Well we've been in this house for a little over a year now. I can't say this is exactly the safest neighbourhood to be living in (South Etobicoke), so we're considering installing a security camera, possibly even two. I've been doing some research on CCTV Security Cameras, and it seems like the best choice for additional security. Basically I figure that many intruders would be smart enough to bypass an alarm system, but at least this way they'd be captured by both video and audio monitoring (up to 800 feet, that's crazy!)

Besides, now that you can easily install a hidden CCTV security system, it wouldn't even detract from the appearance of the house, which is a huge plus.

Oh, and there's one other serious plus. We have the college right around the corner from us. After reading this article about how not all Students like Security Cameras, at least I know they won't be hanging around our place!

OK, this is extremely cool. I'm sure many advanced web developers are aware of it already, but I've just discovered XAMPP. What is it? And why do I think it's the coolest thing I've heard of in a while?

Well, most of us web developers host our websites on the LAMP (Linux Apache MySQL Perl/PHP/Python). It's always nice to be able to create & test our apps and websites in a development environment before going live with them. But what if you have a desktop server at home, and you're developing on your laptop, and you're with a client with no live connection? Or you're visiting your mother to show her the new e-commerce motorcycle boots site you're developing for her and her dial-up is too slow?

You need some level of portability. And XAMPP provides exactly that! XAMPP is either a fully bundled or lite version of the LAMP platform, but fully portable. That means that you can install and run the entire web development platform from a memory key! And no worries if you're using Windows, Linux, MAC, and Solaris on all different machines, as XAMPP is available for all of them!

Anyhow, here's the link to the Portable LAMP platform, let me know how you like it!

Sometimes you need a quick way to count the number of characters in a string. Suppose you're limiting a textarea to 1000 characters, you'll want to show the user how much more they can type. Or, perhaps a forum limits your signature length, and you want a quick way to validate it (including BB Code markup). This handy little code snippet provides a textarea and the inline JavaScript to display the number of characters.

Here's what it looks like:

I'm very proud to post this one! This band is from Barrie Ontario, and has given me specific permission to host and promote one of the songs from their EP "Fracture Room Sessions". You can stream and download the MP3 "Quarantine Girl" at the Indie Music forum I moderate!