Let’s talk HTML and CSS: about DIV and SPAN

During my web development years, I got these questions a lot: How to convert an HTML table to DIVs and SPANs? How to put several DIVs on the same line? How to make give a SPAN width and height? Etcetera DIV, etcetera SPAN. So to make it easier to explain and refer to again later, allow me to present this ‘demo’ slash step-by-step tutorial. Hope this helps!

Using Microsoft Download Manager to download large files

We are having a big project in my company. A pretty big one, which requires a couple of new servers running Windows 2008 R2 64-bit and SQL Server 2008 R2, with IIS (Internet Information Services) running and hosting local websites. And this project will save us time and money when it's live.

Unfortunately the project is confidential so I can't disclose it's nature :D But at least I can share with you readers and fellow IT professionals about my experience with downloading---and redownloading for soooo many times---stuff from MSDN, and also the discovery of a free program that allowed me to resume/retry interrupted downloads. Read on if you are also having problem with your downloads and are looking for a solution.

Google Mobile sites can’t remember your login?

This happened to me recently: Somehow I have to keep logging into my iGoogle mobile site on my Treo 800w. I used all I could: cleared the cached pages and cookies, restarted, switched to both Opera Mobile 10 and Pocket/Mobile Internet Explorer, and all failed :(

I googled this Google login problem to no avail. Unbelievably unlucky I was---Looks like I was the only person having this problem??? (Pssst: or perhaps Google removed these from the search result?)

But anyway, it works fine now, and I'm a happy person again (hyperbolically speaking :D). Read more to see how I solved it.

Practice makes perfect: Basic algrebra spreadsheet

One adage that I keep telling myself is as stated in the title above: Practice makes perfect. Want to be good at computer programming? Practice! Want to be good in writing articles? Practice! Want to be good at web development? Taking picture? Problem solving? Practice, practice, practice!

And with my son studying first-grade math now, the same maxim holds true to him as well---"Practice makes perfect, son," I keep telling him.

Don't get me wrong; he is good a math. In fact, he is a GATE student, an avid reader with a keen interest for scientific facts, and a future ocean animal scientist slash doctor slash inventor, whatever his final decision be. But still, silly math mistakes happen, and one way to prevent it is to practice more. I had him done more additions and subtractions, and I DO see the result of the drill.

So what tool did I use? Just a simple Excel sheet printout! With formulas, of course---this is a perfect 'practice' opportunity for me too, don't you think?

Beware: Too many invalid cPanel logins can cause you unable to see your site!

"Bro, we have a problem with the webmail," my client called me on one windy afternoon. "Can you help?"

"Sure! What's the problem?" I replied.

Client: "Can't go to the website. Internet Explorer said something wrong with the connection."

Me: "Other websites OK?"

Client: "Yep. Google, eBay, Facebook are all okay. Only 21watches.com webmail has problem."

Hmm.. perhaps the webmail server is having problem, I thought. But to make sure: "So you can still go to 21watches.com?"

Client: "Yep, I can go ther---oh hold on... No man, it's down too looks like. But yesterday was OK though."

Good, so everything on that site was down... except that it's NOT! I was on that website in that very second---using Firefox, in case the problem with my client was due to his IE misbehaving.

Me: "Perhaps your network guy did something bad? Like blocking your site by accident...."

Client: "No, he's on vacation since last week. Yesterday no problem, and nobody else has access to the router. Heck, nobody here even KNOW what is a router."

What a mystery... Anybody care to guess why?

Facebook Grid Picture

Psst.. wanna have fun with your Facebook Photo Album? Or you just want to jazz up your Facebook pic? Then you've come to the right place---I'll show you how!

If you haven't notice, your pictures in Facebook are organized in a grid structure. To be exact: they will be in a four-column grid. And just like the screenshot below (or the real thing here), you can see that it's very easy to take advantage of this layout. The key is to know how to count. In pixels, that is!

Use the jQuery, Luke!

If you're asking me what's the most useful thing I ever come across when developing websites, my answer will be jQuery. In fact, that's one of the top entries in my to-do list when doing website projects. So important and so useful to me, that it has saved my life!!! Well, actually it's not THAT dramatic really... but with jQuery, it makes implementation faster, easier, and fun-er, thus giving me back those precious long-lost portion of time to get more family time, more game time, and--of course--more sleep.

How so? Quoted from their website:

jQuery is a fast and concise JavaScript Library that simplifies HTML document traversing, event handling, animating, and Ajax interactions for rapid web development.

......say what???

Allow me to break it down so it's easier for you to understand.