Dark Crimson - The Blog of Ben Lister

posted on Dec 3rd, 2009  under:  , , , , 3

Wordpress is one of the the most commonly used and talked about blogging platforms on the internet. Because of this, it has gained the interest of bloggers, hackers and corporate marketing douche bags who wear too much cologne alike. A simple Google search will yield numerous guides offering WordPress security tips and while there is a lot great information out there, I’ve found that most are either focused on a single topic or contain outdated information. That is why I’ve created this guide serving not only an overview of practical methods for securing modern versions of WordPress but will also a more detailed look at why these procedures are actually relevant and necessary. Read more »

posted on Nov 28th, 2009  under:  , , , , 8

The Flickr API is a very powerful and easy to use way to put photos on your website without having to worry about bandwidth or server performance issues. This tutorial will cover how to make an API call for a photoset and then format and display a list of ~100px thumbnail images in unordered list. Read more »

posted on Nov 24th, 2009  under:  , , 0

After 14 months with the previous version of DCP, I’ve launched a full site re-design. This version is a complete code overhaul including completely re-written back end PHP using Codeigniter MVC framework. In this version I’ve also made the switch from Prototype JS to jQuery which has been my library of choice in my professional work for the last years. Read more »

posted on Nov 8th, 2008  under:  , , 0

I spent the last hour or so searching for the correct .htaccess file for installing Drupal Clean URLs (Drupal 6.xx) on MediaTemple’s server without any luck. Finally, I was able to piece something together that worked and I thought it would be worth sharing Read more »

posted on Apr 8th, 2008  under:  , , , , 6

JavaScript Frameworks have gained wide acceptance among developers since the "Web 2.0" movement and have, in many ways, changed how we use the web. One of the greatest outcomes of this has been the reduction in external popup windows in favor of unobtrusive, JavaScript-based "Modal Window" and "Lightbox" solutions. At work, clients frequently ask us to incorporate content and image overlay solutions into their projects and after experimenting with, and customizing a wide variety of different scripts, I decided to write a comparison of several of the most popular Light Box solutions. Read more »