3 minutes, sort of...

Creating a guest LAMP VM server with a shared drive and mysql server to windows host. Pause as needed, I might actually write out instructions later.

Partially because I am tired of lipsum.com and could not find a clean alternative to it that didn't require some sort of software plugin I decided to write my own lorem ipsum generator. Then I made a website version of the VB application that I had written, then I made a public API for it.

The public facing generation tool can be found here

The API implementation can be found here

An example of the api call below:

Habitual Wheel-Reinvention continues as I create a lorem ipsum generator for myself. No installation, .NET required.

Lack of posts recently due to me having too much fun fucking around at htmlstack.com. Rather than turning this site into a series of experiments I decided to start another site just for me to get a grip on all that HTML5 & CSS3 has to offer. If you are looking to get a primer on HTML5 or CSS3, or more likely look at some pointless experiments, check it out.

• Persistant updatable HTML5 Database
• Video element utilizing only browser player controls
• A grid of randomly colored squares with canvas
• Geolocation API Testing: Outputs all possible parameters
• CSS3 Multi Column Layout

So as you can tell the site looks very different right now. I decided this was a good site to begin getting my HTML5-fu in place and I gotta tell you I like it a lot. You really dont get the benefit of the new CSS3 design elements if you are not using Safari or Chrome, but Firefox renders pretty well.

I am using the new HTML5 layout elements like < header >,< nav >, and < aside > rather than divs. Also tinkering with some microformats, article, section, time etc.

Probably the trickiest one was tapping into the video tag. despite the fact that everything I read said, "Oh just add the video tag and the src", it is a bit more than that.

First there seems to be some confusion about whether the controls and autobuffer parameters need to have a vlue of true/false. They need neither, just the parameter itself declares it as true, adding a value invalidates the HTML. Second, I used ffmpeg to convert existing mp4s to ogv. Third ogv needed to be added as a mime-type to IIS (.ogv video/ogg). The debate over Theora videos versus H.264 support rages on, but I am using both for now:

<video>  
 <source src="video/VIDEO.ogv">  
 <source src="video/VIDEO.mp4">  
</video> 

The built in browser controls are nice, but I am working on creating my own player controls

For IE I just added a link to download the video file as mp4.

Skipped past updating comments form, which are disabled again for the time being.

Of all the enhancements coming with HTML5 the ones I find most exciting are all about forms. The most interesting so far are the new field types and some of the built in functionality as shown below. Autofocus and Placeholder, talk about timesavers! I have not yet worked out exactly where contenteditable will come into play, but it's awesome too.

Some groovy HTML5 form examples:

<label for="field1">Autofocus</label>
<input id="field1" name="field1" type="text" autofocus />

<label for="field2">Placeholders</label>
<input id="field2" name="field2" type="text" placeholder="I am a placeholder" />

<p contenteditable="true">This sentence is editable!</p>

This sentence is editable!

The video for this is a bit choppy. The fundamental process is:

• get the twitter.vb in place.
• update the Username,Password lines.
• A textbox for status (statusText) updates and a textbox for results (results).
• A button for posting and a button for friend timeline
• Onclick of post button calls results.text=PostStatus(status.text)
• Onclick of FriendTimeline button calls
  results.text=push(username,password,FriendTimeline)

This was really a set it and forget it style SEO attempt. Back in July 2009 I noticed that when I searched for dual monitor backgrounds I ended up on the same site repeatedly and decided there may be a market there. I launched 2xbg.com with no almost content at all until November 2009 with only basic SEO conepts in mind. Acutally it still has virtually no content... just goes to show that SEO is all about the simple and clean basics.

Now I can start to push it a bit further.

A friend of mine asked for a slideshow for his little league football team... I told him we dont do slideshows. Quality is sketchy thru YouTube.