alexking.org » Blog http://alexking.org Alex King, Denver Web Developer Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:48:20 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Five-Year-Old Girl Provides Insight on Popular Logos http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/01/31/a-5-year-old-girls-insight-on-popular-logos/ http://alexking.org/blog/2012/02/02/five-year-old-girl-provides-insight-on-popular-logos#comments Fri, 03 Feb 2012 04:40:16 +0000 Alex http://pinboard-82bed7d95d54886d6ab3140706c3167a #

]]> Very interesting to hear. (thanks NextDraft)

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]]> http://alexking.org/blog/2012/02/02/five-year-old-girl-provides-insight-on-popular-logos/feed 0 Team meeting to kick off our SVN to Git migration…. http://alexking.org/blog/2012/02/02/12519 http://alexking.org/blog/2012/02/02/12519#comments Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:55:48 +0000 Alex http://alexking.org/?p=12519 Team meeting to kick off our SVN to Git migration. With ice cream, of course. ]]>

Team meeting to kick off our SVN to Git migration. With ice cream, of course.

]]> http://alexking.org/blog/2012/02/02/12519/feed 4 http_build_query() Separator Tip http://alexking.org/blog/2012/02/02/http_build_query-separator-tip http://alexking.org/blog/2012/02/02/http_build_query-separator-tip#comments Thu, 02 Feb 2012 20:46:04 +0000 Alex http://alexking.org/?p=12505 I ran into an interesting “bug” in Twitter Tools last night that I traced back to http_build_query(). I expected that the query strings generated by this function used & as a separator for the key=value pairs, but on one of our test servers, the separator being used was &. This is a php.ini config setting, so my expectation was clearly based on false assumptions. If you want to make sure that you get a & separator, you can pass it in as the 3rd parameter.

You’ll find this is particularly important if you’re making requests for remote data from within WordPress via wp_remote_get() or similar technique. If you are working on something that is run within WordPress, you can look at using add_query_arg() as an alternative to this as well.

]]> http://alexking.org/blog/2012/02/02/http_build_query-separator-tip/feed 3 When the Internet connection goes down at midnight… http://alexking.org/blog/2012/02/02/12508 http://alexking.org/blog/2012/02/02/12508#comments Thu, 02 Feb 2012 07:07:19 +0000 Alex http://alexking.org/?p=12508 When the Internet connection goes down at midnight, I read that as “go to bed and push your commits in the morning”. ]]>

When the Internet connection goes down at midnight, I read that as “go to bed and push your commits in the morning”.

]]> http://alexking.org/blog/2012/02/02/12508/feed 2 “Daddy, I got out of bed!” And so it begins… http://alexking.org/blog/2012/02/01/12501 http://alexking.org/blog/2012/02/01/12501#comments Thu, 02 Feb 2012 05:23:16 +0000 Alex http://alexking.org/?p=12501 “Daddy, I got out of bed!” And so it begins… ]]>

“Daddy, I got out of bed!” And so it begins…

]]> http://alexking.org/blog/2012/02/01/12501/feed 4 Responsive Images: How they Almost Worked and What We Need http://www.alistapart.com/articles/responsive-images-how-they-almost-worked-and-what-we-need/ http://alexking.org/blog/2012/02/01/responsive-images-how-they-almost-worked-and-what-we-need#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2012 07:24:59 +0000 Alex http://pinboard-c72bee30757f0d1f2e3e9a83c8a09176 #

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While we were working on the new Boston Globe website, we devised a technique to mitigate the size of requests for users that may have limited bandwidth. Before I describe it here, I should really warn you up front: it broke. But we planned for that.

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]]> http://alexking.org/blog/2012/02/01/responsive-images-how-they-almost-worked-and-what-we-need/feed 0 Pushing the problems around http://baus.net/pushing-the-problems-around http://alexking.org/blog/2012/01/31/pushing-the-problems-around#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2012 06:25:04 +0000 Alex http://pinboard-42a1dee642a2a3e5822f63d400a4b060 #

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There is currently no easy way to determine where the canonical data in a complex system resides and how it is updated, and my bet is we will see a new set of tools and languages evolve to create abstractions which will make it possible for mere mortal programmers like myself to get these architectures right.

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]]> http://alexking.org/blog/2012/01/31/pushing-the-problems-around/feed 0 This feels like one of those Good Ideas… going w… http://alexking.org/blog/2012/01/30/12488 http://alexking.org/blog/2012/01/30/12488#comments Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:11:39 +0000 Alex http://alexking.org/?p=12488 This feels like one of those Good Ideas… going with it. ]]>

This feels like one of those Good Ideas… going with it.

]]> http://alexking.org/blog/2012/01/30/12488/feed 0 I think one of us does not fully grasp the rules o… http://alexking.org/blog/2012/01/30/12484 http://alexking.org/blog/2012/01/30/12484#comments Tue, 31 Jan 2012 02:40:45 +0000 Alex http://alexking.org/?p=12484 I think one of us does not fully grasp the rules of Simon Says. ]]>

I think one of us does not fully grasp the rules of Simon Says.

]]> http://alexking.org/blog/2012/01/30/12484/feed 2 The Five Stages of Hosting http://blog.pinboard.in/2012/01/the_five_stages_of_hosting/ http://alexking.org/blog/2012/01/29/the-five-stages-of-hosting#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 05:40:08 +0000 Alex http://pinboard-6c4df56d351ad330d1678253e34dd7e2 #

]]> Summary: there is no silver bullet.

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]]> http://alexking.org/blog/2012/01/29/the-five-stages-of-hosting/feed 0 Follow-up to Michael Wolfe on Estimates http://laughingmeme.org/2012/01/28/they-can-even-stop-when-they-have-a-map-that-is-just-good-enough/ http://alexking.org/blog/2012/01/29/they-can-even-stop-when-they-have-a-map-that-is-just-good-enough#comments Sun, 29 Jan 2012 23:47:46 +0000 Alex http://pinboard-c0b5bc4cff061c7954e66bfb3d3068bf #

]]> Kellan points out a great follow-up to the previously linked Michael Wolfe piece. While the Wolfe piece is extremely entertaining, it’s also very true that there are smart ways to approach planning for software development. The value of experience cannot be overstated in these situations.

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]]> http://alexking.org/blog/2012/01/29/they-can-even-stop-when-they-have-a-map-that-is-just-good-enough/feed 0 28-Days Before You Can Even *Think* About Renting A Movie http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/parislemon/~3/GpW2TXgMzf0/16649406686 http://alexking.org/blog/2012/01/29/a-28-day-window-before-you-can-even-think-about-renting-a-movie#comments Sun, 29 Jan 2012 23:44:05 +0000 Alex http://pinboard-4125f5a333fb64cac642504d76ba3c79 #

]]> I don’t understand why the studios seem so intent on driving people to pirate movies. The experience (warnings about piracy, trailers, etc.) with a legitimate DVD or Blu-Ray is already awful and it seems they are trying to make it worse.

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]]> http://alexking.org/blog/2012/01/29/a-28-day-window-before-you-can-even-think-about-renting-a-movie/feed 0 Michael Tsai on Mac App Restrictions http://mjtsai.com/blog/2012/01/25/pdfpen-and-icloud/ http://alexking.org/blog/2012/01/28/michael-tsai-on-mac-app-restrictions#comments Sun, 29 Jan 2012 00:21:27 +0000 Alex http://pinboard-82a5225533214e53855a03f56955a2f6 #

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It’s no longer possible to write a single app that takes advantage of the full range of Mac OS X features. Some APIs only work inside the Mac App Store. Others only work outside it. Presumably, this gap will widen as more new features are App Store–exclusive, while sandboxing places greater restrictions on what App Store apps are allowed to do.

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]]> http://alexking.org/blog/2012/01/28/michael-tsai-on-mac-app-restrictions/feed 0 Michael Wolfe on Software Estimates http://www.quora.com/Why-are-software-development-task-estimations-regularly-off-by-a-factor-of-2-3/answer/Michael-Wolfe?srid=kw http://alexking.org/blog/2012/01/27/michael-wolfe-on-software-estimates#comments Sat, 28 Jan 2012 04:13:18 +0000 Alex http://pinboard-05bb2943e6975ba7eeba99d36f467c1b #

]]> A must-read. (thanks Sean)

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]]> http://alexking.org/blog/2012/01/27/michael-wolfe-on-software-estimates/feed 2 Arguing on the Internet http://www.shoeboxblog.com/?p=29204 http://alexking.org/blog/2012/01/27/i-still-dont-understand-why-you-spend-so-much-time-arguing-online#comments Sat, 28 Jan 2012 04:09:35 +0000 Alex http://pinboard-56f3a110bfb910b94e844106eda4c6c8 #

]]> All variations of this are great.

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]]> http://alexking.org/blog/2012/01/27/i-still-dont-understand-why-you-spend-so-much-time-arguing-online/feed 0