Archive for April, 2008
Caught Hacking (20 years ago)
Wednesday, April 16th, 2008
Me on my first computer IBM/AT (1987)
Sanitize Your Data Inputs (Comic)
Monday, April 14th, 2008
Design Coding Rap (Video)
Friday, April 11th, 2008Dilbert Comic Of The Year
Thursday, April 10th, 2008
Keep Your Google Search Appliance Synced
Wednesday, April 9th, 2008There have been a lot of people asking how they can keep their GSA synced. Here is quick, simple, and easily configurable solution that should help. Set this up as a CRON job and you’re done.
Requires: PHP, cURL
<?php
/**
* @author Chris Williams ctwilliams[at]gmail[dot]com
* @version 0.0.1
* @example php gsa-sync.php
*/
define(‘GSA_PATH’, ‘http://gsa.xyz.com:8000′); // Replace ‘http://…’ with your gsa host and port
define(‘GSA_USERNAME’, ‘user’); // Replace ‘user’ with your username
define(‘GSA_PASSWORD’, ’secret’); // Replace ‘password’ with your password
/** Define DB collections */
$dbSources = array(‘dbcollection1′, ‘dbcollection2′);
/** Go to log in prompt */
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, GSA_PATH . ‘/EnterpriseController’);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR, dirname(__FILE__).‘/cookie.txt’);
curl_exec($ch);
/** Authenticate */
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, GSA_PATH . ‘/EnterpriseController’);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS,‘actionType=authenticateUser&userName=’ . GSA_USERNAME . ‘&password=’ . GSA_PASSWORD);
curl_exec($ch);
/** Loop through and trigger db sync for each collection in $dbSources */
if(is_array($dbSources)) {
foreach($dbSources as $source) {
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, GSA_PATH . ‘/EnterpriseController?actionType=syncDatabase&entryName=’ . $source);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, false);
curl_exec($ch);
}
}
/** Close cURL connection */
curl_close($ch);
?>
Feedback and suggestions are appreciated… Enjoy!
Worst in Print (Web Design)
Tuesday, April 8th, 2008First off let me begin by saying I have not read this book. However by first impression why would anyone want to?

Seriously… what is that on the cover? A Microsoft FrontPage disc?
Side note: While taking this picture at Barnes & Noble - one of their excellent employees didn’t like me taking a snapshot but offered to ring me up or provide me with more information about this book. Tempting!
Web Design Using Clean CSS/XHTML
Tuesday, April 1st, 2008After watching a few seminars from last years Web Design World 2007 in Seattle I was very impressed after watching Interface Design and CSS Workshop presented by Cameron Mall. Last month I began development on a new site. With one month of development time allocated for coding, design, and image slicing, there wasn’t any time to sit around. I wasn’t too worried about coding but I design had never been my primary focus at work. Since this project required intensive design work that was both cross-browser compatible and 508 compliant. Allowing users to view a site at a wide range of screen resolution, font sizes, web browsers, and color-depths the solid CSS is a must. I expressed ordered to design books to serve as a reference through development and design. Immediately after the books arrived I got hooked. I sat down and read cover-to-cover of both books within a week. The organization of these books and information presented proved to be an invaluable resource in the construction of my latest project. I would highly recommend professional web developers / designers, freelancers, and hobbyists alike to pick up a copy of both of these books.


