This will mess with your head!

As many of you know, i am working on 2Big2Send and we are at a stage where we want to let our readers know what has been happening and what is to come

What’s New/Changed

Uploading & Downloading

Upload speeds have been greatly increased, some people are seeing upload speeds of 2MB/second.
We opened storage locations in the USA and Europe, you can now choose where to upload to, the closer the faster.
Upload and Download speeds have been increased by using Flash to send the data straight to the storage location.

File Organisation

The Dashboard was implemented to better organise your files by using folders, by default files are uploaded to ‘My Uploads’ (this folder cannot be deleted).
We aggregated the files into sections based on their type (ie: the pictures include .jpg .png .gif) this makes it much easier to find your files.
Expired and deleted files are no longer displayed.
The ability to move multiple files between folders was added.
Persistant storage was implements as a percentage of your account, ie: files will not expire.
The file details page was changed to include large buttons for downloading and sending which makes them a lot easier to find

Read the rest of this entry »

1 Comment

Shorthand PHP IF/ELSE Statements = much shorter code!

Feb 14, 2008 Author: Jamie | Filed under: Code, General, PHP

You may or may not have heard of shorthand if/else statements, but they do exist, and trust me they make things SO much more ordered in your code when used in the right way.

This is the Shorthand version - below this, if you cannot work it out for yourself is a nice description.

// Will print out ‘i am male’ if $myGender is ‘male’ and vice-versa.
echo ($myGender == ‘male’ ? ‘i am male’ : ‘I am female’);

Description of how this actually works
We all (i would hope) know the normal way of writing if/else statements (here is a recap just incase)

$myVar = true;
if($myVar) {
echo ‘My Var is TRUE!’;
} else {
echo ‘My Var is FALSE’;
}

That sort of statement is great for in the body of your code, but when want a dynamic selector within your HTML code, it gets very messy.

EG:

if($myGender == ‘male’) {
// Gender is MALE.
$maleOpt = ’selected’;
$femaleOpt = ”;
} else {
// Gender is FEMALE.
$maleOpt = ”;
$femaleOpt = ’selected’;
}

<select name="gender"><
option value="female" <?= $femaleOpt; ?>>Female</option>
<option value="male" <?= $maleOpt; ?>>Male</option>
</select>

Now - that is alot to write and will make your HTML form look a total mess, this is where the shorthand comes in. It allows us to write the same thing inline

Look:

<select name="gender">
<option value="female" <?= ($myGender == ‘female’ ? ’selected’ : ”); ?>>Female</option>
<option value="male" <?= ($myGender == ‘male’ ? ’selected’ : ”); ?>>Male</option>
</select>

As you can see - there is a huge difference in the amount of code - and if Wordpress formatted it nicely - it would look loads better!

And the all important Explanation!

// This will echo selected to the screen if $myGender is male.
echo ($myGender = ‘male’ ? ‘ selected’ : ”);

So - $myGender is the variable we are checking, in this case we are checking to see if $myGender == ‘male’

The questionmark (?) seperates the ‘answers’.

The first ‘answer’ is what is set/displayed when the query is true, the second is if the query is false.

This is the equilivent to :

if($myGender == ‘male’) {
echo ’selected’;
} else {
echo ”;
}

Hope that helps some of you out!

3 Comments

Halo 2 - High ALtitude Object

Jan 28, 2008 Author: Jamie | Filed under: General

The Halo 2 (High ALtitude Object) Project is an amazing read: http://www.natrium42.com/halo/flight2/

My project launched a payload with GPS, camera, sensors and communications to an altitude of 30km. I obtained most parts ready years ago, but only recently had time to finish it.

High altitude ballooning is an emerging hobby, since price of GPS and communications equipment has gotten quite low. It is an excellent hobby for people fascinated by space flight and telerobotics and has many learning aspects — from systems design to electronics design to software engineering. There is also an exciting risk factor, namely, that you could lose your precious electronics if something malfunctions. In this project, many of my interest and knowledge areas came together. Also, I have verified that the Earth is indeed round and that space is black.

0 Comments

2Big2Send - Nearing Full Beta - Need Users Now :)

Jan 22, 2008 Author: Jamie | Filed under: 2Big2Send, General

Hi Everyone,

Thank you for coming along to Nodstrum, I am taking this opportunity to invite you all to signup to my new Web App 2Big2Send.

Our service allows you to send large files to anybody with an email address without clogging up their inbox or risking waiting for the file to send then have it bounce back, never a nice thing!

The system allows you to see the upload progress and will notify you when you file has been collected.

During this Beta period we are offering you the following:

~~100MB~~ 250Mb Storage
10 Downloads per file
Unlimited sends per month
File expire after 5 days
File delivery/collection notification
Desktop Client (Coming very soon)
Preview most uploaded images

We will most likely up the storage so you are able to send and store much larger files during this period, this depends on the number of users who signup - the more users, the more space you will get.

So! if you are interested, head over to http://2Big2Send.com and signup!

Thanks!

2 Comments

University = Finished, Done & Dusted!

Jan 21, 2008 Author: Jamie | Filed under: General, University

Today i finally finished University at Oxford Brookes!

Somehow i came out with a 2:1 (Upper Second Class Honours) in Computer Science! I cannot convey how much of a cloud it is off my head!!

It also proves that you can do a dissertation in 2 months get a B+ in it and come out on top

0 Comments

Job Posting: Webmaster for charity.

Jan 9, 2008 Author: Jamie | Filed under: General, Portfolio

Hi everyone,
I have been the webmaster/ developer for the Northern Irish charity MT4Uth for 3 years but I now have a full time job and therfore do not have enough time to dedicate to the website.

The website is coded in PHP/ HTML with a MySQL backed database.

There is a custom CMS on the main website - nothing difficult, your typical page editing/news script.

There is a custom portal which utilizes the Prototype/Scriptaculolous Javascript libraries.

The website needs less than an a few hours per month as it is in a very useable state.

The all important URL is: http://www.mt4uth.com

If you are interested in this freelace job or would like more information, please post a comment below and I will asset your queries as best as possible.

Jamie.