theblahman.net Designs http://www.theblahman.net/blog The blogroll of theblahman.net and his stuff Sun, 02 Nov 2008 06:15:48 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 en Logitech Z-5500 Digital Sound System http://www.theblahman.net/blog/2008/11/logitech-z-5500-digital-sound-system/ http://www.theblahman.net/blog/2008/11/logitech-z-5500-digital-sound-system/#comments Sun, 02 Nov 2008 06:13:50 +0000 theblahman http://www.theblahman.net/blog/?p=51 First impressions… WTF.

The Logitech Z-5500D Speakers are in one word.. Awesome!

I got these speakers over a month ago but only just recently set them up in my room. Took me nearly a whole day to get each speaker attached to the wall and having the cables nailed up to the cornice, after doing so I sat down at watched some Scrubs.

Okay, back to my first impressions. The reason why I was going WTF was that the box is enormous. The box is also quite heavy. Taking the subwoofer out of the box was a pain in the neck (more like the back but meh). Setting them up (as I mentioned earlier) was painful but fun.

So, how do they sound?! déjà vu time! Awesome! In all seriousness, these speakers really do sound and look terrific. The subwoofer was described as “major overkill” by my friends, but hey, nothing makes your room shake like a giant subwoofer.

My only concerns are that the subwoofer is really heavy and the other problem is the “Digital SoundTouch&tm; Control Panel” cable is quite short, it’s a standard adapter, but it’s recommended that you don’t try and lengthen it due to possible damage. A risk I will not take!

Watching movies that are catered to 5.1 surround sound is bliss. It’s honestly just like being at the movies, but without the annoying kids throwing popcorn at you… and without the giant screen.

If you’re willing execute your bank and wallet for these speakers, definately go for it! You will not regret it!

]]> http://www.theblahman.net/blog/2008/11/logitech-z-5500-digital-sound-system/feed/ Conditional Comments http://www.theblahman.net/blog/2008/09/conditional-comments/ http://www.theblahman.net/blog/2008/09/conditional-comments/#comments Tue, 30 Sep 2008 00:52:35 +0000 theblahman http://www.theblahman.net/blog/?p=48 When designing a website you can generally bet your bottom dollar that in most browsers it will be totally awesome, you open Internet Explorer and it’s a jumbled mess. Shame. Some people would just give up… MADNESS! Never fear, the power of conditional comments is here! Gee, that sounded cooler when I wrote it.

So, how do you use them? What are conditional comments? They are special instructions that are hidden in the <!-- comments --> tag that allows Internet Explorer on Windows to do things other browsers would just ignore. Comments right!

So now, to use the comments to our advantage we can do:

<!--[if IE]>
<p>IE only! Hoorah!</p>
<![endif]––>

That’s not all! You can target certain versions of Internet Explorer by using different letters in the if statement. Let me explain.

  1. <!––[if IE]><p>this targets every version of Internet Explorer</p><[endif]––>
  2. <!––[if IE 5]><p>this targets Internet Explorer 5</p><![endif]––>
  3. <!––[if IE 5.0]><p>this targets Internet Explorer 5.0</p><![endif]––>
  4. <!––[if IE 5.5]><p>this targets Internet Explorer 5.5</p><[endif]––>
  5. <!––[if IE 6]><p>this targets Internet Explorer 6</p><[endif]––>
  6. <!––[if IE 7]><p>this targets Internet Explorer 7</p><[endif]––>
  7. <!––[if gte IE 5.5]><p>this targets Internet Explorer 5.5 and above</p><![endif]––>
  8. <!––[if lte IE 6]><p>this targets Internet Explorer 6 and below</p><![endif]––>
  9. <!––[if lt IE 7]><p>this targets all versions of Internet Explorer below 7</p><![endif]––>

The possibilities are endless! “But what does the lt mean! This is madness!” I hear you yell in a King Leonidas-esque style. Read on…

  1. lt - Less than
  2. gt - Greater than
  3. lte - Less than or equal to
  4. gte - Equal to or Greater than

These comments don’t have to be just for making your website pseudo-usable in Internet Explorer, you could (but I do not recommend you do this) display a message telling Internet Explorer users that there are better browsers available. As cool as it sounds, it’s not a very nice thing to do!

There you have it, enjoy yourself!

]]> http://www.theblahman.net/blog/2008/09/conditional-comments/feed/ MySQL or MySQLi… that is the question http://www.theblahman.net/blog/2008/09/mysql-or-mysqli-that-is-the-question/ http://www.theblahman.net/blog/2008/09/mysql-or-mysqli-that-is-the-question/#comments Fri, 05 Sep 2008 06:47:06 +0000 theblahman http://www.theblahman.net/blog/?p=36 So, as I wander down the path of learning how to integrate a MySQL database with PHP I have pondered the difference between MySQL and MySQL improved (MySQLi). I have two “Beginning PHP & MySQL” books at home and one of them uses MySQL and the other uses MySQLi. They are both quite recent, but neither cared to explain the difference between the two and why we should use one above the other. “So!” I thought, “I will find an answer and I’ll be damned if I can’t find an explanation!”

Disclaimer: Before I begin, this information may not be correct. I’ve tried to get all my information correct, but sometimes misinterpretation or errors in articles can be misleading. Also, this is my opinion, which is not always right (sad I know). You’ve been warned :)

The introduction of MySQLi brought in 3 new ways to perform queries in PHP. They are mysqli_stmt, mysqli_query and mysqli_multi_query. According to this article, MySQLi is up to 40 times faster than the traditional MySQL. Wow. Well, the following paragraph may beg to differ.

When perusing the internet trying to find an answer to my question, I stumbled across this link, a test done by John Jawed on which is the best way of performing queries using PHP. A quick wrap-up of this benchmark finds that the order of best to worst is:

mysqli_stmt > mysql_query > mysqli_query > mysqli_multi_query

and the speeds:

mysqli_stmt: 24,242.85 ms
mysql_query: 25,345.39 ms
mysqli_query: 25,652,99 ms
mysqli_multi_query: 53,579.16 ms

What the bloody hell happened there? MySQLi only has one contender that is faster than MySQL. What surprised me the most was that mysqli_multi_query was twice as slow as all the other query methods and it’s the one that is “made” for multiple queries. I wonder if anyone actually uses it, since it is very slow.

So, now we have some information to run by, let’s get crackin’! If mysqli_stmt is approximately ~1 second faster than mysql_query, then that’s all awesome right? Well, I’m not convinced. Why? Because when I looked at php.net’s way of using mysqli_stmt, it’s very long (but having said that, php.net’s method for mysql_query is huge! It’s just heavily explained). Also, mysqli_stmt doesn’t seem to be straight forward. A mysql/mysqli_query is pretty simple, but this takes things to an extreme. Lines and lines for one little query… MADNESS! I’m thinking that there’s now a trade off. If you want to use mysqli_stmt which is ~1 second faster than mysql_query then you have to write a bit more, which makes your script filesize larger, then you have to download more when connecting and loading the page. So, what is it you want then? A faster database query or a faster loading page?

If I were to jump down to the basics and just use either mysql_query or mysqli_query, I’d go for mysqli_query simply because it has better security and you can do it object oriented [OOP].

Well then, I think the way to go now is mysqli_stmt. Let’s see some books using it!

I didn’t write quite what I wanted to, but it’s pretty long anyway. Keep your eyes peeled for Part 2 in a week or so!

Updates:
5/9 18:28 - changed some text formatting & added a bit more

]]> http://www.theblahman.net/blog/2008/09/mysql-or-mysqli-that-is-the-question/feed/ The quiet month of August http://www.theblahman.net/blog/2008/08/the-quiet-month-of-august/ http://www.theblahman.net/blog/2008/08/the-quiet-month-of-august/#comments Wed, 27 Aug 2008 09:58:44 +0000 theblahman http://www.theblahman.net/blog/?p=32 Yes, well…. the title explains it all. Normally I’m tweeting several times a day and a new blog post came out every few days. So… “what’s been keeping you?” I hear you ask. Well, many things really :)

First of all, the site. For all of those who are new visitors to the site, this is version 4 of theblahman.net. This was released earlier this month, and I’m really proud of it! Took about a month or so of designing, coding and testing. Mad props goes to Rogie King, you are a champion! And your new footer is to die for!

Well, what else? I picked up modelling for Half-Life 2. I used to map but I got kinda bored of it, so I’ve moved onto modelling instead! What can I say about modelling… it’s quite challenging, but I enjoy it. I’ve started off making a Stop sign and so far it’s…. well, alright. I made the model exactly the same size as it would be in real life, down to the millimetre! In-game it turned out perfect, so I was happy. What I wasn’t happy about however, was the texture. Now, I’m sure I got my .vmt right, but I’ll have to check with friends. Stop signs generally don’t have the Purple/Black checkerbox on them… at least they don’t in Australia! My other problem is the physbox. I followed an awesome tutorial (iwannamap) by Generalvivi but I swear I did it right :P

What else can I use as an excuse? Oh yeah! School! And that’s enough talk about school.

And thus concludes my rant on August, my favourite month of the year.

Enoy yourself :)

]]> http://www.theblahman.net/blog/2008/08/the-quiet-month-of-august/feed/ Speed Challenges http://www.theblahman.net/blog/2008/08/speed-challenges/ http://www.theblahman.net/blog/2008/08/speed-challenges/#comments Thu, 07 Aug 2008 09:05:07 +0000 theblahman http://www.theblahman.net/blog/?p=26 So, today I was thinking of something that I could do every week and then write about it in my blog, like a weekly update, but not :)

So my idea was that each week I get a website which has a defined layout and one that can be roughly made without using images. I look at the site (but I can look at it again during the 30 minutes, it’s not a photographic memory challenge… if it was, I’d be screwed!) then have 30 minutes to make as much of it as I can using only XHTML and CSS. After the 30 minutes are up I take a look at how much I’ve done.

Sounds like fun huh. Well, I’ve never coded against the clock so the first few weeks I’ll probably get very little done, but hopefuly my skills will improve. That’s what this challenge is about, learning to code against the clock, learning to make mock-ups quickly and improving my skills.

I won’t have one done this week, I’m busy with other things but hopefuly next week I’ll be able to publish my first speed challenge!

Adios.

]]> http://www.theblahman.net/blog/2008/08/speed-challenges/feed/ It’s all fun and games with the Playstation 3 http://www.theblahman.net/blog/2008/07/its-all-fun-and-games-with-the-playstation-3/ http://www.theblahman.net/blog/2008/07/its-all-fun-and-games-with-the-playstation-3/#comments Wed, 30 Jul 2008 07:22:16 +0000 theblahman http://www.theblahman.net/blog/?p=23 On Monday the 28th at 9:15AM my Playstation 3 arrived courtesy of Sony and their free Playstation 3 give away. My first impression of opening it up and looking at it was “Holy moly! This thing is massive!”. It really is a beast. Sony have done a great job with making it look beautiful, the piano black gloss finish is to die for!

Setting up the Playstation 3 was very easy too, my hat goes off to the people at Sony for making it so simple to get it working! After turning it on and hearing the beasty fan spin I was in seventh heaven. That Playstation spins a mean fan. I also noticed that the little Playstation logo can be twisted to what angle your Playstation is sitting - a nice little attention to detail which made me giddy with glee.

After setting up the Playstation I proceeded to put in my brand new copy of Assassin’s Creed into the disk drive. The disk sliding in is a pretty cool feature, I like it :D

Now Assassin’s Creed. I love this game. I’m not that far into it, but already it’s just so much fun. The Animus device and the whole Desmond Mills thing is a weird concept at first, but it really drives the story line. The whole memory thing and when you die you get desyncronized, I think that’s really cool. Nice idea Ubisoft Montreal!

Scaling a massive tower, sycronizing then performing a leap of faith is just wicked. So is the Save Citizen feature, although it’s kind of stupid that you just run up, kill all the guards and then no one seems to care… but it’s hella fun while you do it :)

However, I’d have to say the “Press X to blend” feature on the horse is so annoying. It’s much easier to just gallop then scale a tower, leap of faith and go back to Anonymous mode. The guards seem so paranoid, you walk near them with blend on and you’re a marked man.

Anyroad, time to go and play Assassin’s Creed. I’ll write up some more when I’ve finished the game.

]]> http://www.theblahman.net/blog/2008/07/its-all-fun-and-games-with-the-playstation-3/feed/ Le Tour 2008 http://www.theblahman.net/blog/2008/07/le-tour-2008/ http://www.theblahman.net/blog/2008/07/le-tour-2008/#comments Tue, 29 Jul 2008 08:10:35 +0000 theblahman http://www.theblahman.net/blog/?p=20 Wow… this Tour de France has been the best one so far. From Simon Gerrans winning Stage 15 to Carlos Sastre’s solo effort up the L’Alpe-d’Huez to snatch the Maillot jaune (Yellow Jersey) from his team mate Fränk Schleck but also get a significant time gap from Australia’s Cadel Evans.

The opinions expressed below are my own and may not be correct. I tried.

The most exciting stage of the Tour was the time trial. I was watching it live with friends who work at CSC and we were all torn between cheering for Cadel or for Carlos. To put it plainly, we would’ve been happy either way. While it was sad to see Cadel come 2nd two years in a row, I’m sure next with and a supportive team Cadel can get a 1st place.

I can’t understand why Silence-Lotto got rid of Chris Horner, the only rider who seemed to help Cadel in the mountains, replace him with Yaroslav Popovych who had a bad tour this year. In all the stages Cadel needed help Popovych was way behind and then Popovych breaks away one day with a few other riders and clearly got burnt out and couldn’t help Cadel the day after. I’m pretty sure Popovych was hired to help Cadel in the mountains, a job which he failed to do. Oh well.

With no team mates helping Cadel and no one else willing to help him chase Team CSC Saxo Bank, Cadel was doing so much work. This and his crash made his time trial not as succesful as it could’ve been. While Carlos was looking smooth and rolling in a nice gear Cadel seemed to be all over his machine grinding at the high gears. Maybe this tactic wasn’t so great. Anyway, onto positive stuff.

Congratulations to Carlos Sastre, Kurt-Asle Arvesen, Fabian Cancellara, Volodymir Gustov, Stuart O’Grady, Andy Schleck, Fränk Schleck, Nicki Sorensen, Jens Voigt, Kim Andersen, Lars Michaelsen, Bjarne Riis, Torsten Schmidt, Dan Frost Scott Sunderland and other members of Team CSC Saxo Bank. Maillot jaune, Maillot blanc and Best team - all wonderful achievements. Another shout-out goes to all the Australians in Le Tour 2008. You’ve done our nation proud.

On a final note, I was glad to see that there were hardly any dopers in this years tour. Ricco you are a fool.

Viva le Tour!

]]> http://www.theblahman.net/blog/2008/07/le-tour-2008/feed/ July July July http://www.theblahman.net/blog/2008/07/july-july-july/ http://www.theblahman.net/blog/2008/07/july-july-july/#comments Fri, 25 Jul 2008 07:55:51 +0000 theblahman http://www.theblahman.net/blog/?p=18 Well, what a July this has been. The Tour de France this year has been very exciting but also put me in a dilema. Do I follow Team CSC or Cadel Evans. While I love Team CSC, Australia really needs a winner of Le Tour! I guess the best result for me is:

  1. Cadel Evans (SIL)
  2. Carlos Sastre (CSC)
  3. Frank Schleck (CSC)

Here’s hoping!

Anyway, what else has been happening. I’m pushing to get the site released and ready for a design competition. The site will be released in the last week of August, unless I decide to release it earlier.

My Beginning PHP book has been… delayed I guess. I’ve been working on it a bit, then leaving it, coming back, re-writing parts of it. Hopefuly it’ll be worth it when I release it.

:)

]]> http://www.theblahman.net/blog/2008/07/july-july-july/feed/ Bleugh…. I need BBCode! http://www.theblahman.net/blog/2008/07/bleugh-i-need-bbcode/ http://www.theblahman.net/blog/2008/07/bleugh-i-need-bbcode/#comments Wed, 02 Jul 2008 22:00:25 +0000 theblahman http://www.theblahman.net/blog/?p=17 Well, yesterday I sat down to do the first part of my Beginning PHP tutorials when I discovered that the code tag is just rubbish, not to mention the fact that there doesn’t seem to be the htmlspecialchars “effect” on Wordpress posts so my chevrons didn’t become < and > respectively.

“Bleugh” I said to myself. “Why doesn’t Wordpress have a neat’o code parser like phpBB3?” I said to my self after releasing the almighty bleugh. So, that got me thinking, do I have what it takes to embed the phpBB3 code parser into Wordpress?

It’s certainly worth a try, I’ll write up a tutorial when I’ve got it figured out. If anyone happens to know of any good code parsers for Wordpress, would you mind posting them. The Wordpress search engine is rather shonkey so all my searchs return thousands of results.

“Bleugh!”

]]> http://www.theblahman.net/blog/2008/07/bleugh-i-need-bbcode/feed/ Beginning PHP - The Prologue http://www.theblahman.net/blog/2008/07/beginning-php-the-prologue/ http://www.theblahman.net/blog/2008/07/beginning-php-the-prologue/#comments Tue, 01 Jul 2008 07:41:01 +0000 theblahman http://www.theblahman.net/blog/?p=15 Over the last few days I’ve been writing a guide on beginning PHP. The guide should be finished within a few days and then released through a series of blog posts and possibly in PDF format as well.

The guide is quite in depth and should help people who are very new to programming in general. The guide will contain many code samples and examples on how to do the basic functions in PHP. With any luck this time next week the whole guide will be released.

See you then :)

]]> http://www.theblahman.net/blog/2008/07/beginning-php-the-prologue/feed/