The Buzz Media » tips

Workout Program for People that Hate Working Out

Riyad Kalla — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 22:06:12 +0000

The idea for this workout program dawned on me the other day as a way to slowly (very slowly) get into a fitness routine that you are meant to keep going the rest of your life. I was sick of training schedules and programs that were so extreme I could only keep them up for [...]

Designing a Secure REST (Web) API without OAuth

Riyad Kalla — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 01:32:31 +0000

Situation You want to develop a RESTful web API for developers that is secure to use, but doesn’t require the complexity of OAuth and takes a simple “pass the credentials in the query” approach… or something equally-as-easy for people to use, but it needs to be secure. You are a smart guy, so you start [...]

QN: Cross-Browser CSS Coding Tips

Riyad Kalla — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 22:02:57 +0000

Smashing Mag has an absolutely excellent article on the most important aspects of CSS (box model, floats, inline vs block, etc.) as well as the cross-browser compatibility issues. The presentation is straight forward, well diagramed and really easy to digest. If you are a web developer, even if you are decent with CSS, give it [...]

QN: Things You Might Not Know About jQuery

Riyad Kalla — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 20:47:27 +0000

jQuery is a very popular JavaScript library used to make writing JavaScript-enabled sites easier; handy shortcuts and pre-defined functions that do popular things and all. David Flanagan (author of jQuery Pocket Reference) has put together 5 tips about jQuery that you most likely didn’t know. My favorite one is the use of namespaces when it [...]

Two Simple Tips For Taking Better Photos

Tim Pollard — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 05:24:31 +0000

Back in my stock/wedding/studio photography days, I learned a lot of stuff that was important to the business, and I’d have to say that the two most important things I learned were composition and lighting. Now I know what you’re going to say: Tim, photography isn’t that complicated with all this new digital camera equipment! [...]

ATM Card Skimmer Crimes Rampant in South East

Riyad Kalla — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 17:55:43 +0000

We reported on ATM Card Skimmers in the past. It was amazing to most readers (me too!) how “normal” the addition of a card skimmer on your average ATM looks. Of course they are manufactured to slip onto the equipment unnoticed, but there is always that hope that you are attentive enough to catch such a [...]

Git Tip: git push ‘No refs in common and none specified’

Riyad Kalla — Thu, 27 May 2010 18:03:39 +0000

Git is a source-control tool used by software developers. I recently switched from Subversion to Git and while things have been mostly smooth, there have been a few “WTF?” moments. I am going to try and blog the few beginner ones I ran into in hopes of helping anyone else. Today I ran a ‘git [...]

WordPress Posts to FaceBook Fan Page

Riyad Kalla — Thu, 27 May 2010 14:11:39 +0000

There are a few WordPress plugins out there (e.g. WordBook) that help you cross-post your WordPress blog posts to your FaceBook Wall, but in our case (and other’s) you want to cross-post your WordPress posts to your FaceBook Fan page, and not the wall. But how do you do that? onecoolsitebloggingtips has 5 excellent tips [...]

Re-entry into UAE / Dubai Fine for Americans and 34 Other Exempt Countries

Riyad Kalla — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 14:45:37 +0000

If you have ever wanted to go to Dubai or anywhere else inside the United Arab Emirates and read recently about the new “no re-entry into the UAE in under 30 days” law that is going around you are probably thinking like I was: “Well, screw that trip…”. As it turns out, this law firstly [...]

20 Windows 7 Tips and Tricks You Will Love

Riyad Kalla — Tue, 05 May 2009 15:12:52 +0000

TIP: You can download Windows 7 RC for free. Ok, you’ve been hearing the buzz about Windows 7, maybe you read our take on it (or saw the screenshot tour), and you want to give it a try. Let’s say you downloaded it, installed it and are now sitting there wondering “Wait, so what’s so [...]

Slow Printing with ReadyNAS NV+

Riyad Kalla — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 21:45:39 +0000

Every since I got my Infrant (now NETGEAR) ReadyNAS NV+, I’ve been using the Print Server feature of it to hook my HP LaserJet 1200 series printer to it. Unfortunately, it’s always exhibited strange printing behavior, more specifically: From most applications, the first time I try and print, the Print job/command is completely ignored. So [...]

Object Oriented-Style CSS Inheritance Tip

Riyad Kalla — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 16:20:29 +0000

I was trying to figure out recently how to apply multiple CSS styles to a single element. What I wanted to be able to do was define a single base style for a particular element, let’s say the P tag, and then define a multitude of differing additional styles for that same tag, like a [...]

How to Get the New Xbox Experience Early

Jigsaw hc — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 01:14:47 +0000

For those of you who have not heard the “New Xbox Experience” is the upcoming dashboard update for the Xbox 360. It is scheduled for release on November 19th and includes a large number of changes including: Netflix Streaming XNA Community Games Avatars Xbox Live Marketplace on the Web Updated Games Marketplace Plus a complete [...]

4 WordPress Tips for Surviving Slashdot, Digg, Reddit or StumbleUpon

Riyad Kalla — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 19:35:21 +0000

We got a story on the front page of Slashdot… and got our assess handed to us literally 2mins later with server load jumping from 0.56 to 10 and then off into the 40s where the server just decided to melt instead of host pages. During the last few hours we’ve been troubleshooting what went [...]

What's the Best Way to Handle Exceptions?

Riyad Kalla — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 18:33:06 +0000

It seems, given my limited experience, that handling exceptions depends entirely on the context in which you are developing. As a fan of “rules” that can be applied to different scenarios I wanted to hit you guys up and see what the rules-of-thumb were with regards to exception handling. Some approaches to exception handling sort [...]

Liquid Gold

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 20:14:44 +0000

A few things to consider on this fine day in this amazing economic state we’re in nowadays… Retirement plans compared… If you had purchased $1000.00 of Nortel stock one year ago, it would now be worth $49.00. With Enron, you would have $16.50 left of the original $1000. With WorldCom, you would have less than [...]

Quick Reference: Things to Say During Sex

Riyad Kalla — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 21:11:46 +0000

Incase you find yourself out of ideas in the bedroom, or out of ways to get your partner to call the police on you, Marc Chung just sent in a quick reference that we can print out and leave next to the bed: (Click for a bigger version)

Installing Android OS on the Nokia N810

Riyad Kalla — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 13:31:18 +0000

The badasses over at Unwired View have figured out how to install the Android OS dev image on the Nokia N810 running the Diablo (latest) firmware; effectively replacing the operating system with Android and allowing you to play around with it long before real Android phones and devices will hit the street. The best part, [...]

Laminate Wood Flooring Guide (with Tips!)

Riyad Kalla — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 14:40:37 +0000

NOTE: There is a lot of good information in here, but if you are impatient please at least read the Tips section below to save yourself a headache later. Introduction So you have a new house or want to spruce up your hold house by putting some laminate wood flooring down? Well I’ve just gotten [...]