Author Archive

VentStatus on Your Cell Phone, How it works

Posted in Uncategorized on October 15th, 2009 by j3nnings – Be the first to comment

Above you can test out one of the cooler features of VentStatus, updates on your cell phone. This lets anybody check the status of any server right on the cell phone without internet access. This feature is provided by the free service, Textmarks and is explained in more detail below. To see it in action, try typing VSTAT 75 in the message box on the cell phone simulator above.
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An overview of CodeIgniter

Posted in Uncategorized on October 15th, 2009 by j3nnings – Be the first to comment

You’re interested in this whole new idea of frameworks, but why spend time on the learning curve when the system you already have in place works fine? Well, you might find yourself using the same functions or classes over and over; modifications of simple tools you would think would already exist in PHP.

Well, frameworks are your solution. A framework provides all the standard functions you would (hope would be included) in PHP, as well as a structured format for your files and directories. What are the advantages to this? Well, the code you need to handle cookies, sessions, dates, downloads, uploads, input, output, dates, pagination, templates and most security issues already exists in structured files. The only thing left is to make use of the provided functions.

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Ventstatus.com, what it is and how it works.

Posted in CodeIgniter, Rant, Ventstatus.com, Web Development on October 15th, 2009 by j3nnings – Be the first to comment

Ventrilo is a VOIP or voice over internet protocol. In other words, it lets users chat with each other over the internet instantly. Ventrilo is known for its super high quality voice codecs, and for being simple and reliable. The difference between Ventrilo and something like Skype is that Skype creates a direct connection between two or more clients through a peer to peer network. Ventrilo, on the other hand, first gives this information to a server where it is then transmitted to everybody else connected to that server.

This method makes Ventrilo an attractive resource for gamers. The servers are more stable and more reliable than direct connections, and the voice quality is supreme. The program also happens to be very lightweight, as to not distract processing power from high performance games. Ventrilo is the choice application for gamers who want to talk to other gamers.

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How to check if PHP is in safemode

Posted in How To, PHP on April 29th, 2009 by j3nnings – Be the first to comment

Simple, all you need to do is create a new php document, and paste the following into it.

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

Load the page in your browser, and then press Control + F and search for “safe_mode.”

How To Add Desktop Shortcut Icons Back To Google Gears Applications

Posted in How To, Windows on April 24th, 2009 by j3nnings – Be the first to comment

I’m a fan of Google Gears, but things still tend to be a bit buggy. If you accidentally delete the desktop shortcuts to your Google Gears services, here is how you get them back.

  1. Log out of the online service
  2. Go to Tools > Gears Settings (or the equivalent in your browser)
  3. Click Remove next to the url of the service you are trying to repair
  4. Click Apply at the bottom of the window
  5. Clear your cookies and other offline data
  6. Log back into the service
  7. You should be prompted to enable Google gears and install desktop icons

I just spent my whole morning trying to figure this one out. Good luck.

Find SQL Bottlenecks With CodeIgniter

Posted in CodeIgniter, How To, PHP, Web Development on April 6th, 2009 by j3nnings – 3 Comments

I have been using my latest project, VentStatus, as a an opportunity to learn a new framework: CodeIgniter. It has treated me well so far, most problems encountered only required a short workaround. Lately I’ve been concerned with the scale-ability of VentStatus, it’s my first project on this large of a scale. Luckily, CodeIgniter has some benchmarking classes built in, and it really helped me cut down my load times.
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