Earlier this week, thousands of sites, including JoeTech.com, blocked or hid their content as a symbolic gesture to protest the impending SOPA/PIPA legislation that threatened the integrity of free-flowing information on the Internet. While some sites displayed a pop-up message allowing users to move on to content by clicking a button and Google simply changed their logo to appear censored, sites like Wikipedia and Joe Tech completely blocked all content from users to truly emphasize the impact such legislation could cause. An example is seen below. This post will show you how we did it in just a few very easy steps.
Black Out Your Site Like Wikipedia
This site and Wikipedia both used a pretty harmless method to block our content for the protest. The method we used involved simply covering up the normal content with a layer of HTML that hides it and shows something else in its place. To accomplish this in an elegant way, you will need an image and/or content to display, the HTML shown below, and a small change to your site’s CSS. Here’s how it’s done:
1. Create your image and content. In my case, I made a couple very simple changes to a large version of my logo image to make it more protest-y.
2. Add the overlay code. In your site’s template (or your theme’s footer.php in WordPress), copy the code below and paste it right above the /body tag. Modify it as indicated to include your own image or message.
<div style="position:absolute;left:0px;top:0px;
width:100%;height:100%;
background:url(/images/darken.png);text-align:center;">
<!-- Add your image and message below this line -->
<img src="/images/sopa.png" />
<!-- Add your image and message above this line -->
</div>
3. Stop the scroll. Update your site’s CSS file to stop the original content from being larger than the new overlay content. This may not always be necessary, but will be pretty obvious when it is. Just add the following code anywhere to the bottom of the CSS:
body{overflow:hidden;}
That’s it! Follow the three steps above and you’ll have your protest/maintenance/special message up in no time on every page on the site.
There are a lot of flat, boring web sites out there, but there are also a lot that are interactive and sometimes even include fun little surprises. Today, I’m going to show you one way to create a fun little interactive surprise in your web page design. David, a regular reader, pointed me to this page and asked how they accomplished the effect with the footer image that changes (click the link and watch the bottom of the page while scrolling down slowly). The effect is what I tried to illustrate below.
Pretty cool, right? The best part is that this is super easy to achieve. Below, I’ll walk you through a few easy steps I completed to create my own interactive background.
Step 1: Create your images
To make this trick really work you want at least two images. The first is a two-toned image that represents the before and after imagery. For my example, I used grey on top and black on bottom. The second image is the gradient that creates the illusion. The gradient should fade in from the same top color to the same bottom color as your before/after image. Try to make both images close to the same height, but experiment with the positions of your artwork. Also, this works better if the two pieces of artwork don’t overlap each other. Just as important is the format. GIF files may work, but generally, PNG images are best.
Step 2: Create HTML
The HTML is really very simple. Inside your body tag, you want a div element with a class of “wrapper” and inside this, another div element with a class of “push”. Below those, you need a div element with a class of “footer”. You can use different names, as long as they match the CSS when you’re done. Be sure to fill up the “wrapper” div with enough content to make the visitor scroll.
Here’s my HTML:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body bgcolor="404143" text="#FFFFFF" link="#FFFFFF" vlink="#FFFFFF" alink="#FFFFFF">
<div class="wrapper">
<br><br><br><br><br><br><br>
<br><br><br><br><br><br><br>
<br><br><br><br><br><br><br>
<br><br><br><br><br><br><br>
<br><br><br><br><br><br><br>
<br><br><br><br><br><br><br>
<br><br><br><br><br><br><br>
<br><br><br><br><br><br><br>
<br><br><br><br><br><br><br>
<div class="push"></div>
</div>
<div class="footer">
<br><br><br><br><br><br><br>
</div>
</body>
</html>
Step 3: Create your CSS
The final step is to create your CSS. This can be inside your HTML page or in its own .css file that the page loads. Either way, set up the CSS for the body and each div element you created as seen below. Of course, the height and margin values may be different for your usage.
body {
background-image: url(./twotone.png), url(./bottom.png);
background-repeat: no-repeat, repeat-x;
background-position: center bottom, center bottom;
background-attachment: fixed, scroll;
}
.wrapper {
min-height: 100%;
height: auto !important;
height: 100%;
margin: 0 auto -152px; /* the bottom margin is the negative value of the footer's height */
}
.push {
height: 50px;
}
.footer {
height: 320px;
clear: both;
link: #ffffff;
background-image: url(./footer-skulls.png)
}
With the third step done, the only thing left to do is check it in a browser and adjust as needed. Here’s the rough example I threw together here . I didn’t spend a lot of time on it, but for my example, I created a before/after image using a circuit diagram I found online and a one-color version of my logo. I also kept the skulls image for my demo because I liked it.
Quick Start Kit
I breezed through the steps a little, but it shouldn’t be too hard to accomplish if you have some knowledge of web page development. In any case, the easiest way to try this out is to create a new before/after image and play with what I’ve already done. For this reason, I packaged up the code, images, and a layerd PSD of my before/after image to get you started. Try it out for yourself and if you put it online, link to it in the comments so we can see.
Home entertainment systems are more than just your average TV and Blu Ray player plugged in and set on default. They involve multiple components and aim to provide the ultimate media experience in your living room, whether you are looking to bring the magic of the cinema to your own home or to get right next to the action at the next big sports match without forking out for a ticket. As such setting up a home entertainment system can be tricky, but this brief guide should give you enough information to help you get started.
First you will need to appreciate the kind of space you are working with and base your choice of entertainment technology on these immutable parameters. If you are starting from scratch and buying an HDTV along with an audio system, media player and DVD/Blu Ray device then you can be much more exacting in your choices. For example, it makes no sense to slap a 50 inch TV set in a room where you will be sitting just five feet away from the screen because all that display real estate will overwhelm the space and have a negative impact on your viewing experience.
It is also advisable to pick a consistent selection of components which are ideally made by the same manufacturer. So if you have a Sony TV it will work at the top of its game when paired with a Sony Blu Ray player and Sony brand surround sound with a compatible amplifier. Of course this kind of perfectionism is not essential because most devices should be cross-compatible on a basic level, but since most home entertainment devices from individual manufacturers are designed to interface with one another and provide inter-device control from a single remote, you may want to make the investment upfront to ensure smooth operation at a later date.
Positioning your TV so that it can be viewed comfortably is relatively simple, but setting up surround sound speakers can be a little more taxing. The satellite speakers at the rear may typically operate using long wires running from the amplifier by your TV, although some models have wireless rear speakers to reduce clutter, but be prepared to pay more for this convenience. Pay close attention to the manufacturer`s instructions when it comes to angling your surround sound speakers to ensure that the full effect of the advanced audio is experienced by the viewer.
If you want a truly flexible home entertainment system setup then you might consider buying a flat TV wall mount so that your television can twist, rotate and hang remote from the rest of the gadgets. Wall mounts can offer varying degrees of articulation, with the more complex setups typically costing extra but letting you swivel and pan the screen precisely. This may be of particular interest to anyone who has a 3D TV that requires the viewer to be seated within a particular viewing angle to enjoy the latest effects without any blurring or image disruption.
This guest post was provided by http://www.3wisemonkeys.co.uk
With a wide variety of software that is available for your Mac computer, you are probably tempted to download and install many of them. With many freewares, sharewares and low-cost applications out there, you will eventually run out of disk space, depending on how big your disk drive is.
There are many reasons why you might want to uninstall programs. Space constraint is one; you will have to remove programs and files you no longer want or need to free up some disk space, before you realize that there is no more physical space left on your disk! Uninstalling unwanted Mac programs is an important aspect of keeping your Mac clean so that your machine does not slow down, or freeze.
The other reason to uninstall software is to upgrade existing necessary software. Sometimes this requires a complete uninstall and reinstall. When upgrading a program from an older version to a newer version, you sometimes have to remove the old one or the new one might not work properly.
Does Mac OS X have an inbuilt uninstaller?
Apple Mac OS X does not come with an inbuilt uninstaller tool. This is because most Mac applications are packaged programs that keep most of the files together in one place. Each application is represented via an icon in the Applications folder; this might be a single file with simple software, or a folder that contains the files required for a program to work. This form of packaged software is called bundle software in Mac language.
To view package contents, hold down the Ctrl key and click on an application. From the menu options that are displayed, select the Show Package Contents option. When you select this option, a Finder window opens for you to view the files and folders that are part of the application.
How to uninstall programs in Mac
To uninstall an application package, just drag the application icon to the Trash. Alternatively, you can hold down the Ctrl key and click on the application icon, and then choose Move to Trash from the menu that is displayed.
Note that a few applications do come with uninstallers, so before you drag the application to the Trash, check to see if one is available.
Always install and uninstall software while logged on as an administrator rather than a standard user.
Will Trashing programs uninstall them completely?
Trashing a program will work if the trashed program is a packaged Mac software bundle. In this case, all the associated files are uninstalled along with the main program.
However, if your uninstalled Mac program is not a bundle, it is likely that many associated files and folders were not uninstalled along with the program. One reason for this is that programs install files in different locations; not all application files are located along with the actual program in the Applications folder, for example, customization options, preferences and options, skins, add-ons and plug-ins. A program may also cache information so that it can be accessed more easily the next time it is required, for example a web browser. Uninstalling your browser will not remove its cache files. If you do not track these rogue leftovers and remove them, your hard disk will soon starve for space and it will not matter that you did uninstall programs to make room.
How to ensure that all associated files are removed
To ensure that all the associated program files (library files, system files, preferences) are removed, you can either manually locate and delete them, or use a third-party uninstaller such as AppTrap to do the clean up for you.
This guest post was written by David Ritchie. David Ritchie is a software development writer. His current area of interest is Mac uninstall software.
