Author Archives: J.D. H.

Connect an older iMac to a TV via HDMI

Large LCD TV’s are nice for showcasing plans, presentations and other business documents. However, many recent TV’s only have HDMI inputs and HDMI ports are often not available on older business PCs or Macs. Today I encountered just that situation where a client had been trying to connect an LCD TV to their older (circa 2008) iMac as a secondary display. They had tried an expensive $85 USB to HDMI adapter with no luck 🙁 Thankfully, since the iMac was

Clickable USA map for WordPress (plugin or widget)

I am working on a new project that requires a clickable USA map. There are a LOT of options out there but after wading through them all this was my top choice: WordPress – Interactive World Maps at CodeCanyonhttp://codecanyon.net/item/interactive-world-maps/2874264?ref=coolthemezThis is a WordPress plugin to create as many maps as you want, with interactive and colored markers, continents, countries or regions. Check out the standalone non-wordpress version: here It is a nice turnkey package that can easily do a clickable map

Extract high-res satellite imagery from Google maps

Here are some articles about, and frameworks for, the Google static maps API: Google Static Maps V2 | Fat-Free Framework for PHPhttp://fatfreeframework.com/google-static-mapsThe Google Static Maps class provides a simple way to embed a Google Maps image on your web page without requiring JavaScript or any dynamic page loading. Generating Static Images of Google Maps – PHP articles, tutorials and screencasts – PHP 5, MySQL, PostgreSQL, AJAX, Web 2.0http://www.phpriot.com/articles/static-google-mapsOne useful feature of Google Maps is the ability to generate a static

How to download YouTube videos to your computer or phone [SOLVED]

I received the following question from my friend Alicia: Do you know of a way that I can take videos from youtube and put them on a flash drive or disc so I can watch them at home? I’m wanting some zumba videos to use at home but my phone internet isn’t strong enough to run them.. -Alicia So I sent her are a couple websites where you can paste the youtube video’s URL (website address) into the form and then

Data truncated for column ‘status’ at row 1 [SOLVED]

Recently I encountered the following error: Data truncated for column ‘status’ at row 1 This was specifically in a PHP based web hotel/reservations app that uses MySQL for the database backend. When trying to add a new dropdown option value of ‘departed’, the form submission would always fail with the aforementioned error. Thankfully, the solution was easy once I checked the table/field definitions. The column ‘status’ was of type enum and thus needed to have the ‘departed’ value specifically enumerated in

Enable remote MySQL access (root non-local access)

Often one of the first tasks after setting up a MySQL server is to enable connections from other IP addresses. Here are a some articles that discuss how to setup a user that can access a MySQL database remotely (non-locally). Between the two of them you will have all the info you need to create user accounts for remote MySQL db access 🙂 If you are in a testing environment you can also enable non-local root access for all databases

Regenerate thumbnails error on WordPress [SOLVED]

Recently I switched to a new WordPress theme and subsequently encountered some image thumbnail issues. Here is the specific error I received when regenerating thumbnails: function (){if(l){var t=l.length;(function i(t){x.each(t,function(t,n){var r=x.type(n);”function”===r?e.unique&&p.has(n)||l.push(n):n&&n.length&&”string”!==r&&i(n)})})(arguments),n?o=l.length:r&&(s=t,c(r))}return this} This was particularly frustrating, because if a custom size is not available then WordPress will use the FULL size image even for thumbnails. This of course results in slow page times and wasted bandwidth 🙁 The solution Thankfully, after a little checking it appeared to be a simple permissions

Windows Update error 80072f8f [SOLVED]

If you get a Windows Update “error 80072f8f” when you try to Check for Updates, you may need to adjust your computer’s date and time settings! The 80072f8f error generally happens when there is a large discrepancy between your system clock and the Windows Update service…. so when that happens you will get the error and be prevented from receiving updates. 🙁 Thankfully, as mentioned earlier, the fix is generally very easy as you just need to update your computer’s date/time

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