• December 1st, 2007
• Filed in
  • Review
  • Web Development
  • Work

Recently I’ve begun work on a newer, cooler, better, version of Costumzee.com with the elite hax0rs over at Mech Media. Scott and I decided to utilize a php temple engine called Smarty for better separation of code and presentation. A couple things worth noting before I dig in here:

1. The extent of my PHP knowledge is minimal - what I know of PHP is what I’ve done when tinkering with WordPress
2. My knowledge of backend web development is also minimal. I’ve been a frontend guy my whole web career. I pwn xhtml/css/javascript, but server-side dev is completely new to me (I’m finally nipping that knowledge-gap in the butt).
3. I do have knowledge of template engines. When I worked on Quibblo.com full time, we used the Perl Catalyst Framework and I got savvy with Template Toolkit which allowed me to dive into Smarty fairly quickly.

But without further ado.. Couple things I Love about Smarty

• The {debug} function. At the drop of a hat I can see everything available to me and integrate it on the front end (.tpl files).
• Plugins. I needed a way to paginate, and with minimal knowledge I was able to leverage SmartyPaginate to get the job done.
• I was productive day 1. It’s PHP (which is not a challenging language to begin with) and there’s a separation of code and presentation. I’ve dabbled with ROR, and the learning curve of doing something productive, interesting, and unique is just so much easier, because you don’t have to worry “am I doing this the way they want me to?”.
• Smarty documentation is awesome. It’s brief and concise with really world useful examples. When I do get tripped up with something Smarty related it’s a matter of referencing the documentation and in a couple minutes I’m on my way.

The very few things that I’ve gotten stuck on have been mostly due to a lack of my PHP knowledge and not so much a result of issues with Smarty so far. And unique to my situation, I had Scott right there to bounce questions off of when I hit a wall which was also great.

All in all it’s a great to leverage a templating engine like Smarty when you’re beginning to learn more about backend web development. I’ve always shied away from it because I was always working with other programmers that were more than capable in that area and my talents were always restricted to the front-side of the glorious interweb.

I was never interested much in PHP. I always felt like the future of the web was with a framework like Ruby On Rails, but I am pleasantly surprised with my Smarty experience so far and it’s made me excited to develop with PHP more down the road.

Currently, I’m developing with ROR and Smarty and I hope to compare and contrast the two in the future, stay tuned.

Popularity: 8% [?]

• September 18th, 2007
• Filed in
  • Apple
  • Review

Some people have some nasty things to say about the new Apple Keyboard. I assure you, I am not one of them.

Among those nasty things - there are these “negatives”

1. Weird shape of keys
2. Keys lack “throw” aka key travel
3. Keys lack tactile feedback and require little pressure to press
4. Keys are “flush with the casing”

It’s ironic that everything these writers over at zdnet didn’t like about the keyboard I found absolutely awesome/amazing/killer. My dad first got the new wired Apple Keyboard and when I was home doing the laundry a couple Sundays ago I tried it out and immediately fell in love with it. I’m a pretty fast typer and home row is my friend. I’ve spent the last week telling all of my geeky mac user friends about how much I love this keyboard and so far two have also made the leap.

If you’re on a computer a lot. A keyboard & mouse are things that you’re going to use constantly. When one of the peripherals gets a big time update for the better - making the investment in the new one is almost a no-brainer. Here is a list of benefits that I’ve found using the new Apple Keyboard

The Good

1. The shape of the keys.

   It’s essentially the same key-type as a Mac Book. The fact that they are flat makes the striking area much bigger, cutting DOWN on typos. I’m much more accurate with the new keyboard

2. The lack of “throw” or key travel is actually a GOOD thing.

   I was talking to my Dad about this and put it in terms I think accurately describe the key travel.

   The tactile feedback of the new keyboard is very similar to this guitarist metaphor: It’s the difference between a beginner on a $150 Fender Stratocaster and a custom Ibanez in the hands of Joe Satriani. If your fingers are fast enough. You can fly.

3. The keys are not flush with the casing, they’re raised about 2mm off the casing.

4. There are new Leopard specific hotkeys, but they will work with Tiger if you run a system software update after you get it.

5. Typing is significantly quieter. If I had a decibel meter I’d do my own scientific comparison complete with fancy charts and all, but I don’t so you’ll have to take my word for it.

6. Bye bye carpal tunnel

   The angle of the keyboard itself is very flush with the surface it’s resting on. About 5mm off the surface in the front and 18mm at the back. The angle is much more natural and the font “lip” of the keyboard is virtually non-existent so it won’t cause the wrist strain many keyboards promote. Keyboard Wrist Gel Rest manufacturers are somewhere quietly sobbing.

The Annoying

1. Why the difference between the wired and the wireless versions Apple?

   No numberpad, no dice.

2. How do I clean this thing?

   Like all Apple products lately, there are no visible screws to get at. There’s “nothing” to this thing (with the aluminum casing it could probably slice watermelons)

3. White top keys have gotten some grime on the surface.

   But it was easily rubbed off with some TLC.

4. Some keys got moved around / replaced.

   No more Help key :*(. It was removed and others got shuffled around (big deal)

5. Now I’m stuck with 2 oldschool Apple Keyboards - any takers?

Popularity: 100% [?]