I am a web application programmer, Search Engine Optimization Developer and all-around Geek.
Mental Ramblings of a Self-acknowledged Geek.
Posted: January 29, 2009
Variables? Like algebra?
Yep. Like algebra.
Just like in algebra, variables in PHP will substitute for a value. But a variable in programming is different from in math, because a variable doesn’t just stand for numbers. You can use a variable to stand for just about everything from numbers, to characters of the alphabet, strings of text, entire sets of different values, even other variables!
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Posted: January 28, 2009
Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking.
Just wanted to let you know we may experience some turbulence as we come in for a landing on this new theme, just while we get all the bugs worked out.
Thank you.
Posted: January 27, 2009
PHP is a server-side, interpreted scripting language.
What does that mean? Well server-side means it runs the code on the web server, so your users don’t download the code and run it in their browser, like with JavaScript. This means that you’re not making your visitor’s computer do all the work, and it also means that your code is more secure, because your visitors don’t ever see the actual code, only what you send to their browser.
Interpreted means that it doesn’t have to be compiled into a program, like a windows .exe file, to run, but the web server interprets the code live as it comes to it.
A scripting language is really basically a ‘lite’ programming language.
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Posted: January 25, 2009
A lot of people around me have had questions about PHP lately. Seems like I’ve been doing a lot of PHP training. So I decided to begin posting PHP lessons for the beginner with no programming experience. I’m basically assuming no experience with writing functions, variables, or anything else that a lot of training takes for granted. All you’ll need to learn PHP is to have a familiarity with proper XHTML and CSS, though again you don’t need to be a super CSS guru supreme.
My next post will contain the first lesson, which will really be more of an introduction to PHP.
Posted: January 22, 2009
Just following up on my fanboy rant from yesterday. I saw a link to this article (on Twitter), David Pogue explains Twitter and its usefulness for Twittering skeptics.
Posted: January 22, 2009
I’ve been resistant. I will admit, I looked at all the Twitterites and scratched my head.
‘What’s the point?’ I wondered.
I thought it was overhyped. A single-purpose application that was being overutilized and obsessed over by people with waay too much time on their hands. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: January 20, 2009
I decided that I need a new place to dump all the coding and random thoughts in my head. I’ve already got a place for my interesting info and Discovery Channel-type stuff (though I know I need to make some changes. Right now it’s stuck partly because I was going to make a more formal project out of writing articles there and realized I had other things to do instead.) And I’ve of course got my movie reviews site, with a blog for my more cinema-centric scribery.
I really needed a place to geek out on more hackerly subjects, a geek blog with less formality. I already had the nomadhacker.com domain and hadn’t done anything with it yet…thus giving birth to this site. This is going to be more of a personal site/coding site about me and my internet-facing self.
I don’t have too much time to build a theme right away, so for now, embrace the default blue of Wordpress and love it! And please leave comments.
Posted: July 9, 2007
This is a very odd time of year for me usually. Yesterday I set of fireworks for the first time since I was 10 years old. I usually don’t do much with fireworks celebration. You see, when I was 10, some firecrackers damaged my ear, leaving me with permanent nerve damage and hearing loss and a condition called tinnitus. Ever since that time I have had a constant ringing in my ear that never goes away and gets worse when I’m around loud noises.
So obviously, ever since then, I haven’t been too eager to play with fireworks, and it just kind of left a damper on the 4th of July for me ever since. But last year, I was out walking around on the 4th, when everyone was out on their lawns or by the hotel pools staring up at the sky watching the fireworks displays. The smoke was hanging hazy in the air and the smell and the feel of the air just gave me a flashback to when I was younger and would watch the rockets and whizzing lights and I felt really nostalgic for that time again, and I watched the displays up in the sky along with everyone else.
So this year, for the first time in about 17 years, I got some ear plugs and set off some fireworks of my own, with Isa and Johnny. We didn’t do any loud ones, but had lots of fun with sparklers and whizzing lights. And I can honestly say that I enjoyed the Fourth of July for the first time since I was a kid. I’m sure that having a little boy around to enjoy the fireworks too helps.
Anyway, if you get a chance, check out my article on the history of fireworks for some facts you may or may not know about how fireworks are made and where they come from. And remember if you’re setting off your own to be safe and be careful.
Posted: June 13, 2007
Don Herbert, known to kids of all ages around the world as Mr. Wizard, died yesterday from bone cancer, just a month shy of his 90th birthday. His character first showed up to teach kids about science in 1951 and continued to help make learning science fun in various incarnations of his shows. I remember watching the last incarnation of his show, Mr. Wizard’s World, on Nickelodeon. Mr. Wizard, Rest in Peace.
Posted: June 7, 2007
The other day as I stepped outside on my lunch break, I was met with a sudden warm wind that for a moment felt exactly like the Santa Anas. The Santa Anas are a phenomenon of southern California and they have a tingly, energized feeling, as if the air is simply tired of standing still and wants to get up and move around – I feel the same way when I’ve been sitting at my desk all day. No rain coming, no storm. The air is just restless and tired of nothing happening. Jack Black has a line about it in The Holiday, and it really is something that feels mystical, as if the air is alive.
As I stood outside the other day, and the wind swept over me, I wondered what the Santa Ana winds were doing so far from Orange County. I guess the air in California isn’t the only air that gets restless.
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