bioneural.net » xhtml

RDF v microformats v meta headers

Bruce — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 18:24:49 +0000

I've had a hard time "getting" RDF (e.g. how it differs from XML), but this article helps give it context. The semantic web is being built simultaneously from the bottom up and top down. Typifying the bottom-up approach, RDF content is machine-readable at the outset; powerful but complex (with several advantages over microformats), RDF is all about inter-operability. Top-down approaches introduce "metadata sprinkling" to existing content, simple but limiting by comparison e.g. microformats (using CSS class attributes as in hCard), or meta elements (meta tags such as those for geo-discovery). Both approaches are valid, but RDF is hard whereas microformats help "the rest of us" contribute to the semantic web. There may be a collision ahead, however, between microformats and RDFa (sprinklings of RDF embedded in existing XHTML).

Corners, gradients and shadows with jQuery

Bruce — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 15:36:40 +0000

From bioneural.net:

Previously we looked at moving to jQuery, and then at the best way to do corners and gradients using a variety of techniques (Part 1). In this follow-on article (Part 2) I want to share how jQuery can be extended for similar cornering, gradient, and drop shadow visual effects. Although my JavaScript ability is not much beyond "cut and paste" the idea here is to share how easy it is to create these effects for other folk possessed by similar (in)ability. Situation recap In Part 1 we explored various ways to make rounded corners, comprising one or more of JavaScript, CSS, Flash, and SVG. Ditto for drop shadows. Implementing a gradient was restricted to the use of background (or inline) images, or to SVG. There are a few more tricks we might try for gradients: We could load a transparent PNG as a CSS background and vary the fill colour on the container to allow for a multitude of colour-graduated boxes without further image editing (see this ALA article); Unfortunately the CSS 3 draft as of this writing doesn't include background gradients, but you might be able to fake it using border-color; We could use JavaScript effects libraries. It turns out we can use JavaScript to create our corners and drop shadows too. There's also a plugin for using curvyCorners with jQuery that more than halves the standalone curvyCorners code size. Extending jQuery While there are some basic effects (hide, toggle, slide, etc.) and manipulation options in the jQuery core API, jQuery UI is a bolt-on library of ...

The best way to do corners and gradients

Bruce — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 14:36:17 +0000

From bioneural.net:

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! The traditional approach The well-established method of adding corners or gradients to an element is to use multiple background images. Depending to some extent on your content, this is typically impossible to achieve without the use of non-semantic extra mark-up. For example, this box uses to extra and empty divs: Willkommen! Welcome! Willkommen auf der Projekt Koru Seite, wo Simone & Bruce die praktischen Aspekte eines Jahres in Neuseeland mit Euch teilen wollen. Eine Einführung findet Ihr hier zusammen mit einer Erklärung warum wir das Koru als Symbol unserer Reise gewählt haben. Welcome to Project Koru, where Simone & Bruce share insight into the practicalities of organizing a year in New Zealand. You can find an introduction to the project here together with an explanation of why we chose the koru as the symbol for our journey. Three gradient images (2 having one rounded corner each) could then be loaded ...

A new web format war

Bruce — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 09:17:02 +0000

From bioneural.net:

As if Blue-ray v HD-DVD wasn't enough: the W3C's HTML 5 spec is now a working draft (interestingly edited by Google and Apple employees), competition to XHTML 2. HTML 5 extends HTML (yet the iframe lives on!) to cover the semantics of "non-document" web content e.g. forums, search engines, e-shops, etc. But do the differences mean developers must eventually choose one flavour or the other?

bioneural.net site preference panel revisited

Bruce — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 20:06:51 +0000

From bioneural.net:

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.) Get the files Let's get it done, then come back to the how and why if you're interested. Download the files to create your own preference panel as siteprefs.zip, available here. Expand the archive and upload the folder "siteprefs" into your K2 main directory: /wp-content/themes/k2/siteprefs/ At this point you may also want to download and activate the Theme Switcher plugin if you plan on allowing your audience to change the WordPress theme they see on a per-user basis (storing their preference in a cookie). Support for the plugin is built into the preference panel (see features, below). It's yours to play with and customise; all I ask is that you retain the little "i" icon with it's link back to these instructions. Feedback and suggestions for ...

Spring clean your WordPress head

Bruce — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 08:00:42 +0000

From bioneural.net:

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. Removing actions using a functions file Your theme may already include a file called functions.php. If it doesn't you can create one using the functions file found in the default theme directory (which is a bit busy), or copy-and-paste mine (with the K2 bits stripped out for clarity): The real advantage here is avoiding the need to hack any plugins or core WordPress files (an upgrader's nightmare). Let's go through the removal actions in sequence. Really Simple Discovery helps client software discover things about your blog. If you don't use a client and manage your posts directly in WordPress, you don't need to offer such help. The PHP script: remove_action('wp_head', 'rsd_link'); will remove a line from your head that looks something like this: Windows Live Writer is one such desktop blogging client, but supporting it needs yet another line in your head. The script: remove_action('wp_head', 'wlwmanifest_link'); will remove a line from your head that looks something like this: The Quoter plugin defaults to inserting comments, JavaScript, and CSS into your head: .commentlist blockquote cite { /* Fix for Kubrik theme */ display: inline; } You ...

Safari Tidy plugin

Bruce — Mon, 29 May 2006 09:48:54 +0000

From bioneural.net:

Safari Tidy plugin: Validation-checks pages in Safari using Tidy. Click status bar icon showing errors or warnings to locate position in source.

Welcome to WordPress

Bruce — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 03:30:31 +0000

From bioneural.net:

Beware: As at March 16 2006 this site is potentially unstable. Lots of things are broke. If you are using Internet Explorer 6 or older please consider upgrading to a browser with better standards support, such as Firefox, Safari, or Opera. bioneural.net has migrated from iBlog to WordPress. How to migrate from iBlog Coming... sometime. Update 29.05.06: A step-by-step migration guide is now online, here. Things to fix Weather Icon: WARNING: You forgot to make the cache directory writable. Please chmod 777 this folder. Should show icon + temp only; why is other data displaying? iStockPhoto feed is not displayed. Why? Warning: fopen(): URL file-access is disabled in the server configuration in /home/.ashea/bioneural/bioneural.net/wp-content/plugins/latestistockimages.php on line 50 Warning: fopen(http://www.istockphoto.com/istock_myfiles_rss.php?ID=430123): failed to open stream: no suitable wrapper could be found in /home/.ashea/bioneural/bioneural.net/wp-content/plugins/latestistockimages.php on line 50 Dreamhost Support say: We've purposely disabled URL access to php system functions (such as copy() open() etc.) because of security and performance problems. We have replaced it with CURL: http://wiki.dreamhost.com/index.php/CURL Unfortunately, it's beyond the scope of our support as how to port your script to use CURL instead of the system calls, but we can definately say it would do the job. You may want to talk to the maker of the plug-in about converting in, since frankly no good PHP is written using fopen these days. Solution may be SimplePie or reverting to JavaScript via Feed2JS? I tried hacking the plug-in based on some CURL examples but this took the site down! SimplePie is not so simple; temporary reversion to Feed2JS completed solution currently in testing implemented (with help from ...