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Monday, December 08, 2014

The side-effects of young children using mobile / handheld devices

In current generation where penetration rate of mobile devices is high, we see many including young children often using mobile devices while travelling, in school or even before bedtime. A fact sheet published on Zone'in advised infants aged 0-2 years should not have any exposure to technology, 3-5 years be restricted to one hour per day, and 6-18 years restricted to 2 hours per day.


The fact sheet researched on areas:
  • Technology Use: usage statistics; technology addiction prevalence
  • Physical Impairments: developmental delay; obesity, cardiovascular disorders and diabetes; movement deprivation, sensory overstimulation, elecrtromagnetic radiation, sleep disruption
  • Mental Disorders: human detachment and mental illness; psychotropic medication, restraints, and seclusion rooms, touch deprivation, pornography and risky behavior
  • Social Disorders: communication, aggression and declining empathy,
  • Academic Decline: attention deficit; illiteracy, education technology;
  • Implications and Solutions: costs, technology screening an management, playgrounds as epicenter for child development and learning

Tuesday, December 02, 2014

How to stop FortiClient from starting automatically?

Installed FortiClient recently but the challenge in disabling the application/service from running automatically on every start-up annoyed me. Attempt to stop 'FortiClient Service Scheduler' only return 'Parameter is incorrect' error message.

An article on Technet help solve my trouble. To stop FortiClient from starting automatically, try the following:
  1. Shut down FortiClient from the system tray.
  2. Run net stop fortishield on command prompt.
  3. Run msconfig.
  4. On msconfig, switch to the Services tab. Clear the FortiClient Service Scheduler check box and click Apply.
  5. Run services.msc on command prompt to open up show all available services.
  6. Look for FortiClient Service Scheduler. Switch Startup type to Manual.
  7. Restart your computer.
FortiClient should not be running automatically the next time round. Hope it helps.

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

An interesting perspective on Responsive Web Design and getting it right

An article on the Smashing Magazine has an interesting perspective on what is responsive web design and how to actually get it right. Taking note on the performance is the right approach.

» You May Be Losing Users If Responsive Web Design Is Your Only Mobile Strategy | Smashing Magazine

Friday, November 21, 2014

How to Interpret Indian Head Shakes?

Talk about cross-cultural communication, a lot of people have been confusing themselves about what does it mean when an Indian shakes his head. Someone actually put up a video explaining the different types of head shakes are and their meaning.


I hope it helps in reducing miscommunication.

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

What are the differences between Visual Studio Community Edition (FREE) and the Express Editions?

If you are a developer working on Microsoft (or perhaps Linux since Microsoft is open-sourcing its .NET Core) platform, it is likely that you would have heard Microsoft releasing a rich featured edition of Visual Studio at absolutely ZERO cost. The new edition of the FREE Visual Studio is the Community Edition.

So what are the differences between the new Visual Studio Community Edition and the usual Express Editions? Before I begin, I would like to state that the Community Edition is in fact a Professional Edition but re-packaged and distributed at NO cost. The two main differences between Visual Studio Community Edition and the Express Editions are:
  1. Visual Studio Express Editions do not allow users to use extensions (aka. plugins).
  2. Visual Studio Express Editions are targeting specific platforms e.g. Web, Windows and Windows Desktop apps.

Download Microsoft Visual Studio now!

Thursday, November 13, 2014

What is History and the Benefits of History?

Very often when we think of History, we will associate it with boring. But why schools are still offering History as a subject? What exactly is History and what are the benefits of knowing the past? The following short video perfectly address this.

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Once Upon a Time - Story About Everybody, Somebody, Nobody and Anybody

Once upon a time there were four people named Everybody, Somebody, Nobody and Anybody.

When there was an important job to be done, Everybody was sure Somebody would do it.

Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did.

When Nobody did it, Everybody got angry because it was Somebody's job.

Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Somebody realized that Nobody would do it.

So it ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody that Nobody did what Anybody could have done in the first place.
- Author unknown

Monday, November 10, 2014

Currency Act - the legal tender limit for coins of denomination

In light of multiple cases whereby payments were attempted with coins amounting in thousands, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has released a statement on the legal tender limit for coins of denomination.

According to the Currency Act, the legal tender limit for coins of denomination:
  1. Below 50-cents is S$2 per denomination.
  2. For 50-cent coins, the limit is S$10.
  3. There are no limits for S$1 coins.
A payee has no obligation to accept coins beyond the legal tender limits set out in the Currency Act.

Saturday, November 08, 2014

Happy Birthday from Google


Birthday doodle from Google for this year is exactly the same for the past 2 years (2013, 2012). Birthday doodle for 2010 was different.

Friday, November 07, 2014

How do I uninstall Chrome's new Bookmark Manager?

Google has been working on a new bookmark manager for Chrome. This upcoming bookmark manager is now on the Chrome Web Store as an extension before it is integrated into Chrome by default. This new bookmark manager extension looks beautiful but it does have its own shortfall for now e.g. inability to sort bookmarks by title.

So what if you wished to uninstall this new bookmark manager? As far as I know, you cannot remove this extension from chrome://extensionsbecause the extension is not listed at all! Do follow the below steps for the removal of this extension:

  1. Type chrome://flags on the address bar.
  2. Search for Enable Enhanced Bookmarks option.
  3. Disable it.
  4. Close and restart Chrome.
  5. Type chrome://extensions on the address bar. You should see the bookmark manager extension now.
  6. Remove the bookmark manager extension.
Hope it helps.

Saturday, November 01, 2014

Handling 404 error page by showing set of suggested links

When a user attempts to follow a broken link or mistypes a url on a website, the user will often be redirected to a typical friendly "404 Not Found" web page so he knows what has happened, instead of throwing some ugly error message.

One way to enhance the experience would be to guess where the visitor intended to go and suggest that page or shows a list of possible pages. An article by the Smashing Magazine describes an approach that makes use of Google's Custom Search API for this purpose. Before embarking onto the implementing it on production, please do note that the free tier for this API has a limit of 100 calls per day.

» A Better 404 Page | Smashing Magazine

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Inbox by Gmail - Am waiting for an invite

Inbox by Gmail looks interesting and cool! Requested for an invitation yesterday and am still waiting for one. Do drop me an invitation!

Monday, October 20, 2014

Why switch to HTTPS?

The number of websites moving to the more secured HTTPS protocol is ever increasing especially after recent many web security compromises. But is there a need for HTTPS even if your website is purely only content? Engineers from the Google team feel YES.

Watch why YES from the following video:

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Mobile: All-In-One App or Multi Apps?

I have heard and seen clients wanting to include just everything, say product catalogue, events registrations, etc., from their website onto a mobile app. Each of the features itself are with complicated logics and workflows.

Question we should be asking now is whether to bundle all features into one single app or to split them into multi apps so each serve its own purpose. Mobile users are very much different from desktop users.To deliver the best mobile app experience, we need to make sure mobile users can complete a single mission easily and quickly.

TheNextWeb has an article, Forget ‘unbundling': Why your multi-app strategy should start from day one, recommending the multi apps approach for mobile strategy.

Thursday, September 04, 2014

Infographics: How to Perfectly Make 38 Types of Coffee

One can never have enough of coffee. The infographics below shows how perfectly make 38 types of coffee.

via [Stylist]

Friday, August 29, 2014

Periodic Table of Web Design Process

Preview all your installed fonts on your web browser

Ever wondered how your text will look like on all of your installed fonts? One handy way is using this free online tool wordmark.it. Simply type in the text to preview and hit on a button. It is just so easy.


Note: JavaScript is required for the online tool to work.

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

HTML Tags Accepted by Gmail

When sending a HTML email out, we often used some common HTML tags e.g. <br>, <font> and so on. An article, Gmail's HTML Tag Whitelist, on Quip publish a list of HTML tags known to be supported as well as unsupported by Gmail.

Supported HTML Tags

<a>
<abbr>
<acronym>
<address>
<area>
<b>
<bdo>
<big>
<blockquote>
<br>
<button>
<caption>
<center>
<cite>
<code>
<col>
<colgroup>
<dd>
<del>
<dfn>
<dir>
<div>
<dl>
<dt>
<em>
<fieldset>
<font>
<form>
<h1>
<h2>
<h3>
<h4>
<h5>
<h6>
<hr>
<i>
<img>
<input>
<ins>
<kbd>
<label>
<legend>
<li>
<map>
<menu>
<ol>
<optgroup>
<option>
<p>
<pre>
<q>
<s>
<samp>
<select>
<small>
<span>
<strike>
<strong>
<sub>
<sup>
<table>
<tbody>
<td>
<textarea>
<tfoot>
<th>
<thead>
<u>
<tr>
<tt>
<u>
<ul>
<var>

Unsupported HTML tags

<applet>
<article>
<aside>
<audio>
<base>
<basefont>
<bdi>
<bgsound>
<blink>
<body>
<canvas>
<content>
<data>
<datalist>
<decorator>
<details>
<dialog>
<element>
<embed>
<figcaption>
<figure>
<footer>
<frame>
<frameset>
<head>
<header>
<hgroup>
<html>
<iframe>
<isindex>
<keygen>
<link>
<listing>
<main>
<mark>
<marquee>
<menuitem>
<meta>
<meter>
<nav>
<nobr>
<noframes>
<noscript>
<object>
<output>
<param>
<picture>
<progress>
<rp>
<rt>
<ruby>
<script>
<section>
<shadow>
<source>
<spacer>
<style>
<summary>
<template>
<time>
<title>
<track>
<video>
<wbr>
<xmp>

If you have a whitelist for Outlook.com and Yahoo, do make a comment below.

Infographics: HTML5 - Past, Present & Future

Monday, August 04, 2014

Get List of Installed Programs on Windows

If you ever need to do some reinstalling of Windows on your laptop but would like to backup the list of installed programs before formatting, the following will be useful.
  1. Start Command Prompt.
  2. Type wmic on command prompt to run Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line tool.
  3. Type /output:C:\InstallList.txt product get name,version on command prompt. This will generate a list of all installed programs and save it in C:\InstallList.txt as a text file. Do note this may take some time depending on the number of installed programs you may have.

Saturday, July 26, 2014

Introduction to Xamarin

Online technical tutorial, tuts+, published a 3-parts introduction on Xamarin. Xamarin is a cross-platform software solution using C# codebase to develop one single implementation for Android, iOS and Windows apps.

Hopefully I have the time to try out this interesting software one day.

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Difference Between Holland and The Netherlands

Many times, we always use Holland and The Netherlands interchangeably without knowing the two terms are in fact different. Do watch the following video below to understand more.

Monday, July 14, 2014

Israel vs Palestine - So who is right?

Israel vs Palestine and so who is exactly right? Let's hear from each side of the story.

Israel's side of story

Palestine's side of story

Thursday, July 03, 2014

Seven Pointers to Watch Out for Before Buying an IPO

An insightful article on the Seven Things You Should Know About IPOs.

  1. Pre-IPO Placements
  2. Vendor Shares
  3. Deferred Shares and Share Options
  4. The "Greenshoe"
  5. Bookbuilding
  6. Clawback
  7. Lock-ups

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Top 20 Most Preferred NS Vocations


20. Storeman
19. Clerk
18. Mess Boy
17. Area Cleaning IC
16. Night Snack Orderly
15. Safety van Drinks Server
14. Route March Song IC
13. White Horse
12. Attend C Bunk
11. Music & Dance Company Reserve Guitar Tuner
10. Canteen Tray Hygiene Officer
9. Mobilisation TV Flasher
8. Pioneer Magazine Writer
7. Reservist Outfield Tapao Coordinator
6. Excuse Uniform, Excuse Grass, Excuse Sunlight
5. E-mart Noticeboard IC
4. Reservist FHM Magazine Supplier
3. Out-Of-Course
2. Future Minister
1. Civilian

Monday, May 26, 2014

Many Are Into Responsive Design, So Should I?

Many websites are now moving into responsive design so that webpages load "nicely" on mobile devices. The technologies and frameworks are there but should you and I go into revamping websites and adopt responsive design?

Responsive Web Design Taking Pictures Into Consideration

Responsive web design with pages and images resized and aligned properly for mobile view will not be complete if the images downloaded are the full desktop version. For better design, do consider using element. Read more on the picture element here.

Improve Mobile Support With Server-Side-Enhanced Responsive Design

An article on the Smashing Magazine on how to improve mobile support with responsive design at server side. It also discusses on the balance to doing it on client and server side.

An interesting read.

Thursday, May 08, 2014

Singaporean Jeremy Teng won a Japanese singing contest at Nodojiman The World

As a fellow Singaporean, I am so proud of compatriot Jeremy Teng for having won a Japanese singing contest at Nodojiman The World. You may watch him in action on YouTube.

Sunday, May 04, 2014

Google Play Errors Explained (With Fixes)

Popular Android forum, XDA Developers, wrote a thread explaining some of the errors encountered on Google Play. Yes, they may get annoying and may caused one to be helpless. With the feedback from many fellow Android users, the forum thread serves to provide with an always updated knowledgebase.

Saturday, April 26, 2014

Find out if you sleep deprived

Are you sleep deprived? Find out if you are from the following 1-minute video.

Friday, April 18, 2014

How to Schedule Gmail Emails to be Sent?

Amit Agarwal from the Digital Inspiration wrote a little Google script to schedule and send out Gmail emails later at a stipulated date and time.

Watch the video tutorial below to do just that.


Do read this Digital Inspiration article for the detailed steps in words and Google scripts too.

DynDNS Shutting Down Free Plans; So What Are The Alternatives?

DynDNS has shut down its free plans and so, if you need a hostname to be hosted, what are the other alternatives we have in the market right now?

The hundred over comments on The Best Free Alternatives to DynDNS offer some of the alternative services. Which of them have you used?

Cheat Sheet - Learn Basic Linux Commands

A cheat sheet on Linux commands, organised into 13 categories, should get you up to mark in using Linux operating system. The cheat sheet is available at LinOxide in PDF format and as one detailed reference guide all on a single long page. If you prefer visual, the following image may be helpful too.


Side Navigation Drawer or Tabbed Design?

The debate over whether to implement the now trendy side navigation drawer (a.k.a. hamburger menu) or stick to traditional tabbed design for a mobile website or app can go a long way. An article published on TheNextWeb summarised just when using side navigation is relevant.
My take-away from all of this is that if most of the user experience takes place in a single view, and it’s only things like user settings and options that need to be accessed in separate screens, then keeping the main UI nice and clean by burying those in a side menu is the way to go.
On the other hand, if your app has multiple views that users will engage with somewhat equally, then side navigation could be costing you a great deal of your potential user engagement, and interaction with those part of the app accessed via the side menu.

» UX designers: Side drawer navigation could be costing you half your user engagement | TheNextWeb

Thursday, April 03, 2014

Introducing the Windows 8.1 Update

Microsoft just unveiled Windows 8.1 Update 1. New features include an improved taskbar, better task switching, and Start Screen tweaks that focus on mouse and keyboard users. Opened applications will also come with title bar. This update certainly makes Windows 8 more "Windows".


The update will be made available via Windows Update on April 8.

Sunday, March 30, 2014

Microsoft MS-DOS v1.1 and v2.0 Source Code

Microsoft released the source code for MS DOS 1.1 and 2.0 few days back. With the help of the Computer History Museum, the source codes are now made downloadable by the public.

On the same day, Microsoft also released source code for Word for Windows 1.1a.

» Microsoft MS-DOS early source code | Computer History Museum

Microsoft Word for Windows Version 1.1a Source Code

Microsoft released the source code for Word for Windows 1.1a few days back. With the help of the Computer History Museum, the source codes are now made downloadable by the public.

On the same day, Microsoft also released source code for MS-DOS v1.1 and v2.0.

» Microsoft Word for Windows Version 1.1a Source Code | Computer History Museum

Wireless@SG - SIM-based Connection Guide

From 1 Apr 2014 onwards, Singapore's FREE Wi-Fi initiative Wireless@SG will be enhanced to allow SIM-based authentication. This is on top of the existing non SIM-based authentication, one that requires connecting to a SSID through Wi-Fi and then doing a web-based authentication.

From the list of supported devices that support EAP-SIM, it appears many today's iOS, Android and BlackBerry devices are supported. Windows devices are not in the list.

Friday, March 28, 2014

Tips to convert all ebook format and make them readable across all devices

An article published on the LifeHacker - How to Buy Ebooks From Anywhere and Still Read Them All in One Place detailed just how to make sure eBooks purchased or downloaded across multiple sources can be made readable on any other eBook reader/devices. One key point to note is the step required to strip away DRM.

Hope it helps.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Image Resize in C#

The below code snippet (adapted from Stackoverflow) will do a image resize to a desired width in pixels. I hope it helps.

/// <summary>
/// Resize image to desired dimension based on width
/// </summary>
/// <param name="strSrcPath">Full absolute path of image source</param>
/// <param name="strDestPath">Full absolute path for resized image to be saved to</param>
/// <param name="iNewWidth">New desired width in pixels</param>
/// <param name="blnIgnoreIfNewWidthLarger">Do not resize image should new desired width is larger than width of original image if set to true</param>
public void Resize(string strSrcPath, string strDestPath, int iNewWidth, bool blnIgnoreIfNewWidthLarger)
{
 bool blnDoNotResize = false;
 System.Drawing.Image objSrcImage;
 System.Drawing.Bitmap objDestImage;
 System.Drawing.Graphics objGrapics;

 try
 {
  objSrcImage = System.Drawing.Image.FromFile(strSrcPath);

  int iSrcWidth = objSrcImage.Width;
  int iSrcHeight = objSrcImage.Height;

  blnDoNotResize = ((iSrcWidth == iNewWidth) || (blnIgnoreIfNewWidthLarger && iNewWidth > iSrcWidth));

  if (!blnDoNotResize)
  {
   int iNewHeight = iSrcHeight * iNewWidth / iSrcWidth;

   int iSrcX = 0, iSrcY = 0, iDestX = 0, iDestY = 0;
   float fPercent = 0, fPercentW = 0, fPercentH = 0;

   fPercentW = ((float)iNewWidth / (float)iSrcWidth);
   fPercentH = ((float)iNewHeight / (float)iSrcHeight);
   if (fPercentH < fPercentW)
   {
    fPercent = fPercentH;
    iDestX = System.Convert.ToInt16((iNewWidth - (iSrcWidth * fPercent)) / 2);
   }
   else
   {
    fPercent = fPercentW;
    iDestY = System.Convert.ToInt16((iNewHeight - (iSrcHeight * fPercent)) / 2);
   }

   int iDestWidth = (int)(iSrcWidth * fPercent);
   int iDestHeight = (int)(iSrcHeight * fPercent);

   objDestImage = new System.Drawing.Bitmap(iNewWidth, iNewHeight, System.Drawing.Imaging.PixelFormat.Format24bppRgb);
   objDestImage.SetResolution(objSrcImage.HorizontalResolution, objSrcImage.VerticalResolution);

   objGrapics = System.Drawing.Graphics.FromImage(objDestImage);
   objGrapics.Clear(System.Drawing.Color.Black);
   objGrapics.InterpolationMode = System.Drawing.Drawing2D.InterpolationMode.HighQualityBicubic;

   objGrapics.DrawImage(objSrcImage,
    new System.Drawing.Rectangle(iDestX, iDestY, iDestWidth, iDestHeight),
    new System.Drawing.Rectangle(iSrcX, iSrcY, iSrcWidth, iSrcHeight),
    System.Drawing.GraphicsUnit.Pixel);

   objGrapics.Dispose();

   objSrcImage.Dispose();

   objDestImage.Save(strDestPath);
   objDestImage.Dispose();
  }
  else
  {
   objSrcImage.Dispose();
   System.IO.File.Copy(strSrcPath, strDestPath, true);
  }
 }
 catch (Exception ex)
 {
  throw ex;
 }
 finally
 {
  objSrcImage = null;
  objDestImage = null;
  objGrapics = null;
 }
}

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Edward Snowden Speaks at TED 2014

Infamous Edward Snowden, former contractor for the National Security Agency (NSA) and whistleblower who leaked thousands and thousands of classified American National Agency documents that had led to global outrage over U.S. privacy pry on all other countries. Of course, this had also led to Snowden having to base himself in Russia to avoid being detained by the U.S.

Snowden appeared in the form of a robot at TED.com and spoke about surveillance and Internet freedom.

Friday, March 14, 2014

Google Docs and Sheets Launches Add-Ons

Google launches add-ons to its Docs and Sheets apps. With add-ons written by developers, users would now be able to add in even more features in their documents and spreadsheets e.g. easily send documents as emails to contacts, create Avery address labels and name badges from Google spreadsheet data, adding track changes and approval workflow, etc.


This is really many steps ahead for Google.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Gift - A Singapore Drama Short Film by Viddsee

An inspiring short 8 minute short drama titled "Gift" by Singaporean Viddsee.

Being rich is not about what you have, but how much you can give.

Tuesday, March 04, 2014

MergeFil.es - Merge multiple files (PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Images) into one consolidated PDF, Word, Excel or PowerPoint

MergeFil.es is a 100% FREE online tool that can combine/merge multiple files of varying formats (PDF, MS Word, MS PowerPoint, MS Excel, images, html, and/or .txt files) into one consolidated PDF, MS Word, MS Excel, or MS PowerPoint document. The tool also allows reordering of the selected files before finalising for merging.

Monday, March 03, 2014

Ellen Selfie at the Oscars 2014 - Most Retweets Of All Time

Ellen DeGeneres took a selfie together with several stars at the Oscars 2014 and tweet it online right away with a Samsung sponsored Note 3 phone. The tweet garnered the most number of retweets Of all time beating Obama's 2012 record.

Ellen DeGeneres 2,471,533 retweets (as of now)





Barack Obama 781,578 retweets (as of now)


Tuesday, February 25, 2014

How to Decipher the Moles On Your Face?

The Chinese Almanac, also known as the Tung Shu, not only tell us the auspicious and inauspicious dates, it also reveals information on astrology, codes and symbols which includes the secrets regarding moles on your face and what they mean depending on which part of your face they appear.


An article on the Feng Shui Beginner tells us more on this.

Friday, February 21, 2014

DHL prank on competitor to do advertisting for them

DHL pulled a prank on its competitor to do advertising for them.

Several huge boxes coated with black-coloured temperature sensitive ink that will disappear in higher temperature were arranged to be delivered by its competitors like TNT and UPS. As calculated, the black ink disappeared while being transported in delivery trucks, revealing big-sized imprint boasting that "DHL is faster". Without much of a choice, the courier guy continued with the usual delivery service but definitely with some awkwardness.


Well done!

Samsung Teases Galaxy S5 Unpacked Event With a Video Ad

Samsung just launched a teaser video ad in anticipation of coming 24 February Galaxy event in Barcelona, Spain, at 8 p.m. local time. It is expected Galaxy S5 to be unveiled.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Convert your Android phones into inter-connected Baby Monitors

Dormi is a new Android app that can convert your old or existing Android devices into smart baby monitors or remote speakers. Watch the video below for a quick introduction to Dormi or you may just simply head to Dormi website.

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Starhub TV Free Preview for Chinese New Year 2014

Starhub is offering 30 FREE TV channels this Lunar New Year from 30 Jan, 12pm to 3 Feb, 3pm.


And if you are on the move, download StarHub TV Anywhere App which is available on both Android and iOS.

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws

The Three Laws of Robotics (often shortened to The Three Laws or Three Laws) are a set of rules devised by the science fiction author Isaac Asimov. The rules were introduced in his 1942 short story "Runaround", although they had been foreshadowed in a few earlier stories. The Three Laws are:

  1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
  2. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
  3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

» Three Laws of Robotics | Wikipedia

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Share Your Android Screen to PC or Laptop

I came across this BBQScreen app few months back and I thought it worth a mention to blog it. With BBQScreen, it is possible to share your Android screen right onto your PC or laptop. What you need to do is to install the app on your Android and also on your PC or laptop. BBQScreen support Windows, Linux and Mac OS. What's most important is that it is absolutely free of charge!

Saturday, January 11, 2014

15 jQuery Tips and Tricks to Increase Performance

jQuery has been widely used in several websites to make use of available libraries. Though the API itself is already optimised, it is still possible to enhance its performance.

Here are 15 tips and tricks by the Web Revisions.
  1. Always Use the Latest jQuery Version
  2. Always load CDN-hosted copy of jQuery
  3. Always use ID as Selector Instead of Classes or Name
  4. Always Cache jQuery Objects before use
  5. Always use Tags Before Classes
  6. Use Chaining
  7. Just give your Selectors a Context
  8. Storing Data
  9. Preloading images
  10. Try to make code simpler using group queries
  11. jQuery Lazy Loading
  12. Always Return False
  13. Use join() for Longer Strings
  14. Try to avoid DOM Manipulation
  15. Check if an Element Exists

Wednesday, January 08, 2014

10 Awesome Infographics to Guide your Marketing Plan for 2014

The Buffer blog has rounded up 10 infographics and suggestions on online marketing to help us get our 2014 marketing strategy off to a great start. Visit the page now.

Wednesday, January 01, 2014

Typography: Care about how sentences are looked, read and understood

Do you care about words and how they look, read, and are understood? 24 Ways mentioned the need to manicure the right rag. There are 5 possible violations that we should be mindful of.

Violation 1. Never break a line immediately following a preposition
Solution 1: Are there any prepositions in the text? If so, add a &nbsp; after them.

Violation 2. Never break a line immediately following a dash
Solution 2: Are there any dashes? If so, add a &nbsp; after them.

Violation 3. No small words at the end of a line
Solution 3: Are there any words of fewer than three characters that you haven't already added spaces to? If so, add a &nbsp; after them.

Violation 4. Hyphenation
Solution 4: Are there any emphasised groups of words either two or three words long? If so, add a &nbsp; in between them.

Violation 5. Don't break emphasised phrases of three or fewer words
Solution 5: Are there emphasised phrases of three or fewer words? If so, try not to break the line among them. Group them.

To implement the above on your blog or website itself, you may try out this script on GitHub.

» Run Ragged | 24 Ways

How to defer loading of javascript efficiently using the Google way?

If there is a piece of code that is intended to be loaded after a webpage finishes loading, one efficient method as recommended by Google is to use listeners. An article on feedthebot illustrates the Google's method. The following code should be placed in your HTML just before the </body> tag. Also, all code blocks supposed to be delayed are to be placed in an external js file (defer.js in this case).

<script type="text/javascript">
function downloadJSAtOnload() {
    var element = document.createElement("script");
    element.src = "defer.js";
    document.body.appendChild(element);
}

if (window.addEventListener)
    window.addEventListener("load", downloadJSAtOnload, false);
else if (window.attachEvent)
    window.attachEvent("onload", downloadJSAtOnload);
else
    window.onload = downloadJSAtOnload;
</script>

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