ReidBurke

I have read a few articles about how PHP is a perfectly good first language and how it should never be a first. These articles are interesting because my first programming language was PHP† and I have been using it extensively since 2004. One thing is true: it's really easy to get started with PHP. My first real job was creating a system to log phone call metadata from a PBX. I was able to get a working version up quickly ...

I’ve received a great response from the community about my ScrollTabView addon. I’d like to thank all of the visitors and people who have gave their feedback… and especially Eric Miraglia at YUI Blog for mentioning it! You guys rock!

I’ve setup a YUI Addons Trac to be the center for my future YUI development. If you’ve been interested in ScrollTabView, you can use Trac to keep tabs on my development and report problems. As I come up with new stuff, I’ll point my current YUI page over there.

I don’t anticipate developing at a rapid pace; however, subscribing to Trac’s feeds can let you know when I’m making progress!

I've recently been tinkering with the excellent Yahoo! UI Library. My first contribution to the community is ScrollTabView, an extension of TabView that uses a scrolling animation to switch between tabs. (Just check out the examples.) My inspiration was Panic's Coda site as well as a few others. Now it's easy to create a similar effect on your site using YUI. Check out my new YUI addons page to grab the code and view more examples! Update: I've been featured on the official ...

Continuing with recent Yahoo news, the just-launched Y! Live is a new webcasting community similar to justin.tv or Stickam.

Both Y! Live and Stickam allow you to take part in sharing video as a visitor in a broadcaster’s channel, while justin.tv does not. However, I believe Y! Live’s experience is better than any of those competitors. The Y! Live developer API allows you to go beyond search like justin.tv– you can actually mashup video streams. (Stickam doesn’t even have an API.) The site is billed as a “experimental release” so it’ll be interesting to see how Y! Live will evolve. More on the launch is available on their blog.

I’ll be experimenting with the site by going live when I can, stop by and say hi!

Matthew Karnitschnig reporting for The Wall Street Journal:

Yahoo’s board believes that Microsoft’s is trying to take advantage of the recent weakness in the company’s share price to “steal” the company. The decision to reject the offer signals that Yahoo’s board is digging in its heels for what could be a long takeover battle. The company is unlikely to consider any offer below $40 per share, the person said.

Let’s hope Yahoo doesn’t get burned by a possible shareholder revolt. It’s a really interesting move for Yahoo and I’m anxious to see what happens.
[via DF]

So Microsoft wants to buy Yahoo. I would hate to see Yahoo's culture assimilated by Microsoft, especially after visiting Yahoo to see what its like. I believe Wired's claim that the Microsoft and Yahoo are not too far apart is a bit optimistic: Yahoo might appear more laid back, but the two are culturally closer than one might expect. For instance, while Google Inc. foots the bill for employees' meals, Microsoft and Yahoo both make their work forces pay in the ...

So I’m trying to study for my upcoming math course exams. I was recommended by my instructor to use MathXL, “an online homework, tutorial, and assessment system,” by Pearson Education. This web app sucks because I can’t even use the damn thing. The registration process used SSL and required a “strong” password (it complained about my first choice). However, the system then e-mails you that password back in plaintext!

After logging in and finally selecting my course, I am told that the system requires Internet Explorer’s ActiveX. Couldn’t the “I require Microsoft Windows, stop wasting your time” warning be shown before I went into all of this trouble?

I’m going to study math the old-fashioned way now.

Ars Technica explains how the RIAA won the Thomas case. Judging from the article, the evidence was very clear-cut against Thomas and it’s not surprising that she lost given the circumstances.

It’ll be interesting to see how future RIAA trials play out that rely on more contentious interpretation of Copyright law.

What would happen if feedback at a corporate business meeting was like internet comments? A CollegeHumor video.

Deal-a-day site Woot has launched another sub-site: Woot Sellout, which offers deals through Yahoo! Shopping. They’ve been offering stuff for $0.01 for the last few days, which is great if you can stay up until midnight Central time to catch it. (I got three USB mice for $5.03 with shipping.)