Super awesome query that puts MS Excel to shame!

SELECT * FROM Table1 WHERE Table1.principal NOT IN (SELECT principal FROM table2)

with data export to file:

SELECT *
INTO OUTFILE "c:/mydata.csv"
	FIELDS TERMINATED BY ',' OPTIONALLY ENCLOSED BY '"'
	LINES TERMINATED BY "\n"
FROM Table1
WHERE Table1.principal
NOT IN (SELECT principal FROM table2)

New software for Rendering Synthetic Objects into Legacy Photographs.

My Hero!

This release includes the functionality to close the drop down when the user clicks off it. If demand needs it, I’ll work on the blur with a timeout too. Enjoy.

Styled Dropdown

I thought this was interesting… The first tweets regarding the raid on Osama Bin Laden.

Ralph Langner: Cracking Stuxnet, a 21st-century cyber weapon

Just released my Code Lab redesign. Let me know what you think.

eZColumns is a jQuery plugin for newspaper -like columns on the web. It grabs the child elements of a container and organizes them into a top-down, customizable, set of columns. The advanced example also features a super fast searching ability. Check out the eZColumns home page and Jquery project page.

JavaScript enables us to use a special trick to turn any returned value into a boolean. For example, this can be very helpful for running browser feature detection scripts like the one below.

Testing for the HTML5 Canvas

if ( !!document.createElement("canvas").getContext ){
   //run code for browsers that support canvas
}

In this example, document.createElement("canvas") creates dummy element that, if HTML5 is supported, inherits all the methods from the Canvas element. By testing for a Canvas method like .getContext, not .getContext() - this runs code, we can check if the real Canvas exists and is supported.

Here, the first negation converts the .getContext test result (whatever the data type might be) to a boolean. The second negation changes the boolean again to give the proper result.

Testing Negative Cases

If the value is null, undefined, false, "", or 0, then the first negation converts it to true. The second negation changes it to false.

Testing Positive Cases

If the value is object, true, "ANY VALUE” or 1, then the first negation converts it to false. The second negation changes it to true.

This deserves an award; A big one!!!

Have you ever had the “This Page Contains Both Secure and Non-Secure Items” error message in IE?

This is a typical error when working with secure sites and resources that are located in unsecured domains. Luckily, I just remembered an old secret to make the scheme part of an URL relative. See http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3986#section-4.2 for more info.

For example: <img src="//example.com/favicon.png" /> will retrieve the favicon image with the proper protocol; HTTP or HTTPS depending on the relative reference. This is a great method to include dependent JavaScripts and Images that might trigger the “Non-Secure Items” error. It also eliminates the need for hacks to rewrite urls in secure/non-secure sites.

This is the typical URL structure: <scheme>://<net_loc>/<path>;<params>?<query>#<fragment>

Try the following example on a secure and non-secure server:

<script id="jq" src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.4.4/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script>
$(function(){
    alert($("#jq")[0].src)    
});
</script>

If you need to quickly benchmark some code in firefox (maybe chrome too) try the following function to make you life easier…

function benchmark(name, fn, n) { 
   console.time(name); 
   for(var i = 0; i < n; i++) 
      fn(); 
   console.timeEnd(name);  
}

…where name is an arbitrary test name, fn is the function you want to test, and n is the times to run the function.