Illumination from the residents of Firefall, LLC
Just a quick note, if you’re ever looking to remove the automatically generated quotes from a <q> (quote) tag, all you need to do is use a little CSS to unstyle it.
q:before,
q:after {
content: "";
}
IE doesn’t understand this, but it doesn’t automatically make the quotes anyway. For more information see this article.
… the LiveCD is on a DVD, the DVD drive won’t show, burn to CD-R twice (the first blank fails), boot from CD, USB devices don’t show, reboot, add PS2 devices, only the PS2 keyboard and USB mouse want work, SATA drives don’t show, in some universe the RAID controller lets you clone a drive (not this one, or if it does it doesn’t want you to know), subsequently determine source drive has little point to exist and really doesn’t need to be copied, leave client hours later, greeted by crowd of people in lobby all wondering what its like to have dependable elevators, take 12 flights of stairs, return to no internet and a board intern, send intern home, call Verizon, determine internal router decided to forget how it was configured, re-educate router, Vonage adapter decides it too should stop normal functions, statically assign adapter so the phones work.
Net Gain from 3 PM to 11:30 PM: Zero.
I updated the Full Window Flash (With Minimum Dimensions), Done Right post. It now properly supports Firefox 3 and has been retested against Safari and IE 5 through 7. I also fixed a few more broken links and tried to spruce other things up as well. Feedback is encouraged.
Just letting everyone know that you can get Amazon Prime free for one month (free 2 day shipping) if you haven’t already participated in a Prime trial. If don’t want to be billed the yearly fee at the end of the month go into your settings and disabled the automatic renewal.
So you have an iPhone, but by now you’ve realized it doesn’t have a Keychain or any other sort of password management for web sites. While I can’t help with form based logins, there is hope when it comes to HTTP Authentication.
On the iPhone, HTTP Auth login screens look like this:
The easiest way to get past those login prompts and store your password is to add it to the URL. I recognize this isn’t a new concept, but applying it to the iPhone might be to some. The format goes like this:
http(s)://username:password@www.example.com
If your username or password contains any non alphanumeric characters, in other words anything that isn’t A-Z and 0-9, then you must URL encode those characters. A common place this may occur is with cPanel based webmail where you have to use your full e-mail address as your login. In those cases enter in a + instead of an @. For example [email protected] becomes user+example.com as your login.
Once you’ve assembled the URL, bookmark it. I’ve found it to be the easiest to do this on the computer, then syncing it the iPhone. When on the iPhone you can go to the page and even add it to your home screen if you desire. While this doesn’t make up for true password storage, it does make it much easier to access sites protected by HTTP Auth.
In some instances this is the only way I can access some sites without being endlessly prompted for my login and password on the iPhone, no matter how accurate. This phenomenon has been observed by others as well.
The Disclaimer
Please recognize that you are storing your password in plain text, fully unencrypted. Your password is now as only safe as your bookmarks, and your iPhone. Normally in OS X your passwords are kept in a heavily encrypted database if you save them.
I can only hope that a full fledged Keychain will come to the iPhone, but for now this isn’t that bad of an alternative for sites that use HTTP auth.
This is just a quick message to let everyone know that we are now providing select web hosting. We have a virtual private server with cPanel, powered by Network Redux. We plan to migrate existing clients over to our environment as well as offer hosting to new clients and our friends.
By running our own service we should be able to offer an uncommon level of support and circumvent the pitfalls of unpredictable shared hosting. Please contact us at [email protected] with any questions. We look forward to raising the bar in a new field.
2011-03-08 – Updated and now at:
http://dev.firefall.io/full-window-flash/
Original Article:
So you want to have Flash take up 100% of the browser window, but it also has to maintain minimum dimensions so content won’t be hidden if the window isn’t large enough. This will give Flash the ability to expand and contract as the user resizes the window, but if they make it too small scroll bars will appear. Achieving this involves a multistep process in order to properly support the most browsers (Safari, Firefox 2 & 3, IE 5 through 7).
Step 1: Create Your Container HTML File
Starting out with a HTML 4.01 Strict file is essential in creating a consistent experience. It’s time to get used to conforming to standards unless you want to mess around with multiple box models. No, you cannot use XHTML, no one should use it. Almost no one serves it properly and IE 6 has no clue what application/xml is. All you’ll do is force IE to render in quirks mode and use its box model.
Here is the start of a HTML 4.01 strict document as generated by BBEdit.
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd"><html lang="en"><head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> <title>Full Window Flash With Minimum Dimensions</title> <meta name="generator" content="BBEdit 9.0"></head><body> </body></html>
Step 2: Embed Your Flash with SWFObject 2
SWFObject 2 is a free JavaScript library that provides the ability to uniformly embed Flash while maintaining standards compliance and cross-browser support. I strongly urge you to check out the documentation as this article won’t go into any depth about its use.
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd"><html lang="en"><head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> <title>Full Window Flash With Minimum Dimensions</title> <meta name="generator" content="BBEdit 9.0"> <script src="js/swfobject.js" type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> <!-- swfobject.registerObject("flash_holder","7.0.19","swf/expressInstall.swf"); //--> </script></head><body> <div id="content">
<!-- BEGIN: Flash Embed --> <object id="flash_holder" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="100%" height="100%"> <param name="movie" value="flash.swf"> <param name="quality" value="high"> <param name="scale" value="noscale"> <!--[if !IE]>--> <object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="flash.swf" width="100%" height="100%"> <param name="quality" value="high"> <param name="scale" value="noscale"> <!--<![endif]-->
<!-- BEGIN: Alternate Content --> <div>Adobe Flash is required to view this website. Please <a href="http://www.adobe.com/go/EN_US-H-GET-FLASH/" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;">install</a> it and reload this page.</div> <!-- END: Alternate Content -->
<!--[if !IE]>--> </object> <!--<![endif]--> </object> <!-- End: Flash Embed -->
</div></body></html>
Between the head tags the SWFObject JavaScript file is referenced, followed by the function call itself. Between the body tags two nested objects are used along with some IE conditional comments. If none of this makes any sense, you probably still need to read the SWFObject documentation. The important thing is to set the width and height of the both objects to 100%.
Stopping here would create a nicely embedded Flash file that will resize with the window. Though a little CSS needs to be added to make it properly fill the window.
Step 3: The CSS
CSS needs to be added to make sure the Flash fills the entire window. There are a variety of issues with full window content, the specifics which I no longer recall, so you’ll just have to trust me for the most part.
Add within the head tags the following CSS:
<style type="text/css"> <!-- html, body, div#content { width: 100%; height: 100%; }
body { padding: 0; margin: 0; background-color: #FFFFFF; }
div#content, object { overflow: hidden; } --> </style>
Now the Flash should take up the entire window. Though this doesn’t yet solve the problem of enforcing a minimum size when a user resizes the window. The user could shrink the window down and miss important elements, but Flash has no way of telling the browser that needs to maintain a certain size. A little CSS is all it takes to address that in modern browsers.
<style type="text/css"> <!-- html, body, div#content { width: 100%; height: 100%; }
body { padding: 0; margin: 0; background-color: #FFFFFF; }
div#content, object#flash_holder { min-width: 800px; min-height: 600px; }
div#content, object { overflow: hidden; } --> </style>
There is some over-specification in there because of a Safari bug.
I purposefully said modern browsers, because IE 6 and below have no idea what min-width or min-height even is. Chances are forgoing IE 6 support is not a likely option.
Step 4: Making Up for It with JavaScript
Even though IE 6 doesn’t support the CSS that would make this process complete doesn’t mean it has to get any more difficult. I created a JavaScript function called minsize()* to emulate the absent behavior.
<head>...<script src="js/minsize.js" type="text/javascript"></script>...</head>
The function takes the ID of the element you want to set minimum dimensions to, followed by the width, then the height. It should be wrapped in a IE conditional statement and placed at the end of the document before the closing body tag.
<!--[if lte IE 6]><script type="text/javascript">minsize('content',1000,750);</script><![endif]-->
*Please do not redistribute this file. The credits within need to remain intact. I also ask to be notified of any changes or improvements so I can update and repost the file as needed.
Step 5: Dealing with “Click to Activate”
Certain versions of IE will display a message around a Flash embed saying that it must be clicked to activate. This is due to that whole patent mess. Microsoft eventually licensed the patent so not every version of IE is effected. This can also be solved with another JavaScript workaround that should be included at the end of the document before the closing body tag, wrapped in IE conditional comments.
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd"><html lang="en"><head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> <title>Full Window Flash With Minimum Dimensions</title> <meta name="generator" content="BBEdit 9.0"> <style type="text/css"> <!-- html, body, div#content { width: 100%; height: 100%; }
body { padding: 0; margin: 0; background-color: #FFFFFF; }
div#content, object#flash_holder { min-width: 800px; min-height: 600px; }
div#content, object { overflow: hidden; } --> </style> <script src="js/minsize.js" type="text/javascript"></script> <script src="js/swfobject.js" type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> <!-- swfobject.registerObject("flash_holder","7.0.19","swf/expressInstall.swf"); //--> </script></head><body> <div id="content">
<!-- BEGIN: Flash Embed --> <object id="flash_holder" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="100%" height="100%"> <param name="movie" value="flash.swf"> <param name="quality" value="high"> <param name="scale" value="noscale"> <!--[if !IE]>--> <object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="flash.swf" width="100%" height="100%"> <param name="quality" value="high"> <param name="scale" value="noscale"> <!--<![endif]-->
<!-- BEGIN: Alternate Content --> <div>Adobe Flash is required to view this website. Please <a href="http://www.adobe.com/go/EN_US-H-GET-FLASH/" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;">install</a> it and reload this page.</div> <!-- END: Alternate Content -->
<!--[if !IE]>--> </object> <!--<![endif]--> </object> <!-- End: Flash Embed -->
</div><!--[if lte IE 7]> <script src="js/clicktoactivate.js" type="text/javascript"></script><![endif]--><!--[if lte IE 6]> <script type="text/javascript"> minsize('content',800,600); </script><![endif]--></body></html>
I hope you’ve enjoyed scrolling to the end of this document as much as I did writing it. Here are the referenced files:
Now at: http://dev.firefall.io/full-window-flash/
Completed HTML
minsize.js (1.0.001)
clicktoactivate.js
SWFObject
Please send me comments on how I can improve this process or minsize.js. I will try to keep this document up-to-date and expand it if necessary.
Like many people I too get a lot of SPAM containing links to BlogSpot pages. The whole point is for a user to see a fairly trustworthy domain in an e-mail and click on it, then get quickly redirected to the intended site. I always thought it was strange because while the e-mails can not be stopped, Google could perform heuristics based scanning of the BlogSpot pages for questionable HTML and JavaScript.
Taking a few minutes, I decided to visit one of the BlogSpot SPAM sites with JavaScript off. I fully expected to see an instance of window.location, instead it was similar to:
document.write("<meta content='0;URL=http://www.example.com/?"+location.search.substring(1)+"' http-equiv='refresh'/>");
The page also was for the most part blank. It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to say that many of the other BlogSpot SPAM pages were employing similar methods. I attempted to find a Google Search that would let me search only within site source code, but was unable to.
It is my hope that within Google either efforts to do this are already underway or could be considered. Even if just given the right starting point I’d be glad to help come up with a set of heuristics to quickly flag-out these sites. If anyone reading this knows of search engine that is capable of doing HTML source searching, let me know.
Many thanks to Shawn Hill at Superior Design Enterprises (www.sdeonline.us) for participating in our illiteracy contest. They glossed over our threat to any service providers that contacted us in reference to our recent job posting. They also ignored the corresponding Craig’s List flag.
So thanks for playing. I hope some of your potential clients get to read this, and you seek an education.
We have our first winner:
“http:// lmdesigning.com” (redirects from: www.CheapDesignsOnLine.com)
They decided to gloss over the part of the job posting that says, “I will personally gut whoever contacts us with staffing or outsourcing solutions.“
While I don’t think I should reply to [email protected] I encourage anyone else with the time and motivation to drop them a message, or perhaps call them at 310-312-9597.
They wrote:
I wanted to introduce our services to you, perhaps you may find us
financially relieving.
We are running a website, printing production and graphic design
company with very little overhead so our prices are very competitive.
Our designs are fantastic so I invite you to take a look at our
portfolio by clicking the link provided.
Any questions you have please email or call anytime.
One of the real gems of the message was this attached picture:
With that fantastic quality, how could anyone go wrong. I almost regret forbidding commercial interests from contacting me.
If you’d like to know more about LM Design, and how they can ignore basic fundamentals and use shady marketing methods please address your concerns to:
LM Designing
[email protected]
1410 barrington #3
los angeles, CA 90025
US
Phone: 310.444.9509
- Source whois
Thanks LM Designing for making my hopes and dreams come true. This was the perfect way to start my morning.
