HTML Website
A page on the internet is made up of HTML, thus making it an HTML Website. However, the backend is usually a scripting language such as ASP, PHP, or ColdFusion, which allows you do interact with users and save data.
HTML is simply a markup language, which look like tags <in_brackets>. It's very easy to learn, and it goes perfectly with CSS. If you have an HTML Website, you should try to include CSS as much as possible so that it's easier to edit in the future.
You can Learn HTML very easily at W3Schools. All you need to edit HTML is notepad, and to view it you need a web browser (Which is the thing you are viewing this site in, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, etc).
With an HTML Website you can create links, information pages, add images, and hundreds of other things. But you can not make your HTML website save files automatically, and record information in a database unless you are using a server-side language, mentioned above. That is where things get very difficult, and it's best to start early.
If you practice HTML for 2 weeks, you will know it very well. Make sure to learn how to make your HTML Website the best it can be, you might enjoy it and you could possibly make a career in it.
PHP & Before Variables
What is the & in PHP before a variable? The easiest way to explain is to give you an example..
$fruit = "apple"; $myItem = &$fruit; echo $myItem;
If you look at the above example, let's break it down:
1. $fruit is set to apple,
2. and $myItem references the value of $fruit.
3. So if you echo $myItem, it will return the value of whatever $fruit is.
Does that make sense?
Let's make it a tiny bit more complex to give you a better idea. Again, in PHP the & before a variable is a reference, meaning it will change if $fruit changes. If you were to do the following:
$fruit = "apple"; $myItem = &$fruit; echo $myItem; // Now we are changing the fruit value $fruit = "banana"; // And again we are referencing from myItem echo $myItem;
The output will be "applebanana", because we have changed the value of $fruit again, and $myItem will reference it's current state.
I honestly rarely ever use reference variables, perhaps it's a lack of skill or technique but I don't find much use for it in day to day programming. They are useful in things like a PHP OOP Registry Class, but I don't find a huge use for & references variables while doing day to day tasks.
Photoshop Cursor Stuck on Hand
Have you ever loaded Photoshop and suddenly the Photoshop Cursor was stuck on the Hand? As if every tool displays nothing besides the "hand" icon. This is once and a while a problem in windows XP, the solution is quick.
Edit > Preferences > General (Or press CTRL+K)
Click the button at the bottom "Reset All Warning Dialogs".
It should be working instantly now, you may have to restart photoshop.
Why Use Google Chrome?
Google Chrome is the web browser introduced by Google. Firefox is steadily dominating near 50% of the web browsers for over a year, and Internet Explorer (versions 6, 7 and 8) all fall a bit behind FireFox.
The Chrome Browser is picking up at about 10% of all web users -- as it was at only 3% a year ago. The reason for such success, I believes, is due to the simplicity and light browsing.
If you use FireFox for web development, I suggest you stay with it. There aren't good enough replacement for plugins such as FireBug, Web Developer ToolBar, and the Ad Blocking. However some of Google Chromes built in tools are decent, you can see them by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+I on a PC, or simply go to the "Page" icon on the right > Developer > Developer Tools.
The best reason to switch to Chrome, in my opinion, is speed. Although Firefox is a fantastic browser, the load-up and page load times pale in comparison to Google Chrome. Chrome is extremely light-weight, and has a very pretty GUI.
I've been using Chrome lately for Facebook, Checking email, and researching sites. For web development I stick to FireFox. I believe in the next year we will see Chrome have all the plugins which make FireFox so great yet with a faster, more crash-resistant browser.
It takes a little while to get used to switching browers, or forming the habit of using two different ones. But I highly suggest you try out Chrome for a few weeks and see what you think!
7 Cool JQuery Form Plugins
Here is a collection of several great Jquery Form Plugins.. They are quite easy to install and spice your site up to life, give it some flavor.
JQuery Checkbox Plugin
This JQuery plugin is pretty cool, it allows a Light-Switch type of button to toggle buttons.
JQuery Fancy Form
This form effect gives checkboxes different styles, it also formats Radio buttons.
Bassistance Autocomplete
This is a nice JQuery AJAX Autocomplete which can be useful for PHP/MySQL.
JQuery Image Dropdown
Every wanted images in your drop down menus? Now you can -- this ought to spice up your form!
JQuery Nice Forms
This formats your forms and makes the inputs pretty
JQTransform
Like the Nice Forms plugin this one also styles your forms.
