Mark DuBois Weblog

We are all familiar with the filler text used on various mock-ups (web sites and more). It typically begins with “Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur…” and continues for a number of paragraphs. I accidentally discovered a few alternatives today. Which got me to tweeting and after a number of interactions with others, I decided to put together this list. While it is not complete, it should give one a sense of the vast number of these generators (many creative minds with a little time on their hands). I have alphabetized this list in hopes that others will find it useful. Read more »

We live in interesting times (yes, this is an old Oriental curse). One of the issues we constantly face is the dreaded DDoS (Dedicated Denial of Service) attack. Tools such as LOIC (Low Orbit Ion Cannon) and its relatives (such as High Orbit Ion Cannon) are readily available and can be used to bring a website down. Essentially, a web server is flooded with bogus requests to the point that it can no longer respond to actual visitors. One should understand that such attacks are illegal in many countries and one should never use such tools against production websites. Still, even if something is illegal, that doesn’t mean your website may not be attacked in this manner. So, what should one do? One can deploy more resources, but these can also be overwhelmed by such tools. There must be a better approach. Read more »

I have been traveling a great deal this summer giving presentations on HTML5, CSS-3, jQuery Mobile and the implications of mobile devices (such as smartphones and tablets) on teaching and learning. To simplify matters as much as possible, I have relied on my MacBook Pro and my iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (along with several smartphones – such as my Motorola Droid 2, HTC Incredible, and iPhone). I also took my document camera (P2V from Ipveo) to a few venues in order to demonstrate the tablet and smartphone capabilities to a larger audience. As the miles increased, the weight of my equipment seemed to grow disproportionally (perhaps I am just getting older/ more tired). There has to be a better way. Read more »

I have been experimenting with the open source Adobe Brackets tool for some time. Although it is not yet “ready for prime time,” it is a tool which has some useful features. If you are looking for a lightweight HTML, CSS, JS editor (written in HTML, CSS, and JS), this might be the tool for you. The first step is to download a copy of the latest build. At the time of this writing, I am working with Sprint 10; newer versions are released periodically. The zip file you download contains binary files for both Mac and Windows computers. At the moment, both versions behave similarly.

Fundamentals of using Brackets can be found at the GitHub site. I recommend reading that document thoroughly before diving in. Read more »