With the open source Adobe Flex SDK, developers using any operating system and any text editor or IDE can create rich Internet applications that compile into SWF files. This guide is for those wanting to install and set up the Flex SDK on Ubuntu linux. Read the rest of this entry »
Goals for the remainder of this year
April 17, 2009At work this week we were asked to list out some goals for the year. While thinking about what to write down, I searched the Web for some inspiration. I ended up pretty happy with my results, and fortunately for me, most of my work-related goals are also personal goals.
I realize we’re already four months into 2009, but I thought I’d go ahead and write a post to list out some goals. It’ll not only help me to remember them, but maybe I’ll get some tips on completing them in the comments. Read the rest of this entry »
Simple OpenID updated: Now supports Google accounts and Attribute Exchange
December 21, 2008At the request of a reader, I’ve updated Simple OpenID by adding support for Google’s OpenID implementation for Gmail users, as well as some other changes. Download the latest version here. Read the rest of this entry »
How To: WordPress.com and the Simple OpenID PHP Class
August 25, 2008[Note: This post contains outdated information. Please visit the project page here for the latest information.]
In my previous post, I told you how to get the Simple OpenID PHP Class working with Yahoo. Now we’re going to focus on WordPress.com. This turned out to be very easy once I realized the problem. Read the rest of this entry »
How To: Yahoo and the Simple OpenID PHP Class
August 24, 2008[Note: This post contains outdated information. Please visit the project page here for the latest information.]
I’ve been working on OpenID a lot lately and I’ve latched on to a great starter PHP class called, obviously enough, Simple OpenID PHP Class (Simple OpenID). It’s easy enough to implement, but I quickly noticed that it didn’t work with Yahoo (among others). Basically it would return an error saying it couldn’t find an OpenID server at Yahoo. Read the rest of this entry »
Crash course in blog surgery
April 16, 2008For more than a year now, my intention has been to start posting things I’ve learned or things I’ve found to be interesting while developing websites. I was seventy-five percent complete with a site redesign that I planned to launch at same time. What can I say? Things happen.
Let’s just get started then.
At work right now, one of my tasks is to add a blog (among many other things) to our core website by the end of this month. This would be very simple if I could just install WordPress, which I’ve been using for about four years now and with which I’m quite familiar. The problem is all our databases are Microsoft SQL Server 2005, and WordPress requires MySQL. I initially had our database administrator set up a MySQL database anyway, but it came to a halt when the powers that be said we must use MSSQL. Read the rest of this entry »
An evening with Louise Glück and Franz Wright
April 4, 2006Pulitzer Prize-winning poets Louise Glück and Franz Wright read at the Brown Reading Series on March 27. Not being familiar with either poet, I attended this seminar with an open mind. In the end, it was Wright’s poetry that captured my attention more. It was both dark and playful. Playfulness is something I find helpful when listening to poetry read aloud, especially when it has a surface simplicity that is easier to wrap my mind around initially. It’s only through meditating on a poem that I’m able to delve into any deeper meanings and subtexts. Wright’s poetry had these things going for it. Glück’s poems offered a few gems that sounded nice, but I wasn’t sure what they meant. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, it would just take further study for me to “get it.” Read the rest of this entry »
John Updike.
February 20, 2006Last night I had the opportunity to see John Updike at the Alley Theatre for the Inprint Brown Reading Series. The audience was treated to about forty minutes of reading and then another half hour or so was set aside for an interview.
For the readings, Updike chose two stories that he noted contain no dialogue. “Always a mistake in short stories,” he said. But he thought both were appropriate for reading in Texas. One (I believe) was called “Go West” (which got him wondering whether Texas is considered a part of the West or South) and the other was “The Family Meadow.” Read the rest of this entry »
The rules according to Elmore Leonard.
February 2, 2006There are two schools of writers (probably more): those who stick to “the rules” and those who don’t believe the rules exist. I tend to fall in with the latter. While there are guidelines that most writers should and do follow, I wouldn’t count out someone who breaks every last one of them with absolute brilliance.
Elmore Leonard recently wrote an article intended to help writers stay invisible. Most authors probably think they do a pretty good job of this already (including myself), and that’s precisely why it’s a good idea to have another writer you trust read over your stuff. Read Elmore Leonard’s Ten Rules of Writing right here.
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