Brad Williams Blog

Matt Mullenweg LIVE on the WordPress Weekly Podcast Tonight!

By StrangeWork.com: Matt Mullenweg, the founding developer of WordPress, will be on the WordPress Weekly Podcast tonight at 9pm Live!

Matt will be taking questions from the panel and anyone joining the live podcast. Have a question for Matt? Join in! The show is recording live on TalkShoe.com which allows everyone to participate.

We will be covering a wide range of topics with Matt including WordPress Trademark Usage, Status Updates on all Automattic projects, new updates in WordPress 2.5, and the future of WordPress.

I’m already compiling a list of questions for Matt and am really looking forward to this episode. Be sure to catch the show live tonight at 9pm EST on TalkShoe.com!

Date May 23, 2008
Author Brad Williams
Comments No Comments

Have you Bookmarked the SitePoint Reference yet?

By StrangeWork: SitePoint launched a new section a couple months ago which is a must bookmark for all web developers out there. Mash a solid reference book on HTML, CSS, and JavScript and you’ll have the SitePoint Reference.

SitePoint launched the CSS Reference in March of 2008, and just last week launched the HTML beta reference!

These reference sites couldn’t be easier to use and cover languages relatable to all web developers including HTML, CSS, and a soon to launch section on JavaScript. You can either search for specific elements or drill down in the easy to navigate categories.

Reference sites and books are great for developers like myself that know how to program, but need help remembering syntax from time to time. Do yourself a favor now and bookmark this site!

Date May 20, 2008
Author Brad Williams
Comments No Comments

From Microsoft to Linux….almost

By StrangeWork.com: As most of you know I am in the process of starting my own Web Development Company in New Jersey. Starting a company takes a lot of work, but of course I knew this going into it. Business is great and we are starting to grow!

I’ve decided to shift focus on my technologies track a little. I’ve always programmed with Microsoft technologies including classic ASP, ASP.NET, VB, SQL Server, etc. I’ve been developing dynamic websites with classic ASP for almost 8 years now and I still love that language. I use ASP.NET occasionally when the project calls for it, but I love scripting languages. I’ve decided to focus my efforts on PHP rather than ASP.NET.

Scripting has always come natural to me, so why focus on a more object-oriented language? Exactly, so from this point on I will be primarily developing in ASP and PHP. The logic is the same as ASP, just different syntax so the switch won’t be too dramatic.

Expect to see some sweet PHP applications rolling out in the coming months!

Date May 19, 2008
Author Brad Williams
Comments 1 Comment

Once a Marine, Always a Marine

By StrangeWork.com: I had my first boss in the Marine Corps, Chief Warrant Officer Lipscomb, contact me and my business partner Brian today. I haven’t spoken with him in over 7 years!

It was great catching up with him! Officer Lipscomb was the man in charge of Brian and I as we became Web Developers for the 2nd Force Service Support Group at Camp Lejeune. Thus the dynamic programming duo was born!

The Marine Corps was hard, but I’ll always have a deep respect for it. After all, it made me who I am today! I wouldn’t be undertaking this adventure to start a Web Dev company without the leadership and self motivation I gained from the Marines.

OOORAH!

Date May 7, 2008
Author Brad Williams
Comments No Comments

How to: Stop WordPress Comment Spam

By StrangeWork.com: I’ve been receiving a lot of spam comments on my WordPress blog recently. I decided to increase my defenses and stop comment spam once and for all. Using the below three plugins you can virtually eliminate WordPress comment spam from your blog!

All plugins work with WordPress 2.5.1

Akismet – Most blog owners know of Akismet. Akismet is an excellent comment spam filter developed by the creators of WordPress and comes pre-installed on a WordPress blog. Akismet is 100% free for non-commercial use but does require an API key provided by their website.

Simple Trackback Validation Plugin – This plugin checks if the IP address of the trackback sender is equal to the IP address of the webserver the trackback URL is referring to. Basically if the trackback was sent by a spam bot, this plugin will detect it and block it.

Bad Behavior – This plugin is a PHP-based solution for blocking link spam and the robots which deliver it. Bad Behavior works with other link spam solutions by acting as a gatekeeper, preventing spammers from ever delivering their junk, and in many cases, from ever reading your site in the first place.

Using this three-pronged plugin approach will stop 99.9% of your comment spam. Now you can enjoy a spam free blog!

Date May 5, 2008
Author Brad Williams
Comments 4 Comments

Welcome to New Jersey!

By StrangeWork.com: After months of planning I finally made my move to New Jersey!
It’s really a site to see your entire life packed in a moving truck. The trip was long and boring, but we made it in about 14 hours. We arrived at 4am and started unloading at 7! HARDCORE!

I have my office all setup and am working toward my dream of running my own company. There is still much to do, but at least the move is behind me. Expect more frequent postings coming soon!

Date April 25, 2008
Author Brad Williams
Comments 3 Comments

How to: Update FriendFeed using ASP

By StrangeWork.com: Last week the popular feed aggregator FriendFeed launched their new API.

The new API makes it easy for anyone to create custom applications to interact with FriendFeed.

Below is a script I wrote in ASP to post an image and link to your feed stream using XMLHTTP. I’ve included the complete script for download at the bottom of this post.

‘*** set your FriendFeed username and remote key variables
‘*** your users can obtain their remote key here: http://friendfeed.com/remotekey
ff_username = “username”
ff_remotekey = “remotekey”

‘*** set the URL you want to link to
ff_url = “http://snapfoo.com”

‘*** set the text to add to your post
ff_update = “Visit SnapFoo.com”

‘*** set the image URL to post to FriendFeed
‘*** this will be posted as a thumbnail on your feed
ff_filename = “http://snapfoo.com/images/snapfoo_logo.jpg”

‘*** package all of your variables in one variable to post to the FriendFeed API
ff_post = “http://” & URLEncode(ff_username) & “:” & URLEncode(ff_remotekey) & “@friendfeed.com/api/share?title=” & URLEncode(ff_update) & “&link=” & URLEncode(ff_url) & “&image0_url=” & URLEncode(ff_filename)

‘*** post the update
Set xml = Server.CreateObject(“Microsoft.XMLHTTP”)
xml.Open “POST”, ff_post, False
xml.setRequestHeader “Content-Type”, “content=text/html; charset=iso-8859-1”
xml.Send
Set xml = Nothing

That’s it! Using the above method you can easily create scripts to update FriendFeed with text, links, and photos!

Download Source File to Update FriendFeed using ASP

Date April 1, 2008
Author Brad Williams
Comments No Comments

I survived the Batteries.com move

By StrangeWork.com: The Batteries.com warehouse/office move is officially over!

The warehouse servers were shutdown at 4:30pm on Thursday and back online 4 hours later. The warehouse crew spent the weekend moving over all of our products and we were testing shipments by Saturday.

Overall the warehouse move went amazingly well. I couldn’t have asked for a better outcome. This has been in the planning stages for about 2 months, so it’s very nice to have this done and over with.

I’m looking forward to getting back to my regular blog updates and podcasting. Next up is the BIG move to New Jersey!

One month to go

By StrangeWork.com: Tomorrow marks one month until my move to New Jersey! One month seems like a long time, but in all reality it’s extremely short considering I am picking up my entire life and moving to a new state to start my own company.

Thinks are busy as ever at work as we work on moving Batteries.com to two new buildings. I’m sure you’ve noticed my lack of posts lately, which is due to the Batteries.com move and my Jersey move. After March I will be back to regular posting, but until then it will be sporadic.

Date March 17, 2008
Author Brad Williams
Comments 3 Comments

The Ultimate CSS Reference from SitePoint

By StrangeWork.com: Today I received my newest book from SitePoint, The Ultimate CSS Reference.

The first thing I noticed is the durable hard cover the book is wrapped in. There is something special about a hard cover book, especially when it’s a reference manual!

I’m a huge fan of reference books. Most of us out there know how to use different languages to develop our web sites. What we don’t always know is the correct syntax to make that magic happen. That’s where the reference manual comes in to play.

Of course we all know over time these manuals can take a beating from constant use. That is why I love the hard cover! It’s able to hold together when I launch it across the room in frustration.

Kidding of course! I highly recommend the entire line of SitePoint books for beginner and expert developers alike.