Andrew Marconi

10 September, 2010
by Andrew Marconi
2 Comments

Getting Started with iOS Web Applications: Block Best Practices

Being relatively new to building Web applications for iPhone, iPad and other Webkit/iOS browsers, I’ve been spending more and more time searching through the Apple Developer Safari Reference Library.

It’s a very complete resource, but so far, I’ve found it to be mildly frustrating for the beginner. For instance, constructing a basic <head> block requires referencing about 3-5 different pages in the Apple documentation (that don’t link together in a meaningful way), as well as a variety of third-party developers’ sites.
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20 March, 2010
by Andrew Marconi
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Getting More Done, Mac Edition

Lately, I’ve started implementing David Allen’s GTD framework for “Getting Things Done.”

I’ve never been a huge fan of life coaches, “creative visualization to get what you want in life,” and all the touchy-feely “my parents didn’t give me ice cream once when I was five, so now I can’t have a serious relationship” communities led by “life gurus.” Mostly, I think they’re frauds that prey on the weak and vulnerable.
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3 December, 2009
by Andrew Marconi
3 Comments

Getting Boxee and XBMC Back after the Apple TV 3.0.1 Update

The Apple TV has a lot of potential. Unfortunately, it has some “features” that limit its usefulness out of the box. Thankfully, some really smart people have stepped in to leverage third-party components, extending its capabilities that bring it one step closer to being a fantastic HTPC.
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10 June, 2009
by Andrew Marconi
0 comments

Usability & the NYC MTA MetroCard

Not that the MTA is known for providing a good experience… but…

I purchase a pre-tax monthly MTA MetroCard through a program at work, and I’ve noticed something inconsistent. When I drop my card in the machine on an MTA bus, it let’s me know the date that my card will expire. However, when I swipe my card in the subway, it just says “Go.”

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10 June, 2009
by Andrew Marconi
0 comments

Enabling Flash Video (FLV) Playback on Windows IIS

Here’s another “gotcha” courtesy of Microsoft: by default, IIS doesn’t include a MIME type for Flash Video (FLV) files, resulting in a 404 Not Found error whenever you try to access the file. One would think that they would deliver a 401 Unauthorized error, but hey… what do I know?

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4 June, 2009
by Andrew Marconi
0 comments

Opt-Out of “Interest Based Ads” from Google and Other Ad Networks

While I don’t consider myself to be paranoid about being tracked around the Web, I still value my privacy. I also don’t like companies making money off of me (unless I’m getting a cut, of course) — and behaviorally-targeted ads have a higher value to advertisers, so DoubleClick (Google’s ad serving platform) and the other networks can charge more money.

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29 May, 2009
by Andrew Marconi
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Troubleshooting jQuery in WordPress Themes

Here’s another “oh yeah, I always forget about that” geek item.

I spent a few hours today going nuts trying to figure out why the jQuery Cycle plug-in wasn’t working in a new theme I’m working on. The code ran great outside of WordPress, but the minute I placed it inside the theme, it broke.

Then I realized: when using jQuery in WordPress you always have to remember to explicitly call it by name rather than use the handy-dandy $(“#identifier”) short-cut that every example and demo online uses. The long-winded reasoning (as I discovered thanks to Techxplorer’s blog entry) is that the bundled version of jQuery built into WordPress since version 2.2 is initialized with jQuery.noConflict. The upside is that this keeps the jQuery library from crashing into other bundled libraries (like Prototype). The bad news is that it breaks support for the $ shortcut.
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14 May, 2009
by Andrew Marconi
0 comments

WordPress Theme Check List/Cheat Sheet

Stefan Vervoort over at WPToy.com has published a great cheat sheet for developing WordPress themes. It’s available in PDF format, so as he suggests, if you build themes print it out and put it on your wall. When I’m building a WordPress theme, I always forget something along the line (when I go into “programmer mode” I get a little lazy sometimes, alright?) — this makes sure I cover off on all the elements.
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11 May, 2009
by Andrew Marconi
1 Comment

WordPress Best Practices for the Newbie – Part 1: Before the Blog

Introduction

After performing countless installs of WordPress, I’ve learned a few things about how to make it work more effectively, and how to avoid some common pitfalls that I’ve never seen in any of the documentation. This is part one of three; it deals primarily with the decisions you need to make before you write your first post. Subsequent posts will discuss different aspects of WordPress and the “Best Practices for Non-Geeks.”

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