Standard looking buttons with different colored backgrounds

<style type="text/css">
    #ContinueButton, #CancelButton {
        background: linear-gradient(to bottom, #FFF 0%, #EEE 9%, #E7E7E7 44%, #DDD 45%, #CCC 91%, #FFF 100%);
        background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, from(#F6F6F6), to(#DDD));
        -moz-appearance: textfield;
        border-radius: 3px;
        -webkit-border-radius: 2px;
        border: 1px #999 solid;
        padding: 2px 6px 3px;
    }
    #ContinueButton {
        background: linear-gradient(to bottom, #FFF 0%, #ECF2EC 9%, #E5EBE5 44%, #DBF1DB 45%, #CAD0CA 91%, #FFF 100%);
        background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, from(#F4FAF4), to(#DBE1DB));
    }
    #CancelButton {
        background: linear-gradient(to bottom, #FFF 0%, #F2ECEC 9%, #EBE5E5 44%, #F1DBDB 45%, #D0CACA 91%, #FFF 100%);
        background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, from(#FAF4F4), to(#E1DBDB));
    }
</style> 

How to format a date exactly as you want M/d/yyyy

I was having issues formatting a date in ASP.NET MVC3, and I tried everything to get my dates formatted M/d/yyyy. It turned out I needed to set the datatype to text. Before I did that, my dates had leading zeros, which is exactly what I did not want.

[DisplayName("Date Start")]
[DataType(DataType.Text)]
[DisplayFormat(DataFormatString = "{0:M/d/yyyy}", ApplyFormatInEditMode = true)]
public DateTime? DateStart { get; set; }

Remember to use @Html.EditorFor to get the formatting to come through. TextBoxFor will not look at display format, even if ApplyFormatInEditMode is true.

jQuery plugin: showKeyPressed

jQuery plugin: showKeyPressed

This plugin allows you to show the user the characters typed (temporarily) in a password field. The following would run on any password fields with the secure class.

Usage: $(":password.secure").showKeyPressed();

____________________

(function($){
    var ShowKeyPressedLib = {
        show: function (e, refNum, source)
        {
            e = e || window.event;
            var refId = "KP__" + refNum;
            var keycode = e.which;
            if (keycode == 32 ||
                keycode >= 41 && keycode <= 44 ||
                keycode >= 47 && keycode <= 111 ||
                keycode >= 146)
            {
                $(".keypressed").remove(); // Remove all previously shown first
                var coords = $(source).offset();
                var addPixels = 6 * source.value.length;
                $("<div></div>").attr("id", refId)
                                .css({ top: (coords.top - 20) + 'px', left: (coords.left + addPixels) + 'px' })
                                .addClass("keypressed")
                                .html(String.fromCharCode(keycode))
                                .appendTo("body");
            }
        },
        hide: function (refNum)
        {
            $("#KP__" + refNum).remove();
        },
        counter: 0
    }

    $.fn.showKeyPressed = function(){
     return $(this).bind('keypress', function(e){
            var refNum = ShowKeyPressedLib.counter++;
            ShowKeyPressedLib.show(e, refNum, this);
            setTimeout(function(){ ShowKeyPressedLib.hide(refNum) }, 999);
        });
    };
})(jQuery);

Display the results of any query in Classic ASP

Display the results of any query in Classic ASP:

    If rs.EOF Then
        %>No record found<%
    Else
        Response.Write "
"
        Response.Write ""
        For i = 0 to rs.Fields.Count -1
            Response.Write ""
            Response.Write ""
            Response.Write ""
            Response.Write ""
        Next
        Response.Write "

Login Info
" & GetFieldName( rs.Fields(i).Name, fGeekMode ) & "	" & rs.Fields(i).Value & "

"

        %>
       

        Note: "Minutes Logged In" is not accurate if the session is not active, or if the session is inactive,

        and the user didn't logout (i.e., they closed their browswer instead of clicking Logout).

       

       

        Click Here to Kill This Login Session

            You would want to kill a session if the user is getting Read-Only access, and does

            not want to wait for their current session to time-out. Beware, this will log out the user if

            they are still using this session.
        <%
    End If

PRE

    If rs.EOF Then
        %>No record found<%
    Else
        Response.Write ""
        Response.Write ""
        For i = 0 to rs.Fields.Count -1
            Response.Write ""
            Response.Write ""
            Response.Write ""
            Response.Write ""
        Next
        Response.Write "
Login Info
" & GetFieldName( rs.Fields(i).Name, fGeekMode ) & "
" & rs.Fields(i).Value & " 
"

        %>
        

		Note: "Minutes Logged In" is not accurate if the session is not active, or if the session is inactive,

		and the user didn't logout (i.e., they closed their browswer instead of clicking Logout).

		 

		 

        Click Here to Kill This Login Session

            You would want to kill a session if the user is getting Read-Only access, and does

            not want to wait for their current session to time-out. Beware, this will log out the user if

            they are still using this session.
        <%
    End If

End

My HTML is not updating during multiple AJAX calls

http://amolnw.wordpress.com/2009/10/08/ie6-offsettop-issue-and-solution/
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1397478/forcing-a-dom-refresh-in-internet-explorer-after-javascript-dom-manipulation
function flushThis(id){
   var msie = 'Microsoft Internet Explorer';
   var tmp = 0;
   var elementOnShow = document.getElementById(id);
   if (navigator.appName == msie){
      tmp = elementOnShow.parentNode.offsetTop  +  'px';
   }else{
      tmp = elementOnShow.offsetTop;
   }
}


Element.addMethods({
  redraw: function(element){
    element = $(element);
    var n = document.createTextNode(' ');
    element.appendChild(n);
    (function(){n.parentNode.removeChild(n)}).defer();
    return element;
  }
});

You may also use some kind of addClass/removeClass combo. That would result into the same effect but without creating unused DOM elements. We use this method in qooxdoo and it works well.

Non-8dot3 format of a Windows path

I was trying to find out to get the non-8dot3 format of a Windows path to a file, and found this blog post that said at the bottom of the page:

1. start -> run: cmd

2. go to desired folder, i.e. cd "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Applications"

3. type command.com you'll get command prompt like C:\DOCUME~1\ALLUSE~1\STARTM~1\APPLIC~1>

Runner up: dir /x 

"Prepend" doesn't mean what you think it means

For years, I thought prepend text meant something similar to append text, accept it meant to add text to the beginning instead of the end of a word. Turns out that even though lots of other people seem to think the same thing, it actually means something else:

"Prepend" is a very obscure word which means literally to premeditate, as in, "He looked at her with malice prepended."

Source: http://cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2001-07/msg01544.html Now I'm going to have to retrain my brain to start using another word. I'm not even sure what word works best here. Prefix text?

Finally got a regular expression to validate a number between zero and eleven, allowing a leading zero. It allows only two digits to be entered maximum, and you can put one whitespace character before or after a single digit. Tested in Firefox 3.6 and IE 6.

It should be simple, but "simple" wasn't working in Firefox 3.6. I didn't bother testing other browsers with the one that didn't work in Firefox.

<asp:RegularExpressionValidator ControlToValidate="txtNumberOfMonths"
ErrorMessage="Months At: Please use a rounded number from 0 to 11"
ValidationExpression="^[\s]*((0?[0-9])|(1[0-1]))[\s]*$" runat="server"/>

The simple regex that didn't work was: "\s*(0?\d|1[01])\s*

I've been following the market share of Internet Explorer 8 in hopes that it would take off an people would get off of IE6 and IE7. In April 2009, IE8 doubled it's market share, and then some.

It looks like most of the converts came from IE6 and IE7. Firefox 3 picked up almost a half a percent, but it looks like Chrome only picked up a fifth of a percent.

Web Browser Market Share Trend
http://marketshare.hitslink.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=1

Yikes! The general area near my parents house will be pretty close to sea level if levels go up 7 meters (~23 feet):

http://flood.firetree.net/?ll=33.7313,-117.9295&z=4

How much did Al Gore say sea levels will rise?

The force is strong with this one... Darth Vader doing the Thriller dance.

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1819422

I had the ASP.NET problem that I could not give focus to my UserControl. I solved the problem by creating a method in my UserControl which overrides the Focus method of the Control class.

public override void Focus()
{
txtTextBox.Focus();
}

This only works in the 2.0 Framework and beyond. If you are using Framework 1.1, visit here:
http://ryanfarley.com/blog/archive/2004/12/21/1325.aspx

I just found this modern art facilitator. It's fun to make art and then if you choose "watch," you can see a slideshow of the latest artwork...

http://windowseat.ca/viscosity/

My first piece of art was crap, but still fun to make. I'll be back to make another when I'm inspired...

Funny SNL skit about the democratic race, Hillary about Obama:


http://www.hulu.com/watch/11933

Crap! 50/50 chance Lake Mead will be gone by 2021!! 10% chance it'll be gone by 2014!

Ouch!! And to add to that, the hydro-electric capabilities will be gone before it dries up, so that'll come first. That'll hurt a lot of us in the South West.

crave.cnet.com article

I read something today on TreeHugger.com that got me thinking about global warming -- what a surprise! Bill Nye, the Science Guy, was thinking about heavily traded commodities. These are the products that are causing traffic (sea, land and air) all over the world. The second most heavily traded commodity is coffee (after oil). Bill Nye suggested thinking about the affect coffee consumption has on the world, and it's true. The ships that pollute the world would be used less if we were not importing (and exporting) so many goods. I'm no isolationist, but maybe cutting back on unnecessary imports would be a good place for everyone to start.

The part of the interview I'm referring to:

Tree Hugger: And maybe you can give us one great eco-experiment or investigation that you can suggest our readers try at home to better understand environmental issues?

Bill Nye: You know, I did some research into what were the most heavily traded commodities in the world. The first, of course, is oil... But the second is coffee, which surprised me. It’s not something you need, like wheat or rice, but something you can choose to buy... So I’d ask you to keep a running record of how much you spend on coffee and bottled water for a week or even a month, and compare them. It’s amazing what you’ll find... And if you can convince people to change some really basic habits you can really change the world... Just think of the enormous impact coffee consumption has on the planet.

Full interview:
treehugger.com interview with Bill Nye

About 15% of America's air pollution came from ships at the beginning of this century, and the EU thinks up to 40% of their pollution could come from ships in the next two years.
bbc.co.uk article
usatoday.com article
Wikipedia: Ship Pollution

The kindle by Amazon looks pretty cool, but I can't figure out if it will be a niche market for a long time, or whether this is the breakthru product that will make ebooks really take off. I don't think it will be for commuters, but maybe for people who are on the road a lot of the time. I can see avid readers who don't like killing trees or storing used books to buy into this big time as well. But I just don't know if that's a big enough market to make it really take off. What do you think?

I searched for good cross-browser code that will disable backspace when in a drop-down element. Before you say that's bad design, don't disable shortcuts the user may want, know that it's a requirement that I cannot talk the business analyst out of. I first tried attaching the event to the drop-downs themselves, but was having issues with that. So now it runs for the entire document.

Here is my solution:


function noBackspace(evnt)
{
if (window.event) // IE
{
evnt = window.event;
if (window.event.keyCode == 8 && evnt.srcElement.type == "select-one")
{
evnt.cancelBubble = true;
evnt.keyCode = 0;
evnt.returnValue = false;
return false;
}
}
else if (evnt.which) // Firefox/Netscape/Opera
{
if (evnt.which == 8 && evnt.target.type == "select-one")
{
evnt.stopPropagation();
evnt.returnValue = false;
return false;
}
}
return true;
}
window.onload = function () { document.onkeydown = noBackspace; };

Optical illusions forwarded in emails usually don't get much of a response out of me, but for some reason, this one really amazed me. Enjoy!

Follow the movement of the rotating pink dot. The dots will remain only one color, pink.



Now, stare at the black " + " in the center. The moving dot turns to green.

Now, concentrate on the black " + " in the center of the picture. After a short period, all the pink dots will slowly disappear, and you will only see only a single green dot rotating.

It's amazing how our brain works. There really is no green dot, and the pink ones don't really disappear. This should be proof enough; we don't always see what we think we see.

This weekend I went on a hike with two of my brothers-in-law. One of us wanted to hike to the “Champion Lodgepole Pine." It turns out that there is a type of pine tree called the lodgepole. Near Bluff Lake which is about 3 miles south of Big Bear Lake, grow the largest Lodgepole pines in the world. In this location there is the tallest of all the lodgepole pines, the “Champion.” It was discovered in 1963 and is a magnificent, double-topped tree that towers above the surrounding forest reaching a height of 110+ feet. The circumference of the trunk at the bottom is 22 ½ feet, however the bulbous base is 36 feet in circumference. Its age is estimated at 440 years.

We went to the Big Bear Discovery Center to find out how to hike there. They told us we couldn't go see it. There is an access road that gets you 0.6 miles away from the tree, but the access road was closed, and the only way to get there is to hike four miles in over moderate to difficult terrain.

We looked at the other trails and there was one called Cougar Crest that was nearby and only 4 miles long (round trip). It was marked as a moderate to difficult trail, so we figured it would be a good length. It was 11am, and we wanted to make it back down to eat lunch and watch the UCLA basketball game at 4pm.

The trail head was 0.6 miles from the Discovery Center (~6,900 feet), so we just hiked along the lake to the trail head. It was a great hike with great views of the lake. It had been a long time since I had hiked a trail like this so there were parts that winded me, but when we reached top, it was worth it. At the top you are hiking along the Pacific Crest Trail, which is a well-known trail that goes from Mexico to Canada. It felt good to think about all the brave people that have taken this trail.

After a brief break, we were thinking about heading back when we read about the trail again and were reminded that just 0.6 miles away was the summit of Bertha Peak (8,502 feet).

We decided to go for it because we had some extra time. It turned out to be the steepest part of the hike. There were event better views of the lake along the way, which kept us inspired and also gave us something to look at while we rested. We seriously considered stopping because we were all getting so tired. We were promised a 360 degree view of Big Bear Lake and the Holcolm Valley on the other side of the mountain, so we pushed on.

At 1pm, over 1600 feet higher, we finally made it! The view on the other side was pretty but not spectacular. The Holcomb Valley is not developed like Big Bear is. The area is almost unspoiled. All three of us didn't remember to bring a camera, so no pictures of our actual trip, sorry.