Create PDFs with QuickLook – Stian’s PhD wiki

Word documents are good for editing, and better for converting to Kindle .mobi files, etc. But my academic workflow is built around PDFs, and I like using Skim for marking them up etc. I also hate having to fire up Word every time I just want a quick look at some document. Turns out you can use QuickLook to generate PDFs from any format it knows how to preview (and you can add support for lot’s of extra formats through plugins).

For the latest code:

https://github.com/houshuang/folders2web/blob/master/qlmanage-doc2pdf.rb

http://code.google.com/p/wkhtmltopdf/downloads/list

I’ll have to see if I can get this working with Alfredapp.

edit: a few different takes on it are here:

http://codesnippets.joyent.com/posts/show/14630

OOXML w:b — Complete documentation and samples

w:b Bold

SourceForge.net: Tips and Tricks – skim-app

Skim also has a few unlisted shortcuts to make life easier. Some only work in specific tool modes or when a note is selected. These shortcuts only work when the main PDF view has the focus.

space, ⇧space, page down, page up		scroll page down/up
home, end		first/last page
→, ←, ↓, ↑		scroll
⌥⌘→, ⌥⌘←, ⌥⌘↓, ⌥⌘↑		change tool mode
→, ←, ↓, ↑, ⇧→, ⇧←, ⇧↓, ⇧↑		move selected note
return		edit selected note
⌥⌃→, ⌥⌃←, ⌥⌃↓, ⌥⌃↑, ⇧⌃→, ⇧⌃←, ⇧⌃↓, ⇧⌃↑		resize selected note
⌥→, ⌥←, ⌥↓, ⌥↑		move reading bar
⇧⌥↓, ⇧⌥↑		resize reading bar
⌥tab, ⌥⇧tab		rotate through notes and links
⌥escape		deselect active note
t, n, c, b, h, u, s, l, f		change note tool mode (only in note tool mode)

http://developer.appcelerator.com/question/78591/packing–adding-ruby-gems-with–to-the-application

And then there is this nice little demo app to show off a bit of Ruby and Titanium:

https://github.com/marshall/quicksnap

Nice. Props to the folks who make this possible!

import com.foo.bar.MyClass

Open up MyClass and do anything that allows FlashBuilder to save it. The quickest was space/delete/save. If you have FlexFormatter on make sure auto format isn’t on if you don’t want to reformat 3rd party libraries when doing this. So it seemed that anything you change, so that it saves, brings the file back into FlashBuilder’s list of valid imports. But when you close the project and reopen it, the invalid imports are back.

That got me to thinking… if I just touch the file would that do it? It did. Now we’re in business.

find . -type f -print0 | xargs -0 touch

That did the trick. All the files are back in business. It’ll happen again but at least I have a quick way to get it working so refactoring, finding usages, hiearchy and all that goodness works again.

This is FlashBuilder 4.5.1.

        <em:maxVersion>1.7</em:maxVersion>

to

        <em:maxVersion>1.8</em:maxVersion>

and restart. Now to test…

Backbone supplies structure to JavaScript-heavy applications by providing models with key-value binding and custom events, collections with a rich API of enumerable functions, views with declarative event handling, and connects it all to your existing application over a RESTful JSON interface.

Laptop logic board died.

Hard drive is fine.

Got a new laptop (not the way to upgrade!)

Client WordPress site runs fine from external hard drive and new install of MAMP. Databases copied over and such (after minor heart attack when not copying over the required INNODB files)

rsync over to local drive and it doesn’t work. “Pages” aren’t working. URLs like /?p=5 work fine. Rewriting is an issue.

Make a new host at old.clientsite.dev (with the very helpful and neat virtualhostx) and point it at the external drive. Still fine. but clientsite.dev still no go.

Tried to set up RewriteLogging but it doesn’t work. Thrash around for hours.

httpd.conf has the goods

RewriteLog “/Applications/MAMP/logs/rewrite.log”
RewriteLogLevel 3

but no go. Not sure why. Notice in /private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf that there is one difference. The old vhost has AllowOverride All whereas the new one does not. Added that, and all is good.

Back to work again.

RedBeanPHP.

Very brief Slideshare:

http://slidesha.re/gQwChj

In the Woods – Vertical Centering With CSS

There are a few different ways to vertically centre objects with CSS, but it can be difficult to choose the right one. I’ll show you all the best ways I’ve seen and also how to create a nice little centered website.

Overflow Auto and Position Relative

The simplest fix is to apply position: relative to the containing block; the one with overflow: auto.

Minimal Django – Olifante’s Lair

Flask is a new microframework for web development. Created by Armin Ronacher, it grew from an April Fools’ prank into an elegant, usable tool in a very short time, mostly thanks to its clever leveraging of Armin’s two other babies, the Werkzeug webserver and the Jinja2 templating language.

I work daily with Django and love it, but after reading about Flask I got a small case of microframework envy. Why can’t Django development scale down as well as it scales up, and let a beginner have fun with single-file web development without becoming swamped in the full complexity of modern web development? It turns out Django can easily scale down.

Will have to elaborate in a bit…

As die-hard extension addicts since the first Safari 5 release, we’ve scoured the web to find 15 of our favorites. Click through the gallery for our picks.

jsonpath – Project Hosting on Google Code

JSONPath is a lightweight component that allows to find and extract relevant portions out of JSON structures on the client as well as on the server.

You can read more about it.

There are Wiki pages about usage and examples in Javascript and PHP.

Extensive test examples are available for JSONPath.

A PHP helper class JsonStore allows read, write and delete operations on JSON structures.

This isn’t the only json-xpath implementation of course. This also looks promising.

JPath – bluelinecity.com

JPath is a simple lightweight Javascript Class which provides an XPath-like querying ability to JSON objects.

Very cool.

Oh my. Very nice. Place your cursor in the code of interest and press Shift + F2. And there you go. Previously I used FluidApp to wrap the AS3 reference documentation locally as noted below. But now this is not needed. On my box FluidApp’s search is faster sometimes than the Adobe Help depending on what’s running, but jumping right to the docs in question is very helpful.

Big Spaceship | Labs Blog – AIR App: AS3 Language Reference

I found the scrollbars in the air app to be shoddy, so I downloaded the offline version of the AS3 docs:

http://help.adobe.com/support/documentation/en/flash/10/ActionScript3LangRef.zip

and then created a fluid app from my local version.

http://fluidapp.com/

now runs perfect offline and even has a search.

ActionScript 3 Singleton Redux – darron schall

It was actually a combination of other factors (and personal preference) that made me revisit the singleton pattern. The singleton technique that I prefer was developed to address the other issues I was running into and to reflect my personal coding style. While I was at it, I figured I might as well address the private constructor issue too. After all, we all love being smacked around by the compiler sometimes.

The technique I prefer has the following highlights:

• Usage of static instance read-only property instead of a static getInstance() function. This is somewhat a matter of style and personal preference, but I prefer the succinctness of the read-only property. This is especially obvious when the singleton is used in binding expressions. Plus, getInstance() is so 1990s Java which ActionScript is most definitely not. I kid, I kid. But seriously, “.instance” is cooler.
• Usage of a private lock class to prevent outside construction. While this is a common theme in the above links, my approach is slightly different. Instead of passing an instance of the private locking class to the constructor, I just pass the Class reference itself. This does two things. First, it clarifies the conditional check in the constructor. The test for the proper locking Class reference communicates the code’s intent better than the traditional check for not null. Second, it encapsulates the private locking class itself. The constructor’s argument is simply lock:Class which doesn’t expose the name of the private locking class to the outside world, but still communicates that the constructor is locked.
• Removal of ‘Unable to bind’ warnings in Flex 2. When you use a singleton in a binding expression, it’s typical to have the Console log flooded with warning messages indicating that binding to the instance property will not be able to detect updates. My singleton version fixes these warnings.
• Use of const instead of var for the instance storage. This one is pretty obvious, but using const here communicates intent better. The variable storing the singleton instance is not allowed to change so const is the better choice.

ASDoc Enhancements | www.boristhebrave.com

I’ve put in a few customizations to the standard ASDoc template, that I’m going to share here, as they are generally useful. You will need to customize the files a bit for your own project, though.

Breaking Floats Without Hacks

When you want to clear all floats across the entire width of the page or a div, this single line of CSS code just won’t cut it when using: <div class=”clear”></div>.

1. clear: both;

Instead, we’re going to use four lines.

1. width: 100%;
2. height: 1px;
3. margin: 0 0 -1px;
4. clear: both;

Alright, let’s break this down. First of all, the major problem with clearing correctly in all browsers lies mainly in a few of Internet Explorer’s quirks. Both width: 100%; and height: 1px; force the browser into accepting that there is a div there. The margin: 0 0 -1px; negates the 1 pixel space that height introduced; this is the only property that is not required. Natually, clear: both; is the special ingredient to make all of this work.

Fixed Positioning in Internet Explorer 6

Fixed positioning has always been a nuisance for web designers because of the lack of support for it in Internet Explorer 6, but I’ve come up with a solution that allows for cross-browser fixed positioning that doesn’t come at the large costs that other techniques result in. If you’ve been on the hunt for a way to get elements with position: fixed; to work properly in Internet Explorer 6, undoubtedly you’ve noticed that most methods come at the expense of absolute positioning or resorting to scripting. Mine does not.

Adobe in Technical Communication and eLearning » Using a Solo Review to Edit Adobe Captivate Projects Faster [VIDEO]

In this video I go over a process that works for me, namely conducting a local, solo Review, where I can insert comments on-the-fly as I’m previewing my project. These notes are then imported back into my project exactly where I inserted them.

F*CSS |  About

F*CSS is a custom CSS parser for Flash based on the PropteryManagement System in Flash Camouflage. The main class called StyleSheet (found inside of the com.flashartofwar.fcss.stylesheets package), goes well beyond the native StyleSheet class by supporting style inheritance, pseudo selectors, and merging styles on the fly. The goal of the StyleSheet is to make styles something you can apply to any of your classes instead of just TextFields. CSS is a great way to define your class’s properties in an external file and F*CSS helps convert these css styles into property/value pairs you can apply to any Object.

Scribefire on Safari « Ramblings

Might have to switch to using tags…

New CSS Sticky Footer – 2010 – HTML for Bottom of Page Footer

This sticky footer solution is working in all major browsers, including Google Chrome and IE 8! It works with
floated 2-column layouts and we don’t get overlap in resized browser windows unlike older solutions
you find when you Google sticky footer. You don’t need an empty push div or cleafix hack. Here is how to use this sticky footer code.

http://birdhouse.org/blog/2009/02/21/python-mysql-connections-on-mac-os/

http://www.marteinn.se/blog/?p=467

Correction. It just took a really REALLY long time. The reason? You need to have libs and headers and such in places that all make sense for everything to compile. (This is the SHORT version.) So MacPorts to the rescue. Install py25-mysql, copy some files around, use a slightly different “HOST” setting for the database connection and you’re good to go. But installing py25-mysql installs ALL the dependencies needed in order to get that running. Which is good when that’s what you need. Which is what took a long time. But at least it was a one command thing and not hopping all over the ‘net to find and install things as I was very close to doing.

And that bit about the unique “HOST” setting for mine turns out to be

DATABASE_HOST = ‘/Applications/MAMP_1.7.2/tmp/mysql/mysql.sock’