ShaneLabs

My lessons from life and software development

  • Preventing “Do you want to open or save this file?” from tracking pixel

    In developing one of my task management projects I was playing around with creating a tracking pixel that could be used to measure performance. When this pixel was placed on the page, I noticed in Safari and IE the browser would ask me if I’d like to open or save the file. Safari said: Do…

  • I need an easier project management tool

    As I work myself up the ladder at my job, I find myself managing more and more tasks and people. When it was a couple of us, and a few project this was not a problem. Back then I kept everything in a simple text document. Every day I’d re-prioritize the bulleted list in notepad…

  • Detecting which server a cron job is running from

    I have a script that needs to be run on a couple different servers every night. Problem is that each server has different database credentials, so I need to set the correct user name and password for each, otherwise it won’t work. I thought about having a config file for each, but I wanted all…

  • Google’s +1 (plus one) snippet doesn’t work in IE7

    I was surprised to see that Google’s new +1 code that we’re supposed to slather all over our pages doesn’t work in Internet Explorer 7. It simply just doesn’t show up. I wonder if this is a glitch, or if Google has just stopped supporting IE7 altogether.

  • Don’t look forward to retirement, look forward to today

    I recently came across 2 blog posts which I found extremely refreshing. They have to do with people working their lives away so they can retire as soon as possible. Here are a few quotes from them… Most people are still buying into the same old industrial age myth of “work sucks, so do as little…

  • Why your speed affects your MPG

    I recently did a lot of research concerning the effects of your driving speed on your car’s fuel efficiency. I was very shocked by all the info and results I found. I was also shocked that there wasn’t 1 site that explained it all together. So, I created one: http://www.mpgforspeed.com/ The site gives you the…

  • Running on your toes

    I just realized I have been running incorrectly for the past 10 years of my life. I was a sprinter in high school track. I was taught at the time to always run on my toes. It made sense, and sense then I have always ran on my toes. However, I didn’t make the connection…

  • SetFBML invalid parameter exception – Facebook API

    In developing Easy Export, I created a cron script that updates the user’s fbml on their profile page periodically. It worked great, but after some time I started getting the following execption thrown:  ‘Invalid parameter’, on line 1520 in facebookapi_php5_restlib.php After looking into it, I realized it’s because I was trying to set the fbml on a…

  • Calculating age from unix timestamps in PHP

    I couldn’t find a function already created for PHP that calculates someone’s age based on their birthdate and the current date (in unix timestamp format – seconds since 1970). First I tried this: $age = date(“Y”,$endtime) – date(“Y”,$starttime); But then I realized that this might not be completely accurate, base on the calendar, leap year,…

  • Facebook application – Easy Export – download your photos

    I created a facebook application several weeks ago, but never got to write about it. It was actually pretty painless. I wanted copies of all the pics I had been tagged in on my own computer. It was taking me forever to click through all of them individually. So I made this app – which…

About Shane

Shane is the creator of musician’s tool SongKeyFinder, and developer inspiration CodeKindly

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