Latest Articles
jQuery Tutorial (Part 4) - Event Listeners
Today we're going to kick it up a notch and really show where jQuery shines - events. If you followed the past tutorials, you should now have a fairly good understanding of the basic code structure of jQuery (and all the horrible curly braces that go with it), as well as how find elements of the DOM and some of things you can do to manipulate them. I also showed you how to access the developer console in Chrome and how you might use it to debug your jQuery code.
Figure Out Website Problems With Chrome Developer Tools Or Firebug
If you've been following my jQuery tutorials so far, you may have already run into some code problems and not known how to fix them. When faced with a non-functional bit of code, it's very difficult to actually pinpoint the offending line of code - and that's where debugging and developer tools come in. So before continuing with some more complex jQuery code, I thought we'd examine the tools available in the world's most popular browser - Chrome.
Introduction To jQuery (Part 3): Waiting For The Page To Load & Anonymous Functions
jQuery is arguably an essential skill for the modern web developer, and in this short mini-series I hope to give you the knowledge to start making use of it in your own web projects. In the first part of our jQuery tutorial, we looked at some language fundamentals, and how to use selectors; in part 2, we moved on to methods of manipulating the DOM. In part 3, we'll tackle the problem of how to delay jQuery until the page has loaded.
jQuery Tutorial - Getting Started: Basics & Selectors
Last week, I talked about how important jQuery is to any modern web developer and why it's awesome. This week, I think it's time we got our hands dirty with some code and learnt how to actually make use of jQuery in our projects. I'll say this now - you don't need to learn Javascript in order to use jQuery. It's probably best if you think of jQuery as an evolution of Javascript.
Accessing An Old Hard Drive Without Taking Apart Your Computer: Here Are Your Options
If your old computer breaks and it's just not worth repairing, the problem arises of how to access your data. Getting the drive out of the old PC is usually pretty easy, even on a laptop, but trying to then transplant that drive into a new machine presents a whole new realm of problems.
Make Siri Do What You Want With SiriProxy On Mac OS X And iPad 3
I've been wanting to try out SiriProxy for some Arduino home automation projects, but I refuse to buy a new phone when my iPhone 4 is still working just fine. But then I realized; I have Siri already, on my iPad 3. Surely I could use that? Indeed you can. So in this tutorial I'll walk you through getting SiriProxy working with your iPad 3 and Mac OSX.
Control Appliances From An Arduino: The Start Of Home Automation
Last time, I showed you a few ways of making your Arduino projects speech controlled via SiriProxy, OS X's built-in speakable items, and some Automator scripting, or even a dedicated voice recognition hardware chip. I left you with a quick demo of me turning on my lights, but didn't explain how I achieved that on the hardware side. Let's look today at how you can control high power devices - like your kettle, or some floor lamps.
3 Ways To Add Speech Control To Arduino Projects
I'm really starting to love my Arduino lately; having gone through the basic tutorials and even made an LED cube, I was ready to tackle something far more complex. Fortunately, speech controlling an Arduino project really isn't as complex as I'd thought - so here are 3 distinctly different approaches you can take.
Making The Web Interactive: An Introduction To jQuery
jQuery is a client-side scripting library that nearly every modern website uses - it makes websites interactive. It's not the only Javascript library, but it is the most developed, most supported, and most widely used. It's one of the building blocks of any modern website. But what exactly is jQuery, what makes it so popular, and why should you care about it if you're starting out as a web developer?
How To Master Your Dream Potential With Dream:ON [iPhone]
Last week, I looked at apps that genuinely help you sleep better by waking up at a moment when you'll feel most refreshed. This week, I found an app that does all of that, and goes one step further - it actually claims to influence your dreams. Dream:ON is a freemium app, and available now in the iTunes App Store.
How To Build a Custom Barcode Application With Pic2Shop Pro & Wordpress
If you’ve got a company database full of product data, connecting that data to a barcode system can be incredibly useful. Perhaps your warehouse workers need a quick way of looking up the product location, or maybe they need to quickly find out the purchase price for a full box and not by unit. Whatever the situation, integrating barcode reading facilities can be an expensive and arduous task, but it doesn't have to be.
Can An App Really Help You Sleep Better?
I've always been a bit of a sleep experimenter, having for much of my life kept a meticulous dream diary and studied as much as I could about sleeping in the process. There are a number of apps now on both iOS and Android that claim to help you sleep better by waking you up at a good time. Let me explain how these apps can make such bold claims, and examine if they actually work. You might be surprised.
Tried And Tested: 3 Gamification Tools That Try To Make Your Life Better
I'm a big fan of gamification, truth be told. I'd even go so far as to say our entire society should be gamified, with pleasures in life reserved as rewards those who actually contribute. Apparently that makes me a communist or something. But I digress; I've tried a variety of gamified systems for fitness and generally "getting things done", and here's how it worked out.
How To Unlock, Root & Install a Custom ROM On Your HTC One X
I can't say I've been entirely happy with having switched to Android - poor battery life, lack of system updates and general bugginess of my HTC One X being my main issues - but I heard a custom ROM could go some way to making me a happier Android owner. I therefore spent the afternoon trawling through forums, learning how to do the complete installation process from a stock phone, and I'm compiling that here.
The Top 4 Arduino Shields To Superpower Your Projects
You’ve bought an Arduino starter kit, you’ve followed all the basic guides, but now you’ve hit a stumbling block - you need more bits and bobs to realise your electronics dream. Luckily, if you have an Arduino board, you can simply stack functionality on top in the form of Shields. Shields are specifically designed for the Uno board to be the same shape and pin alignment; you simply plug them on, and you have instant upgrade of functionality.
Make Your Own DSLR Remote Shutter Release
One accessory you'll no doubt be after is a remote shutter; this allows you to place the camera on a tripod or rest it somewhere and trigger the shutter without the chance of shake that can occur when just holding it, or to use for self portraits without a timer. Today I'll explain the magic of remote shutter releases, how to make one yourself, and how to extend this for high speed photography too.
Make People Rave About Your Blog With These 5 Great Sharing Plugins For WordPress
Share plugins are a dime a dozen in the Wordpress repository, but most aren’t worth the time it takes to check out the screenshots. I’ve done the hard work for you here, and gathered the absolute best for your consideration. All you need to do is make sure your content is worth sharing - there are no plugins to do that for you.
What Is NFC & Should You Buy a Phone That Has It? [MakeUseOf Explains]
If you’re in the market for a new phone in 2013, you’re probably going to hear about something called NFC, and how it’s apparently changing the world. Don’t be fooled by the sales talk though. Read this so you know exactly what NFC is, what you can use it for, and why you probably won’t. And if you haven't done so yet, read our Winter 2013 SmartPhone Buying Guide.
How To Sync Favourites & Tabs From Your Phone Or Tablet To Your Computer
Have you got a new smartphone or tablet for Christmas, but frustrated that your bookmarks and tabs are all on your desktop when you absolutely must surf the information superhighway from your sofa? You could access them with some kind of remote control to your desktop perhaps, but that’s just silly. Instead, learn how to sync your tabs and bookmarks to and from your mobile devices with handy guide.