An example of the e-book icon set in use for a book available in PDF, EPUB, and Mobi formats.

I recently set up a web page for downloading an e-book that is available in multiple formats. I had already been using a small document icon to decorate PDF download links, and now I wanted matching icons for the mobi and EPUB format too.

A Google search didn’t turn up what I was looking for so I created my own based on the PDF icon from the Fugue Icons set by Yusuke Kamiyamane. He so kindly released his icons under a Creative Commons attribution license and now I’m doing the same with the extra two icons.

Download the e-book icons (including the original PDF icon)

Displaying the Icons

A few simple CSS rules are all it takes to automatically display the icons on the appropriate links across an entire website. Here is what I used to produce what you see in the example image above. It also works well for links within a block of text.

.pdf, a[href $=".pdf"], 
.epub, a[href $=".epub"], 
.mobi, a[href $=".mobi"], 
.azw, a[href $=".azw"] {
	padding: 0 0 1px 20px;
	min-height:16px;
}
 
.pdf, a[href $=".pdf"] {
	background: url(icons/document-pdf.png) no-repeat 0 50%;
	}
 
.epub, a[href $=".epub"] {
	background: url(icons/document-epub.png) no-repeat 0 50%;
	}
 
.mobi, .azw, a[href $=".mobi"], a[href $=".azw"] {
	background: url(icons/document-mobi.png) no-repeat 0 50%;
}

Any link ending in .pdf, .epub, .mobi, or .azw will automatically get the appropriate icon applied to the left of it. For example:

<a href="/downloads/myfile.epub">Download my EPUB book</a>

There may be times were an icon needs to be applied manually, for example if the download is wrapped in a zip file. In that case, just apply the appropriate class to the <a> tag. For example:

<a class="epub" href="/downloads/myfile.zip">Download my EPUB book</a>

Making ePub and Kindle File Downloads Work

By the way, I try to stay away from wrapping my e-book downloads in a zip file to make it easier for people with mobile devices to download the file directly on their device. For example, if someone tries to download a zip file on an iPad, it will only work if they have an app installed that knows how to unpack the zip and then offer the option to send that file to iBooks or some other app.

On the other hand, if the download is simply an EPUB file then it automatically opens in iBooks. It cuts down the number of steps, there is much less confusion, and there is certainly less tech support for me that way.

If you try directly linking to those files and it doesn’t work, it may be because your server doesn’t know about those file types. All it takes is a few lines in your .htaccess file to fix it.

AddType application/epub+zip .epub
AddType application/x-mobipocket-ebook .mobi
AddType application/vnd.amazon.ebook .azw

So now you have a set of e-book icons and tips on making them work. I hope you find them useful.

I’ve been wanting mobile Safari to have native date pickers ever since I started creating Web apps for iPhone. Every time I dealt with date fields I had to create pickers with javascript that were just not as good as those for real iPhone apps. I had been checking to see if native pickers were included in each iOS release but forgot about checking iOS 5 until now.

Here are some samples.

So for my own future reference and to help anyone else dealing with this, here is how I made it go.

1. Grab the latest development version of Bad Behavior. Development has been stuck at version 2.1.13 due to a lack of donations so consider donating to the project if this is important to you. I donated a while back but it’s probably time for another one.
2. Unpack the zip file and put the whole bad-behavior folder in your MediaWiki extensions directory.
3. This version of Bad Behavior looks for a settings.ini file in its main directory to override settings. If the file is not there you will get array errors. So even if you don’t need to override settings at least create an empty file with that name.
4. Bad Behavior requires a DatabaseFunctions.php file for some database compatibility functions. This outdated file is no longer included in MediaWiki 1.17.0. Download MediaWiki 1.16.5, which is the last version to include that file. Grab the DatabaseFunctions.php from the includes directory and put it in your current MediaWiki install’s includes directory.

5. Now ignore the Bad Behavior instructions and put this in your MediaWiki LocalSettings.php file:

   include_once( "$IP/includes/DatabaseFunctions.php" );
include( "$IP/extensions/bad-behavior/bad-behavior-mediawiki.php" );

That should do it.

Finding the extra database tables is easy enough with a command line or a few clicks in phpMyAdmin, but finding the post types and taxonomies built-into WordPress and added by other plugins or the theme was more challenging.

Sure, I could have coded something up, but there are several nice plugins for adding custom post types and taxonomies, which I assumed would also show everything existing. I was surprised to find that was not the case and ended up testing every such plugin I could find.

So, to save some time for anyone else on a similar quest, the only one that did the job well (and, of course, the last one I tested) was GD Custom Posts And Taxonomies Tools. The interface is nice and clear and shows built-in post types, custom post types, built-in taxonomies, and custom taxonomies each in separate tables. It shows the full name, slug, a count of the items in that type, along with a few other parameters. In addition, the main page for the plugin shows an overview with counts of each type of post and taxonomy. Perfect.

For those who are interested, here are the other plugins I tried and the features they had for this purpose.

• Custom Press 1.0 — none
• Custom Content Types 1.0.2 — none
• Custom Post Type UI 0.7 — Lists other added post types at the bottom of the screen. Does not show the built-in types. Does not show other taxonomies.
• Simple Custom Post Types 3.1.2 — none
• Ultimate Post Type Manager 1.6.8 — none
• Ultimate Taxonomy Manager 1.1.10 — none
• WP Post Type UI 0.5.2 — none
• Custom Content Type Manager 0.9.3.2 — Shows built-in post and page types only.
• WP Easy Post Types 1.0.1 — none
• Content Types 1.6.5 — none
• Convert Post Types 1.1 — Shows taxonomy names but not slugs.

I stopped by my local Highlander (Kroger) grocery store to pick up a few essential food items (that’s code for ice cream.) They’ve been pushing a locally grown message for a while now with posters and signs around the store. We’re in Northern Illinois and the store has stretched local to mean things like Michigan blueberries and Kentucky cucumbers. It’s within a long day’s drive, I guess.

But  I was not prepared for what awaited me at the front of the store. There, in the featured stuff spot, was big stack of pineapples sporting the largest “Locally Grown” banner the store has displayed so far.

My wife pointed it out to me and we both started laughing out loud. Remember, we live in Illinois, so this was that incredulous, uncontrollable  sort of laughter. I imagine we made quite a scene because I just had to take some photos and then go look at the box to see where all this lovely fruit was grown … Costa Rica.

It just kept getting funnier the more we thought about it. We were still laughing at the checkout so I thought I’d let the manager standing there in on our mirth.

Total stone face. She didn’t get the humor.

We did our best to hold it in until we reached the car then drove home to tell the kids.

I may be in the minority, but I don’t want a Verizon iPhone.

You see, I cheered when Apple chose AT&T for the iPhone. I had been a Verizon customer and was happy to leave. Why? Let’s not forget some of these things:

• Verizon is the company that has removed Bluetooth features from phones. They disabled syncing and file transfer so they could limit photo transfers to over the air where they could charge for each one.
• Verizon also blocked GPS features so 3rd party software or Web apps couldn’t compete with their VZ Navigator and monthly fee. Although they were forced to enable GPS features through a class action lawsuit, the important aGPS data still remains locked for all but VZ Navigator.
• Verizon has blocked transferring ringtones to your phone unless you purchased them through Verizon.
• Verizon is the company famous for lousy customer service and quietly renewing your contract every time you make any little change to your service.
• Verizon’s CEO is known for making boneheaded and customer-unfriendly statements.
• Verizon advertised unlimited data plans with no disclaimer then canceled customer’s accounts without warning for using too much. They were eventually forced to add an asterisk and fine print to their advertising.
• Verizon has a habit of selling personal customer data.
• Verizon has charged customers usage minutes for browsing Verizon’s own Get it Now store.

Now I don’t know how many of these practices still stand today, but they were all in place when I got my iPhone. I always felt like I was fighting my service provider to do the things that seemed natural to do.

Apple changed the game with the iPhone by requiring these kinds of features to just work as part of the package. Photos, ringtones, Web surfing, GPS, music, movies, etc. all work and sync as you would expect. AT&T was willing to play by the new rules and that has spurred the innovation we have today.

Sure, AT&T has experienced growing pains with the influx of iPhone customers. Any network would.

Cell coverage really depends on where you happen to be. It sometimes flip flops between which carrier has the best signal in particular locations, but most of the time I notice all carriers having some of the same trouble spots.

We do have a few areas around here where Verizon coverage is marginally better. But my AT&T coverage is good too and has improved immensely over the last couple years even though I’m not in a major city. We have 3G all over the area and I know AT&T has added towers, replaced antennas, and tuned signal directions. I’ve also seen them change to lower frequencies in some areas to better penetrate through trees and buildings.

The bottom line is that my iPhone has changed the way I do things for the better and the Apple / AT&T partnership has contributed to that experience. My shiny new iPhone 4 is scheduled to arrive tomorrow. It requires renewing my contract for a couple more years and I’m happy to do so.

I’ve learned a few things since then, plus the Gravatar service has a new option that removes the need for a workaround I had to come up with. So it’s time for an update to my now obsolete posts.

Reference Implementation One: Gravatar to an AppleScript Variable

The most common use case of Gravatar in AppleScript is probably to grab someone’s Gravatar image based on an e-mail address then pass it into some other application. Many Mac applications pass image data internally as a TIFF. So here’s an example of looking up a Gravatar and storing the raw picture data in a variable.

Here’s the script: (Open in Script Editor)

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-- Download a Gravatar image for the given e-mail address and store in a variable as a TIFF image. Display error if a matching gravatar doesn't exist.
-- Released under GPL.
-- by Doug Smith, http://smithsrus.com
 
-- The e-mail address to look up.
set email to "someone@somewhere.com"
 
-- Calculate an MD5 for the e-mail address.
set md5_email to do shell script "md5 -q -s `echo " & email & " | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]'`"
 
-- Construct the Gravatar URL.
set grav_url to quoted form of ("http://gravatar.com/avatar/" & md5_email & "?d=404" as text)
 
-- Get the Gravatar image with a timeout of 10 seconds.
try
	set pict_data to do shell script "curl -fsS " & grav_url & " -m 10" as TIFF picture without altering line endings
	tell me to display dialog "Yes, we have a matching Gravatar." buttons {"Okay"} default button 1
on error
	tell me to display dialog "Sorry, there was no matching Gravatar." buttons {"Cancel"} default button 1
end try

As you can see, we end up calling some shell commands because Applescript doesn’t have all of the needed functionality. That’s no big deal because it only uses capabilities built into OS X and should work on any Mac.

Reference Implementation Two: Gravatar to a File

There may be some cases where it’s more useful to download the Gravatar image to a file for later use instead of loading it into a variable. With just a few modifications we can simply save the jpeg file as served up by Gravatar.

Here’s the script: (Open in Script Editor)

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-- Download a Gravatar image for the given e-mail address and store in a temporary file. Display error if a matching gravatar doesn't exist.
-- Released under GPL.
-- by Doug Smith, http://smithsrus.com
 
-- The e-mail address to look up.
set email to "someone@somewhere.com"
 
-- Calculate an MD5 for the e-mail address.
set md5_email to do shell script "md5 -q -s `echo " & email & " | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]'`"
 
-- Construct the Gravatar URL.
set grav_url to quoted form of ("http://gravatar.com/avatar/" & md5_email & "?d=404" as text)
 
-- Make a file name in which to temporarily save the Gravatar.
set grav_file to (path to temporary items) & "gravatar" & md5_email & ".jpg" as text
set grav_POSIX_file to quoted form of POSIX path of grav_file
 
-- Download the Gravatar image to the temporary file with a timeout of 10 seconds.
try
	do shell script "curl -fsS " & grav_url & " -m 10 -o " & grav_POSIX_file
	tell me to display dialog "Yes, we have a matching Gravatar downloaded to " & grav_POSIX_file & "." buttons {"Delete the File"} default button 1
	tell application "System Events"
		delete file grav_file
	end tell
on error
	tell me to display dialog "Sorry, there was no matching Gravatar." buttons {"Cancel"} default button 1
end try

Filling Address Book with Gravatars

My goal for starting this whole project was to be able to populate my Mac Address Book with Gravatar pictures. Those then get automatically synced to my iPhone, which is really nice when receiving calls. A hat tip to Moritz Haarmann for his Gravatar Address Book plugin, which is what started me thinking about this in the first place. His plugin only works on one record at a time so I wanted to expand the concept to mass update selected records or the whole Address Book.

Rather than list the full script here, you can just download the application. You can open it in Script Editor if you want to see how it works. Be sure to back up your Address Book file, just in case. And if you experience errors or odd behavior, try quitting and relaunching Address Book, which often fixes little problems with it.

Be sure to let me know how you like it and if it works well for you. It would be interesting to know what percentage of addresses everyone is finding have Gravatars available now. Enjoy!

Well, today is March 16, 2010. The packet contains a letter dated March 15, 2010, which includes the following text in bold print: Please complete and mail back the enclosed census form today.

Okay, I guess I better get to it.

Question 1: How many people were living or staying in this house, apartment, or mobile home on April 1, 2010?

Hmmmm. There does not seem to be a blank to state that I don’t know how to tell the future.

I put screws and other small parts in the tray as I disassemble each section of the computer. If I’m following a numbered repair guide I try to match the cube number to each step. Otherwise, I just fill the cubes in numerical order as it makes sense. Reassembly is a snap and there’s no losing or mixing up those tiny screws.

Oh, and while I’m snatching kitchen items to use as tools, cookie sheets make great parts trays for longer-term projects. The whole project can be shelved to get it out of the way and then easily resumed without parts getting misplaced.

But there’s no need to have the bloat of Thickbox and jQuery loading on all pages when most of them don’t even use it. That’s why Joost de Valk detailed a nice tip to only load thickbox when needed by checking the page content for references to it. All it takes is a few lines of code in your functions.php file.

Unfortunately, you end up with some broken images because the built-in Thickbox defines their locations in thickbox.js as relative paths:

var tb_pathToImage = "../wp-includes/js/thickbox/loadingAnimation.gif";
var tb_closeImage = "../wp-includes/js/thickbox/tb-close.png";

Those paths get tacked onto the URL of whatever page you’re on, which results in an invalid URL and a couple 404 errors for each use. Now that’s not unique to Joost’s solution. It happens whenever Thickbox is loaded with wp_enqueue_script( ).

It can easily be fixed by adding a couple lines of javascript in the footer to redefine the image path variables. That’s as simple as a few more lines of code in your functions.php file. We’ll use Joost’s technique of only loading it when the page content requires it:

function thickbox_image_paths() {
	global $post;
	wp_reset_query();
	if (is_singular() && strpos($post->post_content,'class="thickbox"') !== false) {
		$thickbox_path = get_option('siteurl') . '/wp-includes/js/thickbox/';
		echo "<script type=\"text/javascript\">\n";
		echo "	var tb_pathToImage = \"${thickbox_path}loadingAnimation.gif\";\n";
		echo "	var tb_closeImage = \"${thickbox_path}tb-close.png\";\n";
		echo "</script>\n";
	}
}
add_action('wp_footer', 'thickbox_image_paths');

My theme uses multiple loops so I had to add the wp_reset_query() to be able to examine the original content. Otherwise it would be looking at the last post in my recent posts box and not see that Thickbox was used in the current content.

There you have it. A nice technique from Joost and a simple addition to complement it.