Jamie Le Souef

Since I moved to Firefox 3 I’ve been having issues with how it caches websites that i’m developing. Many times in order to see changes I had made to code I would have to close firefox and re-open it - Very painful when I have many tabs open. My other option was to use Safari to test my sites in and I have no interest in doing that so I thought it’s time to have a look at the Firefox config settings.

To get to the config settings type about:config in the Firefox address bar. Set both browser.cache.memory.capacity and browser.cache.disk.capacity to 0. Alternatively, you can also set browser.cache.disk.enable and browser.cache.memory.enable to False.

Restart Firefox and your pages will load fresh each time. If you have any other tips like this I would love to hear them! Please comment away

Post Tags : cache, development, Firefox, Internet, Mozilla, Tips, Web
Filed under Tutorial

Firefox 3 has had an amazing start to life with over 8 million downlaods within it’s first 24 hours of avilablity!

Well done to the Mozilla crew!

Check out the response from Mozilla HQ here

Post Tags : Firefox, Mozilla
Filed under News

I fresh install XP roughly every 4 to 6 months depending on how my system is running. There is no questioning that XP slows down considerably after months of heavy use - it becomes fatty and bloated, takes what seems an lifetime to boot up - time I’ll never get back - and just runs like a piece of shit.

This is no good for me, I need everything running snappy! I’m a full time designer and developer and can’t wait for a pallet tool to select 20 - 30 seconds after I’ve clicked it, not matter what load my PC is under - and this is no slow PC.

“There are tools to clean your system” you say. Well I stick my thumb at your so called tools that install more crap onto your PC then you had there in the first place and do a half-arsed job of cleaning the system anyhow.

“How about disk images?” Yes, all good and well for a quick recovery if something goes wrong - but I still prefer the fresh start.

No, the best way to get something is to get it fresh and there is no fresher then a 8pass DBAN and clean install of XP!

This isn’t going to be some guide on how to use DBAN or make a slipstream XP, rather it is just some useless copy to introduce what is really just a list of what I install.

Starting fresh does has some down points. The most notable (to me) is having to digg around for all my software (no that link has nothing to do with the sentence, i just like digg).

So I thought to my self one evening that i might just make a list and share it with everyone who cares - and without further bullshit I give you said list:

1. DBAN Hard Drive
2. Install XP SP2 (Slipstream CD)
3. Install All Updates + Drivers
   1. Nvidia Driver
   2. Creative Labs X-Fi Driver
4. Connect to network
5. Install Firefox + addons
   1. Firebug
   2. Foxmarks
   3. Google Toolbar
   4. Net Usage Item
6. Install Kaspersky Anti-Virus
7. Install Office 2007
8. Install Updates
9. Install Adobe Creative Suite CS3 Master Collection
10. Install Royale Noir theme
11. Install XP Power Tool PowerUI
12. Install XP Power Tool ClearType Tuner
13. Install RocketDock
14. Install Synergy2
15. Install Tredosoft Multiple IE (for site testing)
16. Install WinRar
17. Install Google Desktop
18. Install FileZilla (testing version 3 at time of writing)
19. Install HeidiSQL
20. Install Dev-PHP
21. Install and Schedule Driveimage XML (dixml.exe /bF /t”G:\” /v /s- /c)

So there you have it. Really just some links in one place for each time I format my workstation. If you have any sugestions that I should add to this list I would be more then happy to hear them. So please, post a comment, just say hi - just to let me know you are reading.

Ta Ta.

Post Tags : Firefox, Illustrator, Software, Tutorial, Windows, Windows XP
Filed under Design, Microsoft, Technology

If you are anything like me, and most of the Web Design industry, you’ve run into CSS bugs that in IE that just don’t make any sense. You’re building the perfect site with W3C valid CSS and XHTML1, you test it in Firefox, Opera, Netscpae and even Safari beta for Windows only to find that IE6 just makes a total mess of your hard work.

According to these the stats at W3 Schools IE6 still controls 36.9% of the market (IE6 and 7 combined have 57%) so unfortunately ignoring the issue is just not an option.

We all know about CSS hacks, tips and tricks but this can make your CSS files really messy. Also you might find that you are using the same techniques over and over again on different sites.

One way that I’ve found to create reusable CSS code is to use Conditional Comments. I’ve had a number of people ask me about them so i thought i would write a introduction to them.

Conditional Comments are only available in the Windows version of Internet Explorer from version 5 onwards. The conditional comments are wrapped in the html comment tag ( <!– –>) which means that all other browsers treat the content within these tags as normal comments and ignore what’s within. GREAT!

You can include CSS files within the comments, javascript, images and - most importantly - a link to Firefox

One of the best features of Conditional Comments is that you can target individual version of IE (5.0, 5.5, 6.0 and 7). You can also specify multiple version.

Here is a run down of the available syntax:

<!- -[if IE]>This is Internet Explorer<![endif]- ->

<!- -[if IE 5]>This is Internet Explorer 5<![endif]- ->

<!- -[if IE 5.0]>This is Internet Explorer 5.0<![endif]- ->

<!- -[if IE 5.5]>This is Internet Explorer 5.5<![endif]- ->

<!- -[if IE 6]>This is Internet Explorer 6<![endif]- ->

<!–[if IE 7]>This is Internet Explorer 7<![endif]- ->

<!- -[if gte IE 5]>This is Internet Explorer 5 and up<![endif]- ->

<!- -[if lt IE 6]>This is Internet Explorer lower than 6<![endif]- ->

<!- -[if lte IE 5.5]>This is Internet Explorer lower or equal to 5.5<![endif]- ->

<!- -[if gt IE 6]>This is Internet Explorer greater than 6<![endif]- ->

Nothing really tricky here, the if statement is self explanatory. Begin with an if statement (if x=true then) and end with endif.

There are two special syntaxes used here.

• gt: Grater than
• lt: Less than
• gte: Greater than or Equal to
• lte: Less than or Equal to

Example of this used in xhtml

PNG Javascript fix

<!- -[if lt IE 7.]><script defer=”defer” type=”text/javascript” src=”includes/pngfix.js”></script><![endif]- ->

Loading multiple CSS files

<link href=”css/main.css” rel=”stylesheet” type=”text/css” />
<!- -[if IE 6]><link href=”css/ie6.css” rel=”stylesheet” type=”text/css” /><![endif]- ->
<!- -[if lte IE 5.5]><link href=”css/ie55.css” rel=”stylesheet” type=”text/css” /><![endif]- ->

Hope that helps. I now have reusable CSS files that I use in any sites that require them (hostly all). Makes life easier and a good place to bunch all those workarounds (CSS hacks?!) into one easily accessible place.

PLEASE NOTE: I have added a space between the “-” because for some reason word press converts them to “–” you need to remove the space to make html comments

Have fun

(and please comment.. no one comments on my Blog! :))

Post Tags : Firefox, IE, Internet Explorer, Microsoft, PNG, Standards, Tips, Tutorial, W3C, Web, Windows, xhtml
Filed under CSS, Design, Microsoft, Web Design

Update: I forgot to mention that you need to have “Custom Error Documents” turned on. To do this in plesk, Navigate to your domains hosting page, click on “Setup” under Hosting. Scroll down to Services and select “Custom Error Documents” and then click ok.

Edited - 06/08/07 2:27pm

I’m going to step you through how I went about installing Nathan Moinvaziri’s plugin and set up Wordpress 2.2 to use Permalinks in an IIS6 enviroment with Plesk 8 installed.NOTE: This worked for me, and my hosting environment. I have no idea if it will work for everyone. I will not be held responsible for any damage you do to your blog. You have been warned.

Configure Plesk

Log into Plesk

Navigate to your domains control page.

Click on the icon “Web Directories”

Click on the tab “Error Documents”

Locate the entrie that reads “404 Not Found” and click on it. You may need to navigate to the next page to see it.

Drop down the “Type” box and select “URL”

In the “Location Box” type “/” (Without the quotation marks)

Click “Ok”

Log out of Plesk

Visit “http://www.nathanm.com/myprojects/#plugin” (opens in a new window)

Find the Plugin “Wordpress - Remove Index.php from Permalinks in IIS Plugin”

Upload the php file “removeindex.php” to your wordpress plugins directory
Log into Wordpress admin.
Click on “Plugins”

Locate the “Remove index.php” plugin and click on “Activate”

Click on “Options” then “Permalinks”

Set your Permalinks Structure. First click one of the common options. Then click on the “Custom, specify below” box and remove “index.php”. I use /%year%/%category%/%postname%/ for my structure.

Click “Update Permalinks Structure”

And your done
Check to make sure that everything is working. If you have sitemaps, it’s best to re generate them and submit them to google. The old ?p=34 strings will still work though. Test everything.

Post Tags : Firefox, IIS, Microsoft, Plesk, SEO, Server, Tips, Tutorial, Windows
Filed under Web Design