We now have a demo up featuring a video player developed by Ross Sabes.

This player utilizes a full featured custom back-end video database management tool.

Each video title can support multiple files in a variety of formats (FLV, MP4, Ogg, WebM, etc…) and settings for maximum compatibility and performance across the widest possible array of devices. The player can be customized to detect the users bandwidth and play the most suitable Flash format available. If the visitor is using an iPad, iPhone or iPod the player is programmed to use the compatible MP4 format with both high and low bandwidth options if available.

Videos can be assigned to multiple pages by the administrator.

Select pages for the video to appear on.

Videos can also be tagged for search engines and other custom functionality.

Visit the front-end here
For a demo of the back-end contact us.

This program was developed using:
MooTools
MediaBox
and MooFlow

MediaBox is a very cool MooTools based JavaScript modal overlay. It has a bunch of bundled in features for displaying various types of media and galleries.

One issue that Google would not help me solve was embedded Flash not appearing in the media box in Safari. I could switch tabs then switch back and the Flash would magically appear. I assumed it was a display conflict Safari was having when everything fired at once with the loading of the MediaBox and the Flash embed. A more elegant solution may involve a listener object on the mediabox, but this seems to resolve it.

My solution was to simply delay the swfobject flash embed by half a second using setTimer();.

Here is the version that does not work in Safari (mac):
http://www.websitedesignby.com/mediabox/mediabox-flash-notimer.html

Here is the fix with the timer:
http://www.websitedesignby.com/mediabox/mediabox-flash.html

Direct link to box content containing hack/fix:
http://www.websitedesignby.com/mediabox/mediabox-flash-box.html

I had a great weekend at the Big Boy EXPO in Punta Gorda. I am happy to have met a diverse group of people there. I am the developer of the web site for Big Boy EXPO at bigboyshow.com and help with online marketing so I use this opportunity to participate and meet the show exhibitors and visitors.

Congratulations on another successful show. See you at Germain Arena in October.

Related Links:
Big Boy EXPO
Charlotte Harbor Event and Conference Center on Facebook
Big Boy EXPO on Facebook
Expo Good For Business – Punta Gorda Herald
Big Boy EXPO – Punta Gorda Photo Gallery
Fishermans Village – Punta Gorda

Here is a simple little regex tester I made: regular-expression-lab

I recently replaced my iPhone 3GS with a Droid2. While the iPhone certainly was easy to use, I consider myself a fairly adept technology user and ‘easy to use’ will only get you so far with me. I am also looking at features and interoperability. I always felt iPhone was holding me back a little bit with iTunes standing at the gate.

Android 2.2
Android is a much more sophisticated operating system than iPhone OS. I admit it was a little unsettling at first to break out of the cocoon of simple elegance the iPhone offers. After getting over the initial shock I now appreciate the sophistication, abundance features and openness of Android. Android offers a few more screens and options to navigate and customize according to your mobile digital lifestyle. There’s simply a little more to it than screens with rounded-edge buttons.

Apps
One thing I like about Android 2.2 is the inclusion of an office application (Quickoffice) out of the box. Seems like a no brainer to include some kind of office app with a modern smart-phone but is oddly missing from iPhone. Granted I am not planning on writing a manuscript or doing an annual budget on my cell phone, but I appreciate the ability to create and edit documents beyond a grocery list on a yellow lined pad. Of course all of the usual apps I need for social networking, messaging, web browsing, e-mail networking are all there. The Android market passed 50,000 apps in April and will only continue to grow as developers continue embracing the Java-based Android platform.

Music, Files & Storage
The ability to simply drag-and-drop music, video, photos and other files from any computer to my phone using it’s native operating system is a liberating experience without having to go through the iTunes firewall. I think you must be a former iPhone user to be able to truly appreciate this feature. No more being tethered to a single computer. I am now free to move files from laptop to desktop, from home to office, etc..

Syncing
Android syncs with your Google (gmail) account. If you don’t already have an account with Google, you will be prompted to get one when you register your device. Just export your contacts from your current contact management system and import them into your gmail account. For iPhone users These instructions will help you do it cleanly.

Flash
I didn’t think having Flash player on the phone would be a big deal, but now that I have it I really do appreciate it. I was starting to think Steve Jobs actually had a point about excluding it from the iPhone. It’s all too clear now that this issue never had anything to do with pure intentions. Flash runs beautifully on Android. The fact that my kids can play free Flash games on my phone should save me a couple bucks vs. letting them authorize another iTunes purchase.

Real Keys
I used the iPhone screen based keyboard for over a year. While I think they did a fine job of making it the most elegant and usable onscreen keyboard possible, the ability to slide out a QWERTY keyboard mid-message is a relief.

Camera
Other reviews I have read are critical of the camera. I haven’t had the phone long enough to judge for myself. The camera on a phone was never a high priority to me, although I do like the convenience of using it for web uploads and a keeping a visual journal of sorts. The iPhone camera is impressive, but if it’s quality I am after I will reach for a dedicated camera. The camera on this phone should be more than sufficient for my needs.

Signal
Something I read in the Engadget article that I found troubling was the mention of having signal issues with this phone. Signal strength was one of the main factors in deciding to convert from AT&T to Verizon. My house just happens to be in a very difficult dead zone. It’s almost impossible to get a signal on any network from inside my house. Taking a call on any cell phone here will involve walking around the house in circles before running out the back door to find the sweet spot before the call drops. Hopefully The Verizon Network can help alleviate my ongoing signal issues. I can already tell it’s not going to solve my signal probems entirely but one thing is for certain it can’t be any worse than AT&T.

Resources
For more information on Android visit android.com…
Information about syncing your iPhone contacts to Android…
Transferrring files to and from your Android phone…
More reviews…

There are 2 ways a website can be developed: either as static web pages or as dynamic (database driven) web pages. Let’s discuss both varieties:

Static Web Pages
All web pages are displayed using HTML code. Static web pages are essentially a series of linked HTML documents. To make a change to a static website one must edit the HTML code directly on each page. While this may work for a simple web site that has 3 or 4 pages, it quickly becomes inefficient as your web site grows in depth and complexity.

Dynamic, Database Driven Web Pages
Database driven websites are fast becoming the standard for website development. The content on a dynamic website is maintained in a database. When a visitor requests information for a page, product, article or photo, that request is processed and returned by a database.

Web Site Maintenance
Typically the information in the database is maintained through a secure administrator log-in area. A well designed administrator log-in area makes it easy for anyone to update the website content without having to learn HTML or sophisticated website design software.

If you are interested in developing a dynamic, database driven website, have static web pages that need to be converted or want help with an existing dynamic website please contact us for a free consultation. We will be happy to discuss the various benefits and options available to you.

You can also use the comments form below for additional discussion and questions.

Creating a personal and business profile on LinkedIN is an easy and important connection in building your online presence. Claiming 50 million professionals worldwide, there is probably someone there looking for your unique talents, products or interested in interviewing your for a potential job.

LinkedIN profiles seem to rank well with Google search results. If someone is looking for you, chances are your LinkedIN profile will get top billing.

One caveat of using LinkedIN is you cannot be contacted directly unless you are already in an individual’s network. For example, if someone found my LinkedIN profile on Google and wanted to contact me, they would have to either upgrade to a premium account or add me to their network (send a request) before we could communicate directly via LinkedIN. However if you list a personal or company website in your LinkedIN profile, this link is public and you can be contacted through your website.

If you have questions about setting up a LinkedIN profile or personal or business website, please leave a comment below or contact me directly.

I have been busy on a few client projects lately including deazzle.com. I will get these into my portfolio soon. I am also involved in some on-going personal development projects that I hope to release later this year. I appreciate the support and help from those that look at my blog and are interested in my work. There are always exciting things on the horizon and new opportunities are presenting themselves as the internet and the companies that are shaping it continue to evolve.

AU98Z5D3JDYV

When I am working on a website I have a local development version that I program and test locally. When an update is implemented, it is tested locally before it is copied to the live server. Wordpress sites are treated no differently. Here is how you can make the wp-config.php portable to work in your live and local environment. Simply replace the variables below with the actual information for your web site and you will be have a wp-config.php that can happily thrive in both environments.

I defined an additional constant ‘LIVE’ that I can refer to elsewhere in my code to determine if I am on the live server or not.

wp-config.php

MySQL Queries

Another thing to be conscious of when moving between a live and local server environment with Wordpress are couple of records in the wp_options table of the database. The siteurl and liveurl records will be different in your local environment and live environment. If you copy your database from one to the other, just run the appropriate query below (with the liveurl and localurl variables changed to your actual data) depending on if you are copying from local to live or live to local.

Live to Local Query

Run query on local database.

Local to Live Query

Run query on live database.

If you have any questions or suggestions, your comments are welcome below.

If you do a lot of Emailing back in forth as I often do, you may want to try Google Wave. Google Wave is still an invitation-only beta (Gmail was an invitation-only beta from 2004-2007 years before being released to the public), so you will need an invite to start using it. I have about 10 invites left, so you can drop me a note and I will send you one if you are interested in trying it and promise to post something nice in my wave. Google Wave is hard to describe as I am quite a wave newbie myself. It is an amalgamation of Email, chat, bulletin board, shared document and a live meeting.

Since wave is currently the bleeding edge of technology, you will need a couple things besides an invite to make your web browser Wave ready. First of all I recommend using Firefox, so if you don’t have that web browser go ahead and install it. Next go install gears. Ok you should be all set! Now go visit my wave and try it out.

You will probably need to watch some of the videos and read the instructions at wave.google.com/about.html. If you have other resources and links, please share them in my wave. I am still a little perplexed by it all myself, but see some potential here. Who knows, maybe this thing will be really useful when it gets out of beta in 2013.

Thanks blog.zenika.com for sorting out the details.