blahber beta currently in the works

“Not a place upon the earth might be so happy as America. Her situation is remote from all the wrangling world, and she has nothing to do but to trade with them.” – Thomas Paine

it’s new year and this is my very first post. i’m currently in the works of my system and it’s called blahber. basically it’s a social networking website with audio recording capability.

a little history
the system  is actually the second version since it’s conception a couple of years ago, but since it will be launched for the first time, it’s appropriate that it should only be called version 1. the system also was made as somewhat of a challenge for me. my thesis adviser told me that he wanted to have something new. i already did my system before which was called Cobalt Circulation which can be found here, and it’s almost 80% done with some minor tweaks from here and there. so that’s it,  he told me he wants something new. prior to that i’m already doing research on the capability of flash to record audio and save it on the server. by God’s grace i was able to find a lot of resources on the internet. one major functionality that it houses is that it can record audio. now, i’m not about to shell out $2500 for Flash Media Server so i decided to use the free version which is Red5. i’m not going to delve deeper on these two very powerful system but i’ll be providing you with the links.  i was also able to find some very good tutorials on how to record audio in flash. somehow the site i got it from started to ask for payment a few month after, lucky for me i was able to get a lot of good source codes as well as tutorials.  so from having a system which records transaction i now have a system which records audio and plays them back to the user. very different and indeed quite unique.

before i coined it blahber, it was called voicemail. same functionalities as any networking websites except for the fact that registered users can record their voice.

voicemail now blahber
i laid the project to rest for several months since i was quite busy with a lot of things. i also started working on some websites. somehow the system kept on popping to my mind.  so around late quarter last year (2010), i decided to take a look at it again. now i’m very much serious about it. i also restructured the whole database, decided to code everything from scratch, and redesigned it several times (i think i have around 5 designs, before i was quite satisfied with it).  another major part was the fact i used WordPress in my voicemail system, but not this time. one reason i decided to use WordPress that time was it’s SEO capability. now that i have a fairly good idea on how to implement SEO, i decided to code it from scratch.

another thing that i really have to ponder upon before was that i need to have someone who will install Red5 for me. and it’s quite a hassle since one functionality that i wanted it to have is for users to save their audio recordings in mp3 format. if i were to stick with Red5 chances are i need to pay that person to do it for me, another thing is that i need to transcode it at runtime which is again another headache for me. i did a lot of research and luckily i came upon a website that provides good tutorials as well as the source code on how to record audio from mic and converting it to wav file without the user of any media server. this still utilizes the power of Flash, but this time it’s AS3 (voicemail uses AS2).

while developing the system, i decided, i might as well study jquery. so i’ll be hitting several birds at the same time.

project in progress
i’m planning to launch the system maybe mid this  year, i’ll keep this blog posted as to what is the current status of the project.

PHP $_POST VS $_GET VS $_REQUEST

“Christ is our star of Hope. I want my death-bed to be under that star.” - Thomas De Witt Talmage

this have been one of the issues that have been bugging me lately. i’ve been using php for quite sometime now and i haven’t have the chance to delve deeper into this subject.

as far as i know $_REQUEST is the best way to access data from the html form. basically $_REQUEST can be used either in POST or GET method in a form. but as i study it more deeply i found something quite disturbing about it.

basically $_REQUEST can be used to inject sql statement out of php scripts, which is not very good.  this can very much lead to attacks and intrusion on any internet or network application.

sql injection will look something like this on the browser
www.samplewebsite.com/?username=admin&password=password

maybe on my later post, i will write something about sql injection. as for now i will focus on $_POST, $_GET and $_REQUEST.

now what about $_GET. the $_GET method displays all the form variables as well as its values in the browser’s address bar which is again can be used for injection. if ever no sensitive information is being submitted, $_GET or $_REQUEST is very much okay to use.

now what about $_POST? this method hides the variables as well as its values until being called or echoed. this method prevents the value and data from being seen by other user.

all my projects from now on will be submitted using $_POST. it may not be a sure fire method to protect my applications from would be attackers but a little prevention is better than none.

Artistic Diving Website

“Ravenous birds and the standards of the Roman army, ready to devour a people, reprobated and given up, as a dead carcass, by Providence.” – Philip Skelton

one my recent projects have been artistic diving. they want a total site make over since this has been written and designed basically using MS Frontpage. i designed 3 versions, actually i’m making it my standards so that clients will have options to choose from. this time i’m not using wordpress for my backend. instead i’m writing it from scratch. i also incorporated clean url’s since i’m already quite familiar how it works now.

this is my first version. the polaroids on the right is supposed to be designed in flash. this one was not approved though.

this the version two of the layout. the header is made curved, and the polaroids are removed from the header.

this is the approved layout. notice that it’s also very much based on version 2, except for some semi minor changes.

Ajax Email Checker

“What good are Greek, commentaries, insight, gift, and all the rest, if there is no heart for Christ?” - Jim Elliot

i haven’t have the time update my blog recently since i’m quite busy with my new work. it’s been almost 5 months since my last post. new projects came, by God’s grace. i recently also had a chance to work with jquery. lately i tried playing around with ajax,  and found out that it’s not that hard, then i decided why not use just one framework for all my ajax needs instead of using my own written ajax handler as well as jquery.

i wrote my first two ajax scripts which can be found here. the first one is an auto complete script. this one uses my own
ajax handler to process the data. this can be downloaded here.

another ajax script that i recently wrote is a username and email checker.  what it does is that it checks the database for any duplicate email and password. the script can be downloaded here.

all the script posted here have been tested on my side. anybody can freely use what i have written. but it’s never a guarantee if it will work perfectly since this is just for study purposes.

SEO friendly URL’s using .htaccess and PHP regular expressions

“If there is any sin more deadly than envy, it is being pleased at being envied.” Richard Armour

i do wanted for quite sometime now to develop a website with SEO friendly capabilities and not the traditional method. unforunately i’m not very successful about it. i found a tutorial for php regular expressions but no for .htaccess.

i’m constantly using wordpress since it has a SEO friendly url feature. but i said to myself that i don’t need to rely that much on wordpress.

last night i tried searching for it again and tried something new. somehow i was able to make it work. the first one doesn’t allow the image to be posted, .htaccess also does this, it’s called hotlinking, this feature is used to conserved webside bandwith.

here’s the code for my PHP regular expression.

<?php
/*
Modified by: Immanuel Dennis H. Lopez
*/
$request = $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];
$filename = $_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME'];
$request = substr($request, strrpos($filename, ‘/’) + 1);
while(substr($request, -1) == ‘/’)
  $request = substr($request, 0, -1);
 $request = explode(‘/’, $request);
foreach($request as $key => $value)
  if($value == ”)
    array_splice($request, $key, 1);
  //print_r($request);
  if ($request[0]==”articles”)
  {
   //echo $request[0];
   include(“articles.php”);
  }
  else if ($request[0]==”about-us”)
  {
   include(“about-us.php”);
  }
//print_r($request); //This will show us all the parameters passed in the URL
?>

and here’s the code for the .htaccess.

# BEGIN
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /!labs/cleanurls/
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /!labs/cleanurls/index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END

the last RewriteRule part should be changed to the website address. i’m currently running it in xampp and it runs in localhost.

SAO Philippines Website

“Life, like war, is a series of mistakes, and he is not the best Christian nor the best general who makes the fewest mistakes. Poor mediocrity may secure that, but he is best who wins the most splendid victories by the retrieval of mistakes.” – Frederick W. Robertson

another project that came through this past few weeks is SAO Philippines. they want to have a total make over on how their site looks.  currently their site runs on .NET and they want it to be converted in plain html.  

this is how the index page would look like. i made very simple menu navigation on top and has some earth tone colors into it.

this is the internal pages.

i’ve shown mark, their website coordinator, the partially done layout.  so far the only comment i got is to put something native, so i decided to put a little touch of bamboo on the side.  i haven’t shown him this layout yet maybe i’ll email it to him tonight or tomorrow. hope he will like it.

Lasaltech Incorporated Website

“The Bible is either absolute, or it’s obsolete.” - Leonard Ravenhill

this project has been with me for a very long time. i guess it’s already about two years old… it’s my first project using wordpress as its backend CMS.

i made two layouts for LaSalTech, a local vocational school here in Bacolod. Version one is black and white. with a touch of gray and orange. i don’t know where i got my inspiration from doing this layout. unfortunately this one was not approved

this is the layout that’s approved. its mainly green in color. i kept the computer as it’s main icon since it’s a computer school. the live site can be seen here.

Web and Photography… What to do about it

“Life, like war, is a series of mistakes, and he is not the best Christian nor the best general who makes the fewest mistakes. Poor mediocrity may secure that, but he is best who wins the most splendid victories by the retrieval of mistakes.” – Frederick W. Robertson

I’m currently working as a fulltime probitionary teacher in USLS . Am i happy with it,  yeah.. kinda a little bit, but not that much. What i really wanted is to put up a business. Right now i’m also searching for ways where i can set up an internet business.  I want to do it after office hours and spend a maximum of three to four hours a day. 

By God’s grace i was also able to handle two projects Northwest Inn and Sta Clara Tropical Villas. They we’re small projects but I’m happy about it.

I do wanted to work from home and earn money doing what i love, which is doing websites or anything about the web. If only i could at least make a site where I can just let it sit there and earn money then that would be a big help. Honestly i do wanted to join the rest of the people earning money off of the internet.  The only problem is that the internet is quite saturated with all of these money making schemes that i don’t know if i have the stomach to compete with the big guys.  Sometimes i would also think about developing a website with tutorials on it but i’m still thinking about it.

I’m also thinking to combine my two best interest, building websites and photography… Right now i just don’t have the time to do it. I would leave school around 730 in the evening every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday… Saturday is basically rest day for me so i would spend it at home or with Jing

Lately I wanted to just rest and re think about what to do with my life… what to pursue… clear my head… I’ve been working for almost 10 years now and to be honest i’m not quite sure if i’m happy about it. I want to be passionate in what i do. I want to do something i really love and earn money doing it.

I need guidance and i need it badly. I told my mom if i could teach part time, she told me not to give it up since it’s good money. She’s right, I’m not going to give up teaching, i just need to do something other than teaching.  I’m stuck to teaching since IT people aren’t paid very well here.  They thought that our work is easy…

Anyways i’ll to do more research and i’ll update this blog if ever i can come up with something…

Sometimes He comes in the Clouds

“Faith cannot be inherited or gained by being baptized into a Church. Faith is a matter between the individual and God.” – Martin Luther

Nothing much to say right now, i’m just too tired to think what to say. it’s a good thing that it rained when it neede to rain. i’m plannign to go and take some pictures in the Cathedral maybe tomorrow. but it’s not yet final…

anyways here are some of the things i took this afternoon.

this is a local delicacy delivered every morning here in our house. its called bibingka or in english rice cakes…

some shots that i took in bredco again…

Cloud Formation

Cloud Formation

Couple by the sea

Drying my Clothes

Creepy crawlers

“Spirit filled souls are ablaze for God. They love with a love that glows. They serve with a faith that kindles. They serve with a devotion that consumes. They hate sin with fierceness that burns. They rejoice with a joy that radiates. Love is perfected in the fire of God.” – Samuel Chadwick

i do believe that there’s beauty around us, it’s just a matter of taking the time to pause and admire what God has created. God for me is not just a creator but an artist as well. He knows how to properly combine the colors to create magnificent color combination. it’s very much visible in everything that He has created even at these worms that we so often neglect.