Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with Coding

.htaccess or some other solution for altering a url across a domain?

You Should See the Other Guy — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:30:09 -0800

I use a CMS which needs domain.com/index.php/template/filename in order to work. I used to have an htaccess file which would make domain.com/template/filename work fine (ie, it would load the correct page even without the index.php there). Dreamhost recently upgraded its software and the htaccess file no longer works. Is there a solution for this problem? Note that I know nothing about htaccess. I got this file years ago off of a web forum, but it worked so I never question it. Here's what the htaccess file had in it (I changed the greater and lesser thans to square brackets because AskMe wasn't displaying them properly):



[IfModule mod_rewrite.c]

RewriteEngine On

RewriteBase /

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/stats/(.*)$ [OR]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/failed_auth.html$

RewriteRule ^.*$ - [L]

[/IfModule] 



[Files index.php]

SetHandler application/x-httpd-php

[/Files]



RewriteEngine On

RewriteBase /

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php/$1 [L]



AddHandler application/x-httpd-php .php

Thank you.

Simple suggestion engine

jonah — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 10:41:57 -0800

Looking for an existing script to do some data matching and suggesting. Sort of like a very simplified Netflix suggestion engine. I'm trying to set up a website that takes a user list of a defined number of inputs from a database of options. From those inputs, a number of outputs would be offered to the user based on other people's inputs.

For instance User 1 inputs: Apples, Bananas, Carrots

User 2 Inputs: Apples, Bananas, Watermelon

Based on matching Apples and Bananas, User 2 would see: You might like Carrots

Sort of like a dating site or the Netflix suggestion engine, but just for specific items. Is there something out there that could be modified to do this in php? I did some searching, but my google-fu is failing.

I realize that some of the answers might be "this would be easy to write in php", but I'm mainly looking for something already out there. I'll explore developing something if it isn't already out there.

From Zero to Python Hero

KilgoreTrout — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:26:31 -0800

I'm interested in teaching myself Python as my first programming language. What kind of useful/interesting projects are recommended as a long term goal to work towards, given that I'm a total beginner? I've been messing with the idea of teaching myself a programming language as a hobby, and after a bit of research Python seems to be the one best suited for me. That being said, I know absolutely nothing about programming, and I'm interested in what exactly I'd be able to accomplish after I've taught myself the basics. I've pulled together a number of tutorials and books, and messed around a bit with the extreme basics, and I've enjoyed it, but I feel that it would really help to motivate me if I had some kind of an end goal or project that I could work towards.

I would rate myself as a relatively advanced computer user, I like tinkering around with different programs and set ups to get the most out of machines. As a bit of background, I'm currently running a laptop on Windows Vista as my main PC, and a mac mini as an HTPC hooked up to my plasma, which I use mainly to run Plex for my movies and TV shows. Does anyone have examples of what they've been able to accomplish as a beginner after a few months of learning, or any suggestions on goals/projects that I can work towards? I realize that this is an extremely broad question, but I want to keep things pretty open so I can get a feel for what's possible. I've found the posts on Askmefi really helpful for tracking down resources and tutorials, but not much in terms of suggested projects. Any recommendations for books or training resources are also appreciated to help me get there.

Help with a javascript effect please!

bonsai forest — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 11:17:29 -0800

I'm trying to implement this moo tools javascript effect to fade in, and then fade out a single image element, and I need help to make it work. This is my attempt. As you can see, when you click my effect link, the image fades up just as I would like, and when you click my effect link again, the image fades away, but then my problems start! After fading away, the image all of a sudden reappears, and then, when you click the link again, it just fades and reappears. I just want the clickable link to toggle the image on and off.

I do not know javascript at all, and haven't been able to figure out what is causing this. this is the code I am using for onload:

window.onload = function() {



// MOO.FX OPACITY 

	aboutOpacity = new fx.Opacity('aboutContent', {duration: 1500, onComplete: function()

 		 { aboutOpacity.setOpacity(1); } 

  	});

		

	aboutOpacity.setOpacity(0);		

}



// HIDE/DISPLAY FUNCTIONS 

function displayAbout() { document.getElementById('aboutContent').style.display = ''; }



function hideAll() {

		document.getElementById('aboutContent').style.display = '';

		}

and this is the html I am using to trigger the effect:

onclick="hideAll();displayAbout(); aboutOpacity.toggle(0, 1);

Help with a simple Visual C# coding problem?

kbanas — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 08:07:28 -0800

Oh God. Where to start? This is, at its heart, a programming question about C#. It's probably not a very hard programming question, either. Although it is against my nature, I will attempt to be brief. I recently built a Windows Media Center PC and hooked it up to my TV and I'm really loving the Windows 7 media center experience... except that all the music I've accumulated for the last 10 years or so is in iTunes. So, while I can watch movies and TV shows and browse my pictures and be a multimedia guru, if I want to listen to music I have to get up off the couch, close media center, launch iTunes and then pump up the volume.

On some level this really irritates me.

I explored exhaustively solutions that exist out in the wild. MCE Tunes looks like a great application that will basically allow you to access iTunes from inside WMC, but it doesn't work with Windows 7, and they have stopped supporting the product.

So, I set upon the idea of importing all my iTunes music into Media Player - thus making it accessible to my Media Center interface. Since Media Player can handle mp3 and m4a files (and thus, 99% of my collection), I figured it wouldn't be a really big deal. But the problem as I understand it is that Media Player can't read meta data from m4a files, and so this would cause a digital divide - I would then have two music programs pointed at the same library of music and I would have to update information in both libraries and make changes and corrections in both libraries and basically this felt like a major hassle. Plus, I would have to re-enter all the meta data for my m4a files!

There's another application called Sound Bridge that takes your iTunes library and dumps it into Media Player, but, again, this doesn't work with Windows 7 and an update does not appear to be on the horizon.

Great!

Well, I thought about it and, you know, hey, I have a CS degree - admittedly a little rusty, but I have one - so I was all like, "Hey, you know what, fuck it, I'll fire up Visual Studio 2008 and I'll just write my own program!"

So, I set out to write a C# program that would take my iTunes library file and collect all the track information and meta data and file info and then build a Media Player library out of it.

And, even though I was 99% sure I would fail miserably, I've actually made some progress.

I have, at this point, a console application that reads in my iTunes XML library, parses it, and then adds all the files and meta data to a Windows Media Player playlist. Except that, for some reason, on some files, while setting the meta data in Windows Media Player, I'll get a permission denied error, as if I do not have access rights to set a specific attribute (like, say, genre) for a specific track.

I've done some investigating and it looks like I may be able to resolve this issue by way of a function called requestMediaAccessRights() - apparently according to all the demos and code samples I can find, I should be able to do the following:

myMediaPlayerObject.settings.requestMediaAccessRights("full");

Except, for some reason, Visual Studio can't find that function. I can access a host of different functions for myMediaPlayerObject.settings, but requestMediaAccessRights just isn't one of them, and I can't for the life of me figure out why. I'm adding the Media Player COM object to my project, and I can do everything else with Media Player.... that specific function just seems to be missing.

Does anyone have any idea why that might be?

The other thing I'm toying with is transferring the album art. I see from the MSDN that a Media Player media object has a "WM\Picture" attribute, which references a piece of album art, and I can get the album art out of iTunes, but I can't seem to figure out how to set the WM\Picture attribute.

Any clues?

How do I pass form data between pages and have it email me the results?

Elminster24 — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 23:06:52 -0800

Help me learn to code a form that passes multiple fields across several pages and ultimately emails me the results. For purposes of this question, lets say I have a website with three pages.

* Page 1 has a form with a drop-down to select what industry someone is in.

* Page 2 should list the selection that was made on page one, and possibly change some of the other form fields on the page as a result of what was selected on page one

* Page 3 summarizes all of the selections that were made and requests the submitters email address. Upon submission, all of the data is emailed in a cleanly formatted text email to sales@mydomain.com with the from address also being sales@mydomain.com. Mydomain.com is the site where this form will be located. Additionally, I would like to pass through the referrer string from Page 1 so I can see where the lead came from (for example, if they came from google this would give me the keyword and other data).

Right now I have a simple one-page form on my site and I use the free service from a site called emailmeform.com to email the form to me but there MUST be a way to just have it handled all from my site and not need a third party.

I know a decent amount of HTML/CSS to the point where I can code a nicely designed site and I'm just getting started with PHP. I'd say I know enough to do includes and have some sense of what is going on in the code with limited ability to hack it but I don't yet have an understanding of how to implement global GET and POST commands (which I have a hunch is what is involved in passing the data between pages according to the initial research I've done).

I'm eager to learn the required coding skills to be able to do this myself but I'm not quite sure where to start as there are several components to this I've identified. I would appreciate suggestions, links, guides, tutorials, and anything else that can help me figure out:

1. How to properly build the form so I can pass form field inputs between several pages during a session

2. How to properly capture the referrer string when the user submits the form on the first page to move on to the next step (I assume this would then be stored as a hidden field input)

3. How to simply set things up so I can manage the emailing of all this form data on my own. I've seen various PHP scripts out there that claim to do this but they are a bit intimidating as I'm not quite sure what is involved in making this work. Ie. could I set it to send from any email address I want or does it have to be from the same domain as the site is hosted on and do I need to do anything to email settings with the site, etc. Right now these scripts are essentially a black box to me and I want a better understanding of how they function

I figured the best approach after getting answers here would be to build a simple bare bones test site with this functionality and then try to implement it on my live site so I look forward to your answers and I am happy to clarify any of this further. Please note, I am not looking for you to code this for me...I honestly want to learn how to do everything that is involved in this as I am very much a "teach me to fish" type of person and while I don't know a ton of PHP yet, I tend to pick up fairly quickly on how to code specific things and hack snippets together even if I don't know a ton about the language.

Also, my preference for this is to keep it doable while utilizing XAMPP so that means PHP (MySQL if necessary) and CSS/html. Thanks AskMeFi!

Help Get Me Going at my New Gig

sidd.darko — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:17:28 -0800

What are your tips when starting a new job as a software developer? Looking for coding, organizational approaches and social hints as well. Happily, my way out of this situation was to find myself a new job. YAY ME !

I've read this thread but I'm hoping to find answers specific to development. I'm also going back to a language on another platform and I'd like to ramp up quickly. Any tips along these lines would also be appreciated.

Thanks Green !

Can javascript "listeners" working across frames?

jpolchlopek — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:59:57 -0800

Guerilla-coder Javascript filter: Rather than wait 12-18 months to get my project idea into my company's queue, I'm trying to find a workaround. It's going to be ugly. It's going to be messy. And I have no idea how to do it. Bottom line: My company's web portal has a top frame that I can control, and a bottom frame controlled by Web IT. Can I add an event listener to the top frame that will watch the bottom frame and excecute when it's done loading? So, I work for a major healthcare insurance company. The project queue is 12-18 months for major stuff and 9-12 months for piddly stuff. Naturally, we make exceptions for breakfixes (and for execs who have a pet project and scream alot, of course), but even simple stuff takes forever.

As an example, I put in a request a year ago to have a simple piece of javascript loaded into the web portal; it's just getting put in, this weekend.

Believe it or not, I really do like my job. It's almost become something of a game to see how much I can do with the few parts of the webpage I can control. Anyway ...

The top frame of the web portal is fully under my control, but never refreshes. As a result, I can't use addLoadEvent() or any of my usual tricks. Is there some sort of listener that can sit in the top frame and watch the bottom frame?

I can give lots more details if needed (no, this is not me going rogue; yes, I have approval to dick around in our test environments to see if this is going to work; yes I'm really trying to do something that will benefit our users). Please keep in mind my skill level is only intermediate, so I may have to do lots of research ... but I'm more than willing to do that. I just need a direction to go.

I need a crash course in the current best-practice website accessablity standards.

anastasiav — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 06:42:45 -0800

Give me a crash course in making our nonprofit website accessible. What are the best practices/standards? What's the lingo? I'm not building the site, but I have a meeting with the developers who are, today. They are doing this pro-bono for us (we're a community nonprofit with a goodly number of disabled users). Its important to our CEO that the website be accessible, but she hired me because she doesn't really understand the web.

I get the web fine, but I've never had to deal with this particular issue before. My first meeting with the developer is this afternoon. Help me talk with them about this issue and not sound like a N00b!

Professional FAIL x 2

sidd.darko — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 15:24:45 -0800

I have had two major professional failures in a single week. I would like insight into a couple of aspects. Sordid details inside. 1) I was written up by my current manager for performance and attitude issues. Without going into too much detail, I feel like I am taking a larger share of blame than is fair of the current project's direction. I feel there is some justification to some, but not all of his issues. I have been given 60 days to produce high quality code and a major improved attitude or I lose my job. This is a manager who has given me stellar reviews in the past. I do feel like the work I am doing is very good and there are certain technical aspects beyond my control that have caused problems for our project.

2) I was given an immediate interview by a former employer. The job is in a language that I don't have recent experience in, but it is an enterprise platform and I have been working with a close counterpart. I interviewed with three people and took assessment and thought I did really well. BUT they decided to pass.

I can do some aspects of interviewing very well .. but I often find the technical interviews unnerving. I sometimes have trouble articulating the structure and flow of some of my projects. I experience the occasional whiteboard fear. But I have had success and have been a valuable employee for the few companies I've worked for (including this one) throughout my career. I'm excellent at tracking down problems and finding solutions. This is starting to sound like a cover letter .. sorry.

I'm experiencing somewhat of a professional crisis. I've been a software developer for 14 years and these two events have really blown my confidence. So, I have a couple of questions.

How do I recover my confidence and from the humiliation I feel at being written up? I need to perform well enough to not lose my job when my evaluation period is over. I can do the work, but being there I find interactions with my manager to be uncomfortable.

How can I improve my technical interviewing skills? I know the technology, but I often freeze and stumble when listening to questions.

Thanks for insight.

css rollover conflict

bonsai forest — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 09:55:09 -0800

I'm having a problem with conflicting css rollovers. I read Dave Shea's tutorial on css image rollovers, and want to use these techniques on my site, but I am having a problem.

I want to use two css rollovers on one page.

One css rollover is a logo, and the code is based exactly on this example (since my shapes are not overlapping, I don't have the problem that example shows).

The second css rollover is a menu, just like the one in this example.

I have made both of these as standalone examples, and the css rollovers work perfectly with my logo, and my menu buttons.

The problem is that when I try to position the two rollovers on the same page, with the menu buttons rollovers almost directly below the logo rollovers, it goes all wonky, and the logo rollovers bring up parts of the button rollover images in odd locations, and not all of the logo rollovers work.

(the menu buttons rollover, which are below the logo, work fine).

I have a general idea of why this is occurring, but have no idea how to separate the two css rollovers so that the logo rollovers do not "see" the button rollovers.

The code really is exactly like the examples I have linked to, and again, as standalone items, they work fine for me.

Can someone advise how best to code the positioning of these two on the same page so no conflicts occur?

I tried putting the two rollover sections in their own divs, and I tried z-axis stuff, neither of these solved the problem, at least as I implemented them.

How do I get up to speed with e/m coding?

EmptyK — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 18:33:12 -0800

e/m coding: who knows about it and where can I find more information? A question from Dr. Mrs. Emptyk: A bit of a physician-centric question. Does anyone know any good, free resources to learn more about e/m coding? I just started my practice and want to make sure I'm coding appropriately; whenever I try to look this up on the internet, I've only encountered a lot of ads that request money to take a course on this. I would love to know a simple way to know who should be coded as an established level 4 exam vs. a level 3. Thanks for any help/insight.

PHP -> Twitter API at specified times: what am I Doing Wrong?

goodnewsfortheinsane — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 18:29:11 -0800

Please help me write a PHP script that publishes Twitter updates at pre-specified times. I'm working on a script that will update Twitter with reminders about upcoming shows at a music festival, building on lodev's idea here.

I've currently got this script, which calls a text file structured like in this made-up example:

XXXUPDATE SponsorCo Stage: THE BEATLES in 30 minutes XXXTIME August 21 2009 21:30 +0200 XXXDONE 0 XXXENDLINE XXXUPDATE MegaCorp Stage: ROLLING STONES in 30 minutes XXXTIME August 21 2009 22:45 +0200 XXXDONE 0 XXXENDLINE

Proprietary format, I know. :) There are six Twitter accounts right now for separate concert stages, more may follow.

All six separate scripts are called from a Ruby file via pycron, every minute. I understand that's plenty often and I don't really need that kind of temporal resolution, but it uses relatively few processor cycles so I'm not really complaining.

As you can see in the PHP code:

if (($now <= ($utime + 30)) && ($now >= ($utime - 29))) {

if ($update[3] !== 1) {

When an update is ready for publication it should, theoretically at least, satisfy the first "if" statement and be published. The second "if" checks a "done" flag in the text file which I have as of yet not used (i.e. they're all set to 0 and the current code doesn't amend them).

Now, I "stress-tested" this with some test updates on all six accounts, including many simultaneous ones (carrying the same timestamp) on the different accounts for ten minutes with six (one for each account) every minute, and out of maybe a hundred-something tweets (I ran multiple iterations of the test) only one was dropped, i.e. it was in the text file but was not published.

Even one dropped update is unacceptable to me, and I strongly suspect I am Doing It Wrong. But how? The problem basically boils down to the following question:

What better method would there be to push out the updates reliably using the server config I currently have (XP, Apache, PHP5, Ruby, pycron), very preferably without using databases?

When it comes to scripting I really only speak PHP and a little JavaScript: even the (very basic) Ruby script was kindly provided to me for a different project.

So there's just too little time before the event to learn a new language or start out with MySQL or whatever before the event, and I'm not really eager to change to different software or change my server configuration (or set up another box) just for one-off project that will last just a few days. This is just to say that it's not due to an unwillingness on my part, but rather due to practical considerations.

If anyone could offer their insights I would be ever so grateful. Thanks in advance, guys.

How can I update a textbox in a slide object in the middle of a loop in E-Prime?

scrutiny — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 16:34:37 -0800

Computer Coding: I'm trying to write an experiment in E-Prime that uses a Visual Analog Scale to allow subjects to bid on items. Basically, this means they move a slider with their mouse over a bar, and the position on the bar represents how much they are willing to bid. The thing is, they need to know what value the slider currently represents before they can actually bid, and I'm having problems getting the text to update with the cursor position. Now, if any of you out there are E-Prime gurus I could really use your help for this bit. I need to figure out how to update a textbox in a 'slide' object in the middle of a loop. I've also posted this question on the E-Prime forum and was basically met with crickets. I'm a decent (not great at all) programmer in some other languages so I've been picking this stuff up pretty fast, but I'm under a pretty tight deadline right now.

There's an example of the code available for download on the forum post, but I think you have to sign up to get it. If you use E-Prime and aren't on the forum, feel free to MeMail me and I'll send you a copy of the code.

Looking for a multi-site searching template

peacay — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 22:36:05 -0800

I want to find a fairly easy-to-adapt template from which to do multiple site searching with a single term. My technical abilities are, let's say, modest. I sometimes need to search multiple art gallery/library/museum sites with the same term. I have a folder of about 20 links to the search pages for most of the major repositories - like NYPL, the Louvre, Met Museum, British Museum etc etc - and I normally go through each of them sequentially, when I need to do a blanket search, which is kind of time consuming.

I'm wondering if it's feasible to set up a *simple* html page locally that has a search box from which a single term can be searched from all these sites simultaneously and the extracted images/info compiled into a single results page? {It may be that this is best split between a couple/few html files so I'm not potentially loading 2000 images from 100 results each from the 20 repositories. Trial and error on this I s'pose.}

I have dorked around a bit with blogger templates and css and am moderately familiar with most markup. I haven't built anything really from scratch and I could probably recognise a few coding languages on a good day; but I certainly couldn't apply or modify them without help/copying. With that in mind, I would be happy to receive any tips or advice as to how this might be done (and indeed please tell me if it sounds a bit beyond my limited-ish capabilities).

I presume that a suitable template will be easy to find and copy, yeah?? And the adapting of it: will that be fairly reasonable?? We are not talking pretty: I just want something functional. {I guess one of the important issues will be identifying and compiling the correct search strings for each site hmm?}

Which forums do the best web programmers hang out at?

jackson5 — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:15:45 -0800

Which forums do the best web programmers hang out at? Long story short: I've got a web site that already does over 1 million pageviews per month. I've got a great idea to take it to the next level, but I'm looking for someone who can handle the coding and technical aspects in exchange for an equity stake.

I'm wanting to bring aboard a great programmer who doesn't necessarily need the work but will be motivated by the equity.

Which forums would you recommend I post on to find this person?

Also, if there's anyone interested here, let me know.

How to update wordpress from outside the admin interface

Nonce — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 08:45:21 -0800

Wordpress filter: I want to be able to create a form that can be used to add custom values to a certain post without having to do so from inside the admin panel. I'd also like to be able to create a form that can be used to create an entirely new post, or edit the contents of an existing post.

Sample code to work from would be excellent. Directly pointing to resources that explain the inner workings of Wordpress may be less excellent, as I have only a rudimentary grasp of basic PHP and would likely be over my head.

if ($an_answer != '') echo "thanks."

Turning An Idea Into Reality When I Can't Build It Myself

Anonymous — Thu, 28 May 2009 18:58:00 -0800

I want to create the next big thing. I'm full of bright ideas, but it's software, and I don't code. What the hell do I do? I have a pretty firm handle on how this thing should behave, what it should be able to do, and the hundreds of ways it would improve the current state of the industry segment it's aimed at. But bright ideas are one thing: being able to build the goddamned thing is another.

I can't be the first person who's had a bright idea and/or vision and not been able to implement it themselves: what do I do next? How do I even begin to approach this?

Obviously, I could teach myself to code. There are plenty of reasons for and against this, but let's assume that me learning to code is, for the purposes of this question, not an option.

I've got about twelve years of industry work under my belt, and I've been an early employee as companies go from 10 employees to hundreds a bunch of times, but I've never been a founder and I've never been in a position where I can't make what I'm envisioning.

How do I get this out of my head and into the real world, when I can't create it myself?

Recently Unemployed. What to do?

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 14:31:36 -0800

Recently Unemployed. What to do? Like so many others, I was recently involuntarily let go from my job.

Of course, I'm looking for a new job. That's not all. I have a few ideas of things I want to do, learn, or skills I want to improve upon while unemployed. I thought it's best to take advantage of the time I don't have while normally working. Here are some of my ideas and a problem I have.

1. My field of work is in IT. I'm pursuing finding another IT job. I want to improve these skills while I'm out of work.

2. I want to learn to code web pages and eventually learn the back-end stuff such as incorporating databases and search engine optimization (what else should I be trying to learn?)

3. I also want to read more books, but I have trouble finishing a book in a short enough time span for me to stick with it. I get bored, bail and start a new book and repeat this cycle (how do I learn to read faster with better retention?).

4. I want to be a better photographer (with the camera and with Photoshop.)

5. Devote more time to exercise and fitness.

6. Get some volunteer hours in.

These are the key things I would like to learn or improve upon. They are all hampered by one thing: I have a severe lack of organizational skills. I have trouble prioritizing tasks and making good use of time. My productivity is at an all time low. I have trouble organizing things and keeping the house straight--coming home every night to a house that's still the mess I created the day before is starting to get on my SO's nerves. My SO is very tolerant of (and even creates some) piles of books, CDs, magazines, mail, etc., but this has gone way beyond that--it's even making me feel nervous and overwhelmed when I see these issues at play (or look at the dining room table piled high with stuff that doesn't belong there.) I think that at one point in my life I was able to at least keep things organized and keep a tidy house. Time and task management has almost always been something of a problem. Now that I have more time on my hands than I've had in years, it seems that my organizational skills have tanked and are worse off than ever. At first glance this seems to defy logic.

What do I do? How do I start to affect change immediately? How do I get organized and get on to what I want to do and learn, in addition to everyday responsibilities? How do I reclaim what I believe I once had? How did you handle it when you were in a similar position? What advice, links, reading material, tools, and techniques can you suggest that will empower me to make change now? Do you have advice specific to my list that will help me get going on these goals?

Thanks all.

If you needed, you can email me at: what.to.do.while.unemployed@gmail.com

Regex Help for Adding +14 to a Series

pinto — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:47:47 -0800

I'm trying to use Regular Expressions in Textmate to do a Find/Replace. The goal: Find id="1", id="2", id="3", etc. and Replace with a value of +14, so that I replace yields id="15", id="16", id="17" etc. Thank you! I don't mind doing the Finds/Replaces one at a time, so I'm not worried about greedy/reluctant, whatever. I just want a bit of an easier way to add +14 to a value.

So far I've been able to Find using id="*[0-9], but no luck for the Replace. Thanks mucho for any help!

How can I embed images directly in an HTML email blast?

Elminster24 — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 17:56:50 -0800

I need to send an email blast for work through a list vendor and need help converting my original HTML email blast into an embedded HTML file. I normally use ConstantContact for my email blasts and have successfully coded many HTML emails using it.

I now have the opportunity to send my email blast to a rented email list and they do not offer image hosting and instead asked for just an HTML file.

I don't want to host the images, and I've read that there are benefits to directly embedding the images versus linking to hosted images, namely that having images disabled does not affect those that are directly embedded.

I know in Outlook when I create an email and embed an image and save that email as an HTML file, it embeds the image into it and it works great for this purpose. Unfortunately, Outlook has some of the crappiest HTML capabilities ever (whoever at MS thought it would be smart to use Word's rendering engine should be shot) which makes it incredibly difficult to get the email looking the way I want it to.

How can I go about directly embedding the images within the HTML itself in a manner similar to how Outlook does it so that I can just provide the list vendor with a single HTML file that does not need to link to external images?

I want to help the Fox and the Bird

photomusic86 — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 22:19:17 -0800

What do i need to learn to make add-ons of my own for Firefox and/or Songbird? I'm interested in using my computer skills to improve my favorite open source programs. Unfortunately, I don't know a damn thing about coding, programing, writing lines, terminal, etc. I need to know, where's a good place to start?
I run a Mac OSX 10.5 on an early 2008 MacBook Pro, if you have something system specific. Thanks Hive!

Redisassembleunobfuscate?

tmcw — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 16:56:52 -0800

Why aren't there assembly -> C or pseudocode tools? So, for my last lap in college, I'm doing the dreaded binary bomb project, which is actually kind of cool. I'm almost done (5/6), and hopefully should be able to finish soon.

But anyway, looking all this GAS, I'm wondering why there isn't a tool that generates equivalent C or C++ code... it seems absurdly simple in some respects to simply generate one of the many possibilities of C that can yield a given assembly procedure, but I must be missing something?

There has to be someone who wants to work with me!

Jonsnews — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:32:18 -0800

How can I meet another passionate person to help me with a project? I have been working on a project (an online game) for some months. I have a lot of content/design/mechanic stuff done, and I am working on learning RoR so that I can code it, but I would really like to find someone to work along side of to bounce ideas off of, and to help with the coding.
I know I could rent-a-coder, but I would much rather find someone who would like to collaborate with me and build this into something.

I don't live in an area with any tech population to speak of, so just finding someone who has similar interests to me is hard enough, let alone someone who has similar interests, is motivated, and can code.

Closest thing to coding that isn't

Not Supplied — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 11:45:00 -0800

What uses similar skills to computer programming, and is enjoyable in the same way, but does not involve excessive computer use? I feel that in many ways computer programming would be the ideal serious pastime for me, and could lead to me selling my own products. However, training from a young age to be a guitarist, then falling into computer admin work and internet addiction led to RSI. I'm totally 'cured' from it - My body is much better than ever and I know how to work relatively safely.

However, I just can't deal with the idea of being on a computer so much of the time. I've gone too far down the path of posture and physical health not to feel an instinctive recoiling from the machine when I've been on it too long. It's a compromise I just can't make, however interested I am in programming. And I just know that whatever good intentions I set out with, I would end up pulling an all nighter once I became obsessed with a project. Some computer use, say 2 hours at most a day would be fine.

What else would use similar skills and push similar buttons?

I feel that I have the right combination of creativity and problem solving and like the fact that you can bring in many types of skills, I like being able to have complete control of a project and realise my vision, I like the fact that I can make things that matter in the real world. I like that if you put in the hours you will get results, even if it's just improving your knowledge and skills.

I thought of product design/invention, as I have good ideas for products. However, this is a bit hit and miss as products might not get realised. Also, you may have to rely on other people and manage relationships a lot in order to get stuff done, which is a minus.

I don't feel the creative arts would work, as I want something a bit more practical, that could maybe be a real product or service.

Something like designing retro machines that run on steam would not really as it is not 'cutting edge'. It doesn't matter in the same way.

These ideas make it sound like it’s all about design, but I would consider any type of field really.

Hope that explains it! Thanks in advance.