To possess knowledge is to know it oneself; one may otherwise possess knowledge by knowing where to find information on it. Here we discuss those articles of knowledge of particular importance, in the hopes that our findings may in some small way be of service to our peers with whom we strive toward a common goal.
August 7th, 2010
In this article, we discuss using PHP and ImageMagick to generate thumbnails from a given PDF, storing them in a temporary (or “cache”) directory, and serving them up to the web. (more…)
June 15th, 2010
The specification for HTML5 has a lot of new and exciting features, blurring the line between desktop and cloud applications. This article strives to describe some of these new features, and provide sample usage of each. (more…)
June 9th, 2010
On July 1st, 2010, the Federal Government is introducing the concept of a Harmonized Sales Tax (or HST), which replaces the familiar PST + GST system, in Ontario and BC. (more…)
February 18th, 2010
On one of our recent projects, the client requested an image-rotator to display catalog images on their Magento eCommerce site. Since we wanted a simple-to-update solution, after some diligent searching, we came across a fairly obvious one. This article will discuss how to add an image rotator to a Magento eCommerce store.
February 10th, 2010
Embedding fonts; the holy grail of web designers.
Microsoft, since 1997, has enabled web designers to embed fonts in websites, with some caveats. First, the utility they provide to convert .ttf files to .eot, is dated to function in Windows 98. Fast forward 13 years, I have been unable to get this tool to not crash in Windows 7. Second, this utility seems to want to connect to an IIS server (which is useful for about one-quarter of websites).
For Firefox, Safari, Chrome, and Opera, .eot files are not required, and web developers may instead utilize the standard .ttf file format … except CSS rules involving .ttf files don’t work in Internet Explorer!
Fortunately, with some craftiness, it is possible to solve both these problems, as explained below.
December 21st, 2009
New technology typically is met with mixed emotions and conflicting, often polar, opinions. This is definitely in the realm of HTML version 5′s new Canvas element, which threatens to open a wide variety of Pandora boxen for all to enjoy. (more…)
November 24th, 2009
What is Adobe Version Cue?
Quite simply, Adobe Version Cue (along with its partner-in-crime, Adobe Drive) is a different method of managing your CS-created files. Version Cue enables the Project Manager, Graphic Designer, Web Developer, and Web Designer to coexist in the same project workspace.
One of the challenges of working with others (and indeed, even when flying solo) is the difficulty of managing projects, and files within projects. How many different versions of folders, PSDs, CSSs, etc, from the same project do you have stored on your desktop or laptop? I’m willing to bet your answer is somewhere north of “just one”!
