March 2009
Recent posts
My 5 most recent posts (currently showing on the Home page) are:
- Convert escaped Unicode to HTML entities
- “Adequacy is sufficient” – but it’s never going to make you proud
- Does Facebook prove that bad usability and sparse documentation don’t matter?
- Scan for available IP addresses
- Rails Chronicles – Part 2
The 20 next most recent posts are:
- Archived post summaries - 28 June 2011
Prevent Skype hogging port 80 This is a little reminder for me for next time I try to start up Apache Web server in my XAMPP control panel and it just won't start. The problem in usually that I've got Skype ... - How to: Get a white screen - 28 June 2011
Firstly, why would you want to blank your computer screen? Answer: If you take screenshots of windows with the Windows Aero theme (i.e. semi-transparent window chrome) then it’s a good idea to always use a plain white background to avoid the ... - My first (useful) Ruby program - 25 June 2011
Summary: Batch convert files with names like 25_06_2011 21_30.wav to names like 2011-06-25_2130_Saturday.wav. I have a load of files with date/time-based file names in the format dd_mm_yyyy hh_mm.wav. I’d prefer these files to have a format that allowed them to ... - Rails Chronicles – Part 1 - 19 June 2011
Before you read any further: The purpose of this post is to capture how I went about learning how to create Web apps using Rails. I thought it might be interesting to look back in a few months and see ... - Prevent Skype hogging port 80 - 3 June 2011
This is a little reminder for me for next time this happens. I create a lot of PHP/MySQL stuff, mainly for database-driven Web pages. XAMPP is brilliant for this because it allows me to write/test stuff locally on my laptop. ... - It’s got to be fun - 15 May 2011
I haven’t posted to this blog since December 2nd last year. I’ve toyed with the idea of blogging several times since then but never actually got around to it. Why not? Well, I wasn’t exactly sure. I could just never ... - Archives - 7 December 2010
... - [HOME PAGE] - 5 December 2010
LATEST Convert escaped Unicode to HTML entities I’m posting this here just because I spent far too long looking for the solution before eventually finding the answer on Stackoverflow. The problem (in short): Data that I ... - Adding your choice of text editor to Flare’s Open With menu - 2 December 2010
Madcap Flare has a pretty good built-in text editor for editing topic files in text-only format. I use this all the time. But sometimes it’s handy to be able to open a topic file in an external editor of your ... - The guilt and paranoia of the remote worker - 27 November 2010
It’s thick snow in my part of Edinburgh this morning. I just took the dog for a walk over the golf course – an exciting treat for her as she only ever gets to do that when it’s snowy – ... - Viewing dynamically generated HTML in the HTML Help viewer - 22 November 2010
This is something I’ve blogged about twice before (in March 2004 and in January 2009), but going back to those topics just now neither of the solutions I gave at that time are working for me. So here’s the way ... - Fix “No topics found” issue in CHM output - 21 November 2010
A recurring problem with generating Microsoft HTML Help output is that, if you don’t have the correct DLLs registered, then you can encounter issues. A common issue is not getting any search results. You open the CHM file, click the ... - Watch out for PHP shorthand - 20 November 2010
Coders of a certain persuasion love shorthand: where two or three characters can work the same magic as six or seven characters. This frame of mind has a venerable history in UNIX programming (and before) where commands, tools and programs ... - Online JavaScript scratchpads - 20 November 2010
Writing JavaScript used to be a tricky and tedious business. Now, with Dojo, script.aculo.us and particularly jQuery it’s easy - and even fun - to write JavaScript. And if, like me, you’re an occasional JavaScript coder, and your skills are ... - Use the existence of a file on the server to determine Javascript behaviour in the browser - 19 November 2010
Rewritten post: Thanks to Janet Swisher for helping me avoid misleading folks with this. In this post I describe how (with the help of jQuery’s $.ajax() function) to use the existence of a file on the server as a switch to ... - Madcap Flare tip – given key error - 18 November 2010
If you’re checking in several files in Madcap Flare (e.g. File > Source Control > Project > Check In All) and you get the error: The given key was not present in the dictionary. Then try checking files in individually, or in ... - Possibly the most useless error message ever - 9 November 2010
I just clicked on a link to a PDF in a Web page (using Firefox 3.6) and up popped the following: It’s kind of alarming when you’re being asked to OK an ... - Transfer your PuTTY settings between computers - 31 October 2010
How To: Transfer your PuTTY settings between computers. ... - 5 cool Notepad++ tricks - 31 October 2010
Notepad++ (that's NotepadPlusPlus) is my text editor of choice. Igor Ljubuncic's article 5 cool Notepad++ tricks gives you some reasons why you might want to switch from plain old Notepad. Also it's free. ... - YOURLS: Your Own URL Shortener - 24 October 2010
Shorteners in brief If you use twitter you'll be familiar with the concept of URL shortening. You want to tweet about that video where the dog thinks its own leg is trying to steal the bone but you've only got 140 ...
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