end of your membership year.

Programming mistakes

Max Pagels — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:28:08 +0000

A top 25 list by Common Weakness Enumeration. XSS takes the top spot, followed by SQL injection and “classic” buffer overflow.

HTML5 tutorial

Max Pagels — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:23:44 +0000

Specifically, a tutorial for making HTML5 enhanced themes for WordPress.

How to use Modernizr

Max Pagels — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 16:21:10 +0000

A quick and dirty “getting started” tutorial.

HTML Device

Max Pagels — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 08:05:37 +0000

A new W3C Editor’s Draft. Video conferencing via HTML is a good idea – no need for external plugins. The same applies for all kinds of peripherals, not just webcams.

Programming for the TI-83, 83+ and 83+SE

Max Pagels — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:18:27 +0000

A good TI-BASIC tutorial.

Lessn and domain aliases

Max Pagels — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:11:53 +0000

⌘mp.ws, which I prepared earlier, is now being used as the domain for my own URL shortener. I am using Shaun Inman‘s excellent Lessn software for this, but I had to tweak it a bit to get it to use my domain alias ⌘mp.ws instead of the longer maxpagels.com domain for the short URLs it generates.

It’s a short fix, really. Line eight of index.php inside the -/ directory of my Lessn installation used to look like so:

[php firstline="8" toolbar="false"]define(‘LESSN_DOMAIN’, preg_replace(‘#^www\.#’, ”, $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME']));[/php]

Th problem here is the PHP $_SERVER variable that is used at the very end of the line. $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] returns the following, according to www.php.net:

The name of the server host under which the current script is executing. If the script is running on a virtual host, this will be the value defined for that virtual host.

In my case, $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] returned www.maxpagels.com. By replacing $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] with the domain alias ⌘mp.ws, everything started working as I wanted it to. So, if you find yourself in a similar situation, just replace this line:

[php firstline="8" toolbar="false"]define(‘LESSN_DOMAIN’, preg_replace(‘#^www\.#’, ”, $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME']));[/php]

with this one:

[php firstline="8" toolbar="false"]define(‘LESSN_DOMAIN’, preg_replace(‘#^www\.#’, ”,’YOUR_DOMAIN_ALIAS’));[/php]

Then it’s just a matter of changing YOUR_DOMAIN_ALIAS to, well, your domain alias.

John Gruber’s regex for matching URLs

Max Pagels — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 18:38:02 +0000

This pattern attempts to be practical. It makes no attempt to parse URLs according to any official specification. It isn’t limited to predefined URL protocols. It should be clever about things like parentheses and trailing punctuation.

URLs are notoriously difficult to match with regular expressions. This seems to be a pretty accurate implementation, I’ve yet to have it fail.

Thoughts on Go

Max Pagels — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:56:33 +0000

Ongoing discussion at Stack Overflow regarding the language. Seems to be an equal divide of those who like it, those who don’t and those who couldn’t care less.

Unreal Development Kit

Max Pagels — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:47:47 +0000

Now available gratis, which is great news.

Java 7 language changes

Max Pagels — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:56:38 +0000

A list by Joseph D. Darcy detailing which of the Project Coin proposals have been accepted for inclusion in Java 7. For me, the two most significant features are the ability to use Strings in switch clauses and the omission of manual resource management.

Up to Speed on HTML5 and CSS3

Max Pagels — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:00:53 +0000

A simple, elegent presentation by M. Jackson Wilkinson on the features of HTML5 and CSS3 and why you should care about them.

Dive into HTML5 – Video on the Web

Max Pagels — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 12:47:21 +0000

A comprehensive reference by Mark Pilgrim.

(via Daring Fireball)

Max Pagels — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:08:29 +0000

As a programmer, I have a predictable set of hobbies. I enjoy video games, reading and tinkering with electronics. For many programmers, however, the choice of hobbies is quite widespread and in many cases completely unrelated to their day jobs. Programming question and answer site Stack Overflow has a topic discussing programmer’s hobbies, with a host of interesting posts from commenters.

My hobbies (drums and motorcycles) have nothing to do with computers whatsoever. I find that having hobbies outside of the industry help to clear my head and provide balance to my life. – Dana

Photography. If you see beauty in code, you can see beauty in imagery. – achinda99