Are you a nine to five programmer? Is all that you learn what you learn while at work or do you have small learning projects that you tackle at night? I keep programming related magazines around me all the time. There is always time for learning new things. After all, the web is constantly changing. A good resource for following new topics is twitter. I have found Tweetchat to be nice for following specific hash tags, such as jQuery or #thesiswp. Twitter is a great resource to find useful new things. If you’re on twitter hit me up. I’m @justinrains. Another good source for information is podcasts. No, you do not need an iPod to listen to podcasts. You just need a computer connected to the Internet. Most of the time you can listen to the podcasts right from the site itself, no other software is needed. Another good developer resource I look forward to reading is jsmag. It usually comes out on the 1st of the month and is ~$5.00 per issue if you buy separately like I do.

You can be a 9-5′er at any job. Does your day end when you leave or clock out, or are you learning afterwards? Do you subscribe to industry magazines or read up on new things in your industry? Don’t let yourself fall into the 9-5′er thing. Keep learning.

What about you? Are you constantly learning or just 9-5 learning?

Hey everyone! Sorry for not updating in such a long time. I have been busy with work and also the outdoors blog. I also wrote a 2009 greeting card for my company. Can you find the Easter eggs? I have been busy learning jQuery and also am starting back in college. I only need four classes to graduate! I’m enrolled in two classes at NKU in the spring. I start back next week.

Anyway, lots of stuff going on. Work is picking up here. If you want to keep up with me you can follow me on twitter. If you want to check out my company more I have created both a twitter and facebook page. I have also used some FBML on the facebook page. If you’re not a fan yet and go to the Easter egg tab you won’t see the hint. That hint is for fans only :] Anyway what’s been going on with you? Leave a comment and let me know.

I haven’t been on here in a few weeks. I have been busy working on client sites plus learning and integrating the twitter API in my recipe site (Twitter profile). I have the site setup so that when someone rates a recipe a new “tweet” is sent out, asking others what they think of the recipe. It also sends out a tweet when I approve a recipe announcing a new recipe. The site also alerts me when a new recipe is added that way I know to do check it out and approve it.

I am also checking out the site textmarks.com to see what kind of cool stuff I can do with their service. Textmarks gives you a “keyword” that someone can send by their cell phone to 41411 and textmarks will respond with a preset message or it can also respond with the output from a web page (thinking something dynamic).

I’m not ready to release it yet but I am working on an API for my URL shortener. URL shorteners are used alot on twitter because of the 140 character limit. I will announce the API here when it’s ready. You can use the site now from a web browser to shorten URLs for free.

Feel free to check out my sites and twitter profiles. If you add me on there let me know you found me from my blog. Thanks!

No tech news today just a wish that everyone has a great Thanksgiving! Let me know if you need a 12seconds.tv invite. Also check out my 12seconds channel.

Happy Thanksgiving on 12seconds.tv

I have heard that some readers will click on an ad as a way of leaving a “tip” for the blogger. I do not do this as I am browsing. If I run across a post I really like I will either

• Leave a comment
• Subscribe by e-mail or google reader to the blog

I believe over time it is much more valuable to have a comment left on a blog or a new subscriber to a blog. If someone clicks on an ad chances are they are taken away from your site and may well never return. I’m in this thing for long term and the money generated from a click is very little compared to a comment or a new subscriber. What do you think? Leave me a comment.

I have decided to start showing some weekly link love to the top droppers on my Entrecard. The top droppers are:

1. Nice2All
2. Mr Sun Studios
3. 1stopmom
4. Pandora’s Casket
5. I’m Beautiful Like Me
6. NateBal.com
7. 10 things I hate about your site
8. Secluded Habitat
9. Developer Tips
10. Angel’s Answers

Want your web site link to appear in my weekly top droppers? Join Entrecard and drop on my blog every day and your link could appear!

“Captcha” is when a site uses an image like the above image and requires that the user verifies it. The main use for it is bot protection. Malicious bots that will try to spam or get around normal security built in around mail functions. I needed a PHP captcha script and I found this PHP captcha script. It is super simple to setup and use. I have tested it out and it does not allow the submission if the captcha input does not match the letters/numbers in the dynamically generated image. I will definitely be using this code in more projects to stop spam sign ups.

I downloaded Google Chrome yesterday. I like the browser and it does seem a little quicker than my Firefox browser. I do admit though that I have three toolbars that I use in Firefox. Two of those toolbars/addins I could not live without. The first is the Stumbleupon toolbar. That toolbar makes it so handy to give a site the thumbs up when I hit a site I like. Use the SU link to see my stumbleupon page. Feel free to add me The second browser extension I cannot live without is the del.icio.us toolbar/buttons. I use del.icou.us for all of my bookmarking after my laptop crashed and I lost all of my bookmarks.

The other item that is slightly annoying is the lack of keeping the user interface with windows standards. One of the first items I learned when coding for windows is the standards for items such as minimize/maximize and also the File, Edit, etc toolbar. Google Chrome does not have the File menu and also uses non-standard minimize/maximize buttons. Note: Ctrl-B will bring up the bookmarks bar. Click the star next to the URL to add a bookmark.

Once websites release toolbars for Google Chrome I believe the usage will take off. I don’t know if it will pass Firefox or not because as of today Google Chrome is only available for Windows XP/Vista. No support for Windows 2k or the Mac. But then again it’s in a very early beta release and I’m sure once bugs are fixed there will be versions for other platforms.

What are your thoughts about the Google Chrome browser? Are you using it as your primary browser or waiting on a certain feature?

I’m writing this post to test the Amazon Auto Link Plugin for wordpress. It is supposed to add in my affiliate code to any amazon links.

I just finished reading local Cincinnati guy Pete Blackshaw‘s book titled “Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3,000: Running a Business in Today’s Consumer-Driven World“. Great book, I recommend it. Read it and see how the world is being changed by consumer generated media.

I have some 12seconds invites available. If you’re interested in a 12seconds.tv invite add a comment or ask me on twitter.