02Jul 2009 by Asim Zeeshan 3 Comments

$1.99 Domain Names from GoDaddy

Promotions and Offers, Resources, Reviews
Yes, its true. GoDaddy is now selling domain names for just $1.99 ($2.19 after adding 20 cent ICANN fee). All you need to do is use the coupon 199BUYCOM before checkout. You dont need to buy additional services to avail this offer. This offer has the following limitations Only valid for one new domain name or domain name transfer per account Valid for 7,500 orders or 07-July-2009, whichever comes first. Enjoy! Updates: Working as of 05th July 2009. I just registered a domain name using this coupon.
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17Jun 2009 by Asim Zeeshan 5 Comments

Warid Postpaid Issues – had to MNP my cell number

Pakistan, Personal, Reviews
I moved from Warid to Ufone in April, I forgot to mention that. Thanks to MNP the move was smooth and easy. Now let me tell you why I moved. First of all, there are billing issues in Postpaid. They have two SMS packages Zoom Limited SMS Package offering 750 messages per month and Zoom Unlimited SMS Package offering 7,500 messages per month When you activate any of these packages (for the first time) the package is charged double. So e.g. you activate Zoom Unlimited and it costs approx Rs. 300 per month so it will be charged twice, once as ACTIVATION CHARGES and second as monthly charges (WTF!!) (more…)
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14May 2009 by Asim Zeeshan 21 Comments

Creating and Installing crontabs using CodeIgniter

How to, OpenSource, PHP, Resources, Reviews, Tips and Tricks, Tutorials
Last night, I was trying to get a crontab working in CodeIgniter, since my current project (a personal project) is using CodeIgniter now. I didn't wanted to use the conventional approach of running crontabs and my code seperate. Unfortunately, CodeIgniter does not have support for Crontabs and I didn't wanted to user wget in linux crontab to initiate unwanted requests. I spent some time and came up with a solution. It uses CodeIgniter backend Does not modify any core architecture of CodeIgniter Keeps configuration at one place So enough of the summary and let me show you how its done. Create a file (e.g. cron.php) in the same place as your index.php and system folder. Here is its code [php]/** * @author Asim Zeeshan * @web http://www.asim.pk/ * @date 13th…
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07May 2009 by Asim Zeeshan 2 Comments

Template Library for CodeIgniter, Simple, Fast and Easy!

How to, OpenSource, PHP, Resources, Reviews, Tips and Tricks, Tutorials
If you have not noticed, I just got started on CodeIgniter. I was really disappointed today when I noticed the lack of a template system in CodeIngiter to skin my little application. They say The Template Parser Class is not a full-blown template parsing solution. We've kept it very lean on purpose in order to maintain maximum performance. Lucky for me, I got a little help here, the library is great and works well for the latest version of CI too best of all its small and does not modify the CI code in anyway. It just uses the already available code to skin the application. Sleak! I made a couple of modifications in the original library, here are my modifications [php]<?php if ( ! defined('BASEPATH')) exit('No direct script access…
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06May 2009 by Asim Zeeshan 4 Comments

Getting Started on CodeIgniter, the lightening fast PHP Framework

OpenSource, PHP, Reviews, Thoughts
Today, I have started on CodeIgniter, one of the powerful PHP frameworks recommended by Rasmus Lerdorf CodeIgniter is most often noted for its speed when compared to other PHP frameworks. In a critical take on PHP frameworks in general, PHP creator Rasmus Lerdorf spoke at frOSCon in August 2008, noting that he liked CodeIgniter "because it is faster, lighter and the least like a framework". Read more about it here. So far what I can tell you is that it really is FAST. I have been coding in CakePHP and Zend Framework, but this framework is very fast. Truely speaking I did not felt any difference using it. I will keep posting about my experience of CodeIgniter.
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28Feb 2009 by Asim Zeeshan 2 Comments

TwitterTweets, a PHP wrapper class for Twitter REST API

How to, OpenSource, PHP, Resources, Reviews, Tips and Tricks, Tutorials
I have just finished hosting my first OpenSource project on Google Code. Its called TwitterTweets. Its a small wrapper API that consumes Twitter REST API. It can be easily included in any PHP script / application to support manipulation of TwitterTweets from a single user. Currently it has the following features Reading updates including or excluding replies. Caching support to store xml/json response locally as a file with cache-timeout Built-in custom Array I will be writing and uploading modules and plugins for Joomla and Wordpress in the coming days. Stay tuned. Project Homepage: http://code.google.com/p/twittertweets Project Discussion Group: http://groups.google.com/group/twittertweets Enjoy!
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27Feb 2009 by Asim Zeeshan No Comments

Windows Live – More Ways to Connect? or annoy?

News, Reviews
Windows Live now supports importing and sending alerts to your FaceBook and LinkedIn buddies and contacts I feel they have tried to get in the social networking business by creating this. It is not too attractive has BUGs, especially related to security because its for everyone (no opt-outs) and other contacts can see and connect to your contacts (if you dont have the proper privacy options enabled which are turned off by default). It sucks!!
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19Feb 2009 by Asim Zeeshan 2 Comments

The power of Globally Recognized Avatar (aka Gravatar)

How to, PHP, Resources, Reviews, Tips and Tricks, Tutorials
Gravatar has a very sleak concept but not many people know and understand it. It is one place for your display pictures and you can use the same at any Gravatar enabled website / application. Gravatar is currently used in Wordpress, Movable Type, Drupal, Joomla and Mac OS X Addressbook. Advantages are mainly on the user end where he/she can change one photo and reflect it in multiple places. It includes support for content-rating etc. Here, I will show how it is implemented in PHP [php] $email = "my-email@hotmail.com"; $default = "http://www.somewhere.com/homestar.jpg"; $size = 100; $grav_url = "http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=".md5(strtolower($email)). "&default=".urlencode($default). "&size=".$size; [/php] Now use it in your HTML as [sourcecode language="xml"]<img src="<?php echo $grav_url; ?/>" width="< ?php echo $size; ?>" alt="Gravatar" />[/sourcecode] Simple!! More info at the URLs below http://en.gravatar.com/site/implement/ http://en.gravatar.com/site/implement/php…
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