Beginner's Guide to Competitive TF2

A Beginner's Guide to Competitive TF2

Opacity and pseudo elements and IE8

Tried something like this to implement semi-transparency to an element:

.faded:after {
    content: " ";
    position:absolute;
    top:0;
    left:0;
    height:100%;
    width:100%;
    z-index:2;
    background:#fff;  
    zoom:1;
    -ms-filter: "alpha(opacity=30)";
    opacity:0.3;
    }

Well.  Turns out a filter gradient doesn't work for pseudo elements on IE8.

It works if you apply the filter directly to the element:
(had to include the img elements within the faded container; for some reason, IE8 doesn't apply the filter to them)

.faded, .faded img {
    position:relative;
    display:block;
    -ms-filter: "alpha(opacity=30)";
    opacity:0.3;
    }

Object.keys compatibility for IE8

Realized my script call to Object.keys wasn't working on IE8, and found this implementation from this thread.

Notes on JSON

• Introducing JSON
• JSON in Javascript
• JSON and JSONP
• JSON editor online

jQuery and HTML5 storage

Aside from advising against using cookies to store html, this thread mentioned a jQuery plugin for HTML5 local storage:  jquery.html5storage.

Notes on SharePoint 2010 and HTML5

• Convert SharePoint 2010 master page to HTML5, by Heather Solomon
• HTML5 and SharePoint 2010 -- 5-part series of articles by Eric Overfield

Equal Height Columns with CSS

Ed Eliot discussion solutions for the problem with different-height floated divs.  Essentially has to do with setting padding-bottom:100% and margin-bottom:-100% (see also comments in this thread).

Activate only selected features while deploying a solution package in Visual Studio 2010

This article describes how to use this Visual Studio 2010 extension:  Mavention Activate Selected Features.

Had to use this when I updated my test site collection with content data that already had a feature activated (that created a field ID), causing this error:  "Error occurred in deployment of step ‘Activate Features’: the field with ID defined in feature was found in the current site collection or in a sub site."

Vimeo API notes

• Opening embedded Vimeo video with jQuery Fancybox:
  From this thread, found this page:  http://fancybox.net/vimeo
• How to get image thumbnails from Vimeo

Notes on SharePoint 2013 Apps

• Design apps for SharePoint
• Apps for SharePoint UX design guidelines
• Videos:  Developer training | apps for Office and SharePoint
• About RegisterSod not loading/fetching the script file, see: ScriptResx.ashx Not Working

Notes on Developing Windows Store Apps (with HTML5 and Javascript)

• Design
• Defining layouts and navigation
• Create a blog reader
• Video: Introduction to creating Windows Store apps using HTML and JavaScript
• How to cook a complete Windows 8 application with HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript in a week

Cannot create restore point on Windows 7 64-bit (SOLVED)

Disconnecting the multi-card reader from USB fixed it for me.

Background:

For the longest time I couldn't create a restore point manually.  It would timeout with an error. Seems like some Windows updates were able to create restore points, but some software (like VirtualBox) would hang on install because they couldn't create a restore point.

Some clues pointed to an issue with volumes that aren't really there.  Started suspecting the card reader.  This warning on Event viewer made me try disconnecting it:

Source: Kernel-PnP
Event ID: 219
The driver \Driver\WUDFRd failed to load for the device WpdBusEnumRoot\UMB\2&37c186b&0&STORAGE#VOLUME#_??_USBSTOR#DISK&VEN_KINGSTON&PROD_FCR-HS219#1&REV_RW01#123001008401&0#.

*sigh of relief*

Cube 3D Printer

Cube by Cubify:  A home 3D printer.

Sculptris

"Sculptris is an elegant, powerful and yet easy to use 3D sculpting software, allowing the artist in you to simply focus on creating amazing 3D artwork. Gone are the technical and often tedious constraints typically associated with digital art."

How to pass webpart properties to XSLT

Custom properties in XSL

About SharePoint 2010's script-on-demand

SharePoint 2010 Script On Demand–give me my scripts right now!

JavaScript API reference for SharePoint 2013

JavaScript API reference for SharePoint 2013

Closure wrapper to avoid global variables in javascript

Quoting from this StackOverflow answer:

The easiest way is to wrap your code in a closure and manually expose only those variables you need globally to the global scope:

(function() {
  // Your code here

  // Expose to global
  window['varName'] = varName;
})();

Get a loader icon gif

Ajaxload.info

WebMonkey Tutorials

Found a bunch of web development tutorials on Wired's webmonkey page for HTML5, APIs, CSS3, frameworks, location, etc.

Fix slow mapped drive for SharePoint 2013

This quote from Fix Slow WebDAV Performance in Windows 7:

... Quite simply, all you have to do is turn off IE’s automatic proxy settings detection. Here’s how to do that:

1. In Internet Explorer, open the Tools menu, then click Internet Options.
2. Select the Connections tab.
3. Click the LAN Settings button.
4. Uncheck the "Automatically detect settings" box.
5. Click OK until you’re out of dialog hell.

SharePoint 2013 Branding Notes

• Erik Swenson's SharePoint 2013 Branding videos
• Interactive Web Design in SharePoint 2013: HTML before and after -- this page answered my question about what Design Manager does to the source html file's doctype, if say, we have it use the HTML5 doctype (leaves it alone);
• From MSDN: Develop the site design in SharePoint 2013
• Demo site: www.spsdemo.com
• Responsive Frameworks for SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint 2013 -- spsdemo's master page is based on the Bootstrap one here

Amazon's snappy submenus

Found this article on AListApart:
"Breaking Down Amazon's Mega Dropdown" by Ben Kamens, on how Amazon prevents its submenus from misfiring without using delays.

Sci-Fi Actor Appearances

What a great resource!
http://scifiactorappearances.blogspot.com/

Responsive WordPress Theme

Responsive theme at WordPress.

Autodesk 123D

All sorts of ways to make 3D with Autodesk 123D.

Print Your Head in 3D

From the Make Magazine article:  Print Your Head in 3D

VirtualBox install hanging on Windows 7

Delete/disable "Virtual Ethernet Card" from Device Manager (may need to set view to "Show hidden devices" to see it).  Then reinstall.
(see: Installing VirtualBox 4.0.8 on Windows 7 hangs )

Update:  The above didn't work for me, and neither did killing Skype and iCloud.  And I didn't have Dropbox installed.  Ended up doing (usual cautionary warnings here about possibly messing up your computer; these are just notes for me to remember what I ended up doing; not really sure if it's a good idea to do an install while in Diagnostic Startup mode):

• Go into System Configuration, select Diagnostic Startup and reboot.  
• And then go into Computer Management, Services, and set the Windows Installer service from "disabled" to "manual" (got that from the having problems earlier about "another installation already in progress", see this article).
• Then ran the install of VirtualBox 4.2.6.  That finally worked.