Blog Posts Published by: William

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS AN ARCHIVED VERSION, from 2004-2005, OF THE ORIGINAL SITE.

WilliamBlogs.com's domain was allowed to expire and as a consequence, the site disappeared from the web. When I discovered that the domain was available I bought it with the goal of recreating as much of its original content as possible from archived pages. I did not want someone else to purchase the domain and re-purpose the site for something that had nothing in common with the original website.

Even now I can relate to a number of William's post. For instance his 11/21/2004, "I'm self employed...kinda...sorta...not really...", where he writes about being hired to build a website. I can identify with that glow of feeling proud of one's accomplishments. The first time I was hired to help build a website I was really nervous. This was a site for an online sterling silver jewelry store. This site was mainly for people living in the US, and when I told my Mom about it, she immediately went to the site (once it was built and live) to check it out. She has always worn silver jewelry and she was impressed with the site's graphics which I did, but was even happier when she found a gorgeous cz ring that augmented the look she always strived for - simple yet elegant. She was thrilled that she could order from her computer and the ring she chose would be delivered to her door. For me, I felt proud of the work I did, but I also felt great that I had shown my Mom something she also could make use of. Talk about a win/win situation.

So take a nostalgic stroll back to 2004 and William's Blog.

Just a Little Background

Soon after being born in a small town, by the name of New Orleans, Louisiana, William set out on his adventures to the world outside the USA. Only one month after birth did he take up his belongings and set out to San Jose, Costa Rica, where he resided until reaching the age of 1. Soon after his first birthday, he took up his belongings once again, and set out to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he lived happily (despite the massive allergy attacks) until the age of 5, when his father, who was a missionary at the time, decided it would be in the best interest of his family, to move back to the states.

I have lived several places in my lifetime, but where I've lived the longest (and where I've enjoyed living the most), is the good ol' town of Whittier, CA. I've been living here for over 11 years now, and I must say, I'd take this "West Coast Reality" over "Southern Hospitality" any day.

Computer! Shmumpu..ter...?

I can remember back when I was 7 or 8, and I wanted to be an Astronaut. Then I was 9, and it was a fireman...then a policeman, then spiderman. But reality smacked me right in the face and said I would never have cool super powers like spider man. So I got to thinking (about as much thinking as an 11 or 12 year old can do in one sitting), and I realized that I wanted to work with computers. I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do with them (and frankly, I still don't), but I knew that I wanted to do something with them. It was weird, like it almost came to me in a dream, or I saw it on tv or something. And even at the age of 11, I was headed on the right track, when I invented that program, you know, the one where you talk into it and it types for you? Yea. That was me. Well, I didn't exactly make it happen, but I had the idea. That's a pretty good idea, huh? Well, since then I've had a real passion for computers, though my extreme laziness, and my ability to procrastinate with the best of 'um, prevented me from actually doinganything to move toward my goal of working with computers until last year, when I started learning about web design. Before that I didn't even know what html was. I think I've come a long way. I can't say I'm pro at anything, because, well, I'm not. But I would say I am fairly well learned (and 95% self-taught) in the fields of html / xhtml, and css. I am developing my skills as a graphics designer; we'll see where that leads me. And I am beginning to take on programming, starting with perl. These are just a few of my favorite things...

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I think a Welcome is in Order

Published by: William on 11/20/04

First, I'd like to welcome everyone to williamblogs.com. So...welcome! Thank you for taking your time to check out the site and actually read what I have to say. This is my first real website and I'm quite proud of it. Here's a little background on it: I started the design a while back. I worked for a few days and finished the layout, styled and everything. I took a step back to admire my work, and realized I hated it crazy. So I completely trashed that version and set out to create a new and improved (which isn't saying much...you'd have to see the first one I made) version of williamblogs.com, which you are seeing this very day. Well, it goes without saying: this is my personal weblog (for some reason I felt the need to say it anyway). I am excited about writing in it and sharing what knowledge I do have with, well, everyone.

So with all of that said, I will try my hardest to remain faithful to those of you who do stick around, by writing on a regular basis. So you can expect to hear from me a lot (probably more than you want

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Blog Posts 2004

2004

 

I think a welcome is in order

Published by: William on 11/20/04

First, I'd like to welcome everyone to williamblogs.com. So...welcome! Thank you for taking your time to check out the site and actually read what I have to say. This is my first real website and I'm quite proud of it. Here's a little background on it: I started the design a while back. I worked for a few days and finished the layout, styled and everything. I took a step back to admire my work, and realized I hated it crazy. So I completely trashed that version and set out to create a new and improved (which isn't saying much...you'd have to see the first one I made) version of williamblogs.com, which you are seeing this very day. Well, it goes without saying: this is my personal weblog (for some reason I felt the need to say it anyway). I am excited about writing in it and sharing what knowledge I do have with, well, everyone.

So with all of that said, I will try my hardest to remain faithful to those of you who do stick around, by writing on a regular basis. So you can expect to hear from me a lot (probably more than you want

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"I'm self employed...kinda...sorta...not really..."

Published by: William on 11/21/2004

Well, I've done it. I have officially broken down that wall, that barrier that is your first web design job. I don't know how anyone else feels about this, but I imagine finding your first job would be the hardest, and doing it would be most nerve-racking. I just recently built a site for this guy's new company. It's nothing fancy (just xhtml and css). But something about finally stepping into the world of freelancing (if you can even call it that after just one job) just makes me feel good, like all of the hard work I've put into learning web design over the last several months has finally paid off, or, hopefully, has finally started to pay off. I am really thankful for that job, not only because I was able to put some money in the bank, buy this domain, and buy web hosting for a year, but because I was able to gain some real world experience. I must say, going into that, without any experience was pretty scary. But I was able to carry myself well, and complete the site, well, to his liking, in a short amount of time. And he was very pleased with it. The hardest thing about it was finding inspiration for the look and feel; there was a specific "style" he wanted. But I did it. And, for this first time, I was able to say "Bye mom, I'm going to work." That alone made it all worth while. 

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"It's time we all stop and smell the roses"

Published by: William on 11/23/2004:

Thanksgiving is coming up on Thursday. I thought I'd get this one in a little early though.

I can't speak for everyone on this, but generally speaking, from what I've observed at least, we don't spend enough time realizing, and appreciating, all that we have, whether that be a big house, little house, a computer, toaster oven, or nothing else but friends and family. Whether we want to admit it or not, we are all guilty of this. We need to be more thankful for everything we have. I guarantee you, that if you paused every now and then to simply make a mental note of everything (or some things) you are thankful for, you will see the amount of joy in your life increase. It's time we all "stop and smell the roses." Here are the roses I've stopped to smell:

  1. God - He's my rock. My foundation. He makes all things possible for me (although I asked him once if he would give me the ability to fly, but he hasn't gotten back to me on that one).
  2. My family - I am truly blessed with an awesome family, one who supports me in everything I do, whether they agree with it or not.
  3. My friends - I have tons of people I hang out with, talk to, etc..., and I am thankful for every one of them. But most of all I am thankful for my handful of close friends, who would stick by me no matter what, and who love me just as much as I love them.
  4.  My pets - I have 3 dogs (3 little chihuahuas...that bark...a lot...really loudly...they are barking as we speak...) and 2 cats. They (mostly the dogs) bring so much joy into my life - joy that I take for granted.
  5. The Internet - I spend so much time on the Internet, whether it's learning more about web design, reading other blogs, helping others out on SitePoint when I can, or just wandering aimlessly through it's awe-inspiring superabundance of information. I truly take for granted how amazing and intricate it is, and how much hard work people like you (most of you reading this are probably web developers in some way) put into it.
  6.  My computer - What would I do without my computer?!?! I would not be writing this, that's for sure! God bless Mom and Dad for this wonderful graduation/birthday gift. Without it, I'd probably be doomed to flipping burgers for the rest of my life...or worse... crying
  7.  Books - I don't read as much as I should. The reason for that, is that sub-consciously my brain thinks I hate reading, which I don't. But my brain is a tricky one; he fools me sometimes. But when I do pick up a book, I have the time of my life (the last book I read was The Great Hunt, By: Robert Jordan, book 2 of, I don't know, 10 - 15 books in the series. If you enjoy fantasy/epic novels, this is a must-have series).
  8. Comedy - Just plain ol' comedy. Without comedy, life would be so dull. God must have a sense of humor.
  9. Satire - More specific than just comedy, eh? You gotta love it. I mean, pointing out the amazingly stupid, and obvious, little quirks that everyone possess and exploiting them is hilarious! What's there not to love?
  10. My electric guitar - It's a beautiful guitar, and it has served me well. I appreciate this guitar very much.
  11.  My acoustic guitar - It's also a beautiful guitar, and it has served me even "weller" (who says I can't make up words?). I play this much more often than I play my electric guitar (I write more songs for acoustic guitar too).
  12.  My voice - Not trying to say I'm all great at singing, I just feel blessed that I am able to sing. I don't know what I'd do without music..which, in fact, brings me to...
  13. Music - I doubt there is a single person who does not enjoy music in some way. There are so many styles, genres, types, whatever you want to call them, that there is bound to be something for everyone.
  14.  Reality checks, much like this one - Without the ability to realize ones own faults, one can never grow.

Well, I feel better already smile . What are some of the things you are thankful for?

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"Laziness: The sign of true genius!"

Published by: William on 11/28/2004

When I started out on my venture in web design, learning html, when I didn't even know what css, or php, or perl, or any of that other stuff was, I thought that, by learning html, I would be able to create amazing websites that could handle anything like dynamic content, rotating banners, and little lights that flash on and off. Boy was I surprised to learn that html pretty much does nothing, except, well, sit there on its lazy ::cough:: telling other things what to do. Well, I was surely disappointed, but I figured I would continue learning, as I truly love computers, and was really starting to get the hang of the whole "web design" thing. Well, now I can say I'm pretty proficient in xhtml, css, and well, I'm alright in Fireworks, but I can also say that I now know what php, mysql, cgi, perl, and "all that other stuff" is...and that I have no clue how to do any of it. Am I lazy? I think so. I've decided that it's time for me to quit procrastinating, and learn this stuff. I heard from someone, a former teacher of mine, that perl is the easiest to learn, and provides a nice little first-step into the world of programming, so I'm going with that. What I need from you, oh wonderful reader of my blog, is an answer or two, to a couple of simple questions:

1. How long does it take for you to hit that point where everything "clicks" and you finally start understanding perl? Or, in shorter terms, how long does it take to start understand perl?

2. What is the scope of things that are possible to do with perl (or is that an absurd question)?

Comments

Comment by: Jim

Comment made on: Friday, December 3rd @ 7:47 AM

You might want to look into PHP as a starter language - I know I picked it up much quicker than PERL and I think it's a much more practical language. Good luck.

Comment by: William Bowers

Comment made on: Friday, December 3rd @ 8:53 AM

Thank you very much Jim. I just might take your advice and do that. Learning a programming language for the first timeis difficult. I just want something that will get me into the "groove" of things. Thanks! smile

Comment by: William Bowers

Comment made on: Friday, December 3rd @ 8:55 AM

By the way Jim. I absolutely love the look of your site! Havent had much of a chance to take more than a glance (I'm at school), but I will when I get home.

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"Music, new site, photography, and the likes"

Published by: William on 11/27/2004

I apologize for not writing anything that really pertains to technology so far. But I am working on a few tutorials, and I'll give my two cents on technology when I actually find something to talk about.

Yesterday I played at a coffee house with my friend Matt Clear. The show went great! And a lot of people showed up, considering it was a coffee house. There were 40 - 50 people there. It was awesome! Despite being sick for the past 2 weeks (and I'm still not over it as a matter of fact), I think I did well. My mom, who is a musician herself, told me that she thought I was an amazing writer. That was special. All of the songs (there were about 12) that I played at the show were original. This was my first show as a solo artist (I've been in a few bands before) and it was great finally being able to play all of the music I've written. I just received a message from two of the people that went last night saying how much they enjoyed the show and all. It's a good feeling, being able to entertain. Oh yea, I have just started on a new website for myself as a musician. Check it out whenever you get a chance, although you won't really see much right now, save for a "Coming Soon" sign. By the way, I played guitar and sang at the show, just so you know.

Also, I am about to enter the world of photography, well, digital photography. I have been wanting to start doing photography for a long time now, but never had the funds to buy a camera. Well, I'm getting a camera soon, so here I come 'world of photography'. Maybe once I get my camera, and get to know it a bit, I might keep a photo log here at WilliamBlogs.com. Who knows?

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"New Website"

Published by: William on 2/09/2004

I just played a show at a pretty famous coffee shop called "Home Brew Coffee" in San Dimas. The show was me, my friend Matt Clear, and our acoustic guitars. The show went great (better than I could ever have expected), and a lot of people showed up too. Well, at the end of the show, my friend Matt proceeds to give out his website, and couldn't remember mine, so he asked me. I promptly shook my head and said "No, I'd rather not give it out" (because let's face it, I agree with the rest of you, "Blog" is the most STUPID and UGLY word ever created, so I thought I'd save myself the embarrassment from at least my peers). Well, upon this time my sister yells out "It's williamblogs.com!" Her reasoning for doing this was "I thought you were saying no because you were shy...but then I realized you just got up and played music for an hour and a half in front of these people." Well, needless to say I was a little embarrassed then. So I went home and decided to create a website for my music (I might possibly turn this into my portfolio site, when the time is right). Not long after, williambowers.net was born. I hope you all enjoy it, and maybe have some constructive criticism.

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"Easy Image Rollover Effects with JavaScript"

Published by: William on 12/14/2004

I've seen many different people doing image rollover effects many different ways. Some use large, complex functions and some use tiny ones. What I'm going to teach you doesn't use functions. In fact, the only thing you'll the the ".

Alright, so lets do just that. Let's preload our images.

The numbers 90 and 24 are the width (90) and height (24) of my images. Replace the numbers with the dimensions of your own images. Also, change the src of the image to suit your own.

Ok, we are only preloading 2 images because we are doing a simple rollover effect right now. The first thing we need for our rollover effect to happen, is to specify a starting image. You do that by simply adding an image to you html:

Easy enough. Next let's add our rollover effect.

What that does, is when you place your cursor over the image (onmouseover) it change the source (this.src) of the image itself. If you leave it like this, when you mouseover the image it will stay as image2.png even when you take your mouse away. We don't want this. We want the image to change back to image1.png when the cursor is taken off of it. We do this by addanother event to the mix:

onmouseout is the event handler for when you take your cursor off of something.

Also, we might want to have a "3-state" image rollover, where the image changes when the mouse is rolloed over it, rolled off of it, and when the mouse button is clicked on top of it. We do that by adding two more event handlers (one for when the mouse button is pressed, and one for when you unpress the mouse button). Oh, and we also need to preload a 3rd image for this:

So there you have it. A simple way to do image rollover effects with javascript. 

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"My Portfolio"

Published by: William on 12/16/2004

I've decided that it's time for me to make my Web Design Portfolio. I already have the domain name, hosting, and some ideas. I've given myself until the end of Christmas break (mid January for me) to have the design for the site complete and some content up. I haven't had too many clients (only one to be exact), so I don't have too many things to show off. But what I'll probably do is just make up some templates or something. I have all christmas break to think about it (along with all of the languages I'm going to be diving into). 

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"PHP is fun!"

Published by: William on 12/20/2004

I am having the time of my life learning php! I admit, I could be working a little harder on learning it though. But now that classes are done for the semester, I will have plenty more time to dive in and get down and dirty with php. I have started learning the fundamentals of creating a CMS. I am learning using SitePoint's article: Build an XML-Based Content Management System with PHP. It uses XML as it's backend. And hey, I've been meaning to dive into XML anyway. So you could say I am mildly injuring to birds with one stone here (I still have a long way to go). But, you know what? I have a feeling that me and php will become very good friends

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"Excuse me, I'm trying to work"

Published by: William on 11/24/2004

So, I'm in the math lab at my school doing some work. I decide to take a quick break from my studies and rest my neck from staring down so long. I look up and the first thing I see is this girl, staring at me. She quickly turned her head, with her eyes still fixated on me (as if I wouldn't notice...). I decided to end my "break" short. Well, I lifted my head a few minutes later to rest my neck again (I think I have problems) and lo and behold there was that girl, staring at me...again. This went on for the next 20 minutes (until someone sat in between us and obstructed her view of me, upon which time she packed up her belongings and left). For lack of better words, that was frickin' weird! 

http://www.williamblogs.com/

PHP is fun! - Part Deux

12/23/04

My friend chris bought me Beginning PHP by Wrox smile I'm gonna have such a great time diving into this book. Merry Christmas to me!

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Merry Christmas!

Published by: William on 12/24/04

Well, it will officially be Christmas day in around 13 minutes. I just wanted to take this time to post a short message saying Merry Christmas! I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Comments:

Comment by: Kristin

Comment made on: Saturday, January 8th @ 12:17 AM

Here I was, lecturing you all the time that you never updated your websites. Turns out, that's because you have NEW websites that I never even knew about! Fantastico, my buddy. You never cease to amaze me. Hey guess what! I am joining a band! I am so excited I could explode. There's something about being on that stage with a microphone in your hand. It feels like home. Like you belong. Anyway, I digress. Each time you make a new site they get progressively better and I can see you are learning so much. Hope you had a Merry Christmas and a lovely New Year!

Comment by: Kristin

Comment made on: Saturday, January 8th @ 1:00 AM

According to my bro., I should be using Mozilla FireFox and wean myself from using MSN Explorer. My argument is that you still use MSN Explorer, don't you? At least you did. And you're a computer guy too.

Comment by: William Bowers

Comment made on: Saturday, January 8th @ 1:31 AM

lol, actually, I use Firefox. Listen to your bro; he knows what he's

talking about. Use firefox because:

  1.  It's 10,000 times better than "msn explorer" (which actually jus uses internet explorer).
  2.  It's standards-compliant, meaning that if the web designer code his website correctly, this browser will display it correctly, not ho it "thinks" it should be displayed.
  3. I use it cause it's helpful to web designers (there a web developer toolbar extension you can get).
  4. It sports tabbed browsing (you can open numerous windows in one window).etc etc etc

It's just a really great browser.  smile

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Blog Posts 2005

2005

It sure is late...

01/08/05

There's something about being up at 12:30 in the morning, that makes everything on the home shopping network look so much better. I don't know what it is, but every since the summer, I just havent been able to get to bed at a decent hour. I think a couple time I got to bed just before 11. But recently my head hasn't been hitting the pillow 'till 2, 3, or 4 am. What am I doing up this late? Well...I was hopeing you could tell me; I'm not too coherent at this hour 

Ok, so what have I been up to lately? Well, a lot of things:

WilliamBowers.net

I've gotten down a solid layout for my portfolio (you can view it here). If you do decide to take a look at it, I'd love to know what you think   Well, at this stage in it's development, I'm just waiting for a little bit, to kind of get everything sorted out. I've asked for reviews on SitePoint, so I'm waiting to get a few more. I'm also waiting for some inspiration. I don't want to "force" my inspiration, and I know it'll come sooner or later; I have time 

PHP

I'm still having tons of fun learning php. I'm kind of hesitant about starting to learn MySQL. I don't know why. Maybe it's because I can't get phpMyadmin to work...and I think that handles MySQL databases   I know that once I start learning MySQL, it will make my options so much more vast in terms of what I cant do with PHP, but...well I'm not sure exactly why I havent started. I'll start learning MySQL soon (hmmm...I see a pattern here...).

Getting ready for school

I'm still enjoying my month long vacation! It will all be over on january 18th though. I'm gonna be living at school with the whopping 19 units I'm taking. As far as computer based classes go, I'm taking:

1. Intro to XML

2. CGI/Perl Programming

3. Javascript 1

4. Business Web Graphics with Photoshop

As you can see from my schedule...this semester is gonna rock!

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Who's the nutjob who interviewed this guy?

01/08/05

Headline: Psychics Predict World Didn't End Yesterday

Something tells me someone is not getting their money's worth...

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My first external tutorial!

01/09/05

Well I have submitted my first tutorial to an external site...and it was actually published! Here is a link: www.reversedlogic.net

I know this is the same tutorial that I wrote on this site...but I mean... give me a break!

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Specific CSS for specific browsers

01/10/05

If you've had the pleasure of jumping on the css bandwagon, you know just as well as I do that css has it's "quirks" as well. Well, what I'm going to talk about is different browsers interpreting css differently, and how to counter that.

My browser of choice is Firefox, and firefox supports all of my favorite code. But, unfortunately, a lot of other browsers don't. Today I'm going to give you two ways to specify different styles to different browsers. Lets look at the code first:

body {

background-color: #00f;

}

* html body {

background-color: #0f0;

}

Ok, that probably looks like a nice and clean jumble of letters and symbols, but don't worry, it'll all make sense soon 

You probably recognize the first part ( body { background-color: #00f; } ). For those who don't, what it does is change the background color for the entire document to blue (#00f). But what if I want to have a different color background for people using internet explorer? Well, I simply write the first code again, and add "* html " (don't forget the space after "html"). That's easy enough (though not a very practical example). I usually use this hack for specifying different images to IE. Png images are my format of choice (because they are better quality than gifs or jpgs, and if optimized correctly, they are smaller in size than gifs or jpgs as well), and often I really on transparency for effect. Well, it just so happens that IE doesn't support transparency in png images, so I often use this hack to specify different background images to IE.

Ok, so that covers IE. but sometimes I have problems with Opera adding stuff I don't tell it to...mainly margins   So fortunately (and this is somewhat of a "temporary" fix) opera is the only browser which (experimentally) supports CSS3 media queries. This is how it's done:

#head {

margin-bottom: 0px;

}

@media all and (min-width: 0px){

#head {

margin-bottom: -10px;

}

}

You simply write this:@media all and (min-width: 0px){

}

and then place all of your "opera" code inside of it. These two "hacks" are certainly life savers.

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ratemyprofessor.com

01/13/05

For those of you who are in college, may I make a suggestion? Before you sign up for anymore classes, just check out ratemyprofessor.com. Ratemyprofessor.com is a site where students, just like you and me, go to write reviews about past teachers they've had. If you really want to get good teachers, this is the place to go!

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Creating a Graphical Hit Counter with php

01/14/05

Creating a graphical hit counter is a lot easier than you might think. Creating a hit counter is easy enough, and turning it into a graphical hit counter is 1 added (and quite simple) step. For those who don't know what a graphical hit counter is, it displays the amount of times your page has been loaded not with plain text, but with images you (or someone else) has created to represent those numbers.

Ok, so let's get on with it! I have created a set of my own images for this tutorial. Here they are:

You can use these images if you want, or you can create your own. If you decide to create your own, you will need to name them 0.ext, 1. ext, 2.ext, etc (where "ext" is the image format you choose, such as jpg, gif, or png).

I've made this super easy on you, by placing several important values into variables at the top of the script, so you can edit them easily. Those variables are (including my initial values):

$path = "images/";

$ext = ".png";

$file = "hits.dat";

This is pretty straight foreward. $path is the path (either relative to your counter script, or absolute, it's up to you) to your images. $ext is the extension you like to use on images, whether that is jpg, png, gif, or whatever else. And $file is the name of the file your are writing to. You don't actually have to create this file, because if php doesn't find it, it will create it on its own.

$file_array = file($file);

What the funcion file() does, is it writes the contents of whatever file givin it, into an array, where each element in the array is a new line.

$hits = $file_array[0];

This puts the contents of the first element of $file_array into the variable $hits. After we grab that value, we want to increment it by one:

$hits++;

Next: $fp = fopen($file, "w");

This opens the file for writing. Next we write the contents of $hits into our file.

fputs($fp, $hits);

Next we close the file.

fclose($fp);

The next part is just for a little added effect. What it does, is it adds "padding" to our number. I've written it to make sure our number is 6 digits. If the actual number is less than 6 digits, like "34" for instance, it will add 0s before the number until it is 6 digits. Our number "36" will then be "000036." Here is that code:

$hits = sprintf("%06d", $hits);

The number "6" in that line is where we get "6" digits. You can change that number to whatever you want, just leave the "0" before it.

Now you might be saying "How is he going to get images from this?" Well, this next line is the magic line. It pulls all of the numbers out of the variable $hits, and replaces them each with their coorosponding image, using the function str_replace()

for ( $i = 0; $i <= 9; $i++ ) {

$hits = str_replace($i, $hits);

}

It's what's called a "for loop." It could write the str_replace() line 10 times, to swap out each number for it's coorosponding image, but php makes things much easier on programmers, but automating such tasks as this. You can see that it is in this line where we finally use the $path and $ext variables. I wrote those variables at the top, so you wouldn't have to go and look for those values if you needed to change them.

Now all that needs to be done now, is to write this value so the images can be seen:

echo $hits;

Well, that's all there is too it! Hope you got something out of this tutorial. Here is the full script, and the finished product:

$path = "images/";

$ext = ".png";

$file = "counter.dat";

$file_array = file($file);

$hits = $file_array[0];

$hits++;

$fp = fopen($file, "w");

fputs($fp, $hits);

fclose($fp);

$hits = sprintf("%06d", $hits);

for ( $i = 0; $i <= 9; $i++ ) {

$hits = str_replace($i, $hits);

}

echo $hits;

?>

+++

css Zen Garden

01/30/05

Well, I just submitted my first design to css Zen Garden. I can't wait to find out if it'll be accepted or not hehe I must say, it's quite different doing css based design when you can't edit the html. I can also say it's a tad bit harder. But regardless of if my design gets accepted or not, it was a good experience working on this.

+++

It's true, I DO have a life outside of computers

02/01/05

Well, if you're eager to see some of what I do other than computers, head on over to my other site and check out some of my songs. The recordings are ok (I could have done better, but oh well). I actually they're pretty good quality, considering I'm using windows recorder and a $10 mic big grin

Here's the link: williambowers.net

Well, thanks for checking um out smile

+++

It's time I switch blogging tools

02/02/05

I came across this blogging tool (that's only one of the things it does) that just looks really awesome! It's called drupal. It just so happens that I started getting sick of greymatter anyway. Now, don't get me wrong, I like greymatter. It's really easy to use, it's easy to integrate your own template, etc... It's just too lightweight. It doesn't have enough features (don't worry; I'm not going to overload on features). Like, it doesn't have a "catagorizing" feature, blogroll, etc. It also has really choppy handling of cataloging entries by date. Basically all it does is allow you to write entries and edit entries. I need more! Oh, and it also writes to flat files.

Will drupal, I get all kinds of stuff including a blogroll, catagory cataloging, and the ability to add new modules (and even create modules...plus it's in php, which I know more of than cgi/perl). It also writes to a database. The only problem is, I can't friggin install it! For some reason I can't connect to the database (I haven't really worked with mysql...well...I don't really think I've ever worked with mysql). But don't worry my friend, I will make it work, and I will get it up and running. I'm also working on a site redesign...something a little more upbeat. I figure, if I'm going to switch CMSs, I might as well switch layouts too.

Well, you can expect a review of Drupal in the future (as well as a complete site redesign).

+++

I got a real job!

02/07/05

I finally got a real job! I'm so excited! And the best part about the whole thing is, I'm doing web design! What more could I ask for? I've always thought that having a job you enjoyed would very important, and this surpases that. I absolutely love web design, and am ecstatic about this job!

+++

Work, Part II

02/17/05

What can I say? Work is awesome! Aside from doing the little work I did as a freelancer (which I am still doing on my own time by the way), I can honestly say I am a professional Web Developer. I am very happy with my work right now (though I couldn't support myself on what I make). Tell me if I'm the only one that feels this way, but it's like I'm getting payed to play around, because that's what web design feels like to me. For some reason I just have so much fun doing web design, graphic design, and programming. I am also learning a lot as I go along. Oh, and I'm starting to work toward my A+ Certification (hardware), and once I get certified, I will get a pretty nice raise.

I'm getting a laptop soon. I think I'm going to go with HP. I put together a really awesome system for around 1,800. I really am not to keen on paying that much, but I'm even less keen on having a cruddy system (and having to replace it in a year). I'm looking forward to probably having that system in a couple weeks. My having a laptop is loooong overdue (plus I need a laptop for work).

+++

"I finally got my laptop!"

02/21/2005:

That's right folks! You heard correctly. I finally got it. I am so excited to finally have a laptop. I've been wanting one for a long time, and recently I've acquired several needs for one:

1. My work - Need I say more?

2. Freelance stuff - If I'm ever out and someone needs a quick job done, I can now do it.

3. School - Gotta have it for those long periods of time in between classes, or when my classes get cancelled.

Needless to say, I'm excited. For all you computer junkies, here are the specs:

HP Pavilion zv5000

---------------------------

15.4 WXGA BrightView Hi-Def Widescreen Display

100GB HD

1GB RAM

DVD +/- R/RW and CD-RW combo drive

128 mb ATI Mobility Radion 9000 graphics card

Built-in 802.11b/g WLAN with SpeedBooster

3 usb ports

5-in-1 Media Card Reader

And just to let you know, I am quite pleased with the performance so far.

+++

I'm back and louder than ever!

04/27/05 @ 5:32 PM PST

Well...I haven't written on my blog for a looooong time now. I figured it's time to start back again. I think it's good to be a lazy programmer, but I think I've taken that a little too far. I'm going to try and keep up with this blog thing again. I know how much the world is just dying to know my thoughts and experiences, and I feel that I owe it to you all ( big grin ). Expect another entry soon.

+++

Adobe Buys Macromedia!

04/27/05

The software giant, Adobe, has recently acquired Macromedia in a 3.4 Billion dollar purchase.

I'm quite scared right now, because I do love my Macromedia products. But, none the less, I am excited to see where Adobe takes the Macromedia Software bundle. As far as products like Fireworks and Free Hand are concerned, that's ok; Adobe has proven themselves many times over with software like that. But, and this is a big but, when you bring into play software like Flash and Director, you may start to wonder how well Adobe will fare with them. But, like I said before, I am still excited to see where this goes.

 

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