Well, I’ve made my own jQuery checkboxes before using uniquely laid out HTML divs and a beastly jQuery function I wrote; the script was only 17 lines, but it made too many calls for my tastes.

“Frag that” I said figuring I could make it simpler, and so I did.

The new jQuery:

$("input[type=checkbox]").each(function(){
  if(label = $("label[for="+$(this).attr('id')+"]")) {
    $(this).hide();
    label.prepend("");
    label.addClass('chbx' + ($(this).is(":checked") ? ' checked' : ''));
    label.hover(function(){ $(this).toggleClass('hover'); });
    label.click(function(){
      $(this).toggleClass('checked');
      $("input[id="+$(this).attr('for')+"]").click(function(){ $(this).attr("checked"); });
    });
  } //end if(label)
});

And the HTML? Same thing that jQuery-UI requires:

<input id="myId" type="checkbox" name="doYouCare" value="1" />
<label for="myId">Label text here</label>

Much simpler than what I was using and a lot more flexible!

The CSS base:

label.chbx {
  display:inline-block; padding:4px 10px; margin:0px 2px 2px 0px;
  color:#666; text-align:center; font-size:13px; line-height:20px;
  background-color:#FFF;  border: 1px solid #D3D3D3; cursor:pointer;
  -webkit-border-radius:5px; -moz-border-radius:5px; border-radius:5px;
}
label.chbx.hover { border-color:#000; box-shadow:2px 2px 2px #333; }
label.chbx.checked { border-color:#F99F1B; color:#000; }
label.chbx span {
  display:inline-block; width:10px; height:10px; margin-right:4px;
  background-image:url(images/label-chbx.png);
  background-position:left top; background-repeat:no-repeat;
}
label.chbx.hover span { background-position:right top; }
label.chbx.checked span { background-position:right bottom; }
label.chbx.checked.hover span { background-position:left bottom; }

Footnotes:
¹ While jQuery-UI v1.8.18 does not support state-change icons, I have hope it soon might.

Last week I mentioned some common features missing from paid WordPress templates, and this led to a lot of research into the WP Template Hierarchy. To prove to myself I wasn’t just complaining, my goal for the year – since it is just a self-challenge – is to try to make my own WP theme for either book reviews or a website portfolio; while I am sure these already exist, it is more about challenge myself to something I’d at least find interesting or worth the effort in the end.

For the last month I have been updating my custom CMS layout and a project I hope to finish by the 16th of the month. This client provided a purchased HTML template that was originally designed for WP, so it was interesting to recreate the functionality while also updating some of the features that were limited by WP version of the template – I know because a friend purchased the WP template after seeing a demo of the HTML template I was working on. As for the CMS, I’ve also been going back over my database connection and frequent functions to improve them. From these improvements have come a MySQL connection class, with all of my typical methods and possible error reporting, and some others that I am still tweaking as I consider all the possibilities for them.

Finally, the need finally arose for using the extra fields option for iContact users, which figures since I took it out of the original API, so I’ll be adding the feature to add optional content to user record’s fields. With iContact’s e-mail announcement, on February 29th, about changing the hourly and daily API call throttling limits, I’ve also added in an optional method for tracking the daily call count. Since this feature is non-essential and purely for the curious, you either hardcode it for use everywhere or leave adjust it on a per-case basis through the non-initialization functions.

Just a little, huh? Look forward to it!

• Green Rider (Green Rider #1) by Kristen Britain
• Off Armageddon Reef (Safehold #1) by David Weber
• Greyson’s Revenge (Ashes of the Realm #2) by Saxon Andrew
• Raven Calls (Walker Papers #7) by C.E. Murphy
  • Not only does Joanne meet family and time travel, but Gary has an adventure!
• Fair Game (Alpha & Omega #3) by Patricia Briggs
• Sheepfarmer’s Daughter (The Deed of Paksenarrion #1) by Elizabeth Moon
  • Fair warning: if you read all three in the series back-to-back, have tissues ready!
• Aurora: CV-01 (The Frontier Saga) by Ryk Brown

Book of the Month: Off Armageddon Reef by David Weber

Off Armageddon Reef (Safehold #1) by David Weber

Humanity pushed its way to the stars – and encountered the Gbaba, a ruthless alien race that nearly wiped us out.

Earth and her colonies are now smoldering ruins, and the few survivors have fled to distant, Earth-like Safehold, to try to rebuild. But the Gbaba can detect the emissions of an industrial civilization, so the human rulers of Safehold have taken extraordinary measures: with mind control and hidden high technology, they’ve built a religion in which every Safeholdian believes, a religion designed to keep Safehold society medieval forever.

800 years pass. In a hidden chamber on Safehold, an android from the far human past awakens. This “rebirth” was set in motion centuries before, by a faction that opposed shackling humanity with a concocted religion. Via automated recordings, “Nimue” – or, rather, the android with the memories of Lieutenant Commander Nimue Alban – is told her fate: she will emerge into Safeholdian society, suitably disguised, and begin the process of provoking the technological progress which the Church of God Awaiting has worked for centuries to prevent.

Nothing about this will be easy. To better deal with a medieval society, “Nimue” takes a new gender and a new name, “Merlin.” His formidable powers and access to caches of hidden high technology will need to be carefully concealed. And he’ll need to find a base of operations, a Safeholdian country that’s just a little more freewheeling, a little less orthodox, a little more open to the new.

And thus Merlin comes to Charis, a mid-sized kingdom with a talent for naval warfare. He plans to make the acquaintance of King Haarahld and Crown Prince Cayleb, and maybe, just maybe, kick off a new era of invention. Which is bound to draw the attention of the Church…and, inevitably, lead to war.

It’s going to be a long, long process.

First, credit both to Cybermage for first introducing the series to me, but also to Goodreads for later recommending it, which ultimately led to my reading of the series… Thank you both!

Okay, so while I read the first 5 books in the series together, the first book was my favorite by far because you get to see the pre- and post-war cultures of man, LCDR Nimue’s role-revisal to Merlin, and the world which has a well-document, and testified, story of Creation. Long live the King!

Here are my 5 major issues with WordPress themes:

1. Make sure that tags/categories with non-alphanumeric labels work in all fields and feeds.
2. Add in an update notification, if not an automatic update link, so we know when fixes are out.
3. The homepage and front page are different, so an option for one should also be option for the other.
4. Make sure that pagination works for all template files. If you are using something other than the default field, use/test it!
5. Finally, add a link to a live documentation/support site… Just linking to the theme’s help won’t help fix most bugs that appear.

In closing: "Never cheat a Klingon … unless you're sure you can get away with it."

Series of the Month: Annihilation by Saxon Andrew

Love Conquers All (Annihilation #1) by Saxon Andrew

The Alliance of Worlds has decided that humans are to be annihilated as an example to anyone that discovers ancient alien technology, even though there is no proof against them. They think fifty thousand warships can do the job. Unfortunately, the humans are not cooperating with their plan, and one young human who has fallen in love will change everything.

A young boy born with unique psychic abilities.

An ancient alien artifact he accidentally discovers.

Now Earth is targeted for total annihilation by 50,000 warships.

In this epic story, Saxon Andrew takes us into the future and the lives of human and nonhuman characters, some we can easily relate to, and others who are a bit different. Along with a hearty dose of battles and spaceships, this is a story that offers humor and a tale of enduring love against the backdrop of galactic war on a grand scale.

Personal Reviews

The Tinkerer’s Daughter and After the Golden Age, both Goodreads recommendations, surprised me with how much I enjoyed each of them owing that I’ve become biased towards standalone novels expecting them to be rushed. While The Tinkerer’s Daughter was fast-paced, I don’t think the story suffered from it all as it provided rich details into the world it was set. I was also impressed with After the Golden Age, and although I read another series by author, this wasn’t quite in the same genre, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Turns out I didn’t need to worry about it and I was kept enthralled until I finished the book around four in the morning – not the best thing to happen during the work week, but I felt satisfied with the result still. This was the start of a wonderful month for reading…

My next book was Juliette’s Dream, which I later realized was the first book in a series continuation entitled Annihilation by Saxon Andrew. … The books, from both the Annihilation series and this new one of Ashes the Realms, all build from the very first book Love Conquers All, but the detail of history, insight, and development of the characters, worlds, and species are what make each story a treasure! I even went back and re-read the available books once I read through it the first time just so I could see if there were any connections or details that were used in future books that I had missed. I’m want more!! My one, painful regret is that only the first book is available as a paperback novel, enough so that I am continuously tempted to print one my Kindle edition.

Until next time!

AggieWomen.org

Earlier this month I completed a freelance project and launched a new website, AggieWomen.org. I’ll confess right now that this was one of my hardest projects to date. Why? Because I was not consulted in the initial development and had to pick it up after another developer quit in the middle of the promised work. Normally that might not be an issue, since I could just start from scratch or use modules I trust, but there were three problems from the client: 1) they was already expecting it ready soon, 2) they had already seen the WordPress back-end & liked of it, and 2) my client had been told that it could be made to do all their client wanted. No, I haven’t hunt the developer down yet, but they’re on my list…

Starting from where the other developer left off, I took 49 plugins down to 14 and 148 database tables down to 43. Why they felt the need to have four e-commerce plugins installed, I will never know nor feel the need to ask.

HHIBuckeyes.com

Although not a new release, I finished this mid-2011, I launched HHIBuckeyes.com for the Ohio State Buckeyes fans of Hilton Head Island, SC. The client did not want a graphic designer to do the template, so I presented several pre-made themes and had them pick one, then customized it to their taste and need. The homepage is content is completely controlled by the custom CMS, except for the bottom left graphic, with the image slider and all three text areas being editable. The newest feature for me, and my most liked feature, was the Schedule that shows the teams, kick-off times and scores for the season. For this I had to collect all of the logos and assign the teams to their divisions, but it was a custom module for the admin.

Yes, the headline is a joke!

Why am I mentioning Goodreads so much? Well, since I am reading all of these books, I want to share some of the better books and series that I’ve found, and since I rarely can explain the benefits of a book well, I’ll leave that responsibility up to Goodreads’ descriptions, covers, user reviews, and related books! I won’t be reviewing the books myself, though I may make the occasional connection to another series or author, but instead I’ll post some specific books or series each month that I really enjoyed from the previous month.

Enjoy!

• The Quantum Thief (The Quantum Thief #1) by Hannu Rajaniemi
• This series reminds me a lot of Justina Robson‘s Quantum Gravity series.
• Staying Dead (Retrievers #1) by Laura Anne Gilman
• Hard Magic (Paranormal Scene Investigations #1) by Laura Anne Gilman
• This series is a part of the same city and storyline as Retrievers.
• The Pearl Wars (Skyship Academy #1) by Nick James
• Unshapely Things (Connor Grey #1) by Mark Del Franco
• Skin Deep (Laura Blackstone #1) by Mark Del Franco
• This series is part of the same world as Connor Grey.
• Fever Crumb (The Hungry City Chronicles Prequel #1) by Phillip Reeve
• Cinder (Lunar Chronicles #1) by Marissa Meyer
• Blood of Eden (Sloane Skye #1) by Tami Dane
• Dragon’s Ring by David Freer
• A followup novel, Dog and Dragon, is expected out this April.
• Tinker (Elfhome #1) by Wen Spencer
• Tiger’s Curse (The Tiger Saga #1) by Colleen Houck

Book of the Month: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Cinder (Lunar Chronicles #1) by Marissa Meyer

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl…

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

Download: Geekend 2011 Session Notes; last updated 2011-11-17.

Also available, here is a cell-captured video of a GM EN-V demo from Geekend 2011:

For fans of Star Trek, or any Ferengi out there, I present Hello Ferengi, a Ferengi’s slave to teaching non-Ferengi the proper rules of business and profit! Hello Ferengi is a small, fun plugin which will display a random Rule of Acquisition on the top-right of every administration page… but is that all?

Of course not, because I know the two-hundred and forty-second Rule of Acquisition…

Shortcode and Rules

[ferengi num="7" tag="0"] ## "Keep your ears open."

• num: defaults to 0; accepts 81 values (see below) that will return a Rule
  • 0: a random Rule from the 80 known Rules of Acquisition
  • 6R: the Sixth Rule according to Enterprise canon
  • … and 79 misc., non-sequential numbers ranging from 1-286
• tag: defaults to -1; defines if you want the ROA Number tag returned or not
  • 1: always show the tag
  • 0: never show the tag
  • -1: only show the tag if getting a random Rule

For the avid Star Trek fans…

But there are only 285 Official Rules of Acquisition!
Rule #286 may only be an unoffical Rule of Deep Space 9‘s Quark, but it is a very good rule.

What is the difference between 6 and 6R?
The series Enterprise said the Sixth Rule was something different from a previous declartion, so I labeled it as 6 Revised, or simply 6R, and left Deep Space 9‘s version of the Sixth Rule as 6.

Back in 2007 I attended the first SQLSaturday event in Orlando, FL, so it seems fitting to me that on the 18th, just next week, I will be attending the first Oracle Day & Product Fair in Charlotte!

Join us for the inaugural Oracle Day and Product Fair 2011 to discover how the power of simplicity can change your IT from a supporting function to a force that drives business innovation.

Don’t miss this unique opportunity to hear multiple keynotes, attend technical breakout sessions and meet one-on-one with product/solution experts of Oracle’s Technology, Application, and Hardware pillars to discuss how you can transform your datacenter and power your cloud with hardware and software, engineered to work together.

October 29, 2011

After all that hard work and learning, I deserve some personal time, so I will be attending the Heroes Pop Swap event on the 29th! The event is sponsered by Charlotte’s favorite comic shop, Heroes Aren’t Hard To Find, and I will be there as browser, buyer and seller – I’ll have a 4′ table space with comics purchased in lots, typically poor condition, and personal purchases in mint condition. If it is on the table, I’ll probably let it go for anywhere from free to the price of the comic itself; I don’t want to know if the comic is worth $500 unless you’re going to offer me more than the price I paid for it! =P