David Slack - Web developer

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Font replacement

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Submitted by Dave on Fri, 18/05/2012 - 17:19
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In the '90s the only way to add in a cool font to a site was an image or use an eot for Internet Explorer. Then we had iFR to replace headings with a bit of Flash, great for Headings and maybe a few links, but never the whole site.

Over the last few years we have had the @fontface and techiclly, that means we can use any font on any website!

There are a few problems with the way a Mac renders fonts compared to PC and linux and (as usual) there are licencing issues but it looks like things are finally happening for fonts on the web.

This works wonders:

mod_security and Datflame

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Submitted by Dave on Mon, 14/05/2012 - 20:07

I use a really good hosting company called Dataflame but they suffer (as most hosts do) with problems helping thier clients.

mod_security and Drupal 7

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Submitted by Dave on Sun, 13/05/2012 - 15:43
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The story

I'd been working on a website (http://luckyfingers.co.uk/) for a few hours when the site died for no apparent reason. It was late so I left it for next time. I went on the site a couple of days later and all seemed fine until I installed a module on Drupal 7, at that point the site went off!

I checked in the browsers and it was gone, then tried to access the files via ftp and the server was gone.

php.ini

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Submitted by Dave on Fri, 11/05/2012 - 19:40

Some of the problems on a website are down to the server or the server host provider being stingy with the memory. For a Drupal website for the image handling and other bits you want at least 128m of RAM, but some hosts limit you to much less (1and1 only give you 30m in some cases.

To combat this - and some other issues - we create a php.ini file in the public_html (or other root) folder and add the following:

memory_limit = 256M
safe_mode = off
session.cache_limiter = nocache
open_basedir = none
extension = pdo.so
extension = pdo_mysql.so

 

My website

Around 10 years ago I decided I needed a place to test my code, so I created a sub-domain on a server I had for a company I was working for. I then tested DHTML, javascript and other bits on it.

Update and new design

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Submitted by Dave on Sat, 05/05/2012 - 17:04
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Finally had a bit of time to get this site up-to-date! Updated the site to Drupal 7 and created a new design for it which I'm really happy with (first time for this site), even though the site needs a little bit of love on the content.

I need to add website URLs and maps for the projects that need them and all the content needs putting in the right places plus everything needs updating, some content is over 3 years old!

Here is a list of modules I've used on this site to date:

EWA Goes live

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Submitted by Dave on Tue, 01/05/2012 - 20:11
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After months of hard work on the design and the build the EWA site has gone live! It was created by the Smiling Wolf team, of which I am part. Great work all round Smile

ESS Newton

The ESS Newton is the first website I've created using Wordpress. I found it very easy to create (same installation as Drupal) and add in a theme.

94 Elements has gone live

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Submitted by Dave on Fri, 13/04/2012 - 09:45
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94 Elements is a site by Mike Patterson and created by Smiling Wolf of which I was part of the team. It's created using a bespoke CMS for the backend and most of the frontend is XHTML and jQuery.

The site has 94 Elements of the periodic table and behind each element will be a film.

Get on the site and show your support

Arm & Eye

The Arm & Eye website was created using Drupal 6 using a design from 

Arm & Eye site live

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Submitted by Dave on Sat, 17/03/2012 - 09:19
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The Arm & Eye site has been live for a while now but I'm still working on the Blog section as they didn't just want a 'normal' blog. Should be finished in the next few weeks

Senua Hydroponics

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Submitted by Dave on Fri, 20/01/2012 - 17:48
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Senua Hydroponics has gone live!! Its a site selling hydrponics (greenhouse) stuff.

I've been creating it for the last few months sorting the design, creation and most of the content. It's create using Drupal, Ubercart and lots of other modules, I've also created a theme for it from scratch and created a few modules from scratch.

Drupal 6 Clone

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Submitted by Dave on Fri, 16/12/2011 - 21:03

For the last 2 hours I've been trying to clone a Drupal website. I have a site on my PC (WAMP) and some server space on a dedicated server.

Now, I uploaded all the files without incident, next came the database. Usually I'll upload using phpMyAdmin but if there is a problem I'll upload using SSH.

Elevator Studios

The Elevator Studios website was created by the Smiling Wolf team. I was the Web Developer at Smiling Wolf and built the site.

Body wrap filter

Body wrap filter is such a useful module I had to write about it!

You are doing a website and have used CCK to add in some new fields. It's time to use CSS to move everything about and you find everything has nice divs and classes but not your content! You can't move the text, you can't put a border around it, a background, padding, margin, nothing.

Luna

The Luna is an interactive stress ball that produces generative motion visuals by Ben Bradly of

Windows 8 working on my PC

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Submitted by Dave on Wed, 12/10/2011 - 15:53
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Well the new Windows 8 is looking sweet, its a cross between Windows 7 and Windows 7 mobile so you can install little mobile apps and real programmes. Think tapfish running next to Dreamweaver.

Check out this tutorial:
http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/how-to-install-windows-8-on-virtualbox/

The good thing is Virtualbox has added in the windows 8 operating system from new so no need to choose windows 7.

Let me know what you think

Acer A500 tab is all mine

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Submitted by Dave on Wed, 05/10/2011 - 22:21
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After a few weeks of uming and aring I've finally gone and got a tablet PC! I've been looking at a lot of them like the xoom and the asus models and some cheaper ones but I kept coming back to the Acer model because I have a laptop by Acer and I like the build quality of that.

It has the new Android 3 os, has 34gb space and  2gb ram. It has a duel core processor and a hd screen and a usb slot so I can just copy files across (might need virus protection for that). 

Not had a good play with it yet but I'm doing this blog post on it and it seems fast enough.

Creating What I'm listening to

On the bottom right of this website is a small list entitled "What I'm listening to". What it does is very simple, any time I listen to a track on my phone or PC then that track, artist, album and album cover is added to the list all linked up to listen to it on last.fm.

Read on if you want to know how to do this on your own site because it's very simple!

By the way, if you find a better way to do this or update the script to be better then comment below.

 

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Latest content

What is a Senior Developer
There are lots of developers out there with varying degrees of experience and expertise, some mid level, some junior and some senior. Some...
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Symfony
First thoughts are Symfony is ace!Only been using Symfony for 1 project but the amount of coding it has saved has been worth the time spent...
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Lost and Found
The Lost and Found website was built by myself (David Slack) and designed by Arm & Eye.The site was created to promote a bar and...
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What I'm listening to

My blog

What is a Senior Developer
Wednesday, 2 August, 2017 - 06:56
There are lots of developers out there with varying degrees of experience and expertise, some mid level, some junior and some senior. Some developers...
Read more
Symfony
Tuesday, 5 March, 2013 - 09:49
First thoughts are Symfony is ace!Only been using Symfony for 1 project but the amount of coding it has saved has been worth the time spent learning...
Read more
Web design "Fold" myth
Monday, 3 December, 2012 - 10:07
As a web developer and web designer I need to take into account everything on a site from SEO, marketing, usability across devices, the look and feel...
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Use your QR reader to read this

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