I encountered a few really good discussions relating to PHP - its pitfalls, caveats, and advantages. Here’s some worthwhile reading if you’re looking for arguments to switch from, stick with, or support PHP:

http://maurus.net/work/php-sucks/
http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/?p=1429
http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2006/02/17/PHP

When it comes to image replacement, I tend to use the Phark method; I won’t go into the reasoning behind my preference, but if one were interested in the various methods, etc. I would recommend Dave Shea’s Revised Image Replacement article. Unfortunately one of the pitfalls of the Phark method is the fact that […]

Three days ago (April 11) Microsoft released an Internet Explorer update in response to the patent battle between Microsoft and Eolas. After installing the update, Internet Explorer (not other browsers, fortunately) users will be required to “activate” embedded objects and plug-ins before they can interact with them. Here’s what sucks, most users will receive this […]

In Optimizing Flash Buttons (Part 1) and (Part 2) I talked about improving the efficiency of creating movieclip buttons; although the methods/approaches discussed therein are valuable (but that’s for you to decide), sometimes a more powerful or abstract solution is required. In the text that follows I’ll dissect a class that I’ve created that […]

Whenever I produce I website I am always thankful for the Firefox Web Developer Toolbar extension; it’s an incredible convenience. One particular feature that I use constantly is “Outline”. This feature is great for seeing the locations of various elements on any page. But I’ve always wished that there was an equivalent feature/extension for […]

Last week I shared the method I use to optimize (movieclip) buttons within Flash. Now, I’m going to take it one step further, by putting the following on the first frame of the topmost layer:
_global.path = “/index.php”;
_global.pg_1 = _global.path + “?id=1″;

function eventListener(my_mc, mcInstance){
my_mc.onRollOver = function(){
this.gotoAndPlay(”over”);
}
my_mc.onRollOut = function(){
this.gotoAndPlay(”out”);
}
my_mc.onRelease = function(){
getPage(mcInstance);
}
}

function getPage(mcInstance){
var newPage = _global[”pg_” + […]

Every now and then I’ll design a web site for a client that incorporates a multi-column list. Typically this list is on the homepage, so we would create a module that would allow the client/user to enter in values in a textfield and then a server-side language would render the page upon request. […]

I recently formatted my PC - because it had begun to take forever to boot up. There have been instances where I would, literally, wait two minutes just to get to the desktop. I figured that the cause of my problem was possibly due to my system registry being packed with ancient entries, […]

In the past, whenever I needed buttons within Flash (whether movieclip or actual button instances) I would select the instance (_mc_opt01) on the stage open up the Actions panel and paste in the following code:
on(rollOver){
_root._mc_opt01.gotoAndPlay(”rollover”);
}
on(rollOut){
_root._mc_opt01.gotoAndPlay(”rollout”);
}
on(release){
getURL(”mypage.php”);
}
Being one who likes to modularize, I decided to try and modify my code/approach and make it more portable and easier […]

I don’t know how many people have had this particular problem, but I know I’m not the only one. Two weeks ago I encountered a strange issue when using session_start() with PHP; the method call was not setting/creating a cookie, so I couldn’t access my session variables. I went to php.net and found […]