JavaScript is nice when it isn't hacked {yuiblog.com}

What happens if JavaScript files on a website are hacked? The website still functions, but lacks the desired functionality, that’s what. Now, this isn’t the end of the world, but it does create a major headache for the site owner/tech guy. A current hacking trend is to add a line of code to every file in the site directory with a .js ending (index.php files are also a common target). This line of code, a script itself, will cause JavaScript functions like JQuery to no longer function. Many Wordpress functions will no longer work either. Not cool. The solution?

• Reinstall Wordpress (this could correspond with a needed upgrade anyway). No big deal, seeing as this takes a matter of seconds.
• Delete and reinstall all plug-ins that use JS or search each plug-in folder and manually edit the file to remove the malicious code. The latter option is useful if you have modified the plug-ins.
• Delete and reinstall your theme or find your theme folder and fix the JS files (and index.php) by hand. Again, the latter is more time consuming, but is usually quickest.
• Repeat the above steps for any other sites under your main account that may have been compromised.
• Change your Wordpress and host passwords just to be safe.

Dull

Now:

Sharp

Posts will resume later in the day

It’s never a good thing to see daily traffic plunge in Google Analytics and then head to the site and see, “Your PHP installation appears to be missing the MySQL extension which is required by WordPress.” Also, the supposedly tech-savvy people like to make error resolution more difficult than it needs to be by posting convoluted and unnecessary fixes do not help. Be sure to use specific keywords for your Google searches. In this case, the fix took minimal effort: BlueHost screwed up the php.ini during server maintenance. Solution: log-in to the account and reset the php.ini file. Done.

Save over 35% {bbsaab.com}

GM may finally be getting rid of the Saab brand. In about an hour (3 am EST, or 4pm Beijing Time) we will learn at least one of the fates of the Saab brand. Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Corp. (BAIC) is expected to purchase the intellectual property for the 9-3 and 9-5 lines of automobiles in addition to all of the equipment required to manufacture those cars. This deal would supposedly be separate from a buyout by Dutch-based Spyker Cars.

Regardless of business transactions, now is an ideal time to buy a Saab. Next year’s models are not available in the United States, so dealers are left with new 2009 models. It’s no surprise considering that only a couple hundred Saabs are sold across the country every month. Some unfortunate dealerships, in fact, still have new 2008 and even 2007 models, most often the 9-3 Convertible. How often does someone buy a 3 year old car with no miles on it? B&B Sabb, in the Bay Area of California, has a 2009 Saab 9-3 for only $29,999 – that’s over 35% off MSRP. Other dealers, like Massey in Orlando even have 9-3’s for $15k off MSRP. Buy one and ship it across the country if you have to. Who cares if the dealership that promised free 3 year/36,000 mile factory maintenance closes – it’s all GM parts anyway. Two warnings, however – don’t try and lease a Saab and don’t try and haggle – dealerships are already losing a good chunk of change.

{littleboxofideas.com}

In an effort to jazz up the site, TKBB has added drop caps to the first letter of every post. Usually, drop caps are manually inserted into the code via a simple CSS addition and a few characters of HTML code. The implementation either uses a span or an image. However, in the case of Wordpress, it’s easier to use a plugin – in this case the Milburn Drop Caps plugin. Essentially, the plugin finds the beginning of a paragraph and inserts the CSS styling to the first character. The default is to produce a drop cap with shadow effect on posts, pages, comments, and search results of your choosing. However, despite an option to disable styling on attachments, the drop cap still shows in attachment text (such as captions) when it is marked not to. TKBB has a caption before the main text 90% of the time. Luckily, with some trial-and-error, it is possible enable functioning drop caps for such a scenario using the Wordpress plugin.

1. Find the plugin file to edit. In the Wordpress admin panel, go to Plugins->Editor->Drop Caps and select ‘drop-caps/wp_drop_caps.php’. Next, scroll 1/2 way down and find the function that searches for the first paragraph <p> tag
2. Look for: function the_content_filter($content = ”) {
3. Replace:

$pattern = ‘/<p( .*)?()??( .*)?>((<[^>]*>|\s)*)((&quot;|&#8220;|&#8216;|&lsquo;|&ldquo;|\’)?[A-Z])/U’;

with:

$pattern = ‘/<p>?([A-Z])/U’;

4. Now, the function will find the first normal <p> tag. However, we still must alter the code for the $replace variable. Find and replace:

$replacement = ‘<p$1$4>$5<span title=”$7″><span>$7</span></span>’;

with:

$replacement = ‘<p class=”first-child”> <span title=”$1″><span>$1</span></span>’;

5. Now, the function will properly insert the drop cap given the change to the search pattern.
6. To properly display the drop caps on excerpts, look for the_excerpt_filter function. Some themes, such as this one, add a space after the excerpt <p> tag. So, add the corresponding HTML character number, which is &#32. The final result will look like:

$pattern = ‘/<p>((&quot;|&#32;|&#8220;|&#8216;|&lsquo;|&ldquo;|\’)?[A-Z])/’;

7. Tweak the CSS margins, add some padding, or change the font and you’re all set.

The lowest common denominator of the audience is the first issue a web designer needs to address. The type of connection and the type of computer used to access a websit will dictate if a website can load at all. Such forethought is especially necessary for websites that target users in developing nations, such as Africa. Few people want to wait for a minute or more for a high resolution image (that may not even be completely relevant to the article) to load. In that same minute, a user could read multiple paragraphs of useful text. This site, for example, takes 30+ seconds to load over a fast connection, with images composing the vast majority of the 1.8mb that constitute the homepage. Not a good sign. In fact, this site would take a few minutes to completely load over a dial-up connection. Fortunately, the TKBB mobile version (not currently active), can provide a fast load time by removing the images and much of the formating.

However, this doesn’t mean that a site needs to be written in text-only HTML (View TKBB in text format). Fortunately, there are multiple sources that explain web design guidelines for low bandwidth, most notably, a page at aptivate.org. Some suggestions:

• Use WP-Super-Cache to make static versions of pages and reduced server load
• Consider caching CSS files, or Javascript/PHP if you are more daring
• Don’t create huge pages. If useful data appears within 2 seconds, visitors will wait up to 30 seconds.
• Use CSS to reduce images and maintain a clean site structure. Don’t require more than a couple of clicks.
• Allow pages to be cached. This will reduce the load time for frequent visitors.
• Avoid PDFs and scripting. If links to large files are necessary, show the file size.
• Content is king: put useful information first.

Fortunately, the trend in web design is tending toward elegant CSS styles that are not super-heavy on the bandwidth. Even the largest of CSS files does not compare with a high-res JPG file. Few sites employ the auto-play of streaming video either.

Enjoy while you can

GeoCities is officially closing today, after years of tacky user-generated content, animated GIFs and MIDI files. The network really was a precursor to the modern social network and blogging platform, but now is just clutter in the forest of the Internet. At least Yahoo knows when to just throw in the towel – it’s not worth the time or effort to further monetize the site and just have it lie in limbo. At least we still have Angelfire…

Three types of systems. Currently, Facebook follows the first diagram, but should aspire to (B) or (C). {cffn.ca}

Unbeknown to most (because they fail to read the terms of service), individual content posted on a social network site becomes the property of the network. In turn, the network can most likely use the content in any way it sees fit. Furthermore, centrally-located information remains a risk for hackers due to its high density (read: bang for the buck). Fortunately, researchers at Duke University are currently exploring new and improved structures for social networks. The concepts have been around for ages and now it is a matter of utilizing technological advances. Landon Cox, a Duke University assistant professor of computer science explains:

“The basic idea is that users would control and store their own information and then share it directly with their friends instead of it being mediated through a site like Facebook. And there are some interesting challenges that go along with decomposing something like Facebook into a peer-to-peer system.

Such challenges include the availability of content and speed of delivery. Facebook, for example, has neither of these problems. Proposed decentralized solutions include:

1. Host each social network user’s “Virtual Individual Server” on his or her own desktop. Problem: the computer must remain on in order to serve the user’s content.
2. Distribute individual servers within clouds of servers. Problem: Cost. Amazon’s Elastic Computer Cloud costs $50/mo for one server.
3. “Hybrid decentralization” – a combination of #1 and #2. The cloud server will be used when desktops go offline.