Sam’s random musings

Upgrading to WordPress 2.3 Dexter:

• The WordPress Development Blog has a good article on Preparing for 2.3
  • I particularly like the list of compatible and incompatible plugins
  • I also like the idea of switching your WordPress install to use Subversion for quick and painless updates
• Blog Security has an article on 5-step Failsafe upgrade to Wordpress
  • This is slower but it is much safer (and less service affecting) to create a local copy of your remote WordPress install and use the local copy to check for the problems
• First hand advice from rawiri (I love his theme) on upgrading a live blog to 2.3

(Via Weblog Tools Collection.)

FancyForm - Pretty checkboxes and radios:

Styling form controls has always been limited with HTML and CSS. Not anymore. FancyForm provides the solution by letting you style checkboxes and radio buttons as you would any other elements, while degrading gracefully on older and non-graphical browsers.

Here’s an example of what’s possible with the script:

Click through to see the demo (worked in most of the browsers I tried, safari, camino, firefox…

(Via Vacuous Virtuoso.)

Cory Miller: The First 5 Essential Tweaks He Does in a WordPress Blog Installation. Moltn: Six Tips On Writing Content For Search Engines. If that doesn’t work, use lots of dirty words

(Via Freelance Switch.)

FLVIX is a free online video converter. It converts video into formats like .AVI, .MOV, .3GP, .MP4, .MP4 for free, online.

(Via Ajax Blog.)

Fake Name Generator believes in supporting the development community. To achieve this goal, we provide free bulk generated identity files. Please use the form below to place your order.

What’s YSlow?:

It’s an extension to Firebug (yes, correct, Firebug, not Firefox) that helps with performance optimization efforts. It scores your page on the scale A to F, based on compliance with Yahoo’s performance rules. It’s a tool that has been used internally at Yahoo and is now released to the world.

(Via Ajaxian Blog.)

Ajax, DTrace and Where They Meet

The article walks you through setting up dtrace on an an Ajax tracing example and then goes into detail on tracing Ajax and Java call flow where they are tracing the call flow of the JavaScript functions and the Java servlet methods, which responds to the Ajax calls using the script:

(Via Ajaxian Blog.)

The Discovery Channel is using Sharkrunners, an online game, to teach people what it’s like to be a marine biologist who is tracking sharks. The game play is easy to play, but original

(Via O’Reilly Radar.)

Feature: 5 Ways to Optimize AJAX in Ruby on Rails

(Via Vitamin.)

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blockquote> Squish allows to create tests for GUI and Web applications by recording or manually writing test scripts. Squish supports popular scripting languages for the test scripts and gives access to additional APIs. This way QA engineers can easily create powerful and robust tests to enhance and keep up the quality of the tested application. Different editions of Squish are available for testing applications based on the following technologies: Qt®, Java™, Mac, Web, 4Js, Tk, XView

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blockquote>

DatePicker using Prototype and ScriptaculousYou’ll find here the code and instructions for a datepicker widget using Prototype and Scriptaculous librairies.

Blueprint: A CSS Framework:

Well-documented open source CSS framework for grid-based layouts.

#

This is going to get a work out by this css lamo tonight

(Via Daring Fireball.)

Feature Richness and User Engagement:

Summary: The more engaged users are, the more features an application can sustain. But most users have low commitment — especially to websites, which must focus on simplicity, rather than features.

Face is right, it is worth reading to the end. I got more out of it the second read…

(Via Mind-NOX.)

Timeplot: Canvas-based Specialized Charting Tool:

On July 1st and July 7th, we posted about Timeline from the Simile project.

We’re pleased to post about another related project: Timeplot, which is

Follow the link; the screen shot doesn’t do it justice. While you’re there, don’t miss the comprehensive tutorial, which shows how easy it is to create these charts.

Doesn’t work in safari yet but still cool

(Via Ajaxian Blog.)

Amazon.com: Amazon FPS, Amazon Flexible Payment Service: Amazon Web Services:

Amazon Flexible Payments Service (Amazon FPS) is the first payments service designed from the ground up specifically for developers. The set of web services APIs allows the movement of money between any two entities, humans or computers. It is built on top of Amazon’s reliable and scalable payment infrastructure.

this is going to get a good looking over, I am looking for a new payment system for some clients (currently using paypal or authorize.net)

Web 2.0 Badges - Useful collection of stylish web 2.0 badges and badge generator.:

Ok I know this is really silly and so very yesterday, but I like it so PFFFFT, you can make your own at this place. I’m going to start tossing them at random on everything, apps, web pages, meals I cook