December 2011
2 posts
1 tag
2011
Farewell 2011, you were an awesome year. I got lots accomplished, lost a whole bunch of weight, ran a little over 500 miles and got a start on a project that I look forward to building in 2012 and beyond.
Here’s some lessons I learned this year:
Rails is awesome. I will definitely spend more time in 2012 to learn it a bit more.
Perfection makes a huge difference.
Losing weight...
3 tags
October 2011
1 post
3 tags
July 2011
2 posts
1 tag
Hide apps in Launchpad →
Hide individual apps or whole folders in Launchpad with this free to use, yet awesome preference pane.
Safari Omnibar
Even though I love Chrome, the only reason I really use it over Safari is because of the Omnibar; being able to type a search in the address bar just makes sense. While browsing Github today, I found a plugin that allows for the Safari address bar to behave somewhat like Chrome’s Omnibar. It allows you to make searches just like Chrome, but it won’t let you search specific websites -...
April 2011
3 posts
2 tags
QuickStart: Now with Templates
The most requested feature of QuickStart is now here. QuickStart 1.2 allows you to predefine up to 3 templates that you can easily start with later on. P.S. If you delete a template folder and later try to create a project with that template, you’ll get an error. I plan on making sure that you’re able to delete the folders once you set the templates, but for now, not...
1 tag
Update: QuickStart
My interest in making QuickStart an awesome, useful utility hasn’t stopped yet. With some feedback and a couple more hours, QuickStart 1.1 is now available. New features:
CodeIgniter 2.0.2 support
CakePHP 1.3.8 support
Rails
Please note that even though Rails is supported, you still need to start the server on your own for now. You need to have the “rails” command available...
2 tags
Meet QuickStart
I’ve always been interested in OSX menu bar apps, and I’ve always hated having to create directories and setup necessary project files when I started a new project. So last night I finally took the time to make a solution. Meet QuickStart.
QuickStart sits in your menu bar, away from your focus until you need it. When you need it, all you have to do is click the “New...
January 2011
4 posts
1 tag
10 Tips for Providing Great Customer Service to...
Part 4 and last of optimization articles talks about how you can better your customer service. Give it a read »
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Optimizing your website's speed
Part 3 of this month’s optimization articles, my new article has been published on Six Revisions. Give it a read »
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10 Things You Can Do to Become a Better PHP...
Following with part 2 of optimization, my new article has been published on Six Revisions. Give it a read »
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How to optimize your website form for more...
It’s January of 2011 and that means a completely new year has begun! If one of your new year’s resolution is to better your website, you’re in luck! This month I’ll be blogging about website optimization and what you can be doing to better your website. After all, a better optimized website can bring you new users, new clients, more views, and best of all, more profit....
December 2010
4 posts
2 tags
Simplicity Wins
Usually when you hear a good idea, the first thing you do is think of necessary features in order for that idea to work. You probably jot down (or think) of all the things you want this project to do and have. Most of the time, you’ll over feature the project. It’s ok; we’ve all done it. Up until recently, when new ideas were thrown at me, I would write down everything I wanted...
4 tags
HTML5: The mysteries of the canvas element
3D Landscape with HTML5 Canvas
The canvas element is probably one of the best new elements in HTML5. With the canvas element, you can draw 2D shapes and bitmap images - think of it as a blank rectangle on your page that you can draw on. It can be used to generate graphs, animations, images and even games. To be fair, drawing on a canvas isn’t as easy as you think. It’s not just...
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3 ways you can start using HTML5 today
I finally read the “HTML5 For Web Designers” book this weekend. Not only did I learn a whole lot about HTML5, I started playing around with the new elements and features. There are a whole lot of new things you can do with HTML5, but without getting too deep in the conversation, here are 3 very simple ways you can start using HTML5 in your websites and web apps today.
Shorten that...
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My Favorite Wire-framing Kits
The most exciting part of making an app is the beginning of it. Seriously, thinking of an idea and being able to start on it right away with all the excitement and rush you get is probably the best part. Unfortunately, if you act on the idea right away, you’re more likely to mess things up somewhere in the app. Why not visualize it first? Sure, thinking of it in your head works, but what if...
November 2010
2 posts
4 tags
My first Startup Weekend!
What an amazing weekend. What started off as a rocky experience turned out to be an awesome event. Craig came to me with the idea for “DidTheyPay?”, a website that allows for tenants to check whether or not their landlords are up to date on their properties. This app could truly help others. It’s become a rather unfortunate trend where landlords charge tenants a deposit, and...
3 tags
Top 5 Resources for iOS development
It’s been a fun year making iOS apps. I’ve learned so much! When I first begun making iOS apps, Apple still had the NDA restrictions, so talking about the SDK on public sites wasn’t allowed - which made learning a lot harder. It’s a different story nowadays, and there are lots and lots of resources online for learning. This list should get you well on your way, it’s...
September 2010
2 posts
4 tags
How to move a self hosted Wordpress installation
So, you’ve been running your self hosted Wordpress blog and you’ve encountered a problem and now you need to move it. Regardless of the reason, moving a self hosted Wordpress blog is easy, and usually only takes a few minutes. Best part of all, you won’t lose anything; not even the files you’ve uploaded. 1. First thing you want to do is make sure you upgrade your version...
5 tags
Block AOL System MSG (aolsystemmsg) with Trillian!
If you use AIM, you’ve had this problem. When using your AIM account on multiple devices, the annoying “You are signed in multiple devices” message seems to haunt you whenever you sign on. Not to fear, with Trillian you can make those messages go away forever - and best of all, this setting syncs across all of your Trillian clients. So if you use Trillian for iPhone, it’ll...
August 2010
5 posts
2 tags
EasyList - A MochaPHP project
Yay! I’ve delivered on my promise. I created an entire app so that others can learn how to properly use Mocha. EasyList is a task manager with a complete user system behind it. The set of features Sign Up Login Password Recovering Updating Password Updating login email Add Tasks Edit Tasks Mark task completed What you can expect to learn from this example Everything but templating....
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MochaPHP: Now smarter about URL handling
MochaPHP has now been updated to be a lot smarter about URL handling. Prior to this update, Mocha would be all confused if you uploaded and installed it in a subdirectory. This doesn’t happen anymore as Mocha will automatically find the root directory of installation and handle the appropriate URL routes. Nothing major has been added though, and I’m still working on the docs....
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Quick Tips: EGODatabase
If you’re not a big fan of CoreData, or just want a simpler way to interact with your sqlite databases, EGODatabase is a simple to use, thread-safe solution for OSX & iOS projects alike. All you have to do is import the EGODatabase files into your XCode project, and include them wherever you want sqlite interaction. There aren’t that many tutorials online on how to start using...
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Quick Tip: A UITableView won't reload itself you...
It might sound obvious, but you’d be surprised at just how many new iPhone developers think that calling [tableView reloadData]; will reload their table’s data alone. If you’ve done this, it’s okay! The best way to handle table reloading is to create a method that handles JUST reloading the table’s data, and at the end of this method, call the [tableView reloadData]; ...
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META tags to help your iOS web app look like a...
Creating an iOS web app is extremely simple, yet extremely underrated. Advantages to web apps include being able to instantly “push” updates of your app, not having to go through the Apple approval process, and multi device compatibility. Making your web app feel like a native app is not so hard, and with the following HTML tags, your app should be looking good in no time. Please note...
June 2010
1 post
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Hide Google's navigation bar for a "full screen"...
Just in case you didn’t know, Google now allows for you to add background images (just like Bing). What’s annoying though, is the fact that the white bar across the top stays visible and really destroys the awesome effect you get from the image. We can easily disable that with a quick style using the Stylish extension for Firefox. Here’s what it looks like prior to enabling the userstyle - Here’s...
May 2010
1 post
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Quick Safari Javascript Tip
When defining a variable, Safari will not allow you to use a variable with the name class. If you do use it, that file will be ignored by the browser and the inspector will let you know that there’s a Syntax Error. var class = $(".subject").val(); // Not Good! Will not work under Safari!
April 2010
3 posts
3 tags
EGODatabase, SQLite made easy on iPhone
Lots of people complain about how hard SQLite and CoreData is to use on the iPhone SDK. So I set out to find something a bit easier and interesting to use. What I came across is @enormego’s EGODatabase. This is how simple things become after using EGODatabase - EGODatabase* database = [EGODatabase databaseWithPath:[NSHomeDirectory() stringByAppendingPathComponent:@"Documents/database.db"]];...
3 tags
Getting the first HTML image URL from a string in...
@MatthewSaeger came to me the other day with the following question - “How do I get the first image from a string I’m retrieving via the iPhone’s XML Parser?” The answer is actually really simple. It can be done via regex, but for simplicity’s sake, doing a simple string replacement does the trick quite nicely. Here, take a look for yourself. The original string looks a little something like...
2 tags
MySQL Data Sanitation
If your project is accepting user input and you’re using MySQL, you’ll probably want to take a look at data sanitation. Luckily for you, I have a really useful function that takes your user’s input and sanitizes it so that it’s safe for database use. The function: function safedata($original) { return mysql_real_escape_string(stripslashes(strip_tags( htmlspecialchars(trim($original))))); } How...
March 2010
1 post
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Tons of people have asked how I learned PHP. Here...
This was my very very first website, I knew absolutely nothing about web development prior to this.
December 2009
2 posts
3 tags
Converting your .p12 certificates to .pem...
In order to setup your APN server to work with the Apple Push Notifications server, you’ll need to convert your Push Service certificates to .pem files. Some might not know how to properly go about doing this, so here we go! First thing you’ll want to do is open up Keychain Access On the left hand side you’ll see the “Certificates” section, click on it You should see your Apple Push Services...
3 tags
Got your app rejected? Try again!
Everyone knows that Apple’s App Store review process is a little messed up. You hear stories every day in several popular tech blogs, and there’s even a site where developers get to showcase their horror experiences. A few weeks ago, I submitted an update to the very first iPhone application I made, iPrayer (iTunes link). iPrayer is a pocket collection of several different prayers, and now...
August 2009
3 posts
3 tags
Wanna try Paddle? Sure you do!
Hey guys, I’ve started iPhone development in the last few months, and even though I can make applications I decided it would be nice to challenge myself and start creating games. Of course, I won’t be starting by making the next 3D FPS, so I decided I would create a fun and addictive single player Pong style game. After many hours of testing of whether or not I could actually pull this off, I came...
1 tag
iPhone T-Mobile MMS Settings
If you have an iPhone with MMS capabilities enabled and you are using it with T-Mobile, MMS won’t work unless you configure the settings for it. After nearly 20 minutes on the phone with T-Mobile on hold for the customer service to help me out, I figured I would save you time and let you know the settings here. Yea I know, awesome. So you’re going to start off by going to Settings > General...
1 tag
Worst Pizza & Updates
My friend Craig Agranoff, aka The Pizza Expert (honestly, he is) has launched his new Worst Pizza website. The folks over at Done21 did an amazing job with the new site’s design and I thought it would be awesome to help Craig get the Wordpress working for the way he currently does things…even though he doesn’t fully know how to use Wordpress yet. Craig was also on WineLibraryTV today talking about...
June 2009
1 post
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Quick Tip: Disable Safari's input outline
Do you use Safari? Well, since the new upgrade I don’t see why you don’t. It’s probably one of the fastest right now, and it’s an AMAZING web browser. Anyways, if you find annoying how Safari outlines text and form inputs blue, here’s a quick little tip on how to disable it. It’s basically a small CSS “hack”. It’s amazing what one line of code can do nowadays. Let me know if you have any...
May 2009
1 post
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6 recommended apps for web developers
Hello! Today I was asked what Mac applications I would recommend to web developers and I thought I’d share it with everyone! So here it is, the 6 apps I can’t live without. 1. Grabup Nothing is more annoying then taking screenshots and uploading via a image sharing service, copying the link and pasting it. Grabup takes all that pain away, all you do is take the screenshot, wait for the little icon...
April 2009
1 post
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Buy That Script
Hello! Today I launched my new website, http://buythatscript.com. Site flipping has become a bit more popular lately, and I’ve had more than a few people asking me where to start. So I decided to create Buy That Script to allow for begginner investors to start small towards their goals. Buy That Script features an array of $5 scripts that will allow for you to start website flipping and making...
March 2009
1 post
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MacHeist and their bundle
If you have a Mac and would like some great software for an even better price, MacHeist came to the rescue today. They are offering a very good bundle of Mac software for the low price of $39. Not only do you get awesome software for the low price, but it seems that 25% of the money will go towards charity. So not only will you help yourself to some great addition to your library, you’ll help many...
February 2009
3 posts
1 tag
Late night Saturday fun!
Hey there, If you have a PS3 and want to have some late night end of weekend fun we’ll be on tonight from 11:30 Eastern time playing Call of Duty 4 and Socom Confrontation. If you want to join feel free to add me to your PSN: ohnoesitsraphy. See you soon, Raphael Caixeta
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The 22" HP monitor display fix.
If you are thinking of buying a nice, and very well priced monitor you should definitely look into the HP w2207h 22” HDMI / VGA monitor. I have to say, I’m very impressed with the quality of this monitor. Having my 15” Macbook Pro hooked up to a 22” 1080p monitor is definitely awesome; but there was a problem. When you first connect your Mac to the monitor the font / display looks horrible, but I...
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Got a PS3?
If you do, let’s play! Every saturday night around 12AM I’ll be hosting one big party in some random game for the PS3. If you would like to participate, just send me an invite via PSN to “ohnoesitsraphy”, without the quotes of course. Think of it as a fun time to forget all about the week’s trouble and just come and have some fun. Anyways, back to work for me. Thanks for reading, and hopefully see...