Posted on July 30, 2008 by Chris Dary

Mac OS X: A Keyboard Shortcut for Maximize Window

This is probably one of the most useful 'custom' tweaks I've added to my mac since I got it - I use it constantly.

Add a Keyboard Shortcut to Maximize the Current Window using Quicksilver

I use Command-Shift-M.

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Posted on July 30, 2008 by Joel Potischman

Otherwise Blow Up

Our applications frequently need to convert XML documents between systems. While straight XSL does a great job at mapping System A's enumerations to System B's, I've found it's very handy to include an <xsl:otherwise> to make sure mismatches are mapped to an obvious error value instead of just being quietly lost in translation.

Let's say my homegrown candy inventory system uses numeric enumerations to indicate different types of candy, but our vendor-made candy production system uses text codes. The following XSL snippet will translate MyCandyType to VendorCandyType:

<xsl:element name="VendorCandyType"> <xsl:choose> <xsl:when test="MyCandyType = 100">MILKCHOC</xsl:when> <xsl:when test="MyCandyType = 200">DARKCHOC</xsl:when> </xsl:choose> </xsl:element>

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Posted on July 25, 2008 by Javier Julio

Defining Dynamic XML Literals in ActionScript 3

Recently, I was working on my first Flex project where I was consuming XML via a service. Whenever I wanted to make data changes with the service, I was required to send in an XML packet. Since AS3 has native support for XML literals, I wanted to create my small XML packet inline. For example:

var changeSet:XML = 
    ACTIVEQUOTE
          ;

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Posted on July 23, 2008 by Jess Eddy

Flying Virgin America

I recently flew to L.A. We all know ticket prices are at an all time high and the standards for service in general are very low, so with this in mind, I was extremely delighted to find a reasonably priced ticket on Virgin America Airlines, which is considered a “premiere airline.” I'd never flown Virgin before so I was very excited.

Online Experience

My first discovery was the great interactive experience on their Website. This informative site outlines all the cool perks that Virgin provides--like mood lighting and plug-in ports for all your little gadgets including a laptop. I’d been scrambling to find a way to charge my computer on the plane and had even considered buying an extra battery until I found this out. Problem solved.

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Posted on July 22, 2008 by Chris LoSacco

Charles, SSL, and you

Is Charles messing with your SSL traffic? You can fix it by telling Firefox (or, shudder, IE) that the Charles SSL proxy is a valid certificate provider. Here are the instructions:

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Posted on July 18, 2008 by Richard Ziade

We're Looking For The Lone Wolf McQuade Of PHP Development

Yeh, this is partly an excuse to throw down this kick-ass image but so what: we're looking for someone who can slay large swaths of software requirements with the sawed-off shotgun that is PHP/MySQL.

Ok, I'm gonna stop the analogy here. Seriously, if you're well-versed in PHP, MySQL, frameworks (like Zend) and possess front-end/Ajax/JQuery/JSON/XML skills, don't hesitate to hit us up with your resume/portfolio/friendly cover letter.

Arc90 is a product and consulting firm based in New York City and we're looking for someone to help us build great software experiences. It's a loose, creative and intellectually challenging environment. If you think you've got the goods ("goods" being coding skills and copious amounts of chest hair), don't hesitate to contact us.

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Posted on July 17, 2008 by Chris Dary

Use grep? Try ack!

For you command line addicts like myself.

I find myself using grep constantly to search within files. Most often in the format 'grep -r "phrase" * | grep -v .svn' To search subdirectories, and then filter out any subversion files. Which sucks.

I recently stumbled upon 'ack', which is a similar search function, but with a whole lot more features, and way faster by default.

With it, I only need to type 'ack "phrase" *' to get the same result. Neat!

Some reasons to use ack:

• Ignores subversion directories by default.
• Color highlighting of matches.
• Full perl regular expression search capable
• type specific filtering with --php, --perl, etc
• Regular expression based file matching

It's neat. Check it out: http://petdance.com/ack/

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Posted on July 10, 2008 by Alex Gutierrez

Extending Column Background Color--without Images!

Lets go straight to the HTML:

	

		

			
item 1
			
item 2
			
item 3
		
	
	

		
My title
		
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
		
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

		
My title
		
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

		
My title
		
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
	

and its corresponding style:

* { margin: 0; padding: 0; }
body { text-align: center; /*Hello IE*/ }
p { padding-bottom: 1em; line-height: 1.4; }
#canvas { width: 49em; margin: 0 auto; text-align: left; background-color: #F0F0F0; }
#right { float: right; width: 25%; }
#right ul { margin-left: 2em; }
#left { margin-right: 25%;background-color: #FFF; }

Explanation: Use the id "canvas" to assign the right column color. Then give id "left" a background color of white. Click here to view an example.

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Posted on July 3, 2008 by Jennifer Epting

From Faceless to Family

We released our first product--the lovely Kindling--to public Beta early last week. Preparing Kindling for public consumption (even the Beta phase) was a test of our imaginations. We were constantly evaluating who would use the application, what they would want answers to in the FAQ section, how they would react to a video explaining the app itself.

Once Kindling was ready to be released, my most immediate responsibility was to extend a few exclusive invitations and then take control of the tidal wave of invite requests that came pouring in. One by one, they crowded into my inbox, and on that first day, one by one, I responded back.

I'm not entirely sure what people think happens once they submit their name for a Beta invite. I suppose they assume their information is sent to an almighty database, which then electronically generates an invite code and sends them a confirmation email. Lest you believe otherwise, here at Arc90, all Kindling requests are processed by human hands--and lovingly cared for by yours truly.

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Posted on July 2, 2008 by Javier Julio

Fixing the Can't move '.svn/tmp/entries' to '.svn/entries' error

I'd been having trouble deploying the latest version of a Flex Module due to an SVN error I had never come across before. I was trying to update the svn:externals property with a new URL but once I saved my change I would get the following error in Terminal:

Can't move '.svn/tmp/entries' to '.svn/entries': Operation not permitted

I tried running an svn cleanup command but no luck. After digging through Google I came across an excellent post (it's in Spanish) with a command to run that prevents the above error. Basically on the directory I was trying to run the svn propedit svn:externals . command, all I had to was run the following command first: chflags -R nouchg ./

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