Cory Dorning - taggin' the web since 2002

Server rebuild complete

Cory — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 19:02:11 +0000

Last night ended up being a late night, but I ended up getting almost everything back online. I did a clean install of Ubuntu, Apache, MySQL, and PHP. Things seem to be running alot more smoothly!

I'll keep an eye on the spam and hopefully it will die down some. I don't want to add in a CAPTCHA that is a PITA, but I may not have a choice.

Also, for the record, my contact form is inoperable at the moment because I have not setup my mail server yet. Last time I set it up, it took me forever and I have no idea how I even got it to work and I think it may have been part of my previous issue. I'm going to investigate some options before I get it set back up, so it may be awhile.

Server and Spam Issues

Cory — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 22:51:14 +0000

Man, it's been awhile! Unfortunately, this post isn't one I enjoy posting so I'll get to the point as quickly as possible.

Currently, my site gets pretty good numbers and I'm extremely happy about that fact. My biggest traffic seems to involve my jQuery posts and I still get comments on them from time to time. In the near future, I will be posting several more tutorials using jQuery 1.4. In fact, I've even written my first jQuery plug-in!

However, my server seems to be completely bugging out. I keep hitting around 90% CPU usage 12-14 times a day and it crashes my site. I just noticed that its basically been down the last 2 days. Since I manage my own server, and don't know a whole lot about how to troubleshoot them, I'm just going to do a clean install of everything. Given my time constraints, this is going to take a few days. I'm probably going to start this evening or sometime tomorrow and hope to everything back up by Monday morning.

Been Awhile

Cory — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 03:54:56 +0000

Well, as many have probably noticed I haven't written anything in awhile. I've had a lot going on with my wife and 11 month old son and started school in August. I also recently had an operation which put me on the shelf for the last few weeks.

There is some good news though. My jQuery work has continued and so has my knowledge of the library. I have a backlog of several new tutorials I'd like to write which I hope to get to in the coming month(s). Then again the holidays are coming up, but I have some vacation time which I hope to use "wisely".

Get Windows 7 for $29.99!

Cory — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:46:06 +0000

I've just been passed along an amazing deal for the upcoming release of the Windows 7 OS. All students will be able to grab a copy of this highly anticipated Windows release for a measely $29.99!

Best of all is the fact that you get to choose between Windows 7 Home Premium or Professional. Furthermore, you'll get to decide if you want 32- or 64-bit as well.

The price was too good not to pass along. Head on over to Win741 to take advantage of it. Promotion is running through the first of the year.

Gravatar's now enabled for all comments

Cory — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 04:59:46 +0000

Using the Drupal Gravatar integration module, all comments will now be able to use your own avatar for all comments instead of the site default one.

While not really a huge deal, I think this will add a bit more personality to the site and bring the comments to life. It's a bit more appealing and personal when reading to actual put a face on someone than to see the standard icon.

So, if you have a Gravatar account, be sure to use that email address when commenting. Feel free to test it out below.

Oh and always, if you have anything else you'd like to see here, that might make the site more usable, please let me know. I'm working on a new CAPTCHA but it might be awhile before I get it implemented. It'll likely be a jQuery implementation instead of using the Drupal CAPTCHA module that I'm using now.

What I Love About Apple (Store)

Cory — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 18:26:47 +0000

As a recent Apple convert, I continue to be amazed. I've had my current iPhone 3G since February of this year and recently had a couple issues (not with the phone itself).

The first dealt with the USB cable that allowed me to charge my phone and sync it with iTunes. The wiring sleeve had started to separate from the USB end of the cable ever so slightly. It still worked just fine, but I didn't want to wait until it was too late and it started affecting connectivity.

During a lunch break I headed on over to an Apple store, where I was greeted by a gentlemen as I walked in, asking how he could help me out. I briefly gave him a synopsis of my issue and showed him the cable. Since he seemed so helpful I proceeded to tell him about another issue dealing with my iPhone earbuds. The left one would pop at high volumes as it had been blown.

Endless 2

Cory — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 14:51:30 +0000

jQuery Accordion Made Easy

Cory — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 05:13:14 +0000

Having recently adding jQuery to my arsenal of web tools I've been experimenting with new ways of organizing content. While tabs is one obvious way of doing this (tutorial to come), my newly preferred method is the Accordion widget in jQuery UI.

It offers a nice flexible options and can be used for nearly all types of content. And the best part of this particular option has to do with the fact that the required code is very minimal and straightforward. Enjoy!

Use of jQuery noConflict();

Cory — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:56:11 +0000

In my short time of using jQuery I've come across the invaluable method of noConflict(). Why is it so handy? Well, in the world of web design and development, there are lots of very useful JavaScript libraries out there (i.e. YUI, MooTools, Prototype) and several of them use "$" to represent an object. If you are using this syntax within jQuery and another conflicting library simultaneously, you are likely going to run into some unexpected behavior.

Luckily noConflict() is very simple to use and you won't have to go swapping out all your "$" with "jQuery". And to keep it simplistic I'll use the following code to show you how to implement it.

$(function() {
  $("#foo").click(
    // your code here
  )
 
  // any additional code
});

Still using $(document).ready in your jQuery scripts?

Cory — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 23:54:50 +0000

With the amount of jQuery tutorials being written, tweeted, and retweeted I keep seeing one common theme in nearly all of them. None of them use the jQuery shorthand to launch their scripts when their DOM is loaded.

Of course there's nothing wrong with this and it is perfectly valid, but if you are able to cut out code, that means you cut down on development. If you are familiar with jQuery then you're most likely familiar with starting your scripts like so:

$(document).ready(function() {
  //your code here
});