Zend Studio Tip of the day -- Bookmarks

Ever need to refer to 2 or more different places in a file while in Zend? You can bookmark the sections for easy manuvering through the file. Put your cursor on the line you want to bookmark, and either right click the line number on the left or hit "F2." Voila! A green bookmark has been setup.

How do you use this puppy? Easy. Take a look at the right hand side of the editor window and you'll see a green line that is clickable, right next to the scroll bar. Clicking there takes you to that bookmark. Even cooler, if you hover over the bookmark line there, it will pop-up the line of code that is bookmarked.

If you need to remove the bookmark, you do the same thing, right click on the line number of hit F2 again.

Until next time... Happy Zending!

AOL Instant Messenger – Triton, Norton, Password problems

So I thought I’d forgo using my GAIM today, even though it's totally working correctly... and even though it completely connects to all my instant message accounts... and see if the new AOL Instant Messenger called Triton did anything interesting. It turns out it does not. The thing hardly even works. Ugh. Why do I even bother?

Frustration # 1

When I installed it, it left my old AOL messenger in there instead of just upgrading that one.

Frustration # 2

I couldn’t figure out which ports to open on my Norton software firewall. Even though I explicitly gave AIM6.exe permission to access the Internet, it was trying to use some odd port that I don’t have opened. I’m afraid it’s too new for the port info to be out in the wild yet. This one’s a deal-breaker for me, but it gets worse.

Frustration # 3

I had forgotten my password so I clicked the “forgot password” link which brought me to https://my.screenname.aol.com/ where I was able to answer some pre-determined security questions and then change my password. However, while the screens there reminded me to only use letters and numbers for the password, the web form neglected to check for other characters.

So without realizing this restriction, I used a symbol in my password. Of course when you get into AIM Triton (with no firewall of course), it keeps coming back that your username/password is incorrect. Because it sees that symbol and freaks out. This one stumped me for a good few minutes. You have to go back and change your password to not use any funny characters. This is form validation 101 people. Filter input. And give appropriate error messages.

Back to GAIM I go.

Brake lights with 5 bars

I've been stuck in traffic while driving a lot lately.  Why don't car brake lights show how hard someone is braking?  It seems to me if we standardized on a size of brake light that could go on the back of every vehicle, that we could have 5 bars on it.  When the driver is braking hard, all 5 bars would be lit, when breaking moderately, only 3 bars would be lit, and when just tapping the brakes, only one bar would be lit. Maybe I'm just a sucker for standards like this.... but this idea would save everyone from having to evaluate the distance and speed of multiple cars while in stop and go traffic and would probably prevent a lot of minor accidents.  Somebody should start working on this.  

PHP Zend Studio 5.2 Released with license for Zend Platform

From the email:

Zend is pleased to announce the release of Zend Studio 5.2 - now including a free developer license for Zend Platform allowing you to increase the reliability and maximize the performance of your application before deployment.

I've already downloaded the update and installed.  However, it's not clear how you actually get the license for the platform.  Hopefully they straighten that out so I can start playing with it.

 UPDATE: How to get the Zend Studio Platform and get it licensed.