Whalesalad

TextMate has this nifty feature that automatically encodes an email address in a hex format so that spammers can't easily scrape the addresses from your site. I'm working on a client site right now and wanted to build this component into the site, so that anywhere an email address is mentioned in a post or page it will be automatically converted into the hex encoded version.

Those of you who know me well know that I'm not a huge fan of PHP. While I don't really enjoy it, I use it on a daily basis for sites that I maintain and develop both personally and at work. Recently a client of ours (a private airline) needed to update some pricing on their site for the first of the month. To make this and future updates easier, I rewrote a bit of the logic behind the pricing system and in-turn, started to store the prices as integers rather than strings. While checking the site this morning to make sure everything updated this weekend, I noticed that while the new prices were there, they weren't being displayed properly! Instead of something like "$2,500" the prices were simply "2500". Clearly there was an issue with money_format not working correctly.

I just recently moved from Honolulu back to Los Angeles. My home here in Glendale is nestled in the back of a canyon in the Verdugo Woodlands area. Unfortunately, the neighborhood isn't too friendly to T-Mobile's network. I can't send a text message without holding my Nexus like a hot bowl of soup. One finger on each corner, high above my head, praying to god it finds a network and sends my message. I'm sick and tired of it. Having a girlfriend living in Hawaii means that I can't stand not being able to communicate 24/7.

There are so many ideas that I have for my current Alpha Alpha of HEA++. Here are some of them. For those of you who haven't heard about HEA++, you can read all about it here. There are a lot of features that I would love to add in the near future, so here's a decent roadmap of things that I think would be useful.

I decided to bike out to Honolulu International Airport today around 2 in the morning. I had a ton of energy and wanted to get out on my bike. I finished fixing my flat tire from the other night, put some proper tension on the chain (I use the shoe between the seat tube and the tire trick), packed a few tools in my Incase hip pack, and set out seeking fresh air, sweat, and a clear head. Boy did I get what I was looking for.

So some guy tries to set off a bomb he smuggled onto the plane in the last hour of flight. Now everyone pays the price, which means no one can use any electronic devices during the last hour of flight and onboard maps are disabled on planes.

I've wondered for a long time why we really need URL shorteners. Sometimes there are really long URL's full of query strings (I'm looking at you, Amazon.com) that are prime candidates for a friendly bit.ly address. Another great use for a short url is inside of a tweet. Twitter's 140 character limit is a double-edged sword, making it difficult to embed long addresses while being the whole basis and appeal of Twitter's micro-blogging nature.

I'm a nerd. I love to program, design, and tinker with things. Growing up my mom used to tell the story of the time she came home to find a 5 year old version me on the floor of her bedroom, surrounded by hundreds of tiny pieces and screws which once made up her typewriter. I also tend to get bored easily, so saying sayonara to my iPhone 3G and jumping on the Android bandwagon back earlier this year was a welcomed change. After a couple of months i've had time to fully indulge in the Android experience. How does it stand up to one of the greatest inventions of our decade? Don't get me wrong, I love my new Android toy, but it's lightyears behind the iPhone.

In the software development world, a tag is used to mark a milestone or other point in time to keep track of. The next version/update of the amazing Tasty WordPress theme has been tagged and is ready for all of you to enjoy!

I've got something I am very proud to release today, that I hope many of you can be thankful for. For the past week or so I have been hard at work with the next version of SocialGrid, and it's ready for all of you to enjoy today. SocialGrid 2.0 is a free WordPress plugin that you can download today and install on your blog to add a nice grid of social media icons linking to your various profiles on the web!