InfoDabble >
About > What's new
EHartwell 10:19, 1 August 2007 (EDT)
EHartwell 11:56, 29 July 2007 (EDT)
-- Eric Hartwell 20:24, 28 July 2007 (EDT)
| I needed to turn an old PC into a cheap, dedicated, browser appliance. The cleanest choice is a Linux/Firefox boot-from-CD; the hardware demands are minimal, and it's impossible for users to make any permanent changes. After a little research, I decided to go with SLAX, a small and beautiful Linux operating system which fits on and runs directly from a CD-ROM disc. With the addition of Firefox 2, a Firefox kiosk mode extension module, and a little fiddling with xinitrc, I was able to create a small, clean kiosk boot CD that works on practically any PC without changing the hard disk at all.
|
MediaWiki extensions: DynamicSkin and BreadCrumbs2
| The DynamicSkin MediaWiki extension allows the skin layout and content to be defined using normal wikitext articles instead of PHP script files, and to be modified dynamically depending. Menus, styles, navigation can change depending on the contents of the page being rendered. i've published the extension on MediaWiki.org and a description of the InfoDabble skin which shows how a derived class is used to further customize the skin for this site.
I've also published the BreadCrumbs2 extension which generates "breadcrumbs" to help users navigate around the wiki, highlights the active navigation link and/or tab, and optionally changes the site logo based on page categories.
|
How to get the Google Data API to work with PHP on GoDaddy servers
| As part of its web application framework, Google provides the Google Data APIs, a set of web services for read/write access to google applications. Even better, the Zend Google Data Client provides a PHP 5 component to execute queries and commands against the Google Data APIs. And that's all you need. Unless you're using GoDaddy as a cheap host. You get what you pay for ... With low cost comes great hoop-jumping responsibility.
|
MediaWiki extension: EmailForm
| The EmailForm MediaWiki extension is used to create email response forms. Both the input form and the results, which are defined on the same wiki page, can be fully formatted using standard wikitext. The extension has been published to MediaWiki.org and is used for the Contact me form on my web site.
|
Now running on MediaWiki
| I like to think of GoDaddy as the McBurgers of hosting and domains - they're huge, they're everywhere, they're relatively cheap, and they're utterly consistent. Just don't ask for anything that's not on the menu. Fortunately, MediaWiki fits with just a little trim...
|
| The (not the) Apollo 17 Flight Journal is back in business - new, improved, and much fuller. The site is also a showcase for how to use MediaWiki as a platform for project documentation and research.
|
The Planetary Society Year in Pictures 2007 Calendar
| Why doesn't NASA make better use of their fantastic photo resources? The official NASA wall calendar, as usual, gives the impression that the only thing they do involves manned space flight. Sure, that's what most of the bureaucracy does - but what about all the exploration going on in other parts of the solar system? So, I decided to make my own. I've updated the 2006 calendars to show 2007's dates, but for 2007 I've also made new calendars using the new, glorious, "oversize" format which is almost twice the size. Large: Saturn, Mars, Flying in Space; Small: Saturn B&W, Saturn, Mars, Robots in Space; Planetary Society
| 
|
| This series of tech notes documents my progress in building a unified web portal using Community Server, MediaWiki, and static web pages - using FrontPage shared borders, style sheets, a bit of JavaScript, a bit of PHP, a bit of brute force, and even more duct tape.
|
| I wanted my web to use the Community Server 2.0 look and feel, while working within the limitations of FrontPage 2003. This tech note documents my progress using FrontPage shared borders, style sheets, a bit of JavaScript, a bit of brute force, and a roll of duct tape. The whole thing can be saved as a FrontPage Page Template.
|
| "The Blue Marble" is one of the most widely distributed photographic images in existence. NASA officially credits the image to the entire Apollo 17 crew - "The identity of the photographer is unverifiable."But is it really? A lot of detective work makes a strong case to identify Jack Schmitt as the photographer.... and produces a compilation of Earth photos taken during Apollo 17's coast to the moon
|
What's new
