CrunchBang - Code, Design & GNU/Linux

Testing Type With Typetester

Typetester is a tool for comparing type on screen. It's an excellent tool for any web designer who wants to be able to quickly check how a specific font renders to screen. Options include setting sizes, line-height, letter-spacing, alignment and more. You can compare up to 3 fonts at anyone time and there is a preconfigured list of popular fonts available on Windows and Mac platforms [what no linux?] You can also use fonts from your own system.

All in all, Typetester is a valuable tool.

Silly Variable Names

They're not big and they're not clever. So how come they keep slipping into my code?

if(!empty($bum)){
    unload($bum);
}

Note to self: stop with the silly variable names already!

Pop-up Dictionary.com

Dictionary.com is the only site I use on a regular basis that still employs pop-up advertising. I think it's a real shame that such an important reference site should use this method of advertising.

The thing is, I think it's more than simply an annoyance, it's discriminatory against users that are unaware that pop-ups can be blocked. Most modern browsers come with anti pop-up software by default, but users that are forced to use older browsers and/or systems don't benefit from such tools.

If it wasn't for Firefox I think I would have looked for an alternative long ago. One alternative that comes to mind is dict.org. It's fast, free and sans advertising. A worthy non-commercial alternative to Dictionary.com's pop-up hell.

Whird Prototype - Time to Branch

CrunchBang.org is currently served up by an early prototype of a new PHP blogging application. I'm creating the application [which I've provisionally named Whird] on my development server at home. I mention this because I've now reached a point where I need to make a decision.

An issue and potential problem has arisen due to the fact that I've been developing the application in the style of this here site. While this hasn't given me any problems so far, I don't want cause any additional work for myself in the future. I need to branch the project so that any customisations that I make specific to CrunchBang.org don't slip into the final project.

I guess this is a milestone in this projects history; from now on I'll be writing for a more generic code base. Hopefully it'll stop things from getting too messy round here.

robots.txt Adventure

If you're looking for information about robot.txt files you should read "robots.txt Adventure" at nextthing.org. The article is packed with original research and features some interesting facts and figures.

As for my own robots.txt, it's a pretty standard two line affair:

User-agent: *
Disallow:

Everyone Should Learn Some Programming

From an article on Brane Dump:

This, in my opinion, is why everybody (literally, every single person) should learn to program at some fairly simple level, like learning to read and write. By using plain text and small scripts, I've got a workflow that works for me, and it's cost me less time than I'd spend learning some large pre-written app and putting all my data into it. Being able to manipulate data like this is, I think, a fairly important tool in the modern world, and I don't think it should be left to any sort of priesthood of developers — it should be as universal as most countries try to make literacy and numeracy.

I couldn't agree more with this, however I think it's a bit of a stretch of the imagination to think it'll ever happen — more so when you read stuff like this.

The Easiest Way to Install Debian

This is a cool installer for Debian Linux. A Microsoft Windows user can download and run a small application that will set-up their system to install Debian the next time they boot.

I've tried this and it works very well. It has to be the easiest way to install Debian — maybe the Ubuntu crowd would benefit from creating something similar?!

Can Flame Wars be Contructive?

I generally consider flame wars to be non-constructive and a waste of time. However, today's virtual fracas over hugs and vegetarians has proved quite interesting [for me anyway.] In the ensuing comments Chris Cunningham posted a link to a post by Mark Pilgrim which I found insightful and witty. Quote:

I must have missed the part where I was put under any sort of obligation towards you whatsoever.

This kind of affirms some recent thinking.

Word of the Day: halo2sis

An oral problem amongst some Halo 2 fanatics.

Dude, I was so tired from playing H2 all night I forgot to brush my teeth before I went to bed. Again. I need some Listerine for this halo2sis or I’ll never get laid.

I really like Urban Dictionary, some of the new words make me chuckle :-) Check out their Word of the Day subscription service.

Huggie Wuggies and Madness

I've woken up today only to find that the world has gone mad. Earlier today it appears that a generous fellow GNOME user offered to give everyone [not only vegetarians] a big hug. Believe it or not, someone actually took offence to this. Madness.