Speck See-thru Satin case for Macbook Pro

First thing i bought for my Macbook Pro was this Speck case!

They do it in two finishes and lots of colours, the normal case has a very shiny 'plasticy' finish to it, where as this model (Satin) has an almost rubbery-like texture, making it feel a lot more durable and resistant to scratches.

It's a couple of mm's thick and clips around the aluminum uni-body perfectly, the clips hold it in place and there's absolutely no gaps, they've perfectly shaped it the the macbook's dimensions. There's small rubber feet inside the case that hold it in place so it wouldn't scratch your aluminum finish but it fits 'like a glove'.

They've carefully allowed access to all the side ports, so even awkwardly fitting plugs will still attach without any issues, and the same goes for the cd slot. These were the important factors for me:

1. the Fit - it fits the macbook perfectly and yet can be easily removed.


2. the Feel - a soft grippy finish, almost like a hard rubber finish.


3. Access to ports - all ports are fully accessible, even the test battery button, although the press button built-in to the case looks a bit weak.


4. Heat Dissipation -  the macbook pro expels air out the back slot, the case is in two parts for the screen and body, meaning this vent is completely clear, and the monitor has full flexibility. The downside is it makes the screen a little heavier and tilting the screen backwards too far will cause it to slowly fall open. There's been no noticable heat build up during normal use and watching video, and if you were goin to do some rendering and were concerned you could always unclip the case for a while. There's also small vent cut outs in the base, to let out any trapped hot air.

for more info check out the Speck Website and i bought mine from Play.com

Castle Crashers Review

I filmed a review of Castle Crashers from the xbox arcade. Backed by the Behemoth, they gave me some DLC codes to give away and the usual Caps4Stix giveaway as well!

Update: The competitions been drawn now im afraid and the prizes sent out, more giveaway's with the next podcast so check back soon!

Switched to Mac!?

After years of criticizing people who buy macs, i've made the switch.


I've never understood why anyone would pay so much more for a machine that essentially does the same job as a PC, and yet for some reason i caved in and last week went out and bought myself a Macbook Pro.

Why? well, now i'm working as a full-time php developer i spend all day building solutions to problems and so when i get home i just want to use my laptop quickly and easily without having to deal with any issues. My acer laptop had begun to overheat with normal usage and would frequently freeze up, so i decided to take the plunge.

So far i'm extremely impressed! the quality of the build and the functionality builtin to the hardware are exceptional, little things like the light senstive backlit keyboard are just stunning.

Of course i'll contine to use my Windows Desktop machine, mainly for editing podcasts as it's geared up to handle my HD video, but for day-to-day usage i'm goin to be using my macbook.

Expect more posts on switching from PC to Mac, and web development!

PHP setcookie overwriting problem.

I've just found a tiny error in how I've been taught to create cookies in PHP. So thought i'd share it incase it was driving anyone else crazy too.

Symptoms: cookie data is overwritten or not passed properly.

Solution: Firstly lets make sure you're writing cookie's properly.. (time is set to 30days)

 setcookie('name', 'value', time() + 3600*24*30);

It's likely this php may sit in a header file or a page template so to make sure this cookie isn't overwritten if it appears elsewhere in the site write it like this..

 if(!isset($_COOKIE['name']))
{

  setcookie('name', 'value', time() + 3600*24*30);

}

Now this is where i started having strange results, basically if the cookie is initially written on a second level page eg. hilikusOnline.co.uk/podcasts/theshow then it could be overwritten or unavailable on a root level such as hilikusOnline.co.uk/home

to make sure the cookie is set at root level, you must include "/" as a cookie variable. So the correct code now looks like this:

  if(!isset($_COOKIE['name']))
{

  setcookie('name', 'value', time() + 3600*24*30, "/");

}

That's it!

Wordpress.com, Wordpress.org or Drupal?

Choosing a CMS can be difficult, here i'll take you through the basics and hopefully help you decide which is best for you.

I've always been a fan of wordpress. Starting with no experience of PHP and just some basic HTML and CSS skills, wordpress enabled me to create a dynamic site very quickly!

First off, there's two versions of wordpress. Wordpress.com and Wordpress.org

.com is a free online blogging tool, hosted by wordpress.com, you can quickly and easily sign up and have a basic site running in minutes. The downsides are the limitations they put on you. You can only load themes and plug-ins that are part of their approved directory, you have no ftp access, so can't create your own custom theme and the default url you will be given will be username.wordpress.com. The Url isn't a huge problem as you can easily just buy a domain name and point it at username.wordpress.com, but just looks a little less professional.

So the second option here is Wordpress.org. With .org you host the wordpress installation yourself, this gives you endless control. You can now load whatever themes you can find or fairly easily create your own (i'll post links at the end on how to do this) and the same goes with plugins! This is ideal for blogs, has a really nice looking user interface and is very easy to use. It also goes quite deep and with some PHP knowledge you can start dreaming up how you'd like your site to perform and build your own solutions.

Wordpress.org is primarily known as blogging software, but is beginning to be recognised as a serious CMS (content management system) with web developers using it for much bigger projects. For eg. theLostnFound use it to power their site, providing them with a blogging platform, video podcasts and users can sign in and post the their forum. So for small sites i'd happily recommend Wordpress.org providing you don't want users to have their own content on the site.

Right so where does Drupal fit in? Drupal is a beast of a CMS. Allowing you to do pretty much anything you can imagine. The only problem is your going to have to work out how. It has a steep learning curve, but if your willing to put in the hard work you can begin to harness the power Drupal has to offer. First major difference is the interface. Drupal will actually use your websites theme as an admin user interface and with tonnes of admin options it's easy to get lost in their menus at first.

After working with Drupal for 8 weeks now, i love it and when building a community website, would recommend it every-time. It worth learning how to use it, as it's goin to be around for a long time and once learnt can be a very useful tool. Some of the benefits of Drupal are users can have their own profile pages, upload sections for photos/files, and even their own blog page within your site. Drupal will scale up to meet whatever demands you throw at it, so if you see your project growing, it's probably goin to be best to put in the extra work at the beginning and learn Drupal.

The only downside with Drupal is it's complicated! If your not a web developer and don't understand PHP then stick with wordpress. With drupal even the most simple tasks aren't straight forward. For eg. you'll have to install three plugins to get a workin WYSIWYG editor that you can upload images into your posts, where as with wordpress this is provided straight away as standard.

Summary

So as a quick review...

Wordpress.com: startup time 30mins - quick easy online blog, up and running in minutes

Wordpress.org: startup time few days - an excellent blogging platform and suitable for small scale websites with limited membership options for users signing up

Drupal: startup time few weeks -  a complex Content Management System capable of creating huge sites with endless functionality.

links

- Create your own Wordpress theme