Shantibhushan Naik

Tag: auto

  • Fixed footer auto height content

    While redesigning one of my pet projects – Simplememos – I came across a very pesky issue on layouts. I wanted a simple header/content/footer layout, with some specific behaviors. Header is part of content, content is using up 100% of whatever area is left after positioning footer fixed at bottom. Sounds easy? Well, what if the content has nothing inside? Yes, all of my content inside was absolutely positioned ‘notes’ that meant content had nothing by which it can auto-size itself! I also needed to have proper visual layout for all screen sizes, handle browser resize, maximize, restore for ALL browsers.

    The simple answer, yes I have that layout. Take a look at Simplememos, and feel free to play around in any browser of your choice.

    From what I experienced, played around, researched, and figured out eventually was that there is no CSS way of doing this. My own philosophy is to write less, and let CSS handle the details of my layouts as I have specified. But as many seasoned web players know, browsers come with all variations of CSS interpretations, and then you see all those threads on stack overflow around layouts, you’ll definitely have some fix, but then again it won’t work for your specific case if you had like the one I had.

    I can’t say stack overflow wasn’t of any help. In fact, I gathered many useful points from across a variety of stack overflow posts, replies, code snippets, and eventually I came up with a version that works for my own needs.

    My implementation was quite simple, but is a mix of CSS and JS. I couldn’t avoid JS, unless I go with CSS expressions which in a nutshell is JS to me.

    I created 2 regions as below-
    <div id="content">... my header, content inside ...</div>
    <div id="non-content">... my footer here ...</div>

    My div#non-content auto expands to my footer, since footer is a text. However, my div#content has only absolutely positioned divs, so it has no auto-expand criteria as such. Thus, I jig up jQuery’s document.ready event to dynamically resize div#content

    $(document).ready(
    div#content's height= (browser window's height - div#non-content's height)
    )

    And I also hook the window’s resize event to do the same dynamic height change again.
    $(window).resize(
    // Same code to dynamically resize div#content to occupy 100% of remaining available width
    div#content's height= (browser window's height - div#non-content's height)
    )

    There are some additional things I could have done
    1. Include a spacer image img#spacer-height that is hidden but dynamically resized to occupy maximum available height, and another image img#spacer-width to occupy maximum available width. I have used this for IE6 and below one time to handle overflow:auto for div#content. Without any content, setting width, and height is OK, but IE6 never bothers to show up any scrollbars.
    $('.spacer-width').width= window's width
    $('.spacer-height').height= (window's height - div#non-content's height)
    2. Use tables! This would have been the best option, but sadly FF does not support overflow:auto’s in table cells. As alternatives I didn’t bother to emded div’s, because I had already got to the point where I am having tables, divs, CSS, and JS to resize the div anyways.

    You can see my source in action on my own Simplememos site. If you have pure CSS alternatives, I’ll be more than happy to hear!

    Aside from the above, I must say the experience of using Knockout JS, custom KO bindings, jQuery, and extending jQuery selectors was a rewarding experience. I have these, and quite a number of stack overflow posts open for quite a few months now.

  • Outlook export to Thunderbird

    There is no straight (should I say “easy”) way to export Outlook mails to Thunderbird. Using Thunderbird’s import from Outlook did not work since quite a few emails came up as raw HTML, and I had to manually change Automatic encoding detection to OFF, Universal to see the contents each time.
    A sure-shot (well… which took me 99% of the) way was Outlook –> Import into Outlook Express –> Import into Thunderbird. This worked, but with one sad issue – non-English attachment names are not as original. If you can live with that, then this is the surest way to go !

    Few references which helped-
    Import .pst files – MozillaZine KB

  • Extremely useful tips for Java

    1. A .java class can contain only one top-level public class.  All other top level classes in same .java file cannot be private or protected or public, only default (package-level access) is allowed.
    2. If no package is specified for class, it belongs to unnamed package – which cannot be imported.
    3. Unlike Linux utilities, long parameters or short parameters to java(c) need just a space before parameter value. e.g. -classpath <classpath> or -cp <classpath> are same. There is no -classpath=<classpath> syntax in java(c) command line.
    4. 8 primitive types (byte, short, int, long, float, double, char, boolean), special type void, and base type for all objects – java.lang.Object.
    5. null is not a keyword, type. It is a value.
    6. String objects created using short-hand String A= "a string";
      syntax creates Strings on pool in heap. A is pointer (32-bit to max. 64-bit) to a String object “a string” on heap memory allocated to your program. Using short-hand syntax to “a string” on String B= "a string"; will point to same string object on heap.
    7. Object gets garbage-collected, not it’s reference.
    8. Garbage collection is indeterminate. You cannot guarantee freeing of memory by forcing System.gc()
    9. finalize method is invoked only once before being removed from memory. Always call super.finalize() if you override it.
    10. Parameters (primitive, references) are always passed-by-value. There is no pass-by-reference in Java. The references passed can be used to modify the object the reference points, but not the reference itself is not modified.
    11. Return values from function are also passed by value, never by reference.
    12. Compound operators (+=, -=, *= etc) automatically cast. Compiler never throws any error on data mismatch.
    13. & (and) results in 1 if both are 1, | (or) results in 0 if both are 0, ^ (xor) results in 1 if either operand is 1
    14. char supports increment, decrement operators.
    15. The default isequal() implementation of Object tests for reference equality, which is same as ==.
    16. When using operators, Java automatically promotes values to int or higher. For values below int – byte, short – an explicit cast is required.
    17. extends comes first then implements
    18. Java tokenizes your source into separators (tab or space), keywords, operators, literals, identifiers (variable names).
    19. new zeroes Object’s fields (instance variables), hence explicit initialization can be skipped.
    20. import static allows importing static variables like System.out into your program. Hence, you can simply use out without prefixing it with class name System.
    21. local variables must be initialized before using. Though method parameters are local variables too, since methods are called with parameters, they are initialized.
    22. arrays are fixed size data structures, where as collections are dynamically sized data structures.
    23. For multidimensional arrays, it is easier to imagine the first dimension as a single row containing the other dimensions.
    24. Array initialization always requires dimension to be provided when initializing through new (caught at compile time). If using array initializer, you can specify {} empty braces, but accessing any index at runtime will only result in index out of bounds exception.
    25. There is always a default constructor – empty body – available for your class only if you do not declare any constructor.
    26. super, this must be the first line in constructor. this() or super() both cannot be placed.
    27. Parent class constructor super() is always called. For this reason, you need to have an empty constructor always in parent class.
    28. Method signature is composed of method name and parameters. Modifiers, return type, exception list has nothing to do with it. Access-specifiers however control visibility.
    29. Javabean properties are get-, set- methods provided over a field in Javabean style.
    30. Variable length parameters always come at the end of the list, and they can be empty (meaning nothing was passed). Being at end of the list automatically implies that only variable length parameters is allowed. (Java 5.0)
    31. Overloading means providing different method signatures in same or inheriting class. Overriding means providing same return type, method signature in inheriting class.
    32. Covariant return types means overriding method returns a subclass of return type in parent class. (Java 5.0)
    33. Method hiding means overriding of static methods.
    34. Abstract method has no body. Interface methods are all abstract, while Abstract class can contain zero or more abstract methods.
    35. All abstract method of Interface are public, it’s fields are public, static and final. No static methods are allowed.
    36. Abstract method compiles with static modifier, but generates runtime error if directly accessed. If abstract static method is overridden in child class, child class works fine.
    37. Enum constructors are invoked for each element.
    38. Anonymous inner class can have only one instance. Local inner class can have multiple instances.
    39. Static nested class is similar to any top-level class.
    40. Static fields in class always need default value; otherwise code does not compile.
    41. false is boolean, 0 is not false, it is int zero
    42. switch…case does not allow case null, since a constant (and final) expression is required for case
    43. You can put break in default for switch
    44. enum classes can have main method
    45. for(;;) is a valid for-loop. It never finishes, since it is an infinite loop.
    46. In enhanced for loop, the variable used for iteration must be declared only in for loop, not outside it.
    47. Java complains if you have unreachable while loop code e.g while(false) is not allowed. However, contrarily if(false) is allowed!
    48. Variables declared inside do…while loop are not available in while to test for condition!
    49. It is a good idea to add labels to your loops to enhance readability
    50. Assertion is put in places in your code where you think it should be always true
    51. Though not a good design, but assertions do allow modification on variables while asserting them e.g. assert ++i
    52. try…catch – catch can never have an exception which is a subclass of previous catch clause. It throws compile error.
    53. Checked exceptions always derive from Exception, runtime exceptions derive from RuntimeException, errors derive from Error. Java enforces checked exceptions are either handled or thrown. For runtime, error there is no such rule, even if RuntimeException derives from Exception.
    54. try… must have either catch or finally atleast, otherwise compile gives error

  • Japanese women hate their husbands

    See top searches coming from Google for おっと (husband) in Japanese

    Japanese women hate husbands
    Japanese women hate husbands

    Almost all top suggestions refer to “husband should die”. I wonder what results are returned?

  • How to manually uninstall Symantec Endpoint Protection client from Windows 2000, XP and 2003, 32-bit Editions

    Much recently to my dismay, I figured out that I cannot remove Symantec’s Endpoint Protection from my own laptop without administrator password. I do not own this password, and I do not want anybody other than me permitting me what to uninstall. Hence I went ahead for manual uninstall according to these instructions (from Symantec’s own site) below-

    How to manually uninstall Symantec Endpoint Protection client from Windows 2000, XP and 2003, 32-bit Editions.

    The instructions are crisp and clear. I could manually uninstall following each step of those instructions, but there is one big trouble. The instructions talk to removing over 100’s of registry keys, values which I believe is sheer impossible manually. Why didn’t Symantec simply provide a small tool which has all those instructions bundled in a simple click-n-go fashion?

    I have tried to create a small registry file which can automate the removal of registry entries Uninstall Registry entries for Symantec Endpoint Protection
    For all other manual deletion of files, it would be great to write a small AutoIt script compiled to an exe. Maybe sometime later…

  • TOYOTA: Speech by Akio Toyoda – president of Toyota Motor Corporation

    “Contributing to society” at Toyota means two things.  First, it means, “to manufacture automobiles that meet the needs of society and enrich people’s lives.”  And second, “to take root in the communities we serve by creating jobs, earning profits and paying taxes, thereby enriching the local economies where we operate.”

    TOYOTA: Company > Company Profile > Message from Top Management.

  • MySQL’s killer feature

    MySQL has a killer feature – you can have a timestamp field with DEFAULT as LOCALTIMESTAMP, so that when you insert a new record, the timestamp field will automatically have current timestamp inserted. But what about when the record is updated? Do you manually have to update the timestamp again? NO – MySQL allows you also specify another default on UPDATE so that whenever you update the record, it will automatically update the timestamp again.

    …
      `timestamp` timestamp NOT NULL default CURRENT_TIMESTAMP ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
    …

    Now, isn’t that a neat feature!

  • Using Apache’s mod_rewrite on Windows

    I recently happened to experiment with Apache’s mod_rewrite, an excellent library to change your machine friendly (or perhaps program friendly?) web urls into user friendly urls.

    The steps to make mod_rewrite to work on Windows is-
    – Edit httpd.conf for Apache, and uncomment the following line
    # LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so
    -to-
    LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so

    – Next, under <Directory “{Your document root}“> change
    AllowOverride None
    -to-
    AllowOverride All

    – Restart Apache

    – Create a sample folder “rewrite” under {Your document root}, with the following files
    {Your document root}
          rewrite
        .htaccess
        details.php

    – What we will attempt now is to have a url like http://localhost/rewrite/details/shantibhushan to be automatically executed as http://localhost/rewrite/details.php?user=shantibhushan

    – Edit your .htaccess file as follows
    <IfModule rewrite_module>
     RewriteEngine on
     RewriteBase /rewrite/
     RewriteRule ^details/(.+)$ details.php?user=$1 [L]
    </IfModule>

    – The RewriteRule is the actual line where we specify what url is to be mapped to which actual url. ^details/(.+)$ takes a user friendly url /details/shantibhushan and extracts “shantibhushan” as $1. It then replaces $1 into details.php?user=$1 resulting in details.php?user=shantibhushan as the actual url.

    – Edit details.php as follows
    <?php
    $user= $_REQUEST[‘user’];
    print(“<h1>$user</h1>”);
    ?>

    – The above sample simply takes “user” from details.php?user={user} and shows it back.

    – Done! Try accessing http://localhost/rewrite/details/shantibhushan and you should see details.php getting called with parameter as “shantibhushan”

    TODO
    – Simply accessing details/ results in error, and rewrite rule doesn’t assume such a case. It can be handled by RewriteCond
    – First I wanted to have details:shantibhushan as the url, but this has a bug on Windows not allows : in path. It seems to work fine on non-Windows.
    – The example assumes Apache is running on port 80 on your machine.