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Preventing SPAM Bots Sending Mail Through Your Website (Non-Intrusive Way)

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Sunday, November 2nd, 2008
Tags: bots, easy, email, example, intrusive, mail, non, prevent, preventing, script, site, spam, web

You can find a lot of ways to prevent spam from your site these days but I've really tested this method and it has been 100% effective (so far). It will stop automatic bots but a human will be able to work out how to get around it pretty easily (but when do humans have time to do that).

To begin with: this script is written in PHP but you can easily translate it.

 
   session_start();
   $_SESSION["spam_prevention"] = '1';

First off, on the page with the form to email to you, declare a unique session variable on this page with any value you want. Why? So when the user submits this form to the script that sends the email, you know the user definitely came from the page with the form, and it's not a bot attacking your email script. So before your email script, test to see if $_SESSION["spam_prevention"] exists.

 
<input type="text" name="spam_prevention"
    style="display:none; visibility:hidden;" />

Another method is to put a text field on your form and hid it with CSS. 99.9% of the SPAM bots out there will disregard any CSS styles, and at the same time the SPAM bots will fill out every field within your form. So if this field is filled out, it's a good guess that it wasn't a human that filled it out.

This isn't bullet proof, but it works quite well and it doesn't require the user to fill out any spam prevention captcha fields etc.

Let me know how you go with this script if you try it.

Web Applications Entering The Desktop Application Market

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Tuesday, October 7th, 2008
Tags: applications, desktop, Internet, web

To any IT developers, this is old news, or you may not have put 1 and 1 together. Web applications are slowly taking over the desktop application market as more features and tools are added to desktop browsers.

Weâ€˜re often used to installing all the necessary software after installing our operating system, but these days all the software you used to install can be found a "click away" on the Internet. Which only requires an Internet connection and a browser.

Webtops, online office applications and communication applications have been around on the Internet for quite some time now, and we will be influenced soon if not already to follow this trend.

Why? Because itâ€˜s simpler to the average user. IT developers will not make the transition as quickly but soon will.

Anything that a desktop application can do, a web application can do better.

30 Websites to follow if you’re a Web Developer

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Tuesday, May 27th, 2008
Tags: design, developer, follow, programmer, Programming, sites, web, websites

It's a good idea as a web developer to try and learn one thing everyday (no matter how small or how big). These sites are a great start to keep an eye to learn something new from web design and coding hints/tips, to new industry features.

* Nettutes
* Woork
* Web Designer Hall
* Smashing Magazine
* Vitamin
* Wake Up Later
* Snook.ca
* Signal vs Noise
* Adaptive Path Blog
* Tutorial Blog
* WebAppers
* Web Resources Depot
* Ajaxian
* dzone
* Design Float
* IBM's developerWorks
* del.icio.us
* Sharebrain
* Style Grind
* PSDTUTS
* Design Reviver
* Blog.SpoonGraphics
* John Resig
* Boxes and Arrows
* PHPDeveloper
* Coding Horror
* O'Reilly Network
* Google doctype
* Web Monkey
* Digital Web Magazine

To keep up with all these sites I suggest you use a RSS Feed application like Particls or Google Reader.

30 Websites to follow if you're a Web Developer

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Tuesday, May 27th, 2008
Tags: design, developer, follow, programmer, Programming, sites, web, websites

To keep up with all these sites I suggest you use a RSS Feed application like Particls or Google Reader.

Twitter: What are you doing?

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Thursday, April 17th, 2008
Tags: 2.0, are, doing, email, follow, media, message, network, post, sms, social, tweet, twitter, web, what, you

I haven't really given a plug to Twitter before and I believe this service is a one of a kind.

What is twitter?
Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send "updates" (or "tweets"; text-based posts, up to 140 characters long) to the Twitter website, via short message service (e.g. on a cell phone), instant messaging, or a third-party application such as Twitterrific or Facebook.

Updates are displayed on the user's profile page and instantly delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. The sender can restrict delivery to those in his or her circle of friends (delivery to everyone is the default). Users can receive updates via the Twitter website, instant messaging, SMS, RSS, email or through an application.

How I benefit?
Only just yesterday I solved a query of mine by posting a message out to all my followers about whether they recognize a font a client needs that they have used before in their branding. About an hour later I had my query answered.

This has happened many times before where I've had the most complex question answered by someone who is well experienced in the area. But before you can get people to answer these questions you must have a connection with them (ie: they have to follow you).

Your messages 'can' appear on the public timeline but the chances of someone picking up on your message is very unlikely. So jump onto Twitter and follow people you're interested in, reply to their messages and before you know it you'll have some connections.

Message to twitter: "We'd like to thank you in 140 characters or less. And we just did!"

Don't forget to follow me!

Links:-
* Twitter
* Twitter Blog
* My Twitter Account

What’s Your CSS Skill Level

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Tuesday, April 1st, 2008
Tags: CSS, Internet, level, sites, skill, web

CSS Skill Level All

Want to know how you rate with your CSS Skills, follow the skill level checklist below to see how you rate.

CSS Skill Level 1
* Iâ€™ve heard of CSS, it is used in web design.
* I have downloaded and used a CSS template before.
* I have poked around in CSS files making small changes like changing colors and removing underlines from links.

CSS Skill Level 2
* I understand that the purpose of CSS is keeping design and content separate, to the highest extent that is possible.
* I have made extensive modifications to a CSS template.
* I have used a WYSIWYG editor to create CSS web page.
* I have a basic understanding of CSS layout techniques.

CSS Skill Level 3
* I have designed a reasonably complex website from scratch using only CSS for layout.
* I have a solid understanding of the structure of CSS, the CSS box model, and CSS positioning.
* I understand how to use float and deal with itâ€™s quirks.
* I have a basic understanding that different browsers render some CSS differently and that needs to be accounted for and tested.
* I have a growing collection of CSS resources to draw from.
* I do not use tables for layout whatsoever anymore. I understand that tables are for tabular data, not page layout.

CSS Skill Level 4
* I have designed and coded a large number of CSS web sites. I can convert a design from any format into a CSS layout: Photoshop, Illustrator, napkin drawings, etc.
* I am completely comfortable writing and editing CSS by hand.
* I have a strong understanding of the cascading part of CSS. Particularly how some some CSS properties do, some donâ€™t, and some depend on how the value is declared.
* I have a solid understanding of cross-browser CSS. I know how to use browser specific CSS statements and delclare browser specific stylesheets.
* I know and have tried some CSS hacks and understand the advantages and disadvantages of using them.
* I have a strong understanding of the different sizing values available in CSS (e.g. em, px, %, pt, â€œsmallâ€, etc.) and in what situations each make the most sense.
* I can quickly troubleshoot and solve CSS problems.
* I have a great collection of tools and resources at my disposal for inspiration, debugging, or reference.

CSS Skill Level 5
* I feel like I could tackle any design idea with CSS.
* I can do pixel-perfect cross-browser conversions of designs into CSS websites.
* I can visualize markup structure easily, just by looking at a design.
* I have utilized additional web technologies to expand the possibilities and break through the limitations of CSS.
* I have my own CSS framework I use, complete with my own customized CSS reset.
* I have a strong understanding of advanced CSS like pseudo classes, pseudo elements, and attribute selectors.
* I keep up to date on browser support and development progress.

CSS Skill Level 6
* I am involved with the future of CSS specifications or support.
* I am a CSS Celebrity.
* Iâ€™ve written books, given seminars, taught classes, knew CSS since she was a little girl, etc.
* I donâ€™t need to do testing, I just know.

Skill level ratings taken from CSS Tricks.

What's Your CSS Skill Level

Comments

Tuesday, April 1st, 2008
Tags: CSS, Internet, level, sites, skill, web

CSS Skill Level All

Want to know how you rate with your CSS Skills, follow the skill level checklist below to see how you rate.

Skill level ratings taken from CSS Tricks.

Google and Samsung team up for the next mobile phone

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Monday, February 25th, 2008
Tags: android, api, build, debug, device, geographic, Google, Mobile, phone, samsung, sdk, team, web

Samsung and Google gPhone

The Samsung phone which is expected to be released later this year, will feature Google's Android software. What makes Android so special is the fast and easy development.

Open Icon
Open
Android allows you to access core mobile device functionality through standard API calls.

Barriers Icon
Breaking down boundaries
Combine information from the web with data on the phone -- such as contacts or geographic location -- to create new user experiences.

Equal Icon
All applications are equal
Android does not differentiate between the phone's basic and third-party applications -- even the dialer or home screen can be replaced.

Fast Icon
Fast & easy development
The SDK contains what you need to build and run Android applications, including a true device emulator and advanced debugging tools.

The new phones will definitely be in direct competition with the Apple iPhone and Windows Mobiles.

Aviary – Creation on the fly tools

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Tuesday, February 12th, 2008
Tags: 3d, air, aviary, editor, example, image, tool, video, web

My friend from way back Daniel Sim just showed me something impressive that will shock the image editing market. Aviary is a collection of tools that are web based or as downloadable AIR applications.

Our tools all communicate and relate to each other. To illustrate an example: You can import a swatch from Toucan into Phoenix, while doing complex bitmap processing of a 3D object developed in Hummingbird. Finally, you can take your finished artwork and lay it out in Owl as the DVD artwork for a music CD you and your friends put together in Roc and Myna and offer it for sale in our marketplace, Hawk. Aviary

I recommend watching the video above showing them re-skin Hillary Clinton, more video examples can be shown found at http://a.viary.com/blog. To obtain use of the application, sign up to http://a.viary.com/'s early bird invitation.

They are developing applications to handle the majority of multimedia, from image editor, typography, music, 3d and video.

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