Hmm…

I have not put out a post for a while – and I can explain that. The past few days, I have been working on an AJAX tutorial, and somewhere along the way, some of my code went bad (probably due to the fact that I wrote it using this editor – yes, call me an idiot…). So, the code I wrote does not work (this happens quite often, just normally I can fix it in minutes), and I cannot find ANY problems with the code, so, consequently, it may be a few more days before the post is complete, I apologize in advance.

 

EneilShade

I have done it!

Yesterday, at around this time of day, I decided I was going to learn PHP in conjunction with MySQL. I worked at it for about two hours (I am off school for the summer) and got a working (sorta) user creation system. I then worked on it some today at around 10:00 am to about 3:00 pm, watched some movies, ate food, procrastinated, the usual. At about 10:00 pm, I went back upstairs to my room to keep working. I have now completed a set of PHP scripts that will let someone create a user, encrypt the user’s password using a complex blend of irreversible salted hashings, and use this same method to allow the user to log back in. You can check out these scripts in action at my site.

How did I do this? Well, I am about to write a set of tutorials on PHP in conjunction with MySQL. So wait up for another couple of days and I will have those up (by a couple of days, I mean one).

 

EneilShade

A new web adress

I recently got a new hosting service (www.justhost.com) and it is great. Sure it cost me $118 for two years (OUCH!) but it is so far the best EVER service I have found.

It allows for the following:

Casio fx-9750GA Plus vs. the TI-84

A comparison between these two calculators is not even fair. One is a calculator from a trusted, multi million dollar calculator-focused genius company, and the other is from a relatively new multi-genre technology company. If you guessed the first company I described as Texas Instruments, then you are correct, which leaves the less flattering description to Casio. But even so, the Casio is hundreds of times better.

Bet you did not expect that one.

Today’s Question: Why JavaScript?

I know quite a few people have been wanting to know this: “Why JavaScript and not PHP, Perl, or Python?” The answer is a simple one: JavaScript is MUCH more supported, is much easier to use, and it is easy to program in.

Languages like PHP, Perl, and Python are all Server-side scripting – meaning the server you use HAS to support the language you use for you to be able to use it because the script you have is run on the server itself. While PHP and the others may be free, they are just clunky and hard to use. You have to use something like MySQL to access your scripts, automatically adding another language you have to learn: MySQL.

Ok, so with PHP you can embed scripts into HTML, but like I said before, your server has to support the use of PHP. The process of going around the no PHP support is a painful one, and believe it or not, it involves JavaScript.

So, what is so bad about a Server-side scripting? First off, like I have mentioned before, it requires your server to “know” PHP, Python, or Perl. Next, if you do not have a powerful server, this processing on the server side may lead to a slow-down of your server. Sure, JavaScript may be slow because it is interpreted, but this can REALLY slow down a older server. Another advantage to JavaScript is that you can CHOOSE to go Server-side, even though JavaScript is standard Client-side.

If you need any other information on Why JavaScript and nothing else, post a comment. Or, if you would like to disagree, then please do the same thing.

Another JavaScript + Google Gadgets Tutorial: Using Your Google Gadget

Ok, so in my last tutorial (which I hope you have read before this one), I told you how to make a gadget. So, yippee, you have made a gadget, and can use it while in the “Preview” mode of the Google Gadgets Editor. I plan to solve that problem now.

There are multiple ways that you can make use of your Google Gadget. You can do it the Google Sites, a very painful way, and get the URL for the gadget (will explain later), or you could publish it.

Let us go over the Google Sites way first (IMPORTANT: IF YOU ARE NOT USING GOOGLE SITES, SKIP TO THE OTHER SECTION).

Ok, see where I have highlighted with a red square? Yes? Well that is the link you can click to get the URL of the gadget you just made. Now, go to the Google Site you intend to embed your gadget on, go into the edit mode for the page, and click “Insert” –> “More” –> “Add Gadget by URL” –> paste in URL for your gadget. Easy, right? WRONG!!! Cool, now you have your gadget on your page – but if you ever update it, you need to redo this entire sequence. It is kinda painful (ask me how I know).

Making a Google Gadget: My Way

How to make gadgets:
PART ONE: Getting the editor
To make a Google gadget, first you must have the Google gadget editor. “Oh noes!” You may say, but this is not too hard to solve. I can simply give you the link: here. Once you have added that to your iGoogle page, then we can go onto the next step (yes, this requires a Google account, hence the “Google Gadgets”)

PART TWO: Starting your gadget
Hokay, so now that we have the gadget editor, it is time to get started:
Ministep one:
   check that you have the “hello.xml” opened, as it is the easiest thing to start off with
Ministep two:
   delete the text after the ‘Content type=”…’ stuff, you do not need it.
Ministep three:
   start adding the code for your gadget (see here for my YouTube tutorials, for good coding techniques, see the text below)!
PART THREE: Coding techniques
When coding a gadget, you need to keep a few things in mind. First, always use good coding conventions, which are a certain set of steps/methods that make code much more readable. The first rule of good coding conventions is: WHITE SPACE IS YOUR FRIEND!!! The computer just ignores white space, so use VERY liberally. The next, and probably most important rule is to use obvious variable names, i.g: $Date. That is obviously a variable that contains the date of something.  And number three is: be spare on the comments, they clutter up the page. If you are forced to use too many comments, then you are not properly using good coding conventions.

PART FOUR: The gadget construction
Most gadgets use JavaScript, HTML, CSS, or a combination of all three. They are required to use XML, as they are XML gadgets. XML is called Extensible Markup Language and is used when there is a need for a language that is readable and writable by humans, and easily readable by computers. HTML is HyperText Markup Language and is used for the main body of your gadget’s look and feel. CSS is called Cascading Style Sheets and is used for fine-tuning the look of your gadget. It allows you to create custom classes for your buttons and other such inputs. It is used mostly to style pages using HTML or XHTML.  JavaScript is a variant of Java that is used to enable programmable objects that get run within other programs, or in a Google Gadget, your browser. While JavaScript is a variant of Java, do not expect to be an instant expert at it if you know Java well, they are almost completely unrelated.
PART FIVE: Some simple code
Here is some help getting started. If you are immediately confused, take a breath, and stay calm. I find that the most affective technique for staying calm while looking at a new programming language is to take a deep breath and resolve myself to learn this language. Let me give you some starting tips:
1. Do not EVER skimp on white space, I know I have already said this, but NEVER EVER skimp on white space.
2. Always use good variable names, yes this is a reoccurring statement.
3.  Tutorials are OK! I would never have gotten as far as I have without tutorials! Speaking of, I can give you one right now (you cannot tell, due to formatting problems, but there is excessive white space in there)!

Windows Live Writer

This is the first post I have been able to do with Windows Live Writer. I just uninstalled then reinstalled the program. It did not work the first time, due to extreme suckage, but apparently, it works now. I will probably update my blog now, but we will see.

EneilShade

The Beginning of a New Era

This is the beginning of a new Era for me and Very Random Productions. As we were using “Blogger” before, we suffered throughout untold horrors and stupidities. But now, we are here on WordPress, a wonderfully designed blog interface. I do hope that the future holds wonderful fruits of labor for me and Very Random Productions (Site).