Vortex Networking BlogVortex Networking Bloghttp://www.vortexnetworking.com/blog/2011-07-27T22:40:16ZSquarespacejQuery Plug-in: fluidFontSizehttp://www.vortexnetworking.com/blog/2011/7/27/jquery-plug-in-fluidfontsize.htmlNathaniel Beighley2011-07-27T22:14:03Z2011-07-27T22:14:03ZI recently finished a development project for a client that challenged me a bit, which is not necessarily a bad thing.  The client wanted the site to be scalable across multiple screen resolutions, and not just horizontally scalable, but vertically.  It was important that any scrolling on the site be limited, if not non-existent, on even the smallest screen resolutions.

Using jQuery, I was able to determine the screen widths/heights of the end-user screens and keep the site scaled proportionally.   But then I began to notice something happening: The paragraphs on some of the pages, particularly when viewing on smaller screens, was disappearing, falling out of divs, or hanging over images.  I realized quickly that I was going to have the scale the fonts as well in order to keep the text in containers.

Did a quick search, and after trying unsuccessfully for a couple days with several plug-ins, I realized I was going to have to go a step further.  While the plug-ins I did try were very good, I couldn't get them to work correctly when using fluid heights in my containers.  So, I created my own plug-in...my first as a matter of fact.

Frankly, it's a very simple, easy plugin.  It simply takes a max-height option that you specify and divides it by the actual height of the container as it's displayed on the screen.  Taking that percentage, we adjust the font accordingly.  The second option allows you to subtract a hair more if needed. Take the following example:

$("#content_box").fluidFontSize({maxHeight: 365, aDrop: .5});

The 'aDrop' option will simply take the newly calculated font size and subtract .5.  This can also be set to zero, the default (recommended for most cases) is 1.

Demo is available here for download.

]]>Lion and the Mousehttp://www.vortexnetworking.com/blog/2011/7/21/lion-and-the-mouse.htmlNathaniel Beighley2011-07-21T18:18:13Z2011-07-21T18:18:13ZOSX Lion Mouse PreferanceFor those of you impatient souls, like myself, who bit the bullet and installed OSX Lion yesterday, you may have noticed something wrong with your mouse after your initial reboot.  Suddenly, my wife and I were finding that the scroll wheels on our mice were not working...but wait...they were.  Just in the wrong direction, or the right direction, depending on how you look at it.

After years of working with the scroll wheel only going one way, I wasn't really interested in this development.  The fix is easy, although not easily noticable in preferances.  Simply go to your System Preferances > Mouse and uncheck the box that says "Scroll Direction: natural".  Problem solved...

]]>Quick-Tip: Take Screenshots in Snow Leopardhttp://www.vortexnetworking.com/blog/2010/2/15/quick-tip-take-screenshots-in-snow-leopard.htmlNathaniel Beighley2010-02-16T01:47:17Z2010-02-16T01:47:17ZOne question I often get asked is how to take screenshots on Mac OSX.  The answer is really quite simple...

The Everything Shot

To take a screenshot of everything on your display, simply press the "Shift-Command-Number 3" keys, in that order.  Your screenshot will be saved to your desktop.

The Windowed Shot

Sometimes you may want to get a screenshot of just a single application.  Press the "Shift-Command-Number 4" keys followed by the space bar.  You will see your pointer take shap of a camera.  Simply click the open application that you want to capture and go grab your screenshot on the desktop.

The Custom Shot

Sometimes you may want to just grab part of a screen or window.  To do this, simple repeat with the "Shift-Command-Number 4" keys without the spacebar.  You will see your mouse pointer take the shape of an aiming tool with the X and Y coordinates of it's current location.  Select a starting point and then click and hold to the area you want to capture.  Once selected, simply let go of the clicker and your image will be saved to the desktop.

The Advanced Shot

It is also possible to grab a screenshot from the terminal.  Open the terminal and type the following

screencapture ~/Desktop/myimage.jpg

You can of course name the image anything you want or change the location.  The '~/' in the directory simply defines your home folder.  Type "screencapture --help" to see the more advanced options available with the screencapture terminal command.

]]>Apple's iPad Misses the iBoathttp://www.vortexnetworking.com/blog/2010/1/27/apples-ipad-misses-the-iboat.htmlNathaniel Beighley2010-01-28T00:38:56Z2010-01-28T00:38:56ZAdd Text to PDFs in Machttp://www.vortexnetworking.com/blog/2009/10/20/add-text-to-pdfs-in-mac.htmlNathaniel Beighley2009-10-20T15:47:55Z2009-10-20T15:47:55ZMoving From Quicksilver to QSBhttp://www.vortexnetworking.com/blog/2009/9/15/moving-from-quicksilver-to-qsb.htmlNathaniel Beighley2009-09-15T17:25:57Z2009-09-15T17:25:57ZFrom iPhone to YouTube to Twitterhttp://www.vortexnetworking.com/blog/2009/7/13/from-iphone-to-youtube-to-twitter.htmlNathaniel Beighley2009-07-13T19:04:39Z2009-07-13T19:04:39ZUsers YouTube RSS Feed in FirefoxIt's not that I don't like yFrog or Twitpic or any of the other services out there for twittering my latest videos on the internet, but I'm really trying hard to keep all of my videos and pictures in one place rather than spread all over the internet.

With the introduction of the video recorder in the iPhone 3GS and the ability to 'one-click' upload videos directly to YouTube, the only thing that was missing was the ability to have those videos automagically twittered.

After a little research, I discovered that it is possible to subscribe to a user's YouTube RSS feed by using the URL: http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/users/username/uploads?orderby=published

That URL, after replacing 'username' with the user's YouTube account ID, is the RSS subscription feed.  Once established, the next step is to simply have the feed monitored by a service such as TwitterFeed.com which will automatically 'tweet' new videos uploaded via the iPhone or other device

For my next trick, I'm going to work on doing the exact same thing with pictures using either Picasa Web Albums or Flickr.

]]>Blogging from the iPhone with iBloggerhttp://www.vortexnetworking.com/blog/2009/7/8/blogging-from-the-iphone-with-iblogger.htmlNathaniel Beighley2009-07-08T20:40:40Z2009-07-08T20:40:40ZI recently heard about about a blogging application for the iPhone called iBlogger from illumineX. Intrigued and seeing that they had plugins for Squarespace, I downloaded the app immediately from iTunes (iTunes Link) and had no problem spending the $9.99.

Now, a couple things should be noted before I continue: First, there are cheaper alternatives out there for blogging sites such as WordPress and Google's Blogger, but this was the first app I found that worked with Squarespace. Second, since I only use Squarespace, I can't comment on how iBlogger works with other blogging platforms.

Also, I decided that the best way to review this little gem was, shall we say, 'trial by fire'. So I'm writing this entire entry on my iPhone using iBlogger.

The Good New Is...


It works right out of the box (so to speak). I have had no problems running the application and adding my Squarespace account was a breeze. Once my account was added to the list, I immediately had access to all of my existing blog entries.

I appreciate as well that I can work on an entry and leave the application without losing my work or having the half-completed article publish before it is done. In the list of entries, iBlogger shows published articles with green text and entries-in-progress with black text.

Adding an image to a new post is a snap, giving you the option to take a picture from the iPhone camera or selecting one from the library. Once added, you can adjust alignment or remove it completely.

In addition to images, iBlogger allows you to add links, choose categories and add tags. It also has a GPS link so you can add the location you are blogging from, which will open a Google Map when clicked.

It should also be noted that iBlogger is fast, really fast. I'm using the application on an iPhone 3GS and it works as quickly as I can move with no delays and no hang ups.

And the Bad News...


While being a pretty robust application for a mobile device, there were a few things I struggled with.

The first thing I immediately noticed was the lack of text controls for selecting headers, colors, etc., within the editor. It is conceivable that this is an iPhone software limitation, but the only way to add headers or special text is to enter the source code. If you have ever tried to write code using the iPhone keyboard, you know what a frustrating experience this can be. A landscape keyboard might help with this a little, but landscape mode is not an option within iBlogger.

Also, while you can adjust the image alignment, you can't adjust where it goes within paragraphs. The one image, which is all that is allowed, is always within the first paragraph. Image resizing and cropping is also not an option as you can see in my screenshot above.

While adding a link is an option, it can't be done within the editor. It helps in generating the source code, but the code then has to be cut and paste in the appropriate place within the paragraph. It's only a hair faster than manually typing the code without using the link button.

Is it Worth It?


Seems to be! While it certainly isn't going to replace my desktop as a blogging tool, iBlogger can come in real handy when out on the road. I can see this application being used a lot at conferences, trade shows and big events like WWDC and CES.

Is it worth 10 bucks? That depends on how and when you are going to use it, but for me, absolutely. While there are some features and options missing, I'm willing to bet that future versions are only going to get better and fill in some of those gaps.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]


]]>New Site Launch: DRC1000.comhttp://www.vortexnetworking.com/blog/2009/6/14/new-site-launch-drc1000com.htmlNathaniel Beighley2009-06-14T17:09:25Z2009-06-14T17:09:25ZBe An Uber-Geek with GeekTools for Machttp://www.vortexnetworking.com/blog/2009/6/2/be-an-uber-geek-with-geektools-for-mac.htmlNathaniel Beighley2009-06-02T18:59:46Z2009-06-02T18:59:46Z