Author Archive

Anyone any experience with ez Components?

Sunday, January 2nd, 2011 | Permalink

I am playing with ezComponents (future zetaComponents) currently.
I have done a couple of projects with ez Publish in the past and I really like the structure.

I am testing the ImageConversion component, but I just can’t get the quality of the outcoming image under control.
$converter->createTransformation( 'thumbnail', $filters, array( 'image/jpeg', 'image/png' ) );

try
{
$converter->transform(
'thumbnail',
$image,
$uploadPath.$filename.'_thumb.'.$ext
);
new ezcImageSaveOptions(array('quality' => 70));

}
catch ( ezcImageTransformationException $e)
{
die( "Error transforming the image: <{$e->getMessage()}>" );
}

If I remove the line new ezcImageSaveOptions(array('quality' => 70)); I get a “fuzzy” jpeg.

If I have it in the code, I get a 100 % quality image.
Anyone, any idea?

Btw. I really think this is a great library. I don’t call it a framework, as I think it has not everything you need for a framework.

Working on a flickr integration for one of my projects

Friday, December 31st, 2010 | Permalink

… and I found a very helpful php flickr class called phpFlickr at phpFlickr.com.

It is super simple to start working with it and it works in PHP4 and PHP5.

HTML5 and why you want to use it

Thursday, June 24th, 2010 | Permalink

HTML5 is everywhere. Beside Buzzwords like Foursquare, Facebook Connect and Apps, there is HTML5 nearly everywhere right now. Especially since Apple refuses to put Flash on their mobile devices. Just to give you a small overview about how big Apple is today.

The iOS Platform is running on the following devices:

– iPhone – 33.750.000 sold
– iPod touch – 20.000.000 sold
– iPad – 3.000.000 sold

Makes a total of 56.750.000 devices out there.

Nearly 57 Million devices that are able to show interactive content, but not Flash.

Flash was introduced 2006. This was 14 years ago. In the beginning it was just big and slow, but within the time it got faster and highspeed connections became affordable.
Like every technology out there it got improved with the time. Features like Streaming and XML where build into it.

But, also HTML was growing. If I remember the first days and the really ugly pages back then, the web today has completely turned. After a couple of years CSS got introduced. Today CSS is everywhere. And it is in version 3. JavaScript came after a couple of years, got extended with Ajax. Today, it is everywhere. HTML4/XHTML is already a couple of years old, now the next version is out there.
These are just examples.

Let’s come straigt to the point. If you want to show interactive content, if you want to be on all these devices then there is no way around HTML5. Beside that, HTML5 nearly supports all the functionality you have in Flash. Or lets say it this way, most of the features are there in HTML5. It is more lightweight, it is fast and it runs on 60 Million extra devices.

Actually I am quite impressed what you can do today with HTML5.

Here are some examples of Apple and Google on HTML5ROCKS.com.

There is a good map about browser compatibility on focus.com. It’s worth seeing it.

I don’t think Flash is dead. I just believe that you can do a lot with combining technology. Use the right technology, at the right time, for the right product!

Activate PHP5 on Mac OS X Snow Leopard

Monday, November 16th, 2009 | Permalink

I blog this, because it took me some time to figure that out and is so simple to fix.

I just bought a Mac Mini Server with Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server. There is a nice interface to configure apache2, mailserver and everything else. By default there is no php5 enabled.
If you look into the module list in the server admin interface, there is the php5_module. Just check the box, the server will perform a gracefully restart.

I just installed a little script with the following code in it.

After that I opened the site in the local webbrowser.

The result was:

Mhhh??? What went wrong?

The answer is quite simple. Mac OS X Server comes with NO php.ini and PHP comes with short_tags disabled by default.

So, just at a php.ini file or add to your script.

Nativ NTFS writing with Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009 | Permalink

I found this little how to on Macrumors, that shows how you can enable writing on Windows formatted harddiscs with Snow Leopard.

Nativ NTFS for Snow Leopard.

The problem is that Microsoft still owns the rights on NTFS and is not that amused if someone else is using it. This thread will be helpful for everyone who is a switcher from Windows to Mac.

How to connect Logitech Freepulse with iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS

Monday, August 24th, 2009 | Permalink

A year ago, I bought a Logitech Freepulse Wireless Bluetooth Headphone to listen to my music without getting in trouble with cables.
Normally you need the headphones and a little bluetooth box you plug into the audio device. With the iPhone 3G and 3GS, Apple added the A2DP protocol to listen to music using Bluetooth.

There is a way to use your Freepulse without the little box. Just push the ON button on the headphones for 15 seconds. Wait for the light to flash in blue and red. If the light is flashing, you can easily connect to the headphones from your iPhone.

Final Cut Express no sound – a solution

Monday, July 20th, 2009 | Permalink

I had trouble with the audio output from final cut express 4.0.

simple solution for that problem.

just click view -> video out -> canvas playback

Heartbeat GUI for Mac OS X – no way, sorry!

Thursday, June 18th, 2009 | Permalink

I really tried it for at least 10 hours. Installing everything needed including all the libs, compilers and whatever. I even hacked the configure files and copied all the libs manually. No WAY!

If someone has a solutions. Please comment!!!

My solution right now is to use X11 and connect to another server. Not the best solutions I would say.

Google unveils Datacenter structur / server hardware

Thursday, April 2nd, 2009 | Permalink

I found this article about the Google Hardware at CNet.

Surprisingly, Google is doing something so simple but so extremly smart. They put the UPS directly in the server, by placing a 12 volt battery there.

What surprised me the most is the fact that the servers do have harddiscs. I always thougt they keep all the data only in the ram to reach the speed of each query.

Read the article at Cnet incl. pictures.

Vector based Worldmap for free

Saturday, February 21st, 2009 | Permalink

For a current project we are using some geotargeting stuff and want to map these geodata to a worldmap.
If you need to find the right position with longitude and latitude on a map, you need a map that is absolutly correct. Otherwise you will have the problem that some places are directly in the water. BAD!
So I looked around and found this post about free vector worldmaps
On additional benefit, you can build zoomable maps in flash with these kind of maps.