Notebook Archives
Pagination Alternatives
Published 36 days ago by Justin French
Pagination is one of those ubiquitous things on the web. It’s easy to see a pattern like that, apply it to your own “I have too much data to show on one page” problem and take the quick win. Everyone else is doing it, it’s a pattern, you should use it too, right?
Formtastic 0.9.9 & 0.9.10 Released
Published 100 days ago by Justin French
I was hoping that the next Formtastic release was a 1.0.beta, but the recent Rails 2.3.6 2.3.7 2.3.8 release spurred us to issue 0.9.9 to maintain compatibility.
Learn how to test your code
Published 192 days ago by Justin French
I was recently asked by someone new to Ruby and Rails what advice I had for them. Other than “watch all the Railscasts”, I really only have one piece of advice.
The Leopard upgrade, and the stuff I still can't live without
Published 960 days ago by Justin French
You Don't Need a Development Manager
Published 1024 days ago by Justin French
One that’s been at the forefront of my thinking over the last few weeks is how we don’t seem to need a Development Manager at all.
It Only Takes a Minute
Published 1050 days ago by Justin French
Xavier could have easily pushed it out the door with some dry “cannot be changed” text, but it only took him a few seconds longer to go the extra mile and make that text a little warmer, informative and personal:
Web Directions 07: The Myths of Innovation
Published 1068 days ago by Justin French
Scott Berkun gave another great presentation on The Myths of Innovation.
Web Directions 07: The Mob Rules
Published 1068 days ago by Justin French
I still want to find time for a much more in depth review of Web Directions (short answer, it was fantastic, despite my own woeful contribution!), but the one presentation that remains at the very front of my mind is Mark Pesce’s closing keynote, The Mob Rules.
Warm and Fuzzy
Published 1122 days ago by Justin French
Seeing overwhelmingly positive, glowing reviews like this one of RedBubble products makes all the hard work really seem worthwhile.
RedBubble is Hiring a Web Designer
Published 1127 days ago by Justin French
Copied straight from our ad on 37signals’ Job Board…
Ruby Newbie Night Success
Published 1162 days ago by Justin French
Last night’s Ruby Newbie Night organised by the Melbourne Ruby Group was a great success, and I’m going to try much harder to attend the monthly meetings.
Number 5
Published 1163 days ago by Justin French
Australia is number 5 in the number of Rails developers per capita, according to Aslak and Working with Rails.
Where are you all hiding?
Lilu Templating Language
Published 1164 days ago by Justin French
Wow. Of all the template languages I’m seeing pop up for Ruby or Rails, Lilu is by far the biggest shift in thinking.
Multi Safari
Published 1177 days ago by Justin French
In the comments on my previous Safari 3 rant, Michel Fortin points out that he has a bunch of stand-alone Safari builds available for download:
What's up with the Safari 3 Beta?
Published 1177 days ago by Justin French
It actually installs over the top of Safari 2, which means without two computers, you can’t compare the two rendering engines side by side or retain Safari 2 as your “browser” whilst checking out the progress of Safari 3.
New Apple Website
Published 1179 days ago by Justin French
There’s plenty of talk in my feeds about WWDC, Safari and iPhone, but nothing much about the new apple.com redesign which I think is utterly beautiful.
Per-request Template Paths in Rails Edge (> 1.2.3)
Published 1184 days ago by Justin French
If you’re playing with Rails edge (> 1.2.3) and want to set the template path on a per-request basis, the game has changed a little.
Staginated
Published 1187 days ago by Justin French
Stage·in·ated, verb. Used with object. The act of pushing a particular code revision or feature out to the staging server with Capistrano. Origin deep within the RedBubble development team, probably me.
Here's what not to do if you want to hire me
Published 1189 days ago by Justin French
I have almost zero spare time for freelance work, but I’m getting a boatload of proposals in my inbox every week. Here’s what not to do if you’re trying to hire me (or anyone else, I imagine).
Hotspotr — Wifi Cafes and Hotspots
Published 1195 days ago by Justin French
Really hoping we can add a few more to the list for Melbourne, Australia, although Joe’s Garage is already there, which is a great start.
Colour T-Shirts
Published 1198 days ago by Justin French
Woo-hoo! I can’t stand wearing white T-Shirts, so I’m incredibly happy that we’ve rolled out colored T-Shirts on RedBubble today.
I'll be speaking at Web Directions South
Published 1201 days ago by Justin French
I’ve been wanting to try this public speaking thing for a while now, and I’m both terrified and incredibly excited to be given this opportunity.
Frank's Compulsive Guide to Postal Addresses
Published 1212 days ago by Justin French
More than you ever wanted to know about world-wide postal address formats and requirements.
BleakHouse
Published 1221 days ago by Justin French
BleakHouse is a Rails plugin for finding memory leaks. It tracks ObjectSpace for your entire app, and produces charts of references by controller, by action, and by object class.
Silverlight
Published 1221 days ago by Justin French
A quick glance at the Microsoft Silverlight FAQs
An Introduction to RDoc
Published 1221 days ago by Justin French
Tim Lucas’ Introduction to RDoc is great, and finding Evan Weaver’s Allison modern RDoc template along the way was an added bonus.
Coding for Content
Published 1227 days ago by Justin French
There’s a really nice article by Garrett Dimon over on Digital Web which walks through his design and mark-up decisions behind the figures in the latest redesign of his site.
Australian Ruby and Rails Communities
Published 1263 days ago by Justin French
Now that I work for an Australian company working with Rails, I’ve been bunting high-and-low for Australian (preferably Melbourne based) Ruby and Rails communities. Here’s the first batch, please add yours in the comments and I’ll amend the list.
Me, RedBubble and You
Published 1338 days ago by Justin French
So it’s occurred to me that I never really announced my change in career path.
Ruby-fu and Rails-fu with Err the Blog
Published 1354 days ago by Justin French
Err the Blog has a wonderful post Rubyisms in Rails Advent Calendar listing all sorts of Ruby and Rails magic for the holiday season.
Wanted
Published 1358 days ago by Justin French
If anyone has a Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer 2.0 (Wireless) they’d like to part with, I’d love to buy it.
Stupid Browser Tricks
Published 1360 days ago by Justin French
Here’s a little bookmarklet I’ve been using for a while to move my Safari window to it’s preferred location and size when I’m in “web developer” mode.
Stupid Bash Tricks
Published 1366 days ago by Justin French
Here’s some little snippets of Bash-fu for you Rails folk…
Wouldn't it be great
Published 1408 days ago by Justin French
I’ve just been knee-deep in CSS for a few days.
Ruby Linguistics
Published 1423 days ago by Justin French
Wow, 72 days since I wrote anything on this site. Something has to change here.
Form Widgets
Published 1495 days ago by Justin French
I’d like to take some time exploring (and hopefully discussing, via the comments) HTML’s form widgets, and the patterns for their use in the modern web application.
It's not flattery, it's plagiarism
Published 1504 days ago by Justin French
Thanks to the folks on the TextDrive forum, I’ve just been alerted to a lovely plagiarised version of my work. (Updated 31 July)
26 hours of waiting
Published 1539 days ago by Justin French
Taxi, walk, plane, walk, plane, walk, plane, walk, bus, taxi, walk.
Why I Think Shopify is Great
Published 1546 days ago by Justin French
Jaded Pixel have just announced that Shopify is live.
RailsConf 2006
Published 1554 days ago by Justin French
Hello there my fine readers, it’s been a while between drinks, eh? Just a quick note to let you know that I’m getting on that plane again and heading over to the US.
Yahoo's UI Library
Published 1575 days ago by Justin French
I’m sure many of my readers have already seen multiple posts about this stuff around the web, so I’ll keep this post short and sweet. This stuff looks really interesting.
Please, Please, Please
Published 1582 days ago by Justin French
Could someone patch in support for tabs in Terminal.app?
Safe Delete Links in Rails
Published 1582 days ago by Justin French
I’m utterly late to the party here, and I’ve seen this article many many times during my travels over the net, but I really wanted to make a note of it publicly.
Catching Up
Published 1639 days ago by Justin French
What on earth have I been doing to take sooo long in between posts to my own website? Good question!
TextThing is in Beta
Published 1697 days ago by Justin French
Ladies and Gentlemen, I’m very pleased to announce that TextThing is in an early beta testing phase.
Merry Christmas
Published 1714 days ago by Justin French
I haven’t got any wonderful illustrations for you like Hicks, but I’d like to thank every one for a great year here.
Stylesheet Sanity, Part 2
Published 1727 days ago by Justin French
Continuing on from part 1, this second instalment takes a look at another technique I’ve been using for a while. For lack of a better name, I’m calling it Layered Stylesheets.
Stateside, Again
Published 1728 days ago by Justin French
I’m back in the US again visiting Joyent HQ (San Anselmo, outside of San Francisco) until December 13th.
Updated
Published 1728 days ago by Justin French
After putting it off for oh-so-long, I finally grit my teeth and upgraded to Textpattern 4.0.2 whilst on the plane from Melbourne to San Francisco.
TextDrive Redesign
Published 1739 days ago by Justin French
Stylesheet Sanity, Part 1
Published 1746 days ago by Justin French
There’s a few techniques I’ve been using lately to make my stylesheets much easier to read, navigate and work with.
Now Portable
Published 1754 days ago by Justin French
iTunes Australia
Published 1774 days ago by Justin French
At long long long last, the Australian iTunes Music Store is here.
TextDrive Meetup Tonight
Published 1782 days ago by Justin French
It's Been Done
Published 1791 days ago by Justin French
The Girlfriend shall now be known as The Fiancée, and eventually known as The Wife.
Daring, Again
Published 1795 days ago by Justin French
Default Page Titles in Rails
Published 1795 days ago by Justin French
Anyone experienced with Ruby can probably skip straight past this, but I’m going to and get in the habit of posting lots of quick Ruby and Rails one-liners in here, so that newbies can slide right in and feel at home.
Ruby Conf'n
Published 1809 days ago by Justin French
I’ve received my passport, so it looks like Kate and myself will be in LA & San Diego from about October 6–22, for Ruby Conf and a general meet-n-greet with my fellow TextDrive staff.
A Small Victory
Published 1816 days ago by Justin French
Oh. Wow. Playing with Rails Routes last night, and I think I’ve found a way for TextThing’s URLs to do pretty much anything I want.
Without a Doubt
Published 1819 days ago by Justin French
Minty Fresh
Published 1822 days ago by Justin French
Bee a Vee Cee Three
Published 1823 days ago by Justin French
TextThing URL Structure and Categories
Published 1829 days ago by Justin French
Ok, time to talk a little more about TextThing!
Act-On Plug-in for Mail.app
Published 1829 days ago by Justin French
Honesty is The New Black
Published 1844 days ago by Justin French
Help Wanted
Published 1844 days ago by Justin French
I have a part-time contract position available in Melbourne, Australia for a talented PHP web developer.
Time Flies
Published 1846 days ago by Justin French
I just realised I missed the one year birthday of this website!
Strongspace 1.0
Published 1857 days ago by Justin French
An Ode to the Developer Toolbar
Published 1862 days ago by Justin French
Controller Inheritance in Rails
Published 1880 days ago by Justin French
I was going through this with a certain someone in iChat last night, when it dawned on me that this is the perfect thing for me to start off a series of Rails mini-tutorials.
A Mixed Bag Update
Published 1892 days ago by Justin French
It’s been far too long since I wrote anything decent on here, and to a certain extent, you’re going to have to wait a little longer, but here’s a quick update on life, TextDrive and Rails.
Dear Justin, Part 1
Published 1901 days ago by Justin French
Sometimes I feel like my inbox is an international help desk for web application development, PHP, Ruby and freelancing. But since Stephen has asked a bunch of questions to which I’m sure many of my readers would like to hear my answers to, I’m going to go ahead and answer this one in public.
Arrrghhhh!
Published 1907 days ago by Justin French
For those of you keeping count, this is the second keyboard that I’ve trashed in the past 9 months.
Apple and Intel
Published 1914 days ago by Justin French
Apologies for the lack of activity here lately. I’ve had plenty of things in various stages of drafting, but somehow they’ve never quite made it live, including my take on the whole Apple-Intel thing.
The Musical Baton Continues
Published 1934 days ago by Justin French
Just like everyone else, I’ve been passed a musical baton, which is a really nice way of finding out what everyone listens to, and discovering a few new blogs (geez, I still hate that word!) along the way. (Updated 19th May)
Life Hacks and Random Thoughts, Part 1
Published 1936 days ago by Justin French
I’m absolutely knee-deep in some pretty exciting Rails stuff right now, but I thought I’d come up for air and share a few little nuggets of knowledge that are floating around in my head right now.
Looking for a ColdFusion Developer?
Published 1946 days ago by Justin French
A good friend of mine has recently moved across from Adelaide to Melbourne (Australia), and he could really do with some more freelance, contract or even full time work. The boy has got the skills, but they sure aren’t paying the bills right now!
Backpack Does Everything
Published 1949 days ago by Justin French
Ok, this is another quick post because I really should be working, but I got my “golden ticket” to preview the new 37 Signals application Backpack, and it’s worth getting excited over!
Goodbye CocoaMySQL?
Published 1950 days ago by Justin French
More on Syncing Between Macs
Published 1951 days ago by Justin French
Whilst I’ve pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I’ll be (eventually) ditching the G4 Tower and working on the Powerbook only, I think there’s a lot more digging to be done when it comes to syncing.
Doing the Laptop Thing
Published 1955 days ago by Justin French
Ok, so I’m about to get a shiny new Powerbook to help with work when I’m travelling or away from my desk, but I have no idea how it’s going to fit into my workflow. Once again, your help and ideas are greatly appreciated!
We Value Your Opinion
Published 1960 days ago by Justin French
Ok, I need the advice and opinions of my readers on this one – if you have a few seconds spare to post a comment, I’d really appreciate it.
Cake PHP Framework
Published 1961 days ago by Justin French
May 1st Reboot
Published 1969 days ago by Justin French
The Rails FAQ
Published 1972 days ago by Justin French
Black is the New Black
Published 1976 days ago by Justin French
Some of you may have noticed the “inverted” (white and blue) stylesheet for this site has disappeared, leaving us with the “original” (black and orange) masterpiece.
Two Months On Rails
Published 1983 days ago by Justin French
Ok, so I’m a few days late, but let me tell you, I have nothing but praise for this framework.
Looking Back is Painful
Published 1988 days ago by Justin French
There’s many things I could be writing about at the moment, but instead, I’ve been spending a heap of time on some exciting stuff, and some not so exciting stuff. One of those not-too-exciting things was digging though a 4-year-old web project which I dare not link to.
G5 Alarm Clock
Published 1997 days ago by Justin French
I’m not usually one to link to stuff like this. In fact, I hardly link to anything on this site, but this is irresistible!
Something to Adore
Published 2009 days ago by Justin French
Here’s a sneak peak at some things I’ve been working on for one of the finest bands in Melbourne, who incidentally are launching their debut album at the Hi-Fi Bar in Melbourne this Saturday night.
Be a Vee-Cee
Published 2017 days ago by Justin French
Transmit 3
Published 2024 days ago by Justin French
Finally, my favourite FTP/SFTP application gets an upgrade.
Rails Routing Beta
Published 2025 days ago by Justin French
One Week with Rails
Published 2041 days ago by Justin French
Ta-Da!
Published 2052 days ago by Justin French
Help Wanted
Published 2059 days ago by Justin French
If you’re a talented PHP & MySQL geek, TextThing needs your help!
Apple, Apple, Apple
Published 2060 days ago by Justin French
Forum Thoughts
Published 2066 days ago by Justin French
No Top 5 Lists Here
Published 2080 days ago by Justin French
I’m going against the blogging end-of-year trend, and won’t be pumping out a bunch of top-5 and top-10 lists in my final post for the year.
Software Inventory
Published 2082 days ago by Justin French
Markdown
Published 2085 days ago by Justin French
Comments on a Separate Page?
Published 2088 days ago by Justin French
The current trend is most definitely to attach comments directly to the bottom of an article or topic.
Five Mistakes Band & Label Sites Make
Published 2096 days ago by Justin French
Beta Testing
Published 2097 days ago by Justin French
Here’s your chance to get on board for some beta testing of TextThing and Bandography.
TextThing URLs and 404s
Published 2102 days ago by Justin French
Here’s a quick update on the TextThing URL structure, and I’d love some help deciding what to do with 404s while we’re here!
Multipurpose PHP Config Files Revisted
Published 2108 days ago by Justin French
A while back, I wrote Multipurpose PHP Config Files. Let’s take another look at this thing, and make it even better. Updated Dec 3, 2004.
Style Switcher
Published 2110 days ago by Justin French
Some like the original, some like the inverted…
Excited
Published 2113 days ago by Justin French
PHP5, or not?
Published 2115 days ago by Justin French
TextThing – The CMS That Does Less™
Published 2117 days ago by Justin French
So, I think I’ve come up with a tentative new name for the CMS — and what better way to celebrate than a little debate about URL structures!
Feedster Developer's Contest
Published 2121 days ago by Justin French
Giving Something Back
Published 2123 days ago by Justin French
The Open Source Community has been the foundation of my livelihood for many many years, so it feels really good to be working on my own project, giving a little something back to show my appreciation. (Updated Nov 20)
Remapping Exposé
Published 2125 days ago by Justin French
Finally, I’ve found out how to map Exposé to F14–F16, and couldn’t be happier!
Inverted
Published 2128 days ago by Justin French
I got a little bored with this mind-numbing shopping cart application I’ve been working on, and decided that things needed to change a little around here.
Speechless
Published 2129 days ago by Justin French
I am amazed and dumbfounded by recent events both in the US and here in Australia.
iTunes Music Store for Australia
Published 2134 days ago by Justin French
When oh when are Apple going to announce even a plan for the Australian iTMS? It’s time for us Aussie “bloggers” to start making some noise!
Chris Shiflet
Published 2135 days ago by Justin French
I’ve just uncovered a wonderful resource for PHP-related security tips and general geekery.
Sweet Potato Soup
Published 2139 days ago by Justin French
This is getting way off topic for this website, but I feel the urge to share a tasty soup recipe with you all.
TextMate Grows Up
Published 2143 days ago by Justin French
TextMate, my own personal BBEdit Killer has had it’s first official update since it’s launch a few weeks back.
Steal My Code: Easy Images with PHP
Published 2143 days ago by Justin French
Google Insider?
Published 2151 days ago by Justin French
Is anyone here a Google employee, or know someone “on the inside”? (Updated Oct 28)
Birthday Wishes
Published 2152 days ago by Justin French
About 11 months ago, I met (and promptly fell in love with) an amazing, funny, intelligent and beautiful person named Kate, and today is her birthday.
TextMate Wiki, Sunshine, Beer, etc
Published 2153 days ago by Justin French
Here’s some collected notes and thoughts from today…
TextMate's First Few Hours
Published 2157 days ago by Justin French
Doug
Published 2157 days ago by Justin French
Wednesday Funnies
Published 2158 days ago by Justin French
It's Here!
Published 2158 days ago by Justin French
Crazy Logs
Published 2158 days ago by Justin French
TextMate – Believe The Hype
Published 2162 days ago by Justin French
I somehow managed to get in to the last stages of the Beta process for this new text editor, and I’m absolutely blown away with it… Start getting very excited right now!
Software Development
Published 2166 days ago by Justin French
Email Aliases in Apple Mail
Published 2171 days ago by Justin French
While it may not be completely obvious from the GUI, it’s absolutely easy to have mail aliases (multiple email address’ associated with one mailbox) in Mail.app. Updated October 11th.
Redirect after POST
Published 2172 days ago by Justin French
Textpattern 1.0 RC1
Published 2173 days ago by Justin French
Font Book
Published 2174 days ago by Justin French
Zen Garden Updates
Published 2175 days ago by Justin French
I don’t do much linking on this site, but some of the latest additions are really worth a comment or two…
Multipurpose PHP Config Files
Published 2177 days ago by Justin French
Ok, time for one of those little PHP tricks that I’ve been keeping to myself too long! (Updated November 25, 2004)
Next Generation Blog Software
Published 2184 days ago by Justin French
Hosting
Published 2192 days ago by Justin French
BBEdit vs TextMate
Published 2194 days ago by Justin French
Scanner Recommendations?
Published 2194 days ago by Justin French
Can anyone recommend an cheap, reliable budget printer for Mac OS X?
Firewall, OS X, MSN, etc
Published 2196 days ago by Justin French
After much frustration with MSN file transfers on OS X (turning the firewall off temporarily, etc) I decided to find out what port MSN needed open.
An Interface Email Group
Published 2198 days ago by Justin French
After sitting at my desk late one night working on a rather complex HTML form, I thought to myself “I’d love a place where I could ask my peers for opinions about this”. And now I do…
I Want To Love Firefox, But...
Published 2199 days ago by Justin French
Up Late with MVC
Published 2202 days ago by Justin French
Here’s a few notes about my new favourite acronym, MVC.
JavaScript setAttribute vs IE
Published 2205 days ago by Justin French
Here’s a workaround for IE’s poor support of setAttribute when dealing with event attributes like onclick.
The 80/20 Rule
Published 2207 days ago by Justin French
In what can only be described as “a moment of clarity”, I’ve just made some decisions which will vastly change the way I do business and how I build websites.
You've Mastered CSS, Now What?
Published 2219 days ago by Justin French
In a post on the “WSG” mailing list this afternoon, a nineteen year old designer asked where he should focus his attention now that he’s feeling comfortable with CSS. The reality is there much more to web design than XHTML and CSS. Here’s some food for thought.
Enhanced, Part 1
Published 2222 days ago by Justin French
This site has been live for less than a week, and I’ve already started tweaking and fiddling with this website. As if there wasn’t enough to do already!
On the CSS Vault
Published 2225 days ago by Justin French
Welcome to all visitors via the CSS Vault’s noteworthy list.
New Windows in Textpattern
Published 2225 days ago by Justin French
I prefer opening links to external sites in a new window. With XHTML Strict, this can no longer be done with the target attribute. I settled upon combination of the rel attribute and a simple javascript to achieve the same results a while back, and here’s how I modified Textpattern and Textile to help me out with this.
Update: Revised the Javascript a little – now bug free!
A Better Textpattern Search
Published 2227 days ago by Justin French
I was hoping to run Textpattern on this site without any hacks or mods to the source code at all, but as it stands, things are quite limited in the search area. So, here’s my first how-to (now updated to Textpattern 4.0.2).
Complacency with CSS?
Published 2228 days ago by Justin French
I have plenty of full CSS layouts out there on commercial websites right now. Designing with CSS and well-formed XHTML now seems as comfortable to me as tables and spacer GIFs did less than a year ago. But with this new found comfort and complacency comes danger.
Dates and Timezones
Published 2228 days ago by Justin French
I have a feeling that the average programmer hasn’t really given too much thought to storing dates and times properly. The reality is that it’s really complex stuff. The more you research, the more issues you uncover.
An Audience of One
Published 2229 days ago by Justin French
I never really saw the need to start publishing my own weblog. Sure, I have things I could say and plenty of knowledge I could share, but there’s thousands of similar sites out there already, and I honestly wondered if we needed another one. That was, until tonight.