Alright, it’s finally out. The famed 3.6 that will have a tremendous CSS3 support and all that other crap If you have it, check out my CSS3 tutorials  to see how it works on backgrounds, border and opacity, and other border properties.

I’m running Mozilla 3.6 right now, so let me tell you what I think about it:

The Good Stuff

• Themes have been eliminated and replaced with “personas” that do not require installation. Also, you can preview before committing to the change of design
• neater design: the top of the browser does not take as much space.
• download menu on bottom right. Click and you get a menu of all the items downloading/downloaded plus options
• better CSS3 support and other support
• considerably faster loading (idk how they do THAT)

All that sounds great but…that’s not the whole story.

The Bad Stuff

• Glitches, tons of them. I’m running a W7 Ultimate and I cannot open two windows simultaneously anymore
• Cannot open “Downloads” windows, actually any new window at all (not even java console, and other stuff like that)
• Downloads seem to freeze up and cease to work completely. I cannot even remove them from the drop down (“up?”) menu on the bottom right.
• While “personas” are great, I miss my transparent theme which doesn’t work anymore

That’s about it. It’s really damn annoying though. I hope they come up with a fix soon or I’ll have to start using Chrome more extensively. It might be a W7 64-bit thing, and even if it is, that’s a huge setback for the guys at Mozilla.

I hope you enjoy the new browser!

Yay! Happy New Year to everyone. We’ve changed some things around here on Dave PC Guy. As you’ll notice, the theme looks a bit different and it’s much cleaner. I don’t know, I like it better this way.

We’ve also added a contact form to our contact page so that you won’t have to e-mail us directly. It’s much better

We will also be launching a new part of Dave PC Guy that will finally offer out PSD to XHTML/CSS conversion services, as well as other designing services. It’s going to be pretty bad-ass.

We’ve reworked some SEO on the site as well so we’ll be getting some more traffic.

Look forward to more updates soon!

We here at DavePCGuy have finally launched our first independent website, done completely without an outside sponsor!

It’s called Only A Quote. Basically, what it is, is a database of quotes from different kinds of places (added one at a time to ensure quality) where the users only see a single quote with a random button and other information. You click the “Random” button and you get another quote. It’s a lot nicer than all the other quote websites because it’s not just some stupid quotes in a table with a lame design.

What it is

I fully launched it on the 19th and well, let me tell you about it. I know everyone is bored of the endless Quote websites out there. Especially with their boring design, endless pages of quotes, and all that. They’re not up to date, they’re still going with the 90’s designs. Here’s how our site is different:

1.            It has a slick, new design of ink against paper (very popular right now)

2.            It features only a SINGLE random quote from a database

3.            Random button or refresh (works only when the address is the original onlyaquote.com without an ID) will pull up a new quote so no more looking around for quotes through endless hordes of information

4.            USER-SUBMITTED quotes. That’s right, on the left of the main site is a tab that will pull up a submission form for user generated content. Pretty revolutionary, no? Everyone has a saying and now they can put it somewhere where it will be seen…and not buried under hundreds of thousands of quotes

5.            SHARING capability. A “tweet it” and a “facebook” button allows the viewer to instantly share the quote and the web-address with others. Saw a funny quote? Just “tweet it” to others on twitter with a shortlink to the permalink. Each permalink is only for a single quote as well.

That’s about it. We have about two hundred quotes in our database, but that’s just the start. With more traffic, our site will gain more user-generated quotes that we will feature. Just check out the site!

Support

Hey, so if you want to support us, there are a lot of ways.

1. First, you could get on Only A Quote, look through some quotes, and send us some of your own quotes
2. Second, you could support us by becoming a fan to OaQ Facebook Fan Page.
3. Third, follow the OaQ twitter page (I’d rather you’d go with the facebook fan page ^^^^^^).
4. Fourth, you can put up that banner you see at the beginning of the post if that’s not too much trouble
5. Fifth, write an article about our page? =D

BANNER CODE:

<a href=”http://www.onlyaquote.com/”><img title=”Only A Quote” src=”http://www.davepcguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/banner.jpg” alt=”" width=”500″ height=”60″ /></a>

Hey everyone, Dave and I are hosting a giveaway. We’ve recently stumbled upon a large number of Google Voice invites and we’re prepared to give them away. Because honestly, we’ve already used a large number of those on ourselves, and neither Dave nor I can keep up with twelve different numbers.

The GiveAway

So here’s the deal, we have ten invites and we’re doing a sort of lottery system. Every two days, we will pick one person that is subscribed to our site through Feedburner and we’ll send them a nice welcome package:) All you have to do is subscribe, and then when we send you our welcome package, just report back, comment on our “GiveAway” post (there’ll be a new one for every winner) and we’ll send you another e-mail with the invite.

subscribe

Use this subscription module in the right side-bar. You’ll have to active your subscription as well otherwise your e-mail won’t show up on our FeedBurner account.

This will go on for almost three weeks.

RULES:

1. You have to subscribe through feedburner. If you subscribe through RSS, that’s alright but we won’t be able to see your e-mail address then
2. You have to comment back to claim your prize, otherwise we won’t know if the e-mail was fake, or if the winner wants the invite
3. You have to agree to let us pick on you in one of our articles haha (okay, that’s not a rule, but we’ll write an article about you anyways)

The GiveAway:

1. The give away features a single unactivated Google Voice invite
2. We are in no way responsible as to what you do with that invite
3. If Google Voice doesn’t work in your country, sorry, but there is nothing we can do about that.

GIVEAWAY CALENDER

Our first giveaway will be on Tuesday, the 10th of November, 2009.

What is Google Voice Anyways?

Google Voice Sidebar

Google Voice is a Google service that allows you to connect several phones together under a single number. For example, my phone has a number X, my home phone has a number Y. If you call my google phone number Z, both my X and Y phones will ring. You can also block people with the service, create your own custom voice mails. You can send texts from your new Google Phone Number, you can call people with it and do all sorts of crazy things.

On the left here, is part of the google voice website, the sidebar. Here, as you can see, you have tons of options.

1. the inbox is where all your text message conversations are recorded (don’t worry, you can delete them) but it’s nice because you can keep track of numerous conversations and save important texts you received. Also, if you’re like me, it happens sometimes that you accidentally delete the SMS messages on your phone and here’s where you can view them. You can also reply to text messages.
2. The Starred messages are just your favorites or bookmarked ones.
3. History as far as I can tell, works the same as inbox, denoting sent and received SMS messages
4. Spam and Trash are self-explanatory
5. Under Contacts, you can save different numbers to use online for texting or placing calls. Note that when you place a call, Google Voice connects your phone and the dialed phone number, it’s not skype. Also, when you get a text message, the text message will have the senders number there. If the sender is in your contact list, their number will be replaced by their name
6. Voicemail will show you, guess what?, your voicemails. There will be a transcribed version as well as an audio recording of the voicemail
7. SMS works just like the Inbox, as far as I’m aware, only filtering out any voicemail and call information
8. Recorded houses all your recorded calls. Just press “4″ during a convo, and the recording starts
9. Placed, Received, and Missed are self-explanatory, they refer to phone calls.
10. Calling Credit: Now this is interesting, the google voice service charges when you call out of country, but ridiculously small amounts. You can set up billing and such and make international calls. Have fun with that.

One great thing about Google Voice is that you can TEXT online and receive the messages as well. Whenever you make a call, Google Voice will connect your registered phone with the targeted caller. You can’t use it like Skype, no online voice chats or anything.

More Features:

Google Voice Settings

Phones: You can change your Google Voice Number, it costs $10 which is honestly not that bad. The initial number is free, so choose wisely. What’s great though is that you can choose any number you want that is available. It doesn’t matter what area code your current number is in or where you live. I have google voice number with a California area code. You can also choose if you want any particular letters, numbers, or words in your number and Google will search its available number list. My number, for example, ends with OMFG (6634) which is pretty cool.

Google Voice Settings Voicemail

Voicemail & SMS: Here are a number of great options. You can record your voicemail greetings online, record your own name that people will hear when they call. You can also get voicemail notifications over your email. There’s an option to choose which phone number to send the text messages to (in case you have multiple phones connected to a single Google Number). There’s an option to forward texts to your e-mail. You can change your voicemail pin (used to access voicemail through your phone) and you can choose to have voicemails transcribed. Simple enough, eh?

Google Voice Settings Call

Calls: Ah, my favorite part about Google Voice. You can screen calls. Whenever a caller dials your Google Number, they will be asked to say their name. Their name will be recorded and once the call reaches you, you’ll hear the recording and chooce whether or not to pick up. You’ve a couple options about the screening. The Call Presentation is just exactly what I’m talking about, when you pick up your phone, you’ll either get a menu with options (whether or not to pick up etc) or you can pick up the same way you would with your regular number. Caller ID is self-explanatory and the “Do Not Disturb” feature will tell the caller not to disturb you and send them straight to voicemail. Neat, huh?

Groups: Here you can filter the previous settings according to your contacts. You can place your contacts into distinct groups (family, friends, work etc) and each group can have different settings.

Call Widgets

Call Widgets: They are, simply put, shortcuts you can put on your website that will connect the users with you. Automatic dialing etc. It’s pretty cool and I might put one here, later.

Billing and Account: self-explanatory Billing is used to add credit to your Google Voice account, and Account has all your password info and stuff

And that’s about it for Google Voice. Don’t forget to Subscribe by E-mail on your page.

Ah, so google came out with yet another feature. Some time ago, I talked about the Google Social Search that was in its developmental stage. Well, Google just came out with its new Google Privacy Dashboard. It’s another step for Google to become more transparent and less, mischievous. Read about their Google Privacy effort, it looks like they’re really trying.

The Dashboard, supposedly, contains all the information that google has stored about you, including Google:

• blogger information
• contacts
• friend connect
• gmail
• IGoogle
• Reader
• Talk
• Voice
• Analytics
• Adsense
• Docs
• Calender
• your general Account info

Google Dashboard

And loads of other information. This is what my GMAIL statistics looked like (click to full view):

GMAIL

As you can see, it lists how many emails you received, how many in trash, how many you’ve sent, pretty standard info. It also allows you to jump into the Gmail settings on the right. For those of you that use Google Voice. You’ll get similar statistics:

Google Voice

If you’ve ever used your Google account to connect or access other websites, the permissions are also saved:

Google Account

Some of the feature don’t yet work for me, but that maybe because it has only just now launched. The Google Blog entry will explain the features in-depth.

Here’s the video explaining Google Dashboard:

If you have a google account, a youtube account, or a blogger account. Check out the dashboard and see what Google has to say about you.

Google Social Search is a new Google feature that seems to be another addition to Google’s long list of diverse services that include AdSense, Blogspot, etc

It’s finally here, or it will be pretty soon. The “Social Search” is basically an extension to google that searches through your friend’s list on variety of social networks, including Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr. Okay, now don’t start laughing. Why do I say that? Oh COME ON! FLICKR?! Flickr is owned by Yahoo inc. who is THE competitor to Google Inc. in every way possible. Yahoo teamed up with Microsoft to create bing. Yahoo has its own Ad system, and so does Google with Google Ads.

It’s quite strange to me that Yahoo allows, willingly (or unwillingly?) Google to use Flickr in its social search.

Okay, so what’s Google Social Search?

Basically, whenever you search on Google (and you’re signed in), Google brings up its usual stuff, the webpages, a map maybe, pictures, and perhaps products. Now though, what will also come up will be your and your friends’ tweets, status updates (on facebook), pictures (on flickr) and wherever else. I have to agree, it’s a really nice idea because I don’t have to sift through thousands of tweets to find one exact one (in case I forgot to “favorite” it).

Here are a couple videos explaining the concept:


Here’s the official Google blog

PROBLEMS:

I think this whole concept is a huge problem, why?

This way, google will have access to all your data to cache and store in their databases. They will have even more data they can use for ad targetting by basically accessing your private information. This bit was for you all Google Conpiracists

Windows 7 is here! Dave already installed his and will probably write an article about it, but before THAT happens. Let’s look at all the other stuff we’re looking forward to.

If you arrived at our homepage, you’ll notice a ticker above that is counting down the release of:

Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala!

The RC has already come out and I’m looking forward to the real thing in a couple of days. So what’s it packing under the hood?

New Features:

1. New boot routine called “Upstart” that will enable FASTER booting!
2. New software installation interface that replaces the old “add/remove” thing. It’s called the “Software Center”
3. New GNOME, well, that was expected but I still need to include it here! This one, unfortunately, replaced my beloved pidgin with empathy
4. The list goes on.

So let me just quickly tell you what’s actually EXCITING about this release. We’re finally seeing the new GRUB 2 on Ubuntu, which provides Linux users with countless new features that I have no idea what they are (perhaps a better UI?). There’s also a new firewall that’s supposed to be dumb-easy to use. Finally, for all you Netbook users, there’s finally a KDE Kubuntu Netbook distro release in the 9.10 series. I surely appreciate that, because I love KDE and can’t wait to see if Kubuntu 9.10 will be my lucky distro that will actually work on my laptop!

Also, among the less-exciting news. The new EXT4 partition format is up and ready to go. The new linux kernel is as well (but they come out all the time, so nothing new for me)

Windows…8?

I’ve read a lot of crazy articles on Windows 8 lately. It’s really stupid, 7 has only come out a few days ago. Nevertheless, if you get on slashdot, you’ll spot an article discussing the future Windowses once in a while. They theorized upon the 128-bit systems, even 256-bit systems. It’s really crazy, and I can’t wait to see it. Here’s a concept video I found on youtube:

It came out about 5 months ago, and to be honest, I can see it as being the future windows. I mean, it’d be great if we finally got rid of that whole task bar thing, and separated the start button from the taskbar. Anyways, if you want to read up on the Windows 8 mania, go ahead. No one is stopping you. Here’s a good site to start.

OS…X?

Alright, I’m sure you’ve already figured out, I’m not much of a mac fan but I do have to give it credit for coming out with a new OS this year to counter Windows 7. The “Snow Leopard” has tons of new feature that you can read about on Wikipedia. To me, honestly, it seems like Apple  finally got the right idea and started copying what GNOME and KDE have already accomplished (not to say Microsoft does not do that either) including the multiple desktop feature….that’s in there, right? I’m not just making it up? Okay, it’s there, people just don’t know about it

A Tribute to W7

Windows 7 is really not old news. I can’t wait to use it on my computer to replace my old XP. Many users will probably do the same, Vista was not worth it. I’m honestly happy it has finally come out.

So, I applaud Microsoft for coming out with what looks like, in Dave’s words, the “true successor to XP”.

See you next time!

IBM and Ubuntu article

I was roaming around slashdot and found an interesting article on the Linux distro Ubuntu. It turns out IBM and Ubuntu are walking hand in hand together, trying to counter Windows 7 dominion (it’s coming out pretty soon, isn’t it?). I personally love Ubuntu but I can never migrate to it because Ubuntu does not have any of the Adobe products that I love to use (ie. Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver…) which means I use Ubuntu only when I’m at school and need a quiet, reliable OS that loads OpenOffice within a couple seconds.

Ubuntu is highly reliable when it comes to speed. My computer loads within half a minute with Ubuntu while it takes up to five minutes until my Windows XP SP3 connects to internet and Open Office loads up. Nevertheless, I still can’t use Ubuntu for every day tasks I’m involved in (by every day, I mean PHP, HTML, and CSS development that requires me to use DreamWeaver). Hopefully soon, I’ll migrate to Linux and use something other than that blasted Dreamweaver but until that day comes, I’m stuck with Windows.

What’s amazing now is that Ubuntu, a single Linux distro, has all the might of IBM behind it through the Microsoft-free PC project. With that comes the Open Collaboration Client Solution software which right now encompasses Lotus Symphony and Notes (do a little research on those, okay?). What it means for users like me is that there will be an increase of Ubuntu apps to replace its Windows counterparts. Now, don’t get all Ubuntu-HxC-User on me because I know there is a database of Linux applications to replace Windows software, but we all know it’s just not the same. Using Adobe Photoshop CS4 is not the same as using Gimp. So don’t even try that on me.

The point is, if IBM backs Ubuntu, that means software developers as well as computer users will try it out! Especially now that Windows 7 is coming to replace Vista through a costly upgrade.

May the best OS win!

I thought I’d start updating on what our plans here at davepcguy.com are.

Article:

I’m currently writing two different articles, one is one Good PHP Practices which deals with good habits while writing code. I’m basically aggregating different articles that deal with this and highlighting the most important ones.

Next, I’ll be comparing the different URL shortlinks, and I’m well on the way with that. It’s an interesting article comparing bit.ly, tinyurl.com, and other such services.

Launched Websites:

We’ve finally launched a chiropractic website! Go check it out

gcgsixes.com

please check out the “specials” where my custom php e-mail script is used!

Future Launches

We’re planning three more websites to launch. One is a personal project of mine that I’ve mentioned earlier (a lot earlier, months ago) and it’ll be surprise launch when it comes out.

Next website we’ll be launching should be done in a couple of weeks. It involves a script akin to fmylife which I will be discussing in my next few articles. It will be a loooong painful process and we’ll manage it, I’m sure

Anyways, see you soon! Dave will have an article ready by the end of the week! and I’ll be posting another article once I’m done with a current PSD template I’m working on.

So you want to learn PHP, huh? I implore you to learn the HTML basics and some CSS first. CSS is not mandatory but it’ll come handy. HTML’s mandatory because of forms. Forms are essential for user data input and other actions in PHP.

Use these websites as guidelines, you’ll have to learn PHP on your own basically. Flip through them and whenever you can’t understand one part, get on another website and research it there. It’s how I’ve learned PHP. Get a book or two on PHP as well, they are structured very differently than online websites and some even feature a CD with example scripts. Most websites do not. Use this article wisely and most important of all, have fun.

So here we go:

1. W3Schools

W3Schools is an awesome resource. I’d say it’s a little more for the advanced users who know the terminology and the concepts beforehand. It features a full range of tutorials from how to write strings to making mail forms. They also show you how to implement AJAX with PHP and how to use MySQL databases with PHP in great detail. Most of the tutorials on this website are rather referential but they work out for the best. Once you get some of the basics down like how to set up functions, loops, your variables, and you understand the fundamentals of PHP, this website will be your greatest tool. It teaches you the advanced stuff as well as reviews the basics. Also, the website features a range full of references, ie for all the important sections of PHP, there is a reference sheet that briefly explains the function or the section and shows you all the ways it can be used. For example, if you want to use the date() function, there’s a cheatsheet where it shows you all the parameters you can use with this function.

This website useful not only for PHP but for other Web-Development code as well. There are tutorials on HTML, CSS, Javascript, XML, and others. So if you need to brush up on your forms, just click on the HTML tab and find the forms article in the left sidebar

2. Zend Dev Zone

Zend is a great piece of software, now what’s more amazing are the tutorials that the Zend Developer Zone features. The link above is to my favorite PHP tutorial. You can, of course, browse around the other tutorials offered. This tutorial set is the best I know of that’s for free and teaches you everything you need to know with a bit of humor and a lot of fun. The tutorial set goes through from the beginning of setting up a server at home and continues on with the basics such as defining a string, the basics of loops, and accessing databases. Everything you need to know is explained thoroughly and it’s very easy to understand, even the more heavy stuff like database modification, and object-oriented programming. At the end, the tutorial features a kind of “graduation” where you’ll create your own PHP app alongside the tutorial. It tests your understanding of the subject.

3. TutsPlus

tutsplus screenshot

Nettuts+ is probably the best resource for an all-around person when it comes to design and web-development. These guys have tutorials on Photoshop, PHP, CSS, Illustrator, and many other for your convenience. They feature tutorials from the basics to the downright hardcore stuff. You can pay for the premium account and with that, you’ll receive special care such as scripts, and original files involved in their tutorials. I haven’t tried the video tutorials just yet but those are there as well for anyone to have fun with.

4. Good-Tutorials

Good tutorials

Good-tutorials.com is probably my favorite tutorial website. I did not learn PHP from there however. It’s a great website to find other websites, so to speak. If you look under the PHP section, you’ll find lots of great tutorials, tips&tricks, that you’d never think would be available online for free. Through this site, I found all the others. They all feature their tutorials on good-tutorials. You can add your own tuts if you wish, it’s what I do. I recommend you use this site for PHP only after you learn the basics. If you want to learn anything other than PHP, such as how to use photoshop or illustrator, be sure to check this place out.

Anyways, that’s it. Look through these sites and learn all you can. I hope this article helps you out on your road to learning PHP!