CSS3 Gradients and Textures
CSS3 has opened the door for a styling elements in a whole new way. It is now possible to get dramatic and detailed effects and styles with very simple CSS, where previously it would only possibly to get the same effect through a combination of images hacked together. For a recent project I wanted to [...]
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The 3 levels of user authentication
Whilst writing code for Helplist, I began thinking about the different levels of user authentication that have been widely adopted in modern consumer facing web applications. I believe you can generally segment them into three areas; traditional sign up, through an existing social graph, or an open platform like 4chan. Here are my percieved benefits [...]
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How to make vanity URLs using PHP, .htaccess and MySQL
Vanity URLs have become a staple part of any good online service and are a really good way of helping increase engagement and social sharing of your web app or website. For those of you that don’t know, a vanity URL is usually a direct link to a users profile in the following form – [...]
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3 simple steps for learning how to code
As Internet usage rises, the ability to code, or understand how a website or web application works, will become ever more valuable. Not everyone wants to become proficient in the nuances of every programming language, but it is extremely useful to be able to understand programming in general. This post is really aimed at the [...]
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How to align a DIV vertically and horizontally
The other night I wanted to remake my person site phil.ipbrown.com. I wanted to keep it simple with just my name and a small amount of text describing what I do. Aligning a DIV horizontally in HTML and CSS is really easy, but how do you align it vertically? Here’s how… Note: The method I’m [...]
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How to create an invite system using PHP
When launching a new product or website online, it has become popular to only allow the first set of users in with an invite. Although there are many different ways to accomplish this, here I’m going to show you how to make a system yourself using PHP. This is intended to only show you the [...]
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