Reconnecting Mac OS X 10.6.3 to Windows Shares
When Apple released their update for 10.6.3 it caused mac's to stop seeing or being able to connect to windows shared drives on the network. If you had a shortcut saved, you could still connect to those windows shares, however if you lost your shortcut—or were starting fresh—it seamed there was nothing you could do.
Previous versions of OS X showed your windows computers in your sidebar listed in the "SHARED" section. But not in 10.6.3. The other method of connecting to shared drives is to go to the "GO" menu and select "Connect to Server" (CMD-K) type in the IP address and hit Connect. For some reason Apple has defaulted the connection type to afp, which is a mac networking protocol. This results in an IP address like afp://192.168.0.10 That will not work for connecting to windows shares.
The solution is simple, change the afp:// protocol to smb:// and life will be good.
→ Respond NowTags: General · Software
Open links in a new window
If you perform a search for "open links in new window" you will typically find two groups of people. Ones the hate it when links open in a new window, and ones that hate links that don't open in a new window. It seems that people are pretty picky (and vocal) about the manor in which links open. Oddly enough searching for a good solution proved more difficult than I thought.
Basic Criteria
Because people are so particular about their links opening in new windows. I wanted to give users an option to open linked pages they way they want them to work. A preference toggle of sorts. I also wanted to default option to xhtml valid and it has to be accessible in it's default state or with javascript turned off.
Thanks to a friend and fellow web developer Andy Ford, who helped me with the final piece of the puzzle to make this work.
The Code
The code is pretty straight forward. We have a form with a checkbox with with text that reads something like "Open links in new window" This works as the preference toggle. If the box is checked do some dirty and non valid stuff to the code to make it work.
See a demo of this script here
<form name="targeter">
<input type="checkbox" name="targetbox" id="tcheck" onclick="targetLinks(this.checked);">
<label for="tcheck" style="cursor: hand;">Open links in new window</label>
</form>
<script language="JavaScript">
function targetLinks(boNew) {
if (boNew)
where = "_blank";
else
where = "_self";
for (var i=0; i<=(document.links.length-1); i++) {
document.links[i].target = where;
}
}
</script>
I thought this was a bit easier to implement than most of the solution I found out there that required you to add a new class to the link. Some people suggested using rel="external" on the links. My response to this is simple. Not all links that need to open in a new window are external. Adding rel="external" is not semantic so I would prefer not to add that markup to my code in that way.
I am sure there is a better way to make this work. But this is what I scabbed together. If you have a better way, I would be interested in knowing about it.
→ Respond NowTags: Code · usability
Who Uses ColdFusion Anymore?
I went to a web development meeting a few days ago and when I mentioned during the introductions that I was a ColdFusion developer the reaction from others in the room was that of amazement. I think they were amazed that the language still existed. I'm not surprised really. It's actually a common reaction from developers.
Someone in the room asked, "Does anyone even use ColdFusion anymore?" I know that I see ColdFusion powered sites all the time, but for the life of me I could not recall a single site that used it other than MySpace. And honestly, that's not a shining example of a good CF site. Feeling a bit embarrassed that I could not recall some decent sites on the spot, I felt I needed to do a bit of research and compile a list ColdFusion powered sites. If for no other reason that to answer this simple question when asked.
So here is a list more popular sites that I know to run ColdFusion. If your wanting to find a more comprehensive list, GotCFM.com has a pretty large database of sites.
- AT&T (portions)
- Bank of America (portions)
- Boeing (portions)
- California Department of Toxic Substance Control
- California Department of Water Resources
- California Dept of Developmental Services
- CarFax
- Dallas Cowboys
- Doctors Without Borders
- Duke University
- eBags
- Ebay (portions)
- Energy Star
- Foot Locker
- Gamepro
- Georgia Tech Savannah
- Guitar Center
- Hasbro Toys
- HP (portions)
- Logitech
- Macworld UK
- Massey University
- Merrill Lynch (portions)
- MMORPG
- MySpace
- NASA (portions)
- Ohio University
- Pottery Barn
- QuickBooks Online
- Scientific American
- Section 508
- See's Candy
- The Economist
- U.S. Bank
- Ultimate Fighting Championship
- University Of Amsterdam UVA
- University of Maryland
- US Dept of State
- Virginia College
- Vodafone
→ Respond NowTags: ColdFusion · Opinions & Rants
Are acronyms hurting your SEO rank?
Anyone that knows me, understands that I am not a big fan of acronyms. I think they breakdown the lines of communication, and confuse people quickly. Earlier this week I attended a marketing luncheon with a topic on SEO, where I became acutely aware of this issue and wanted to write about it. I don't claim to know much about SEO, so you experts out there can set me straight if I am missing the point.
Basically the presentation sounded like this: "keywords in your name, keywords in your url, keywords in your username, keywords in categories, keywords in your tweets, keywords, keywords, keywords." Sounds reasonable right? Well it does until I started noticing all these acronyms appearing in the presentation materials, in the conversation, on the web, etc.
All this got me to thinking. Why spend all this time creating a keyword rich business name, username, url, etc., if your going to refer to them with acronyms? The same is true for valuable keywords or trigger words within the content of your site as well. Using acronyms seem like missed opportunities to add valuable keyword content to your website.
A perfect example of this would be the title of my blog post. "Are acronyms hurting your SEO rank?" If I was an SEO expert, I just missed an excellent opportunity to gain "search engine optimization" as three additional keywords. The problem with using acronyms are that people looking for your content may not be familiar with your specific acronyms and therefore search for the longer more verbose phrase or only part of the phrase.
Acronyms are a big part of our language—for better to for worse—we are stuck with them. We should think carefully about the usage of acronyms within our page content. Properly defining an acronym the first time it's used on the page with the <acronym> tag is the first thing I would recommend.
However I would be remiss if I didn't caution against the overuse of the <acronym> tag. I still believe that once a term has been defined on the page it does not need to be defined again. Optimizing for a search engine is one thing, but user experience should be your top priority. Unless of course your customers are search engines and not people.
→ Respond NowTags: Opinions & Rants · SEO
Konami Code Plugin
Just in time for April Fools Day, I am releasing my next totally useless Mango Blog plugin for adding easter eggs to your Mango Blog. It uses the SnapTortoise Konami-JS script to handle the pattern matching, url loading and alert notifications.
I couldn't just stop there, so I added easy setups for Rick Rolling, and some of the more popular Konami Code services like Cornify, Ninjafy, Sharkify, and Nippleit. I have plans to add more services and features in the near future. If you have a favorite service not listed here please leave a comment below with a link to the service.
Whats Currently Supported
- Easy setups for above listed services
- Custom url forwarding
- Javascript Alerts
- iPhone gesture support
- Custom key code pattern matching. Your not limited to just the Konami Code!
Go ahead and try it! up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a
Download the Konami Code Plugin
- Plugin version:
- 0.1
- Last Updated:
- 2010-02-19
- Requires:
- Mango Blog 1.3+
- Auto-install URL:
- http://www.visual28.com/assets/content/mango/konami.zip
→ Respond NowTags: Freebies · Mango Blog · Plugins
