Blogged in Web Design, Internet by Matt on Thursday June 22, 2006
In a previous post I touched on and provided some code for CSS Image Rollovers. That code worked properly in Internet Explorer, with a pre-loading script. Through doing some more reading and tinkering I’ve decided to share the “best” way to implement the effect for cross browser compatibility.
This time around we’re going to use Unordered Lists to hold our “navigation header” while also holding the individual rollover effects per link. In fact if you take a glance over to the right side of this page, the menu uses the same technique, except I’m not using a background image for the rollover effect. This time around instead of switching images based on element state (hover, active, so forth) we are going to move the background images position to give us a “rollover” effect.
The advantages to using a single image and moving its background position for Image Rollovers are numerous. First of all there is no preloading necessary as only one image is used. CSS Based Image rollovers that use multiple images work “fine” in most browsers, however with Internet Explorer the site will “load” each time that rollover is used, and if images haven’t loaded with other browsers the rollover effect may be missing. Now that we understand the reasoning behind using a single image, let’s get started!
(more…)
Popularity: 100% [?]
Share This
Blogged in Web Design, Internet by Matt on Wednesday June 21, 2006
Anyone running a blog or a website that has an open commenting system is sure to be more then familiar with spam. WordPress’s Akismet service works great, however if you have content on your blog or any website that isn’t protected by Akismet you’re bound to be hit by spam.
There are numerous ways to restrict access to your website PHP, .htaccess, mod_rewrite and so forth, however in this example we’re going to use a .htaccess file to deny acccess by IP Address. Below you will find the code to paste into your .htaccess file to restrict access. Whenever a user visits your website from the IP or IP Blocks listed below they will be redirected to your 403 Forbidden page.
order allow,deny
deny from 59.34.113.
deny from 60.176.134.
deny from 60.178.66.
deny from 61.149.45.
allow from all
To make the above function correctly simply copy and paste the above text into your .htaccess file, once updated upload the file to your webserver. How the above code work is as follows; the user connects to your website, .htaccess tells Apache to deny the IP addresses listed in the “deny from xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx” line, once denied the web server send them to your 403 Forbidden page. By adding a full IP range of XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX you block from that IP only, however by adding only XXX.XXX.XXX. you block from that the entire range that follows the XXX.XXX.XXX. . Basically the “blank space” is a wild card. Be careful when you begin blocking large ranges of IP Addresses, as some countries/telecomms may only have a few IP Blocks.
By using the same syntax as the code above you can also block users based by referer. Many spammers crosslink between numerous sites to boost their search engine rankings. So in short to block by referer we use the following code.
order allow,deny
deny from www.nasty.com
deny from .nasty.com
allow from all
Just as before we’ve blocked users coming from the above referer. Before you implement any of these changes be sure you double check all referers as well as IP’s that you plan to block. By making a small typo you can eliminate access to your website all together.
If you’d like a semi-thorough list of IP Addresses that are of confirmed spammers that have got around Akismet, you can click here to get a copy of the current .htaccess I use on all of my websites. Use this at your own discretion!
Popularity: 67% [?]
Share This
Blogged in MMORPGs, Games by Matt on Friday June 2, 2006
In mid and late 2004 the buzz started building around a MMORPG that promised to bring MMORPG game play and elements to players without a monthly subscription fee. Lofty goals and claims for a starter company, however some of these starters were lead programmers and designers from the brain trust known as Blizzard. This ambitious title is none other then Guild Wars by ArenaNet.
The beautiful graphics of Guild Wars, plenty of Blooming and Blurring to go around!
Guild Wars was billed to be a MMORPG that featured all the consistent updates and content additions as “traditional MMORPGs” all while managing to keep a more casual approach to MMORPGs without the cost of a monthly fee. Did ArenaNet deliver on their promise of making Guild Wars play and feel like a subscription based MMORPG? Depending on the elements you’d like to look at, the idea of Guild Wars being a subscriptionless MMOPRG can vary greatly.
(more…)
Popularity: 38% [?]
Share This
