Rounded corners. Yes, they may be a "Web 2.0" fashion fad, but it has been clearly documented that they're a lot easier to make than square ones. As part of my overhaul of bioneural.net I've been optimizing much of the code "under the hood", meaning a lot of the changes aren't even visible. Re-evaluating how things are put together, and considering how they could be done more efficiently or otherwise improved is a valuable exercise—that it scratches a perfectionist itch is an added bonus. In this article I look at a variety of methods for creating boxes with rounded corners and gradients. Yep, it's a showdown!
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Tag archive for 'howto'
The first version of my site preference panel for WordPress needed lots of JavaScript for the toggle (Proto.aculo.us), more JavaScript to switch styles, and still more JavaScript to change text size. Version 2 still uses JavaScript for the toggle effect—but no additional load—since jQuery is already utilised by K2. The rest is accomplished using server-side PHP, and the revised 3-column panel layout makes use of more recent CSS know-how. I've tried to modularize the preferences panel as much as possible, but some simple template editing is still required (at 4 points). It is optimised for K2 (tested using RC3 and RC4) and although I haven't tested it with other themes (that's your job!) I don't see why it couldn't be used (*Some tweaking may be required. Batteries not included.)
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If you had viewed the source of my WordPress-generated pages a while ago you'd have noticed that my head elements were a real mess. Now they've been spring cleaned, arranged neatly into related groupings and the needless clutter disposed of. Plugins that use the wp_head hook distribute junk all over the show, offending any sense of order. Luckily your WordPress theme is the key to taking control of your head, through a combination of edits to functions.php and header.php.
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Having spent the better part of two half days trying to achieve the impossible, I wish to recount an exercise in wireless frustration. The challenge was to hook up an iMac G4 (Flat Panel) with no Airport Card, located in the attic room, to my home LAN (and thus to the Internet). One purpose of this machine was to serve as a screen for streamed video that could be watched while using the exercise cycle. A TV had provided such distraction, but that had broke. To cement the challenge, the problem should be solved using equipment already to hand i.e. at no additional cost.
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The bright orange menu bar icon for Missing Sync sat in my Leopard menu bar next to Google Notifier, the latter turning from an unobtrusive grey to attention-grabbing red when it had something to tell me (the arrival of unread Google Mail). I found my eye wandering needlessly to the Missing Sync icon, so decided to hack out that distracting brightness.
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