Site Under Construction
Hi and thanks for visiting! I’m currently working on redeveloping the site and moving the blogging platform from Posterous (closing 30th April) to Tumblr.If you need access to the old site, please...
View Article30 Days
1st of the month is a great time to start a 30 day challenge, but don’t let that prevent you starting right away if it’s not the 1st of the month!I’ve recently been redesigning my website (disclaimer:...
View ArticleLarge Background Images
I’m really liking the look of sites with large background images, especially those that fade in, and wanted to try the effect for myself. My first concerns were for the impact on the page load, making...
View ArticleLessons Learned
It’s been just over a year since I started STFIFTEEN. A year as a self employed PHP and MySQL Software Developer and a year without the security of a guaranteed pay cheque. Lets be clear, it’s been...
View ArticleCross-site font loading
I’ve been struggling recently to get a custom font to appear on my blog. All was well in Chrome, but IE and Firefox just wouldn’t display the font. It turns out that these browsers don’t allow...
View ArticleMySQL: Importing Data
I’ve recently been importing large datasets in MySQL and been cringing at the amount of time the inserts are taking using the standard INSERT notation. That’s when I discovered:LOAD DATA INFILE...
View ArticleTumblr Support
Just sent my first support request in to Tumblr, intrigued to see the response time.
View ArticleFantastic Tumblr Support
It’s worth noting, my Tumblr support request was answered, with a response that solved my problem, within approximately 20 mins …… awesome support
View ArticleMySQL stored procedures running slow
We’ve been experiencing some speed issues on a MySQL database at a client site. The database holds in excess of 27 million rows and grows by the day.The strange thing is I’ve noticed a huge speed...
View ArticleStored Procedures
I recently asked the question regarding speed differences between MySQL stored procedures and straight SQL, I think I may have found the answer on StackOverflow.For those wanting a quick answer, I have...
View ArticleA first steps cheat sheet from Google for friends & family
A first steps cheat sheet from Google for friends & family
View ArticleIdentity at Mozilla: we're changing our privacy policy
Identity at Mozilla: we're changing our privacy policy: mozidentity:“We’re changing our privacy policy…” Does that sentence fill you with dread? Most of the time, unfortunately, it should. Too many web...
View ArticleMozilla Persona
I have recently implemented Mozilla Persona on a product that is still in development. I followed the excellent documentation from Mozilla. I did have a couple of hiccups along the way, so I hope this...
View Article5 Common Usability Mistakes and Solutions For Avoiding Them
5 Common Usability Mistakes and Solutions For Avoiding Them
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Programming Lessons
Great post about lessons learned from years of programming: http://siavoshb.tumblr.com/post/47005180661/14-lessons-after-five-years-of-professional-programming
View ArticleFrom Novice to Ninja...
…whilst blindfolded, one handed and talking to your boss:hackertyper.com
View ArticleMySQL ON DUPLICATE KEY
Often in our code we want to check for the existence of a row in the database. If that row doesn’t exist, then we INSERT the row, otherwise we update some field values. This can be an expensive...
View ArticleWhat is MVC?
This post is to explain the concept of MVC, why it’s important and to help novice developers to appreciate why MVC can help when coding larger projects.I often state that telling someone the answer to...
View ArticleMVC - Introducing Models
Following on from the previous post on “What is MVC?”, we should have separation of Controller code from View code, using Smarty. Now, if the designer needs to make a front end change, or the developer...
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