The main design advantage that bottom shadow effects have is that it will give you the impression of deepness to your content and elements.

Here is the desired effect

Step 1 – Open your image / document

Open your document or image in Photoshop and create a new Layer right after your main Layer. In this layer we will add the bottom shadow effect and because the new layer is positioned right after our main one it will display in the back without overlapping the main layer…

Add a new layer

Step 2 – Foreground color and Brush

Set your foreground color to black so we can paint our bottom shadow

Now select your Brush Tool () and from the brush preset picker select a soft brush. And set  the diameter to be a little smaller than the shadow size you want to add.

Select a soft brush

Click once just below the shape to which you want to add shadow. Try to add the brushed point right on the middle of your shape. Like this:

Step 3 – Bottom shadow using Motion Blur

Now using the Motion Blur Filter we will create our bottom shadow. So go to Filter » Blur » Motion Blur and from the properties pane that appears make sure your motion angle is set to 0 (horizontal) and in my example I have set a 90 pixels Distance but you can set a lower value depending of your shape size. In most cases 90 pixels will do the job just fine. After the settings are set press OK to apply the effect.

Now to complete the effect press CTRL + F 2 or 3 times to re-apply the blur motion effect. Bottom shadow effect is added to your shape or image.

Now the end result looks quite good and very neat on your shape or image. Using this method you can add bottom shadow effects to virtually everything in Photoshop, it takes just a little practice to master the settings but the results could be quite interesting and nice to use in your designs.

The end result after the Motion Blur effect

In speranta ca marea majoritatea dintre voi petrec foarte mult timp in fata calculatorului si pentru ca multi nici nu stiu cum sa isi faca viata mai usoara din punct de vedere al sanatatii incercati in primul rand cand ajungeti la birou sau acasa in fata computer-ului din dotare sa va acordati cateva minute sa reflectati asupra conditiei voastre

Ma simt sau nu confortabil pe scaun in fata calculatorului?

Raspunsul trebuie sa fie simplu DA sau BA!

Aici intervine Ergonomia. Desi poate suna ciudat Ergonomia spatiului de munca este o stiinta care se ocupa cu design-ul jobului si echipamentului pentru a se potrivii cu muncitorul. Astfel ca de ce sa nu facem ceva in privinta acestui lucru reusind in acest sens sa ne imbunatatim viata si productivitatea in munca (cat de corporate suna, dar sa nu pierdem din vedere esenta).

Lista punctelor esentiale

Daca cautam putin pe net despre ergonomie si exemple gasim o gramada, unele mai detaliate altele mai simple, ce pierdem noi insa din vedere este faptul ca cele mai importante le putem face fara prea mult efort, astfel ca am agregat o lista cu cele mai importante si usor de facut aspecte in ceea ce priveste ergonomia noastra la locul de munca sau acasa…

Scaunul

Poate cel mai important obiect pe care il avem. Scaunul pe care stam in primul rand trebuie sa fie confortabil, sa iti inspire acel sentiment de plutire ca si cum nu ai avea nimic care sa te sustina, desi sentimentele acestea sunt “scumpe” investitia se amortizeaza in foarte scurt timp.

• Picioarele trebuie sa fie pe podea (lipite) si glezna la 90 de grade.
• Coapsele paralele cu podeaua si genunchii indoiti la 90 de grade
• Intre scaun si genunchi trebuie sa fie cativa centrimetrii liberi
• Coatele sa fie la 90 de grade cand se lucreaza la tastatura
• Lasate pe spate cat mai mult posibil in scaun, astfel o sa iti impui pozitia dreapta

Biroul

Conform ergotron.com biroul trebuie sa indeplineasca cateva caracteristici (eu le-am neglijat la inceput si am regretat mai tarziu cu dureri de tot felul si de mai multe intensitati).

• Inaltimea coatelor de la podea ne spune cat trebuie sa fie inaltimea biroului (coatele trebuie sa fie o extensie a biroului in momentul in care lucram la tastatura)
• Cele mai folosite obiecte de pe birou trebuiesc asezate cat mai aproape de maini astfel incat sa reducem ridicarea repetata a mainilor pentru a le folosii
• Birourile care au un Slider (tava care iese) pentru tastatura fara extensie pentru mouse sunt cele mai nepotrivite pentru lucrul la birou. Mainile trebuie sa stea la acelasi nivel mereu cand lucram.

Monitorul

Poate cel mai neglijat dintre componentele noastre.

• Distanta fata de monitor trebuie sa fie adecvata – lungimea unui brat este cea ideala (circa 50 cm)
• Daca iti permite seteaza monitorul la un unghi (pe verticala) de 10, 20 de grade astfel miscarea gatului va fi minima in momentul in care te uiti la el
• Capul trebuie sa fie intr-o pozitie neutra astfel incat doar ochii sa se miste, nu gatul
• Centreaza monitorul in fata ta, pentru a putea evita rasucirile din gat sau corp
• Linia perpendicula pe monitor de la ochi trebuie sa fie apropiata de partea superioara pentru a evita ridicarea gatului de fiecare data cand cautam continutul pe monitor
• Off – Topic – Refresh-ul monitorului trebuie sa fie de la 75Hz in sus, altfel daca este mai mic ochi vor percepe frame rate-ul foarte subtil si te vor durea (cum fac sa schimb refresh-ul)

Mouse si Tastatura

Deloc neglijabile aceste doua componente pe care le folosim cel mai des in activitatile noastre de zi cu zi.

• Relaxarea este punctul cel mai important, mainile si degetele trebuie sa fie relaxate tot timpul cand se lucreaza la tastatura sau cu mousele
• Mana care misca mousele trebuie sa fie la 90 de grade pentru a permite miscarea completa
• Incheieturile trebuie sa fie cat mai drepte cu putinta cand se foloseste tastatura. Este o conceptie gresita faptul ca stativele pentru tastatura sunt cele mai bune astfel ca aruncatile pe toate

Pauzele lungi si dese cheia marilor succese

Ochii obositi – Cornell’s Ergonomic guide spune ca “Every 15 minutes you should briefly look away from the screen for a minute or two to a more distant scene, preferably something more that 20 feet away. This lets the muscles inside the eye relax. Also, blink your eyes rapidly for a few seconds. This refreshes the tear film and clears dust from the eye surface.”

Stretching – Daca iti faci timp 5 minute si vrei sa rada si colegii de birou de tine poti sa iei in considerare putina gimnastica inainte de a incepe ziua de munca si de ce nu din cand in cand si in timpul zilei.

Surse informative

• Workspace Planner
• Cornell Ergo Guide
• CUergo: 10 Tips for Mouse Use
• World Wide Web si Experienta

Text Escaping Unescaping

For a project I worked a few months ago I needed to escape special characters used to pass some information from one point to another. Of course I used at that point the great application built by Marc called Unicode2HTML but I needed more than that. I wanted to convert also to other formats like \uXXXX or Punycode so after searching the net for a tool like that I found a very nice library built by Satorux called strutil.js.

The library actually does exactly what I wanted, it converts a character to a bunch of formats that I can use. The service Satorux has build, using this library, can be found at Text Escaping and Unescaping in JavaScript.

I decided to port this online version to an application so we can use it in offline also. This was a good project because it concluded to be my first Adobe AIR project (hope more will come).

I won’t make a tutorial on how to build an AIR app in this article because there is no point you can search the net for this kind of things and you will find dozens of great tutorials. But what I want to share with you is the application itself and the simplicity of the AUTO UPDATER Framework Adobe AIR has…

So here is the app I have made; click to install. For any kind of feedback just leave me a comment here or send me an email using the Contact page.

After reading the detailed information about how to update an AIR application I realized that this was easy as saying Scotty UPDATE ME

If need to check for a new update to my application all I need to do is to add this code in my page (HTML/Ajax version).

// instantiate an updater object
var appUpdater = new runtime.air.update.ApplicationUpdaterUI();
function checkUpdate()
{
	// we set the URL for the update.xml file
	appUpdater.updateURL = "http://localhost/update.xml";
	//we set the event handlers for INITIALIZED nad ERROR
	appUpdater.addEventListener(runtime.air.update.events.UpdateEvent.INITIALIZED, onUpdate);
	appUpdater.addEventListener(runtime.flash.events.ErrorEvent.ERROR, onError);
	//we can hide the dialog asking for permission for checking for a new update;
	//if you want to see it just leave the default value (or set true).
	appUpdater.isCheckForUpdateVisible = false;
	//if isFileUpdateVisible is set to true, File Update, File No Update,
	//and File Error dialog boxes will be displayed
	appUpdater.isFileUpdateVisible = false;
	//if isInstallUpdateVisible is set to true, the dialog box for installing the update is visible
	appUpdater.isInstallUpdateVisible = false;
	//we initialize the updater
	appUpdater.initialize();
}
function onUpdate(event)
{
	//starts the update process
	appUpdater.checkNow();
}
function onError(event)
{
    alert(event);
}

And on the <body> tag we just call the function:

<body onload="checkUpdate();">

Behind the scenes the flow is quite easy the checkUpdate() function reads the update.xml file and compares the information from there with the current application version (located in application.xml), if a new version is available will prompt the updater Ui asking for permission to install the new version.

The update.xml file looks like this:

<pre>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<update xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/air/framework/update/description/1.0">
	<version>0.2</version>
	<url>http://localhost/app.air</url>
	<description><![CDATA[
Version changes TEXT
  ]]></description>
</update>
</pre>

You can use this code to make an auto-updater for your Air applications every time, so great job Adobe for this nice feature.

Some examples

This text should have a text-shadow.

This text, too, should have a text-shadow.

Syntax for text-shadow

p.test{
    text-shadow: #6374AB 20px -12px 2px;
}

So text-shadow accepts 4 values (3 for position and 1 for color):

1. The color of the text-shadow (#6374AB)
2. The X-coordinate of the text-shadow (20px), relative to the text
3. The Y-coordinate of the text-shadow (-12px), relative to the text
4. The blur radius of the text-shadow (2px), which means the amount of space the shadowtext is ‘stretched’, causing a blur effect. 0 means: no blur. Don’t set this value too high, the shadowtext quickly becomes illegible.

Browser compatibility

At this point text-shadow only works within:

• Firefox 3 and above
• Opera 9.5 and above
• Safari 1.3 and above (partial)
• Chrome all versions

How to create the glow effect

Knowing all this now we can create a glow effect for our texts to give the some nice eye-catching experience for the user. The best example here is to use this effect on anchor links on hover (A:hover).

Looking at the example above we can see the effect of the text-shadow glow effect on the left side and on the right is the normal setting. This can be pretty neat to use on anchor links. So in order to get this effect we can declare in our CSS code the following properties:

A{
    color: #FFCC66;
    font-weight: bold;
    text-decoration: none;
}

A:hover{
    text-decoration: underline;
    color: #FFF;
    text-shadow: #EEE 0 0 10px;
}

So for all anchors we have a default color and no decoration styles. Now using the a:hover property we can add our glow effect using a lighter color and just the blur radius set to 10 pixels, so the shadow will be “centered” and blurred out from our text creating the glow effect.

Conclusion and resources

Quite simple and easy right? This could be a nice effect in your design process. It’s one of those things the are completing your “wow” effect when designing a new website. Very easy to use with just a few lines of code text-shadow can make the difference for your anchor styles. For more information about text-shadow you can find here:

quirksmode.org/css/textshadow

css3.info/preview/text-shadow

reference.sitepoint.com/css/text-shadow

Evolution of Programmer

High School/Jr.High

10 PRINT "HELLO WORLD"
20 END

First year in College

program Hello(input, output)
begin
writeln('Hello World')
end.

Senior year in College

(defun hello
(print
(cons 'Hello (list 'World))))

New professional

#include
void main(void)
{
char *message[] = {"Hello ", "World"};
int i;

for(i = 0; i < 2; ++i)
printf("%s", message[i]);
printf("\n");
}

Seasoned professional

#include
#include

class string
{
private:
int size;
char *ptr;

string() : size(0), ptr(new char[1]) { ptr[0] = 0; }

string(const string &s) : size(s.size)
{
ptr = new char[size + 1];
strcpy(ptr, s.ptr);
}

~string()
{
delete [] ptr;
}

friend ostream &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;operator <<(ostream &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;, const string &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;);
string &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;operator=(const char *);
};

ostream &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;operator<<(ostream &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;stream, const string &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;s)
{
return(stream << s.ptr);
}

string &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;string::operator=(const char *chrs)
{
if (this != &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;chrs)
{
delete [] ptr;
size = strlen(chrs);
ptr = new char[size + 1];
strcpy(ptr, chrs);
}
return(*this);
}

int main()
{
string str;

str = "Hello World";
cout << str << endl;

return(0);
}

Master Programmer

[
uuid(2573F8F4-CFEE-101A-9A9F-00AA00342820)
]
library LHello
{
// bring in the master library
importlib("actimp.tlb");
importlib("actexp.tlb");

// bring in my interfaces
#include "pshlo.idl"

[
uuid(2573F8F5-CFEE-101A-9A9F-00AA00342820)
]
cotype THello
{
interface IHello;
interface IPersistFile;
};
};

[
exe,
uuid(2573F890-CFEE-101A-9A9F-00AA00342820)
]
module CHelloLib
{

// some code related header files
importheader();
importheader(
);
importheader();
importheader("pshlo.h");
importheader("shlo.hxx");
importheader("mycls.hxx");

// needed typelibs
importlib("actimp.tlb");
importlib("actexp.tlb");
importlib("thlo.tlb");

[
uuid(2573F891-CFEE-101A-9A9F-00AA00342820),
aggregatable
]
coclass CHello
{
cotype THello;
};
};

#include "ipfix.hxx"

extern HANDLE hEvent;

class CHello : public CHelloBase
{
public:
IPFIX(CLSID_CHello);

CHello(IUnknown *pUnk);
~CHello();

HRESULT  __stdcall PrintSz(LPWSTR pwszString);

private:
static int cObjRef;
};

#include
#include
#include
#include
#include "thlo.h"
#include "pshlo.h"
#include "shlo.hxx"
#include "mycls.hxx"

int CHello::cObjRef = 0;

CHello::CHello(IUnknown *pUnk) : CHelloBase(pUnk)
{
cObjRef++;
return;
}

HRESULT  __stdcall  CHello::PrintSz(LPWSTR pwszString)
{
printf("%ws
", pwszString);
return(ResultFromScode(S_OK));
}

CHello::~CHello(void)
{

// when the object count goes to zero, stop the server
cObjRef--;
if( cObjRef == 0 )
PulseEvent(hEvent);

return;
}

#include
#include
#include "pshlo.h"
#include "shlo.hxx"
#include "mycls.hxx"

HANDLE hEvent;

int _cdecl main(
int argc,
char * argv[]
) {
ULONG ulRef;
DWORD dwRegistration;
CHelloCF *pCF = new CHelloCF();

hEvent = CreateEvent(NULL, FALSE, FALSE, NULL);

// Initialize the OLE libraries
CoInitializeEx(NULL, COINIT_MULTITHREADED);

CoRegisterClassObject(CLSID_CHello, pCF, CLSCTX_LOCAL_SERVER,
REGCLS_MULTIPLEUSE, &dwRegistration);

// wait on an event to stop
WaitForSingleObject(hEvent, INFINITE);

// revoke and release the class object
CoRevokeClassObject(dwRegistration);
ulRef = pCF->Release();

// Tell OLE we are going away.
CoUninitialize();

return(0); }

extern CLSID CLSID_CHello;
extern UUID LIBID_CHelloLib;

CLSID CLSID_CHello = { /* 2573F891-CFEE-101A-9A9F-00AA00342820 */
0x2573F891,
0xCFEE,
0x101A,
{ 0x9A, 0x9F, 0x00, 0xAA, 0x00, 0x34, 0x28, 0x20 }
};

UUID LIBID_CHelloLib = { /* 2573F890-CFEE-101A-9A9F-00AA00342820 */
0x2573F890,
0xCFEE,
0x101A,
{ 0x9A, 0x9F, 0x00, 0xAA, 0x00, 0x34, 0x28, 0x20 }
};

#include
#include
#include
#include
#include
#include "pshlo.h"
#include "shlo.hxx"
#include "clsid.h"

int _cdecl main(
int argc,
char * argv[]
) {
HRESULT  hRslt;
IHello        *pHello;
ULONG  ulCnt;
IMoniker * pmk;
WCHAR  wcsT[_MAX_PATH];
WCHAR  wcsPath[2 * _MAX_PATH];

// get object path
wcsPath[0] = '\0';
wcsT[0] = '\0';
if( argc > 1) {
mbstowcs(wcsPath, argv[1], strlen(argv[1]) + 1);
wcsupr(wcsPath);
}
else {
fprintf(stderr, "Object path must be specified\n");
return(1);
}

// get print string
if(argc > 2)
mbstowcs(wcsT, argv[2], strlen(argv[2]) + 1);
else
wcscpy(wcsT, L"Hello World");

printf("Linking to object %ws\n", wcsPath);
printf("Text String %ws\n", wcsT);

// Initialize the OLE libraries
hRslt = CoInitializeEx(NULL, COINIT_MULTITHREADED);

if(SUCCEEDED(hRslt)) {

hRslt = CreateFileMoniker(wcsPath, &pmk);
if(SUCCEEDED(hRslt))
hRslt = BindMoniker(pmk, 0, IID_IHello, (void **)&pHello);

if(SUCCEEDED(hRslt)) {

// print a string out
pHello->PrintSz(wcsT);

Sleep(2000);
ulCnt = pHello->Release();
}
else
printf("Failure to connect, status: %lx", hRslt);

// Tell OLE we are going away.
CoUninitialize();
}

return(0);
}

Apprentice Hacker

#!/usr/local/bin/perl
$msg="Hello, world.\n";
if ($#ARGV >= 0) {
while(defined($arg=shift(@ARGV))) {
$outfilename = $arg;
open(FILE, ">" . $outfilename) || die "Can't write $arg: $!\n";
print (FILE $msg);
close(FILE) || die "Can't close $arg: $!\n";
}
} else {
print ($msg);
}
1;

Experienced Hacker

#include
#define S "Hello, World\n"
main(){exit(printf(S) == strlen(S) ? 0 : 1);}

Seasoned Hacker

% cc -o a.out ~/src/misc/hw/hw.c
% a.out

Guru Hacker

% echo "Hello, world."

New Manager

10 PRINT "HELLO WORLD"
20 END

Middle Manager

mail -s "Hello, world." bob@b12
Bob, could you please write me a program that prints "Hello, world."?
I need it by tomorrow.
^D

Senior Manager

% zmail jim
I need a "Hello, world." program by this afternoon.

Chief Executive

% letter
letter: Command not found.
% mail
To: ^X ^F ^C
% help mail
help: Command not found.
% damn!
!: Event unrecognized
% logout

[Author Anonymous Via ariel.com.au]

Wordpress

I’m the Administrator on my WordPress site but my name doesn’t show up as an Author option when posting. This what happened to me one day, when I have checked all my posts.

Well occasionally, WordPress gets stoned and loses the Administrator’s name in the Author dropdown menu. I really do not know why and to be honest I never tried to figure out what is the reason for this bug.

The fix for this one is actually quite simple (although it could look like your are scratching your right ear with your left hand). Here is what  you need to do to fix this bug: …

1. Set up a new, temporary, Admin user then Log out
2. Log back in again as the new user.
3. Navigate to Users and select your old Admin profile.
4. Reduce your old profile down to Subscriber and save the new settings.
5. Update your old profile back to Admin again and save the new settings (funny right )
6. Log out again – Log back in again using your old Admin username.
7. Check that you can now see your name in the Author dropdown in Add/Edit Posts.
8. If all is OK, delete the temporary Admin user. You no longer need it.

I had this problem also with WordPress 2.8 so if you have this problem just do as I did above. Don’t really know if this also happens in WordPress 2.9

<pre>with x( s, ind ) as
( select sud, instr( sud, ' ' )
from ( select '53  7    6  195    98    6 8   6   34  8 3  17   2   6 6    28    419  5    8  79' sud from dual )
union all
select substr( s, 1, ind - 1 ) || z || substr( s, ind + 1 )
, instr( s, ' ', ind + 1 )
from x
, ( select to_char( rownum ) z
from dual
connect by rownum <= 9
) z
where ind > 0
and not exists ( select null
from ( select rownum lp
from dual
connect by rownum <= 9
)
where z = substr( s, trunc( ( ind - 1 ) / 9 ) * 9 + lp, 1 )
or    z = substr( s, mod( ind - 1, 9 ) - 8 + lp * 9, 1 )
or    z = substr( s, mod( trunc( ( ind - 1 ) / 3 ), 3 ) * 3
+ trunc( ( ind - 1 ) / 27 ) * 27 + lp
+ trunc( ( lp - 1 ) / 3 ) * 6
, 1 )
)
)
select s
from x
where ind = 0
/</pre>

Astfel ca daca vrem sa rezolvam exemplul de mai jos folosim codul de mai sus

Sudoku Example

Practic folosim sirul din exemplu “53 7 6 195 98 6 8 6 34 8 3 17 2 6 6 28 419 5 8 79″ si ii aplicam sintaxa SQL. Rezultatul este rezolvarea la exemplul nostru.

Sudoku Example - Rezolvarea

Rareori vezi cod care sa te impresioneze.

[Via  technology.amis.nl]

sudo apt-get install gufw – firewall (IPTables), mereu am avut nevoie de porturi configurate sau de ceva mai usor pentru firewall

Si nu uitati inainte sa treceti la tweaking instalati toate patchurile de securitate…