Panagiotis Tzamtzis - Digital analytics consultant & Web developer

browsers

3 free tools to quickly test the crossbrowser compatibility

02 May 2011 Web Design 3464

When you develop a new website or apply design changes on an existing one, it is essential to test the crossbrowser compatibility of your design in more than one browsers. This process is called crossbrowser compatibility testing. In order to do all the necessary checks you either have to install all the browsers you wish to test on your own pc or use a 3rd party service that displays you website exactly like it would appear in each browser. There is a wide range of services for this purspose, the following 3 are the ones that from my point of view offer...

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twitter bug

Twitterizer: Solving the 401 bug when calling "GetAccessToken" or "GetRequestToken"

04 Apr 2011 Coding 1786

I recently encountered a strange bug using the Twitterizer API. I couldn’t call “GetAccessToken” without getting a 401 error. After searching about it, I found out that other people encountered the same bug by calling the “GetRequestToken” method (see more info here).  The correct way to get an access token using the twitterizer API is using the following source code sequence: The source code above may crash on the last line. The bug is probably caused by wrong timestamps, Twitter is sensitive to server time inaccuracies. The rash of issues lately is apparently caused by the clocks on Twitter’s servers being...

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Magento: List categories which have the option "Include in navigation menu" set to "No"

29 Mar 2011 Magento 3352

The following source code came in handy for me, when I decided I wanted to show only the top level category in the top navigation menu of a magento store, and only show the child categories in a page whenever the top level category is clicked. This is very useful if one of your top categories contains a lot of subcategories, that will create a giant list in the drop-down menu when the visitor hovers over it. First you have to set the sub categories as active in the magento administrator panel, but the option “Include in navigation menu” should...

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Apple device JailBreak infromation

28 Mar 2011 iPhone 1571

What is jailbreaking? Is it legal? Jailbreaking is the process of gaining root level control of an iDevice and accessing its command line in order to make modifications, remove limitations, and customize the device. This allows users to: Install applications not found/allowed in the App Store. Make modifications to the Springboard, as well as the OS. Customize the device with themes. Under the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) of 2010, jailbreaking is legal. Apple claims that it voids your warranty, but the process is easily reversible. What is pirating? Is it legal? Pirating is the copying, distributing, or downloading of unauthorized...

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New Google Analytics interface (Version 5) is out

18 Mar 2011 Web analytics 2237

Yesterday at the Google Analytics User Conference in San Fransisco they shared a look at the new version of Google Analytics, which is still in beta version. The new version will gradually roll out to everyone. The new version of the Google analytics interface tries to make it easier to get the data you want and to enhance the Google Analytics platform functionality. For example, you can now view multiple advanced segments without needing to also use All Visits. Some of the other most requested features like multiple dashboards in the new version as well. In addition to that custom...

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Connect your iPhone or iPod to an iPhone personal hotspot

16 Mar 2011 iPhone 2191

Thanks to the new iOS firmware (version 4.3) you have the ability to create a personal hotspot from your iPhone device, that can act as a wireless internet gateway for other devices. Thanks to iOS 4.3 (or iOS 4.2.6 on the Verizon iPhone) if you have a tethering plan you can get an iPad Wi-Fi, and jump on the internet pretty much anywhere you want. The iPhone device becomes a tiny internet access point and mobile router. You can connect up to 3 devices to an GSM iPhone  — including the iPad. Just follow the step below: Turn on Wi-Fi personal hotspot on...

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Make iPhone a fully functioning USB drive

10 Mar 2011 iPhone 2876

Well, You can turn your iPhone into a fully functioning USB drive by using a jailbreak tweak available in Cydia. The name of this tweak is USB Drive. After you have installed this tweak on your jailbroken iPhone it will allow you to mount your iPhone as a filesystem to use as a USB device. Using this tweak you can transport videos, images, and files to your iPhone and you can use your iPhone as a normal USB stick. In order to install this tweak on your iPhone first you have to add http://apt.dmytro.me to Cydia then search for “USB Drive”. There...

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How to edit the hosts file in MacOS, Windows and Linux

10 Mar 2011 OS Tricks Web Design 3611

The hosts file is a text file that maps hostnames to IP addresses. Upon typing a url address on the browser, the system is checking if there is a relevant entry on the hosts file and gets the corresponding IP address, else it resolves the IP via the active connection’s DNS servers. The hosts file can also be edited to block certain hostnames (like ad-serving/malicious hosts), or used for web development purposes, i.e. to redirect domains to local addresses. Editing the hosts file in MacOS Open the Terminal.app Start typing Terminal on the Spotlight, or by going into Applications -> Utilities ->...

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