It’s the dawning of a new age here in my household.  Despite being a fan-boy of all-things-tech, I’m not generally one that has to have all the latest and greatest toys.  I often like to see what plays out, watch the prices come down a bit, and then decide what I’d really use.  Well… given the untimely misfortune of our last DVD player (just before Christmas!), we found ourselves comparing prices and specs for a new device… and the Bose Lifestyle V-Class system will just have to wait.

We finally settled on an inexpensive Sony Blu-ray DVD player.  Despite being inexpensive, it’s packed with tons of cool features.  I know I’m probably terribly late to Blu-ray party, but honestly I thought Blu-ray would never catch on.  I guess I was wrong.  Movies in full HD 1080p is nice. Very nice.

In addition to Blu-ray DVD, we are now experiencing much more.  Mr. TV, meet the internet.  We just watched our first Amazon video tonight – Mr. Popper’s Penguins – (great show, by the way – plus it was free with a coupon!).

So, we’re excited for this new adventure in technology.  I’m not sure how soon it will be before my refrigerator is also connected to the internet, but in the meantime, we’ll enjoy our favorite Movies, TV shows, and stream Pandora through the surround sound.  Ya, buddy!

If you don’t have the budget for a custom WP Theme, I highly recommend checking out
Elegant Themes – for their pre-made and extremely high quality, premium WordPress themes.

You get Unlimited Access to all their themes for just $39 (for a whole year), and that can’t be beat!  You’ll definitely find one you like but this way you can try out a few different ones too – or change it up every so often.

** As always, if you still want a Custom WordPress Theme, feel free to Contact me.  Thanks!

1. Open the file
2. Click CTRL + F
3. Select “Current document” in “Find in” (You can also select the folder if you have multiple files)
4. Search in “Source code”
5. Tick “Use regular expression”
6. Type “[rn]{2,}” (without quotes) in “Find”
7. Type “n” (without quotes) in “Replace”
8. Press “Replace All”

And there you have it… works like a charm!

With this simple jQuery function, you can notify a user if they’ve made any un-saved changes to a form field – and give them a chance to save or discard those changes. I was recently able to try this out on a work project and it is working beautifully.

I have a feeling THIS will come in very handy for a variety of projects.

var isDirty = false;
var msg = 'You haven't saved your changes.';

$(document).ready(function(){
   $(':input').change(function(){
      if(!isDirty){
         isDirty = true;
      }
   });

   window.onbeforeunload = function(){
      if(isDirty) {
         return msg;
      }
   };
});

Simply Beautiful and Beautifully Simple.

Probably two of my favorites on the internet today – Cameron Moll and the iPad.

Cameron has decided to give away an iPad and the opportunity to win as well as talk about one of my favorite designers was too good to pass up.  When I came across Cameron’s Letterpress Poster of the Salt Lake City LDS Temple, he had only a few left.  I regret not purchasing one right then and there…  I hope he makes that one available again as I have just the place in my office for a large signed copy.  Just to name a couple of other famous creations by Cameron, there is AuthenticJobs which caters to designers / developers seeking jobs.  It is an amazing resource, and an amazing website in it’s own right.  I’ve also purchased and read Cameron’s book Mobile Web Design which taught me a lot about mobile websites and helped me really get into the mobile-movement.

Be sure to check out Cameron’s latest Letterpress Poster, the Colosseo – seen here colosseotype.com .

Here is a preview of his work… the man is simply amazing.

Thanks for the opportunity Cameron, and best of success to you!

Simply place this code in a file called MY_Exceptions.php in your application/library folder (assuming your sub-class prefix is “MY_” set in config).

<?php
class MY_Exceptions extends CI_Exceptions{
    function MY_Exceptions(){
        parent::CI_Exceptions();
    }

    function show_404($page=''){

        $this->config =& get_config();
        $base_url = $this->config['base_url'];

        // could redirect to known controller - or redirect to home page
        header("location: ".$base_url);
        exit;
    }
}
?>

That’s it!  This example above is set to redirect 404 errors back to your home page.  You can easily change it to redirect visitors to a custom “Error” controller that you would build the same way as any other controller/view.

1. Not Actually Owning Your Domain – this is a biggie.  Many ‘design-your-own’ website services offer you a domain name as part of your website subscription, but there’s a catch… YOU don’t own your domain, they do.  Be sure that when you order a domain name, it will be yours.  With any luck, you’ll end up building recognition with the domain you use  and you don’t want to be stuck paying exorbitant fees to purchase that name later once you figure out they’ve trapped you into it.
2. No Access to all DNS Controls – Full Online Account Management is something any domain provider should give you, but if you find someone that doesn’t it will be well worth a few more bucks to go to another company for your domain.  Even if all you plan on doing with your domain is using it for your Blogger (blogspot) blog, you’ll need access to your DNS to set that up.  If you ever decide you want an email address with your new domain, you’ll need access to your DNS.
3. No Domain Forwarding – this may not be as vital as others, but I’ve come across this a few times.  In case you ever want or need to point an existing domain to another one, you’ll need Domain Forwarding.  As an example, let’s say you buy the name abywebsitedesignsandexcellenttips.com and you go out and build an awesome website and start to get a few followers and clients.  Then later, it strikes you that it might be more simple for your visitors to type in a shorter name… and you find that the killer name of :  abydesign.com is available!  You don’t necessarily want to drop the old name, because then your old followers/clients wouldn’t find you.  You’ll want to forward that old domain to the new one.  Typing in that big long name, will now automatically redirect to the much nicer, shorter name.
4. High Cost (we’re talking really high) - Don’t get sucked into using a domain registrar just because they are a huge company (this doesn’t mean you buy from someone that nobody has heard of either).  Your domain should cost you no more than $15 per year.  If it is more than that, you better take a real close look at what you’re getting and make sure it is worth it.  Another mistake along this topic is FIND A COUPON when you’re looking to buy.  Most companies have coupon options at checkout and you can often find discount codes easily with a few quick Google searches.  It is well worth the savings.
5. Poor Customer Support – No matter what business it is, I find that I’m willing to pay more for a product if the service is extraordinary.  Ask around, use Twitter, find out what others are saying about the provider you’re looking at.  Of course, you may not find one that someone hasn’t said something negative about, but use your judgment and you can typically tell if you’re reading a review from an irritated customer that may have just had a bad day and needs to vent, or a true concerning issue that needed to be addressed.  I think you’ll quickly find and separate the bad providers and the good ones.

More tips coming soon for other topics such as Hosting, Content Management Systems (CMS), Custom Websites, Email Services, etc.  Feel free to leave other suggestions below.

Here are a few that I already have *some* experience with, but want to master this year -

• CodeIgniter
• jQuery
• API’s – specifically Twitter / Facebook / Google Maps / etc.
• ExpressionEngine
• Mobile Web Interfaces and Apps
• More WordPress Theme and Plugin Development
• Other Frameworks

I’m planning on giving a review of each item and post in-depth tips, tricks, and general cool features with each as I learn more about them. This should be fun year!

What are you looking forward to learning this year?

“The Survey for people who make Websites”

A List Apart produces the absolute greatest publication about “our profession as a profession”.  Gathering information about the web design community is valuable to me as a web developer, and valuable to the future of all web architecture.  If you are a fellow ‘website maker’, please take the time to fill out the survey.

A List Apart 2009 Web Survey