ChrisRunnells.com Blog

I’m really liking this Vivitar 285 flash mod, and trying to figure out if there’s a way I can cobble together parts from the two slightly broken ones I have and make something this cool. (Edit: Also found this Vivitar mod which has pictures and a “how-to”).

Just ordered some new flash remotes since the Cactus V2s we have are getting too finicky for my liking. Cactus released V4s earlier this year, and they’re still extremely affordable. Looking forward to getting those later this week.

I still have a big backlog of photos to go thru for Theresa and Andree’s wedding, and I’m really gonna push to get my picks out this week.

Oh yeah, and pics of the yurt are coming soon as well. Stay tuned.

I’m starting to use this site as a resource for myself, because I use this stuff all the time, but not enough to commit it fully to memory.

That said, something that’s come up a lot recently is forcing www. in front of all urls on a site. Since all of my servers are Apache, with mod_rewrite enabled, this is no problem. Create an .htaccess file and drop this code into it:

RewriteEngine On
# force www in url
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.chrisrunnells\.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.chrisrunnells.com/$1 [R=301,L]
# END force www in url

The other thing I’ve started doing is using 301 redirects when launching a new site. I can’t believe I didn’t use this years ago! Just add the following to the .htaccess file:

redirect 301 /oldpage.htm http://www.chrisrunnells.com/

And voila, the server redirects the user, and the search engines index the new page as the old one.

Rob has a nice designers resource page on his web site. Hopefully the ZeppOS Wiki will gain some momentum and become the main destination for documentation.

I was working on a Flash slideshow for an Aloha Media Group project, and I needed to make sure the slideshow background was transparent. I needed to look up the SWFObject code to make that happen, which is:

so.addParam("wmode", "transparent");

I also made sure the to update the slideshow.xml with bgOpacity="0", which I think would have given me the functionality I needed without adding the wmode parameter. I’ll have to test that out.

So I find myself spending a lot of time trying to debug issues with Javascript and Flash when building sites out in ZeppOS. I’m posting this in the hopes that other people might find this useful!

Basically, I use the Flash Nifties XML Slideshow any time I need to do a quick image slideshow. To embed the swf file, I use the included SWFObject javascript for cross-browser compatible flash integration.

Now, the key to pulling this off successfully is to make sure the paths are all correct. Not only do we need to make sure the path to the XML file is good, but we need to make sure the paths to the images inside the XML file are valid as well. Trying to embed slideshow.swf by itself using the built in WYSIWYG editor doesn’t work, because the SWF can’t find the XML file. So, using the editor override method, I drop in the following code:

<script type="text/javascript">
var so = new SWFObject("/_Library/Media/Slideshow/slideshow.swf?file=_library/Media/slideshow/slideshow.xml", "gallery", "400", "300", "6", "#ffffff");
so.write("flashcontent");
</script>


Alternatively, I could use addVariable technique to tell the slideshow where the XML file is (found here):
so.addVariable("file", "xml/images.xml");

However, since there’s only one variable, it’s easy enough to just add it directly to the uri string.

Now that slideshow.swf knows where it’s XML file is, I can test this by changing the bgcolor attribute in the XML file and seeing if it shows up. Once I’m sure the slideshow is reading from the XML file, I need to make sure the file paths to the images are correct. Since Flash reads the directory structure relative to the page it’s being called from (in this case, the root of the web site, index.asp), the path has to look like this:

<image img="_Library/Media/Slideshow/image1.jpg" />
<image img="_Library/Media/Slideshow/image2.jpg" />
<image img="_Library/Media/Slideshow/image3.jpg" />
<image img="_Library/Media/Slideshow/image4.jpg" />


Since ZeppOS is on a Windows platform, the paths are case-insensitive, but I add in capitalization anyway.

And that’s about it. Next time I’ll show a snippet of Javascript that I sometimes add to trick the browser into updating the XML file each time the page loads.

Recently I’ve had the displeasure of using the Dotster control panel. One of my clients had her credit card expire, so both her domains and her hosting subscription lapsed. I was called in to get everything back up and running again.

Well getting the domains renewed was a cinch, and took only a few minutes. However, trying to get the hosting back up and running took a week.

*Day 1* – I tried to log into the Dotster Control Panel, only to discover a message that says the panel is down for maintenance. No clue as to when it was expected back up, or how long it had been down.

*Day 2* – Log in to the system, pull up the hosting subscription, and click on the “Renew” button. It basically says that I can’t renew because there’s already an invoice out for the subscription, I’m given a cryptic error message referring to an invoice number that isn’t in my account. Frustrated, I get on the line with their chat tech support. The person on the other end gives me a list of procedures which will result in a renewed hosting subscription. The only problem? One of the steps refers to a link that *doesn’t exist*. Frustrated, I try to get back on the chat line, but I’m foiled by the queue and never get another person on again. I give up for the time being, and send in an email ticket.

*Day 3* – I receive a response to my ticket, and the same steps quoted by the person I chatted with. I respond that one of the steps doesn’t work, and attach a screenshot.

*Day 4* – No response from email support, so I try the chat line again. I explain that the link isn’t there, and the “customer care agent” basically tells me that they don’t support any browsers on the Mac platform. He then dodged all of my questions about which browsers they do support (I’m guessing IE only).

So, basically, if you don’t use Internet Explorer, <a href=”http://www.dotster.com”>don’t use Dotster hosting</a>.

Guy Kawasaki posted a blog about his trip to the Threadless offices in Chicago.

Honestly, who wouldn’t want to work in a place like this? I love the graffiti on the walls, and the misc stuff all over the place. And I certainly wouldn’t say no to a video game area or a coffee selection like that.

I just took the ALA Design Survey, you should too!

I’ve finally decided to start blogging again. It’s been far too long.

I can’t promise the writing will be compelling or really interesting (at least not at first), but give me some time to get back into the swing of things. I haven’t really blogged since 2001, so I’m a bit rusty.

I’m retiring my old domain (uninspired.net) because I’ve had enough clients ask why I would promote that as my web site. It was funny back in high school because it was ironic, but I don’t feel that it fits anymore, and the irony is lost on most of the people who want to give me money.

So, chrisrunnells.com it is!