February 2011
5 posts
This Blog has Moved
As of 24th Feb 2011 I’ve moved back to a WordPress blog at http://gilbert.pellegrom.me. The RSS feed will stay the same so you don’t need to re-subscribe.
Please see http://gilbert.pellegrom.me to follow my updates.
BioThemes Launches
As I eluded to a few weeks ago, BioThemes was very close to launching. Well today is that day.
It’s been a long couple of weeks getting everything finalised for the launch, but we made it and I’m very proud of our flagship theme ShowOff (even though we are launching it in beta).
And as a reward for reading this blog post, you can use the promo code GILBDISC to get $5 off when you...
Don't Use Hash Bangs (#!)
Recently I decided to implement what has become known as “hash-bangs” in a site I’m working on. Hash-bangs are used in AJAX applications and websites (such as Twitter) and have a #! in the URL. For example a twitter URL is:
http://twitter.com/#!/gilbitron
The main reason for using these “hash-bangs” is to allow Google to crawl your AJAX website. This was all fine...
Is WordPress a CMS?
There is a conversation going on over of Forrst about saying “WordPress as a CMS”. Inevitably the conversation has come down to a debate over the definition of a “CMS”. My thoughts are this:
WordPress was a blogging engine, it is now a publishing platform. It’s not a CMS in the same way that Expression Engine is a CMS, however it does “manage content”...
BioThemes
For the past few months now I’ve been hinting that I’ve been working on something huge and exciting but couldn’t tell anyone what it was all about. Well today I can finally reveal what it is that’s been keeping me busy and excited and I’m sure you’re going to love it.
I’ve teamed up with John O’Nolan and together we are about rock the WordPress world. “How?” I hear you scream. Well by launching...
January 2011
4 posts
“Beautiful is better than ugly. Explicit is better than implicit. Simple is...”
– The Zen of Python, by Tim Peters
Nivo Slider v2.4 →
WordPress Development for Designers Part 1: How to... →
I’m starting a new series of WordPress development tutorials aimed at designers. This is the first post. Let me know what you think.
PUF (PHP Utility Framework) →
Launched this today. Check it out.
December 2010
2 posts
I don't think I'll forget 2010
As a year draws to a close I always find it helpful to look back and take stock of what has happened over the year, and this year has been an especially mental year for me personally. It’s good to be thankful for what you have in your life and what you have achieved or been blessed with over the year. So here goes my recap of 2010.
Finishing Uni
The first few months of the year were...
See the Snow in the UK Live from Twitter →
My mini project to show live pictures of the #uksnow.
November 2010
3 posts
VerendusVid
We all come across videos on the web that we love and want to share with others. Normally I just post them on facebook, but I’ve decided to widen the scope of my sharing and I’ve started a new video blog called VerendusVid.
My aim for the blog is share the highest quality videos I come across from a range of subjects including films, music, sport, science and religion. So head on...
Short, Shorthand in PHP
Recently my knowledge of PHP has been developing and I’ve come across some shorthand code that at first glance looks wrong but is actually just obfuscated. How many times have you seen or done this in code:
if($something > 100){
$something_else = true;
} else {
$something_else = false;
}
Ok so it’s long winded and boring so we shorten it. Usually it might become the...
Dev7studios Redesign
Yesterday I finally released the new redesign of my portfolio site dev7studios.com. You should check it out and let me know what you think.
October 2010
2 posts
Exclusivity Creates Demand
“The first rule of Fight Club is, you do not talk about Fight Club. The second rule of Fight Club is, you DO NOT talk about Fight Club”.
Standing doing the washing up this morning I was thinking about exclusivity. In the recent film The Social Network they make a point of highlighting the fact that when Facebook was starting up it was exclusive. You needed an Harvard email...
Developers, Design is Important
I think part of the problem with a lot of developers today is that they don’t spend enough time caring about design. Maybe they are scared of design, maybe they simply don’t want to learn how to do it or maybe they just think it’s not their job.
I’ve touched on this subject before when I explained some of the things that I think made the Nivo Slider so successful. But I...
September 2010
4 posts
PHP and Triple Equals (===)
Ever seen a statement like if($a === $b) and wondered what the whole triple equals thing is all about? Well it is actually quite simple. Assigning and comparing variables in PHP goes like this:
$a = $b - Assign the value of $b to $a.
$a == $b - Compare the values of $a and $b.
$a === $b - Compare the values and types of $a and $b.
So the triple equals not only compares the values of the...
CodePaste
Following on from my obsession with code just now, over the weekend I created a two day project for pasting code.
CodePaste was actually designed for my own needs. I wanted to be able to paste code without any of the guff that normally comes with such services (such as bloated layouts and ad spam). Following the Apple mantra, CodePaste is designed to “just work”. Find out more about...
CodeByte
For a while I have been wanting to start a small blog which simply showcases nice, helpful and elegant snippets of code. Mostly it is to share my own code but I also wanted it to be a place where other developers could share their wisdom and get something in return.
So I’ve started a small blog called CodeByte to do just that. Please feel free to follow CodeByte (on Tumblr) or subscribe to...
Zen Coding
If your like me and you love stuff that makes your life easier then Zen Coding is a must have. In their own words:
Zen Coding is an editor plugin for high-speed HTML, XML, XSL (or any other structured code format) coding and editing. The core of this plugin is a powerful abbreviation engine which allows you to expand expressions—similar to CSS selectors—into HTML code.
What does that...
August 2010
3 posts
Smoother @font-face embedding in IE
Generally when using IE your @font-face fonts look pretty jaggy. This is due to ClearType kicking in to make you site as readable as possible. To turn it off you can use the following CSS.
To find out more see this post.
WordPress Description META Tag
According to this post WordPress does not include description and keyword meta tags by default. Their reasoning for this is simple: the information is unique to your site and should therefore be included by yourself.
Now this is fine except when you forget to add your own meta tags or you just can’t be bothered adding them yourself (which is bad for your SEO). So below is a simple bit of...
I'm Married
If you’ve maybe been wondering why I’ve been so quiet over the last few weeks and if you don’t follow me on twitter then you probably should know that I got married two weeks ago. I’ve been going out with Fiona now for 5 years and we had been engaged for 2 of those.
The wedding was great and I think everyone had a fantastic time. Then we jetted off to a small Greek...
July 2010
1 post
Store Information in Wordpress Without Even...
Recently I have been working with Wordpress and playing with Custom Post Types in WP3.0. I got thinking about ways to store information without creating extra tables in the database. In the end I came up with a way to store information without even writing a single database query. Funnily enough it relies on Custom Post Types and their associated functions.
Example
Now first off I’m not...
June 2010
6 posts
Forrst Invite Giveaway
I’ve been awarded the honour of being able to give away an invite for Forrst. If you’re interested then let me know in the comments. Show me why you’re awesome skills deserve the invite but remember, don’t beg.
Solving the $_POST HTML Checkbox Problem
A problem I’ve come across recently involves processing HTML checkboxes in PHP. The problem isn’t too easy to explain so I will demonstrate with an example.
The Problem
You have the following HTML which is fine:
<input type="checkbox" id="some_checkbox" name="some_checkbox" />
When you then submit your form you want to get the value of the checkbox in PHP by...
The Problem with Premium Themes
I had this half baked thought last night while I was falling asleep and I want to painfully extract it and put it down in words. So bear with me. I don’t like Premium Themes. There I said it.
Now once you’ve recovered from that initial shock and have stopped flaming and spamming my comments I’ll explain why. First of all by “Premium Themes” I mean website themes...
I'm Qualified
I received my exam results the other day. I’m now an officially qualified Software Engineer with a Bachelor of Science Honours degree from Strathclyde University. I received a Second Class Honours degree, upper division (which translates as a 2:1).
It all sounds very official. And it is I suppose. After all it’s been 5 years in the making. I’ve really enjoyed going to Uni and...
Dribbble: Thanks, But No Thanks
Recently dribbble have been dishing out invites again and the outcome of this is my twitter stream is now filled with people offering invites, but only for people who can prove their awesome design talent. This has even led to designers building custom sites, literally begging people to give them an invite.
While I understand that dribbble is an inspiration site for the very best of the best,...
May 2010
14 posts
I'm Looking for Some Work
For the next six weeks I am going to be available for some freelance work. So if your looking for a ninja web dev or software engineer then let me know.
Using Thumbnails with the Nivo Slider →
New tutorial explaining how to use thumbnails with the Nivo Slider.
Nivo Slider v2.0 →
Nivo Slider v2.0 released just now. See the changelog for bug fixes and updates.
1 tag
OO in PHP: Part 1 - Classes and Objects
Scary title I know. But if your a serious developer of any kind then I hope you have heard of Object Oriented programming. You may even have done it without even realising it. What I aim to do in this series is to have a simple and concise look at how to do OO programming in PHP with the aim that you will discover why you should be using it in all of your projects.
Introduction
What I am not...
“When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you...”
– Lord Kelvin
PHP SimpleCache Redux
A while ago I posted a simple PHP class that I had created which allows you to cache API requests in a simple way. I’ve done some more work on the class and made it even simpler to cache your API calls.
PHP SimpleCache Class
So here is the SimpleCache class:
<?php
/* SimpleCache v1.1
* May 2010
* Gilbert Pellegrom
* http://gilbertpellegrom.co.uk
*
* Free to use and abuse under the...
What is Design?
The following is from my some of my uni notes. It’s in the context of software design but interesting none the less:
The process of deciding the form of an item during its creation
Ideal design seeks to find the optimal balance between all forces affecting the problem
Often a trade-off between forces
Correctness, security, flexibility, usability, cost, efficiency…
Perception of...
CSS3 Link Fade Effect
If you visit @vpieters awesome new site (or even this site) with the latest Webkit/Opera browsers you might notice the subtle fade effect when you hover over links, instead of the normal instant change. This is done with a nice simple bit of CSS3 transitions.
a {
-webkit-transition:all 200ms ease-in;
-o-transition:all 200ms ease-in;
}
It’s quite a nice effect and something I’m sure...
WatchAmazing talk by Simon Sinek on How Great Leaders Inspire Action
Developers, Sell Your Scripts
Before I even begin saying anything this article is not about encouraging developers to sell their scripts on sites like CodeCanyon (not that there is anything wrong with that). Rather I am going to take you through the process of things I did when creating the Nivo Slider, other than simply creating the script, with the hope that other developers might be more successful when creating their own...
1 tag
My Tweaked CSS Reset
After much tinkering with my default template CSS style-sheet I have come up with something which I think is fairly elegant and extensible. It includes a modified version of Eric Meyers CSS Reset followed by a set of my own CSS rules for default elements which have evolved over the past few years.
/*=================================*/
/* CSS Reset
/* May 2010
/* By: Gilbert Pellegrom
/*...
Transmit 4 →
After seeing @panic’s Transmit 4 I really wish someone would develop software that looks and works that good on Windows.
I've Moved to Tumblr
After some debating as to what to do with my blog I’ve decided to give Tumblr a shot. To be honest it wasn’t an easy migration which is why I’ve only got a selection of my old posts here. However don’t fear as my old blog will remain at http://gilbertwp.dev7studios.com so if you are ever looking for any of my old stuff it will be there.
So here is to a bit of a fresh...
April 2010
1 post
1 tag
The Wordpress 3.0 functions.php File
Wordpress 3.0 looms on the horizon with loads of great new features including custom navigation menus, custom header and background management, proper support for custom post types and taxonomies, multi-site feature (WPMU), custom author profiles, I could go on. Anyway so what I want to show you today is how to prep your Wordpress theme so that you can include all of these cool features. This is...
March 2010
2 posts
1 tag
Why You Should Always be Transparent on the Web
Being transparent is always a good thing. People will begin to trust you and, more importantly, your brand if you are consistently honest. Users will trust you more and hence be more inclined to read, or even buy, your stuff. But there is another reason that you should be transparent and honest with everything you do on the web, and it’s only become apparent with the rise in popularity of...
1 tag
Save Time by Having a Kick Start Website Framework
If your like me and end up making loads of websites and website themes it is essential to have a starter framework in place to save you time and give you a head start when making new websites. The benefits of having a website framework are obvious and all good web developers will have one.
So I’ve decided to share mine with you. Please feel free to use this as a template for your own...
February 2010
2 posts
1 tag
Security by Obscurity is Weak
You should be able to publicly announce how your system is secured without compromising the security of your system.
1 tag
A Pratical Guide to Using AJAX in Web Apps
I have been doing a lot of work recently on MakeSomeTime and my final year Uni project (which is a web app) and both use a substancial amount of AJAX to power them. So what I want to do here is build on a previous article and outline a practical solution to using AJAX in your web apps using, in this case, jQuery and PHP.
Prerequisites of Sorts
This is not a beginner topic and I am going to...
January 2010
1 post
1 tag
HTML Forms to AJAX Forms The Easy Way
For a while now I’ve wondered if there is an easy way to “AJAXify” forms without taking away from the semantics and functionality of a normal HTML form. So I came up with a simple solution powered by jQuery. The main aim here is to be able to just drop the javascript on top of the HMTL form in a progressive enhancement style so that the underlying HTML form would work even if the...