Learn what a domain name and host are, and learn why you should register your domain separately from your host.
Gotchas and Other Notes for the Absolute Beginner Web Developer
“#*@#, why isn’t it working?” If you find yourself saying that a lot, think about these basic coding gotchas. These are some very basic things that can trip you if you’re just starting out with HTML, CSS, and other things (I guess). Just remember — everything is different, everything has its own troubleshooting steps. Understand how to fix problems in general — don’t just remember how to fix specific problems you’ve encountered before. It’s more useful for you to have general problem-solving and troubleshooting knowledge that can be applied in a variety of different environments.
Basic Social Media Content
Yanked from some old comments. Here are two instances where people had difficulty with social media content. In one, there’s a disconnect on the “why” of social. In the second, there’s some trouble with content. These are pretty specific situations, but the first might help you understand the why (I have trouble if the “why” is unknown myself!) of social media. The second part with BBQ has more concrete examples, and might be less useful… but maybe it will inspire, too!
Monoprice Digital Drawing Tablets
Why not add my voice? This isn’t an in-depth review by any means — if you’re looking for that, I recommend this review of the 12×9 tablet by deviantART user draw2much, one among many I read before purchasing this tablet. It includes pictures!
Importing Large MySQL Database with XAMPP
Even locally, phpMyAdmin has a size limit to the database you can import. You can change those limits, I’m pretty sure, but you can also bypass phpMyAdmin altogether and import the database with the XAMPP shell. Open the XAMPP shell (“Shell” button on your XAMPP Control Panel). Type: mysql -h localhost -u root database_name < J:\path\to\database.sql Change database_name to the name of the database you want to import to. Change the \path\to\database.sql to the appropriate path and filename. I'm working locally with XAMPP so I don't set a password on my root MySQL user (this is default behavior in XAMPP […]
Nexus Font Manager
I was yowling with someone (Kiriska? Iversia?) over Twitter over fonts and software to manage fonts. I don’t think we knew of any that weren’t super expensive. I recently found Nexus Font Manager and I’ve been using it long enough (a few weeks) that I feel comfortable recommending it. It’s pretty nice, and only took me maybe two or three minutes to figure out the essentials. Why bother? Tons of fonts can slow down your computer (SuperUser source). It’s usually minute, but still. The bigger issue: it’s a giant pain and repeatedly wastes your time when you pick through many hundreds (or thousands) […]
Neat Things Since July
CSS Guidelines !# for removing scroll-to-top on empty anchor link Photoshop Layer Filtering A few things I’ve done since July
List of Web-Relevant Reddits
This is a curated list of different subreddits relevant to all things web, code, programs, Internet, etc. No guarantee everything is active, no guarantee the communities are universally awesome. Just a list! Note, 3 October 2014: Since posting this I’ve since “quit” Reddit. I’ll look at a link if it pops up, but I don’t spend time in any of these communities any longer. Enter at your own risk.
