Plus Tumblr had adequately demonstrated that it is not capable of keeping a complex infrastructure up and running very well, so I’d rather revert back to keeping everything self-hosted.

This is a great function for sorting small multi-dimensional arrays based on a value in the nested array.

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No love!

In the CSS you would target this div like so:

.\34 04 {
    /* styling here */
}

The weirdness at the beginning of the class name is CSS syntax for an escaped UTF-8 character code. The backslash tells CSS that we’re entering into a hexadecimal character code, and the space terminates the code (and is thus discarded). Sure, it’s illegible, but at least its possible for those scenarios when you absolutely have to start your classname with a number. The CSS codes for numbers range from \30 (zero) to \39 (nine).

I have no idea why this is true, but if you’re having issues with Webkit’s Array.sort() functionality that may be the problem. I discovered this trying to sort an array of elements alphabetically by their alt attribute like so (example is using Mootools):

var links = $$('.sometarget img');
links.sort(function(first, second) {
    var firstAlt = first.getElement('img').get('alt');
    var secondAlt = second.getElement('img').get('alt');
    var temp = new Array(firstAlt, secondAlt);
    temp.sort();
    if (temp[0] == firstAlt) {
        return -1;
    } else {
        return 1;
    }
});

Returning 0 worked great in Firefox, but to get it working in Safari, too, I had to switch to returning -1 by default.

Easy to follow setup for a great local testing environment using MAMP and VirtualHostX. Definitely necessary for anyone coding websites on the Mac.

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I found this some time ago, but it deserves sharing again. A reference to mod_rewrite RewriteCond variables that says exactly what the variables contain (along with how to find out for yourself if you’ve got a server that’s behaving funny). This is a must-read for anyone who has wondered why the heck their mod_rewrite rules were failing.

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Astonishingly useful looking plugin for turning WordPress into a CMS. Allows adding arbitrary custom fields to posts or pages, for easy creation of custom content types.

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Fantastic little tip for solving a classic time-waster: the voice mail automated message. Sounds like it works with just about every major cell carrier as long as you listen to what happens in between keypresses.

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Fantastic utility for anyone developing an ExpressionEngine site; solves the age-old problem of “what did I name that custom field again?”

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(If you are working on a full application instead of a bundle, you can use @executable_path/../Frameworks instead.)

John Gruber on Chrome OS

Some great solutions to niggling Photoshop and Illustrator problems; the tip about masking effects was one that I’ve struggled with a lot without realizing there was such a simple solution.

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A beautiful slideshow module for Mootools; multiple transitions and easy loading of images.

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A Brief, Incomplete, and Mostly Wrong History of Programming Languages

num = 10
my_string += `num`

Incidentally, I learned this from Oliver Crow’s article on Efficient String Concatenation in Python, which is a fantastic resource for anyone curious about the best way to combine strings in Python.

Allows you to compress Javascript and CSS for an ExpressionEngine site on the fly. Very handy for switching from development to live site and back again easily, although it unfortunately uses Minify rather than YUI Compressor.

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Great article comparing the strengths of jQuery vs. Mootools. I’m with the author: jQuery is a great collection of tools for working with the DOM, but I prefer Mootools’ extensibility and explicit (if more verbose) code.

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Allow IE to resize images much more accurately and beautifully than otherwise using a proprietary CSS property. Must-know tip when you need to specify a size in the CSS or HTML.

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Incredibly handy; incredibly hidden.

An interesting look at the problems a frontend developer faces. For me, the best part of the article was in the footnotes:

For my purpose there is a distinction between a frontend engineer and a web developer. Within my definition, a web developer is creating an entire product, whereas a front end developer is developing the frontend portion of the product, but other portions are being a developed by other groups. […] While the technical skills are roughly equivalent, the social and political environment are anything but.

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