An update blog for mredkj.com

Check it Out - Komeda

2006-05-31T07:06:00.000-04:00

The Old Navy "Make it Madras" commercial features the song "Check it Out" by Komeda, which is available on their Kokomemedada album, specifically the U.S. May 4 2004 release with bonus track.

Amazon doesn't list the bonus track, but I'm in the process of verifying the U.S. release of the Kokomemedada album they sell does have the bonus track.
Update 2006-06-02
I've purchased Kokomemedada from amazon, and it does indeed have the bonus track.

Other sites list the U.S release as having the bonus track. You can check a list of retailers here: http://www.google.com/musiclp?lid=eqTYO-y1BVG
Some of them such as Barnes and Noble list the bonus track.

I've also sent a request to iTunes to add the song. You could do the same if you want, because I think the more requests they get, the more likely they'll try to add it. http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunes.html

Update 2006-06-02
Who's the blonde in the Old Navy Madras commercial?
According to a comment at a blog for a different Old Navy girl, the Madras actress is New View model Autumn Armstrong.

Song from Coca-Cola ad 'Fountain Pour'

2006-03-18T01:17:00.000-05:00

The song from the Coca-Cola commercial 'Fountain Pour' - I'm a Criminal

Someone had asked me about this commercial in an mredkj feedback a few weeks ago, but I just now put up a page about it, because Matt found that the ad ("Fountain Pour") was up at coke.com

The song from the GM commercial - AM Radio

2006-03-11T22:22:00.000-05:00

The song from the GM commercial - AM Radio

Have a comment about the ad, the song, or the mredkj.com page?

VS.NET - ASP.NET - Wait Screen Control

2006-03-10T01:43:00.000-05:00

Wait Screen Control

Eric's vb.net version of a Wait Screen Control by Daniel Fisher.

The song from the Diet Coke commercial 'Haircut' - Ooh La La

2006-03-06T02:50:00.000-05:00

The song from the Diet Coke commercial 'Haircut' - Ooh La La

In the above link I have information about the song and the commercial. Comment here if you have something to say about the ad, or if you happen to know who the actress is.

The song from the Diet Coke commercial 'Bounce' - Callin' Out

2006-03-03T00:46:00.000-05:00

dietcoke3.html

Originally I posted this information in a comment in my other Diet Coke ad entry. Then I decided to put up a page at mredkj.com.

ASP.NET - Code Samples - Display Animated Gif during postback in IE

2006-03-03T00:42:00.000-05:00

AnimatedGifOnPostback.html

ASP.NET Keep an animated gif from freezing after triggering a postback.

iMix - Without Limits unofficial soundtrack

2006-02-26T19:25:00.000-05:00

2006-02-26
I put together an iTunes iMix for a Without Limits unofficial soundtrack.

Song in the Budweiser Select Commercial - Galvanize

2006-02-25T19:50:00.000-05:00

The song from the Budweiser Select commercials - Galvanize

I received an mredkj.com feedback asking about a song in a Budweiser Select ad, and the writer said some of the lyrics were "Don't give up...there's a partyover here...don't give up world..." I did a little research and found the song lyrics are "The world is holding back"

The song is "Galvanize" by The Chemical Brothers (featuring Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest), which is available on the album Push the Button.

For more information about the ad, refer to my mredkj.com page about the Bud Select commercials.

2006-03-11. I decided put up a page about the commercial at mredkj.com. It's against the rules to have AdSense ads on a page that includes "Sales or promotion of beer or hard alcohol". But I should be ok since I'm not putting their ads up on that particular page. I'm basing that on a response I got from Google AdSense support.

Announcement: Switched Surveys

2006-02-20T18:05:00.000-05:00

2006-02-20
Switched surveys.
The new question is "Should every page at mredkj.com have a survey?"
The tally for the old question "Have you been to mredkj.com more than once?"
Yes: 63
No: 35

Someone's JavaScript Homework

2006-02-19T16:37:00.000-05:00

Someone's JavaScript Homework

I decided to do someone's javascript homework, but I didn't tell them about it.

A Simple Script Callback example written in VB.Net

2006-02-16T17:56:00.000-05:00

A Simple Script Callback example written in VB.Net

Eric experiments with Script Callback.

mredkj.blogspot locked by Blogger

2006-02-16T17:46:00.000-05:00

2006-02-16
mredkj.blogspot update - The blog was reviewed by Blogger Support, and has been whitelisted. Thanks.

2006-02-16
I had the feeling my update blog for mredkj.com
might eventually be perceived as a spam blog (even though it's not).
Here's the message I just got while logging into Blogger.

WARNING

This blog has been locked by Blogger's spam-prevention robots. You will not be able to publish your posts, but you will be able to save them as drafts.

I submitted a request for a human at Blogger/Google to evaluate the blog.
If the review process involves any discussion, I'm willing to change
all the links pointing towards mredkj.com to have a rel="nofollow".

VB.NET - Code Samples - Convert System.Drawing.Color to Hex String

2006-02-10T01:54:00.000-05:00

VB.NET - Code Samples - Convert System.Drawing.Color to Hex String

VB.NET Convert System.Drawing.Color to Hex String Function

VS.NET - ASP.NET - Mortgage Calculator Composite control

2006-02-10T01:53:00.000-05:00

VS.NET - ASP.NET - Mortgage Calculator Composite control

ASP.NET Composite Control Example

VB.NET - Code Samples - Zero Fill a number

2006-02-10T01:51:00.000-05:00

VB.NET - Code Samples - Zero Fill a number

VB.NET ToString function provides a less complex method for formatting than string.format. A zero fill example is shown below.

Help with a Help Patent

2006-01-26T03:09:00.000-05:00

Announcements - innovationlost.org

2006-01-26
Ever had an idea, and then discovered someone else patented it? Well, that happened to me, but in this case, I don't think anyone should have a patent on this idea. Read why
-Keith

RIAA Horse and Buggy Comic

2006-01-24T01:49:00.000-05:00

RIAA Horse and Buggy Comic

A drawing I drew to ridicule.

mredkj.com site update

2006-01-20T13:21:00.000-05:00

For the past few months, any mredkj.com page that required windowOpen.js did not have the popup window functionality working. This primarily prevented the JavaScript Widgets and Games from opening via their "Play It" links. The reason is because I had mistakenly taken out the script src references. This has now been corrected. If anyone finds a problem like that in the future, please let me know.

ASP.NET - Code Samples - Confirm Message

2006-01-11T02:06:00.000-05:00

ASP.NET - Code Samples - Confirm Message

ASP.NET Confirm that a user wants a button event to occur

Ping,Upload and Download using vb.net

2006-01-10T02:27:00.000-05:00

VB.NET - Code Samples - Ping,Upload and Download using vb.net vb.net 2005

Uploading and Downloading files is simplified in vb.net 2005. You can ping, upload and download files using only a few lines of code.

Read a text file in vb.net 2005

2005-12-21T18:39:00.000-05:00

VB.NET - Code Samples - Read a text file in vb.net 2005

VB.NET 2005 My namespace provides a simple way to read a text file

App.path in vb.net 2005

2005-12-17T14:15:00.000-05:00

VB.NET - Code Samples - App.path in vb.net 2005

VB.NET 2005 has simplified many routine programming tasks using the My Class. One of its functions includes returning the application executable directory location.

Lyrics Sites Illegal?

2005-12-09T15:36:00.000-05:00

Is this the end for lyrics sites?

* How musicians benefit from lyrics freely available on the Web.
* Legitimate Business Model? How the music industry has failed.
* Long History of Cracking Down. Examples of the industry taking down web sites as far back as 1996.
Read Full Commentary

If you have a comment on my mredkj.com commentary, then you can leave it here. I've also set up a specific blog that will cover news and opinions.
Free the Lyrics

2005-12-18
Which of the big lyrics sites will be first to be shut down by the music industry?
Read my opinion.

Update log for mredkj.com commentary
2005-12-10
I totally underestimated the current state of the lyrics site crackdown when writing my opinion piece, so I had to edit my essay a bit. Added the section "Long History of Cracking Down"

2005-12-13
Restructured existing links. Added another OLGA link. Added the section "Legitimate Business Model?"

2005-12-28
In "Legitimate Business Model?", made clearer the difference between the MPA/NMPA and RIAA.

2006-01-03
Split up the information into different pages.
Read more

IMDb for Commercials

2005-12-09T01:37:00.000-05:00

I'm on the lookout for a web site that functions like IMDb, but for commercials.

IMDb makes it easy to cross-reference actors with movies and television shows. For example, if you look up the name of an actor, it will list all the movies he's been in. If you look up a movie, it will list all the cast and crew. Everything's connected to each other.

Unless you've been living on another planet, chances are you know all about IMDb. The reason I'm explaining it is because that's the kind of functionality that would be great for commercials.

The best thing I've found so far is, well, IMDb. Every person in the database can have a list of "Other Works" that includes things such as television commercials and music videos. Adrien Brody has a few good examples.

In the Other Works section the phrase TV commercial is linked to http://www.imdb.com/SearchBios?TV%20commercial, which brings back every biography that has the phrase "TV commercial" in it. While that's not specific enough to be useful, you can add keywords to the search to narrow down the results.

What all this lacks is an actual page for each commercial. If movies, television shows, and video games can have their own pages, then why not commercials?

Update 2006-10-06 - We here at mredkj decided to launch a site that's like IMDb for commercials. It's called splendAd.com, and it's just getting started, so take a look.

Notepad on the Desktop and View Source

2005-11-29T23:18:00.000-05:00

Notepad on the Desktop and View Source

My experiments with a Notepad shortcut and Notepad folder on the desktop, and viewing source in Internet Explorer. I look at how the registry setting "View Source Editor" affects the view source.

VS.NET - ASP.NET - Datagrid - Sortable Header Styles

2005-11-21T22:04:00.000-05:00

Datagrid - Sortable Header Styles

The syntax for an external style sheet to format the headers of sortable (hyperlink) columns in an asp.net datagrid. One common use of this code would be to remove underlines from the column header sort text.

Reference Dynamic Rows

2005-11-18T00:56:00.000-05:00

Table Basics - Reference Dynamic Rows

This JavaScript example demonstrates how to reference elements in the cells of a table, including one preexisting row and rows that are dynamically generated.

Hurricane Relief

2005-11-06T15:41:00.000-05:00

I took down the Google Hurricane Relief message from the main page of mredkj.com, but I figured I'd post the info here.

2005-09-24
Google has expanded their Hurricane relief portal for both Katrina and Rita, with links to donate, and a lost person search.

Ajax experiments

2005-11-04T00:46:00.000-05:00

I'm just starting to play with Ajax, but even so, I had posed a question on the main page of mredkj.com about whether I should write a tutorial based on my Ajax survey. Well, I've decided that there are plenty of beginner's tutorials out there, so I'm going to put off writing one myself, and to focus on learning some more.

If I have any updates about my Ajax progress I'll post them here.

2005-11-04
I took down the old Ajax survey, and now just have a question about repeat visitors.

2005-10-24
The Ajax example now uses XML. After all, that's what the X stands for in AJAX.

Web Two Point-Blank

2005-11-02T03:15:00.000-05:00

Web Two Point-Blank - A parody of Web 2.0

If you haven't heard of Web 2.0, then any mockery about it will just seem bizarre, so I'd recommend reading What Is Web 2.0 first.

2005-11-05
If you're here to defend Web 2.0... have fun.

2005-11-22
Modified to add Paul Graham article

2005-11-23
Updated/split "A rose by any other name" into "How do you pronounce Web 2.0?". Added audio links.

KeyPress Validation - Updates

2005-10-25T02:37:00.000-04:00

validate.html

2005-10-25:
* Changed the code. Basically the same, but condensed.
* Previous example is archived
* Updated the chart for onkeypress and added a chart for onkeydown and onkeyup.
* Restructured the page, took out some outdated descriptions and explanations.

Tutorial Mixed2b - Select list move options

2005-10-23T12:41:00.000-04:00

tutorial_mixed2b.html

Tutorial Mixed2b has changed very little since I wrote the code in 2001, but if I have any update announcements, I'll post them here.

2005-10-23
Made changes just to the html, such as multiple to multiple="multiple",
to make it xhtml compliant.

2005-10-23
One thing I've been asked is how to get the example working with PHP. If you're submitting the form to PHP server-side, then try the following adjustments.


<select id="sel1" name="selectName1[]" size="10" multiple="multiple">

and


<input type="button" value="--&gt;"
onclick="moveOptions(document.getElementById('sel1'),
document.getElementById('sel2'));" /><br />
<input type="button" value="&lt;--"
onclick="moveOptions(document.getElementById('sel2'),
document.getElementById('sel1'));" />

and


<select id="sel2" name="selectName2[]" size="10" multiple="multiple">

Since PHP requires brackets in the name for a multiple select, you can't reference the name using JavaScript, so instead you can reference the id.

Events in File Sharing

2005-10-11T01:58:00.000-04:00

p2p_news.html

I used to have a collection of file sharing news links in my file sharing debate page, but it got to be increasingly cumbersome. So now the debate and news pages have been separated.

Site Map

2005-10-06T01:10:00.000-04:00

sitemap.html

I added a simple human-readable site map. It doesn't include every page, because the site map is somewhat autogenerated (but in a manual sort of way). I'll try to figure out a way to easily include all the pages. Also, the pages should probably be broken up into sections.

The phrase "human-readable" is used above as a contrast to a separate spider-readable site map I created for Google Sitemaps.

VS.NET - ASP.NET - Handling Treeview display issues

2005-09-29T18:40:00.000-04:00

ASPTreeviewStyle.html

Full control over Treeview style

New Layout For Main Index

2005-09-27T22:32:00.000-04:00

Trying out a simpler layout for the main index at mredkj.com.

VB.NET - Tip - Generating Random Numbers

2005-09-26T20:07:00.000-04:00

randomnumbers.html

A simple function to return random numbers in a given range.

How Tall

2005-09-24T15:02:00.000-04:00

howtall.html

A list of celebrity heights.

I had a list of 'how tall' stats I put together several years ago. It wasn't very comprehensive, but today I decided to publish it at mredkj.com. To make the page somewhat useful I describe a little bit about the sources and some other places to find celeb height information.

2005-10-02

In the mredkj 'how tall' page, I explain how you can use Google to get a famous person's height. For the most part it works, and the top result is specially formatted answer.

I've read variations of this trick at other sites (e.g. oreilly.com). The keywords they recommend are height or tall, which is a little simpler than my suggestion of how tall is.

The one problem I've found is the different keywords aren't always consistent. Here's an example.

The following Google search will return only normal search results.
tall Michael Moore
height Michael Moore

Yet this will give the special Google top answer.
how tall is Michael Moore

Michael Moore (II) — Height: 5' 11½" (1.82 M)
According to http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0601619/bio - More sources »

JavaScript - Add options to a select from a new window

2005-09-20T23:27:00.000-04:00

tutorial008.html

A couple people sent feedback about an error they were getting when trying to add options from a new window. My recommendation at this time is to remotely call a method that will add the new option. Refer to tutorial008.html for an example.

Update - 2005-09-21
I did some searching for existing solutions, and found this issue has been around a while. One solution worth checking out is in the last post of this devshed thread. Basically, the trick is to increment the length of the options, then reference the new option to set the text and value.

VB.NET Map Drive

2005-09-20T00:26:00.000-04:00

vbnetmapdrive.html

How to map a network drive using vb.net

JavaScript DOM Traverse

2005-09-15T04:10:00.000-04:00

dom_traverse.html

JavaScript utility to traverse the DOM under an element.

There are other resources on the web to traverse the DOM, but I wrote this script just to get a simple view of an element's DOM structure. It came in useful when I was trying to figure out some browser differences.

Software Patent Rant

2005-09-12T05:28:00.000-04:00

softwarepatents.html - My opinion of software patents.

Feel free to leave yours in the comments here.

Diet Coke commercial 2

2005-09-08T13:49:00.000-04:00

dietcoke2.html

(2006-02-02 - Retroactively added a page to mredkj.com with this information, plus some)

I received a question asking about a Diet Coke ad, which was described as "The one where the guy is in his apartment getting ready to go out"

I found an ad entitled "Loft" currently playing at dietcoke.com

I looked up the song based on the lyrics, and concluded it is "I Like the
Way" by Bodyrockers.

Update: adweek.com has an article with more information.

Update (2005-09-22): zudfunck.com has a thread about Coke commercials which says that the "Loft" Diet Coke guy is Paul Papadakis.

ASP.NET Numeric Textbox control

2005-09-01T18:04:00.000-04:00

NumericTextBox.html

ASP.NET Numeric Textbox control that handles pasting.

Eric wrote this control including my validation javascript.

JavaScript - Submit all select options

2005-08-30T14:09:00.000-04:00

tutorial007.html

Whether selected or not, use JavaScript to submit all the values in a dropdown box.

If you're looking for a way to submit all the options in a select list, then try one of the two techniques demonstrated in this tutorial.

JavaScript validate as you type

2005-08-30T14:05:00.000-04:00

validate2.html

Only numbers. Negative allowed at beginning. 2 decimal places allowed.

I appreciate any feedback about the script, or about the usability of the validation.

Formatting a number in JavaScript

2005-08-24T09:40:00.000-04:00

numberFormat.html

The number format section at mredkj has been updated to better explain the alternatives to formatting numbers in JavaScript. Most pages were rewritten, and some were archived. Also, version 1.5.4 of NumberFormat was released.

If you have any questions about formatting numbers in general, or about the NumberFormat script, you can post them here.

A personal account of gas prices

2005-08-19T21:12:00.000-04:00

gasprices.html

I've kept track of my gas purchases, and decided to publish a subset of the data at mredkj.com. It's not enough information on which to do statistical analysis, but it gives a rough idea of trends in gas prices.

VS.NET- VB.NET - Check for reserved SQL Words

2005-08-19T20:46:00.000-04:00

SQLReservedWords.html

A quick and easy way to check any table or field / column names against reserved words in MS SQL. It is simply an arraylist intialized using an array which can be checked for reserved words.

VS.NET - ASP.NET -Javascript Functions for Textboxes

2005-08-18T10:18:00.000-04:00

TextboxScriptFunctions.html

There are times when you need to perform some actions on controls without postbacks or that are not possible to perform on the serverside. Here are a handful of examples using Textboxes as an example control.

VS.NET - ASP.NET -ToolTip per node in ASP.NET Treeview control

2005-08-18T10:16:00.000-04:00

ASPTreeviewToolTip.html

Microsoft's Treeview Webcontrol does not have a tooltip which works on a per node level. Here are two solutions to the problem.

Table Basics - Add Rows / Delete Rows

2005-08-16T03:28:00.000-04:00

tablebasics1.html

I think some people are arriving at the mredkj.com pages tableaddrow.html and tabledeleterow.html and finding more than they need, so I put together a simple tutorial.

I plan on creating another tablebasics page (I didn't name this one tablebasics1 for nothing), and restructuring the other more advanced examples in tableaddrow and tabledeleterow.

VS.NET - ASP.NET - Autocomplete Dropdownlist control

2005-08-05T00:38:00.000-04:00

AutoCompleteDropdownlist.html

VS.NET - ASP.NET - Autocomplete Dropdownlist control
ASP.NET Autocomplete Dropdownlist control with SelectedIndexChange postback events.

HTML Table Delete Row

2005-08-01T04:48:00.000-04:00

tabledeleterow.html

Add rows and delete specific rows dynamically from an HTML table.

Update: 2005-08-16
version 1.0
Stuck with the basic structure of BETA-3.

Update: 2005-08-10
version: BETA-3
I've rewritten the code. The delete row script is still in beta, but I like the current version better than previous versions, so it's basically what I plan on releasing as version 1.0. The current version, BETA-3, addresses the question in Mark's comment below. Existing rows with delete buttons/checkboxes can be loaded now.

Restructuring: Phase 1

2005-07-30T06:49:00.000-04:00

Some major changes are happening at mredkj.com.

2005-07-30
advertisements on some pages
no more surveys

2005-09-03
I've been rolling out a new CSS layout, but not all the content is a good fit,
so it's required some tweaking.

New Page - Ziggens - Strange Way to Live

2005-07-23T20:32:00.000-04:00

ziggens_strange.html

Lyrics to Strange Way to Live

Update - Table add row

2005-05-26T22:52:00.000-04:00

tableaddrow.html

I added code to associate an event with the new text inputs. A couple people had emailed about this.

New Page - .NET - RS Admin Access Error

2005-05-18T17:09:00.000-04:00

RSAdminAccessError.html

VS.NET - ASP.NET - Reporting Services - Solution to Blank Report Manager Page

HTML Table Add Row - Update

2005-03-09T02:27:00.000-05:00

tableaddrow.html

After getting a couple feedback requests for validation help, I decided to include some simple validation in the example.

New page - JavaScript Hex Color Preview

2005-02-18T23:53:00.000-05:00

color.html

Enter in a hexadecimal triplet value to preview the color.

There are a lot of color charts and preview utilities out there. This one simply takes a valid hex code (e.g. FFF or FFFFFF or #FFF or #FFFFFF) and shows the color. It also shows a history of the last 10. Everything is done with javascript/dom/css, so there is no submit to the server.

New page - Diet coke commercial

2005-02-16T23:35:00.000-05:00

Summary:
The Diet Coke ad where they're rollerskating by the beach.
The song is "Starry Eyed Surprise" by Paul Oakenfold and Shifty.
The principal actress is Nicole Vicius.

More Information - Read my article for details about the commercial and the song.

Below I made a comment about IMDb for commercials. As far as I know, no such thing exists. Read more here.

This blog entry is for discussion about the Diet Coke commercial.

Edited: December 09, 2005

Survey down

2005-02-16T21:52:00.000-05:00

For most of Wednesday 2005-02-16, I took down survey1.asp. Someone (probably a bot) was requesting the page every 30 seconds. The requests didn't affect the survey, but it was unwanted traffic.

Each request was accompanied by the query string:
com.ltsnetworks.dml.dmp.resource_id=157

The hits seemed to have stopped, so I put back up the survey.

New page - ASP.NET - VB.NET - Free Resource List

2005-02-11T18:47:00.000-05:00

ResourceList.html

Links to useful ASP.NET and VB.NET components and resources

New page - VS.NET - ASP.NET - Tip - Unable to open web project

2005-02-05T11:32:00.000-05:00

UnableToOpenWebProject.html

(Visual Studio)
Unable to open web project Error description and solution

New page - JavaScript - select list insert, append, remove (old school)

2005-01-29T14:24:00.000-05:00

tutorial006.html

Tutorial006 includes code to insert, append, and remove options from a select list. It uses a technique that can be used in old and new browsers.

The code was tested, but if you find any problems, please let me know.

New page - JavaScript - select list add, remove, insert

2005-01-25T04:52:00.000-05:00

tutorial005.html

After archiving* tutorial_mixed2.html, I wrote up another page that adds and removes options from a select list. This time without all the netscape/ie fork logic.

*By archiving, I mean the page is marked as archived, but it's still up there.

New Page - CSS

2005-01-23T18:57:00.000-05:00

css.html

It's in the tutorials section, but there aren't many lessons in the page. The page itself is the lesson. Study the source and the css file.

It was new a few weeks ago, but the original page was just a placeholder. So I waited until I improved the layout.

I'm also in the process of creating a template for this blog.

New page - P2P Checklist

2004-12-27T22:31:00.000-05:00

p2p_checklist.html

My P2P checklist is inspired by a spam solution checklist I've read in various message boards. Link goes to one reference I found at a blog, but it's all over the place.

In my p2p_checklist page, there is a list for file sharing, and list against file sharing. They could be used in message boards like the spam solution checklist. I apologize in advance for any annoyance this may cause. However, I doubt it will take off.

New Page - VB.NET - Code Sample - Marble Solitaire Game

2004-12-23T04:43:00.000-05:00

Novutaire.html

VB.NET source code for marble solitaire game. Includes an executable download and a code download.

Windows Tip (Spyware) - Update 2004-12-23

2004-12-23T04:31:00.000-05:00

tipswin.html

I updated this page because I wanted to provide a better overview of how to deal with spyware. There are many good resources out there explain this better and in more detail, but I figure I could help out a little.

Another reason was because I recently cleaned up a machine that had a VX2 variant on it, and wanted to post the link to the solution that helped. It wasn't an easy task, and the machine still isn't performing well, but I think all the VX2 stuff is gone.

New page - Annoying Web Tactics

2004-12-18T06:16:00.000-05:00

annoying.html
List of the internet's most annoying sources of revenue

New page - VB.NET - Open URL

2004-12-15T18:38:00.000-05:00

OpenURL.html
Opens a URL in the default web application from vb.net

File sharing debate - Update December 06, 2004

2004-12-06T22:48:00.000-05:00

sharing.html

Several updates. Added sections "Artists for file sharing" and "Artists against file sharing". Plus some other miscellaneous additions.

One such addition was based on someone's response to my September 9th blog entry.

New page - Select list - Multiple values in an array

2004-12-04T14:58:00.000-05:00

tutorial004.html
HTML/JavaScript - referencing multiple values in a Select list

New page - ASP.NET - Open Design Error

2004-12-02T13:20:00.000-05:00

OpenDesignError.html
Solution to the "Could not open in Design view. Quote Values differently inside a '&lgt;%... "value" ...%>' block." error.

File sharing debate - Update November 24, 2004

2004-11-24T21:30:00.000-05:00

sharing.html

Changed CSS style, added section in Cons "Rationalizing copyright infringement (rebuttal)", updated the legislation under "Copyright law is becoming increasingly restrictive", and updated the works cited.

New Page - VB.NET - Generate Primes

2004-11-19T01:44:00.000-05:00

GeneratePrimes.html
This is a simple Prime number algorithm based on the Sieve of Erastothenes

New Page - ASP.NET - Page Load not fired

2004-11-13T04:16:00.000-05:00

pageloadnotfiring.html
Bug Workaround - Page Load event not fired
Page Load event not fired for pages opened with showModalDialog

New Page - ASP.NET - Close Browser

2004-10-22T02:49:00.000-04:00

Closebrowser.html
Very simple code to close a browser window on a button click in ASP.NET

New Page - VB.NET - Postback on Textchanged event

2004-10-15T18:41:00.000-04:00

textboxtextchangedpostback.html
Code to raise the textchanged event when leaving a textbox control

File sharing debate - Update September 30, 2004

2004-09-30T22:20:00.000-04:00

sharing.html

A couple additions to pros "Is copyright infringement wrong?" that list proposed U.S. laws

One addition to cons "Effects on industry / musicians" that references musicunited, which I already had in the works cited.

Added some more links to articles.

Note: When making changes to sharing.html, I will probably only post a blog message if it includes changes to the pros/cons, not for just article additions.

NumberFormat v1.5.3 - September 29, 2004

2004-09-29T02:17:00.000-04:00

numberFormat.html
Between NumberFormat 1.5.1 and 1.5.2, I accidently took out the logic that checks for this.hasSeparators, so I fixed that bug. This meant setting setSeparators or setCommas to false didn't do anything.

New page - selectedIndex (extended example)

2004-09-26T19:37:00.000-04:00

tutorial003.html
A followup to tutorial002.html, tutorial003.html includes a multiple select list. The code example does a few things, including toggling between a multiple/single select list.

Layout Update - September 23, 2004

2004-09-23T19:45:00.000-04:00

The main index got a new look. Most other pages now have a new layout also.

For the main index, the number of page links was reduced, but the biggest change was in the switch from tables to a CSS layout.

The other pages at the site weren't quite ready for a CSS layout, so what I did was to reduce the clutter a little bit. They are pretty much the same, but the total download per page will be smaller.

NumberFormat - Update September 21, 2004

2004-09-21T02:18:00.000-04:00

numberFormatPage2.html - In the Advanced Try It, I added a code output text area that shows the code being called based on the settings.

Change things like the currency settings or negative output, and watch the code change after clicking Try It.

Can also open up the full code in a new window by checking the box "Open full code example in new window". That will include the top-to-bottom syntax based on the same Try It settings.

2004-09-24 - Originally the pop-up example showed syntax that would format the number on the page load. I changed it so if someone tries that code, there will be a text box and button, and clicking the button will format the number that's in the text box.

Atom feed

2004-09-17T20:21:00.000-04:00

Like RSS, Atom is a syndication feed. I won't go into too many details of what it is, but you can read the Blogger help explanation.

mredkj's atom feed is
http://mredkj.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Blogger automatically generates the XML file when I post to this blog, so it's a good way to get updates on what's going on at mredkj. How do you get the updates? With a newsreader. There are a bunch listed in the Blogger help explanation.

If you use Firefox, then you're in luck.

I just discovered today that Mozilla Firefox 1.0SR has a feature called Live Bookmarks. When I view mredkj.blogspot.com in Firefox, an RSS icon shows up in the bottom right hand corner of the browser. I clicked on that, and selected Subscribe to 'RSS', which prompted me to add it to my bookmarks. I'm not sure how often Firefox gets an updated feed, but there is a manual option to Refresh Live Bookmark.

KeyPress Validation - Update September 16, 2004

2004-09-17T19:44:00.000-04:00

validate.html
Added a new example at the top of the page, and moved the original example to the bottom. The new example just blocks numbers from being typed in a text box, whereas the old example did... well I'm not sure what it did.

Also added a browser test chart that lists how browsers handled certain event syntax.

Updates - September 13, 2004

2004-09-13T20:24:00.000-04:00

vbnet/index.html
VB.NET pages added

wtindex.html
Windows Tips pages added

numberFormat.html
NumberFormat sub-component pages added

Beta Index Page

2004-09-08T04:25:00.000-04:00

index_switch.html
I'm experimenting with CSS to format the layout, so things may look different across browsers.

If you want to help out, let me know your OS and browser (with version), and how well the page shows up. Compare to the following.

index_switch.png
This is a screen capture from a Windows 2000 machine, in Firefox 0.9.3.

File sharing debate

2004-09-06T22:47:00.000-04:00

sharing.html
The mredkj filesharing debate page lists pros and cons of P2P. The thesis, if you want to call it that, isn't to come to any conclusions. The point I originally had in putting up the page was to show how there are only so many arguments one can make. It started off as a short list. Well, that list kept getting bigger and bigger, and then I started adding lots of references to back up my simple arguments. Maybe I underestimated the debate just a little bit.

If you have an opinion on file sharing, post a comment here.

Updates - August 31, 2004

2004-08-31T18:45:00.000-04:00

numberFormat.html
Released NumberFormat 1.5.2 on August 27.
Release Notes:
Bug fixes and general code cleanup.
Took out deprecated RegExp.leftContext and RegExp.rightContext. Now using the array returned when calling exec on the RegExp instance. Refer to moveDecimalAsStringNF and justNumberNF.
Took out the HTML 
Added addSeparators method.
Now able to accept the string 10E+3 and make it 10000 In 1.5.1 10e+3 as a number or string is ok and 10E+3 as a number is ok but in 1.5.1 when 10E+3 is passed in as a string, it turns out as 10

Updates - August 27, 2004

2004-08-27T04:40:00.000-04:00

sharing.html
I've been adding lots of supplemental references.

tipswin.html
This is a new page that I hope can help some people out there. A lot of people come to mredkj from google looking for all sorts of Windows help. Unfortunately mredkj doesn't really have any general Windows or Internet Explorer tips. It was my intention to elaborate on the Windows tips when I first put up tips_ie.html, but that didn't happen. So, the new tipswin.html page just addresses one solution so far. Spyware. A lot of people's problems when something goes wrong can be attributed to spyware.

If anybody has any suggestions for more Windows tips, let me know.

MREDKJ suggestions

2004-08-21T15:22:00.000-04:00

Is there a specific JavaScript example you want? Maybe some help with VB.NET? I'm going to experiment here and ask for suggestions for code examples. Then we can put up new content at mredkj based on those suggestions.

Need to add some stuff

2004-08-03T21:53:00.000-04:00

After a long idle period, mredkj has had an increase in updates. I added a javascript tutorial for selectedIndex. And soon Eric will put up some VB code. And maybe not-so-soon I'm going to update NumberFormat again. I figure if I post my intentions here, then I may be motivated to get working on it.

MREDKJ survey

2004-07-31T20:48:00.000-04:00

The following questions are being asked in the mredkj.com survey:

Should mredkj.com have banner ads?
Will you come back to mredkj.com?
Would you pay a micropayment for content?

banner ads
In this essay I lean against having advertisements. I'm still not a big fan (especially pop ups and other intrusive ads), but Google's AdSense is a welcome kind of ad. If mredkj were to have ads, it would probably be AdSense.

come back?
Most people who arrive at mredkj.com get there from search engines to answer specific questions. I get the feeling it's usually a one-time visit.

micropayments
It's been a while since I've researched micropayments, but I was curious what people thought of it. The survey question doesn't even indicate how much the payment would be, but it doesn't matter, because mredkj has no plans to implement any pay-for-content system.

Update: Comments have been closed for this entry.

Promoting Shareware/Freeware

2004-07-31T16:03:00.000-04:00

Search engine optimization (SEO) is basically the process of improving search engine results for a site. This can either be deceptive (including false keywords, link exchanges with unrelated sites, etc.) or legitimate (putting up content that's worthwhile). But even with worthwhile content, it's nice to get the word out.

I've been trying to get novusoft.com some increased traffic. (novusoft is our shareware/freeware site) As the SEO effort continues, I'll be posting my experiences here.

One way to get the word out about a software program is to submit it to download sites. Easier said than done. Here's a brief summary of what I found out.

There is a standard called PAD for filling out software information in an xml file. That way, the information can be parsed by download sites without having to manually enter it. I thought that was pretty cool, so I created a PAD file for one of the files at novusoft.

Next up, finding a download site. Two of the biggest sites are download.com and tucows.com. I registered with both of them, but to get software listed they charge a fee. Download.com (actually upload.com for submitting software) has its Listing Options easy to find, but I couldn't find the pricing for tucows unless I went all the way to step four of their Add Software process while signed in. I've already closed the window in disgust, so I don't know the prices. However, it didn't seem to be a listing fee, but rather a pay to get a better place in the review queue. And by the way, upload.com had an easy mechanism for referencing a PAD xml file, but I couldn't figure out if tucows supported it. They didn't mention PAD anywhere.

Disappointed by both of the big download sites, I may have to try the smaller players. Plenty to choose from.

NumberFormat is being DoS'd

2004-07-31T01:49:00.000-04:00

It may not exactly be a denial-of-service attack, but the same IP address has repeatedly made requests for NumberFormat151.js and NumberFormat151nc.js (I'm talking hundreds of requests). The server is now responding to those requests with an HTTP code 416 Requested Range Not Satisfiable. I'm not exactly sure what that means, but maybe somebody is using a utility to check for updates. Checking the existing files wouldn't help anyway. I don't update any of the .js files once I publish them. I always put up a new file when a new version is released.

If it keeps up, I'll have to find out what my host can do about blocking that IP.

Refer to mredkj page: numberFormat.html

Starting things...

2004-07-31T00:20:00.000-04:00

This blog will serve as a companion piece to mredkj.com, which is an unfocused programmers resource. If I can get people to comment here, it might be a good way to discuss meta data about the site.