“The datasphere was a construct delight that first year - I called up information almost constantly, living in a frenzy of full interface. I was as addicted to raw data as the Caribou Herd were their stims and drugs. I could imagine don Balthazar spinning in his molten grave as I gave up long-term memory for the transient satisfaction of implant omniscience. It was only later that I felt the loss - Fitzgerald's Oddyssey, Wu's Final March, and a score of other epics which had survived my stroke now were shredded like cloud fragments in a high wind. Much later, freed of implants, I painstakingly learned them all again.
Back up MySQL databases with PHP
Quick, easy and efficient database backups for your on-the-go lifestyle
If you are like most people in the LAMP server world, you use AutoMySQLBackup[^1] to handle your database backups. I've used it for years and have enjoyed its wonderful set-it-and-forget-it stability. However, I've recently become annoyed with mountains of backups it keeps for each database and that is wasn't intelligent enough to pick up new databases automatically. So I went hunting for some potential solutions and I came across one that I found very promising.
Read more“Write your Readme first.
This article is a humbling reminder of how lazy I am. It's idea is dead simple: write your readme first. The act of writing something down so that someone else can use and understand it really solidifies solidifies that idea.
The crazy thing is that this idea is true for most things in my life, I don't really understand how I'm feeling or what I'm thinking until I talk to someone about it. Take my marriage for example, there are many times I'm just grumpy and short with my wife and most of those time I have no idea why. It isn't until I take the time to articulate whats going on that I really understand some of the more subtle aspects. If it works for my marriage then it has to work for software!
Link: Site Development Workflow: Keep it in Code
This article was posted a while ago but I was just recently reminded of the value of what they touch on. It's a wonderful overview of how to setup a really nice development environment for drupal. It touches on simple things like version control but goes onto some really helpful discussion of great modules like boxes and context. It finishes it up with an explanation of features. I just started using this module and I love it. I wish I had it a long time ago!
Link: Why Drupal?
Nathan Smith is a smart guy. I've read much of his writing back in the day when ablegray.com was on textpattern. He, like many else, has made the switch to drupal and he does a good job of breaking down why.
“I found myself resorting to the same button styles, shading techniques, etc… and having to force myself to go back and change things up. I figured that if these guys can spend a year making a single piano, I could probably spend an extra couple hours here and there on refining these details.
Link: Cross-browser kerning-pairs & ligatures
I just came across this link and plan on using it as part of my reset stylesheets. Simply add text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; to your paragraph and header declarations and it will cause some modern browsers to do proper kerning where they're able.
The 50 Rock'n States
When you find rocks that look like states, you make a map.
What does one do when they've got time to kill whilst on the banks of Erie Lake? After skipping stones for hours you but those stones to another good use...cartography. Most of the work was done by the guy who clearly got an A in geography in elementary school, Ben Heebner.
Link: Tim Ray on HTML5 and the Web
Tim Ray writes with a sense of perspective about HTML5 that my stubbornness and nerdy passions typically prevent me from having. I'm going to make this required reading for myself when I'm having a nerd fit about some big company not adhering to the theoretically purity of a particular web standard.
“And all the host laughed and wept, and in the midst of their merriment and tears the clear voice of the minstrel rose like silver and gold, and all men were hushed. And he sang to them…until their hearts, wounded with sweet words, overflowed, and their joy was like swords, and they passed in thought out to regions where pain and delight flow together and tears are the very wine of blessedness.
First, some context. This is a quote from Hyperion, the amazing book by Dan Simmons. Second, the Caribou Herd is the poets group of crazy and rich friends. Third, don Balthazar was the Poets teacher as a boy who insisted he learn without the use of technology and finally their datasphere is like the internet but they connect to it through neural implants.
Now reread it. That was written in 1989 but is the perfect description of what is going on with our internet saturated culture. I read it the other day and it made me shiver.