Introduction
The one basic problem with Web design is that each and every browser is different. The way they render HTML or parse CSS differ depending on both browser, browser version, and all the other things “under the hood.” I don’t know the number of times I’ve had something looking really fantastic and then one browser decides it isn’t going to play nice. That browser could be Internet Explorer, Opera, Firefox, Chrome, or any of the others.

At this point you have several options. In this article, I cover basic browser detection using a simple PHP script. Browser detection isn’t always a good idea, mainly because it isn’t foolproof and can be seen as a lazy way out of the problem. However, I have had requests to help people with browser detection.

So let’s start with what we need: We need a way to tell what browsers our visitors are using and display specific content based on what they’re using.

One really nice thing is most browsers declare themselves to the Web sites they visit. We only have to ask for the information and it will usually be supplied. I say “usually” because there are some caveats, of course. As I said above, this isn’t foolproof.

To use this method, you must have a Web host that supports PHP. This probably won’t work on a free hosting service like Yahoo! Geocities, Quizilla, or Tripod.

Well, today was the day I built my own computer for the very first time. ^_^ Lets just say, for all the times my blood-pressure soared, it went off without a hitch. Right now, I’m preparing to install Windows XP on it and am about 75% of the way through partitioning and formatting my new hard drive.

As you know from my previous posts, I made a list of the parts I would need a couple weeks ago and placed my order. My goal was a really nice, but not state-of-the-art gaming and graphic arts machine. Basically, I needed it a little more powerful than the standard computer you can buy from the store, but without the several thousand dollar price tag.

So, my case came today. Cue me prancing out to the street in my pajamas to grab this HUGE box from the UPS guy. (Who has actually been really nice about huge box a week thing.) After lunch and doing a little more homework I set to work.

The bulk of the parts for my new computer came in today. *dances*

So far, I’m reading through the assorted manuals to make sure I have everything in order. You couldn’t get much more OEM the way the hard drive and optical drive came wrapped together in anti-static baggies and bubble wrap. Kind of wishing I’d gone retail for the hard drive so I had the manual and disks, but it’s a little late for that.

The video card… eh, the manual leaves a little to be desired. :-P The instructions are basically: “Remove your old card, put in new card. Restart system, let Windows recognize it, then install the included driver disk.”

Kind of thinking of skipping the job fair. :-/ According to the newspaper section dedicated to the job fair, there’s not much in the way of potential employers that are going to be there that I’ll be interested in. There’s assorted military recruiters, construction, manufacturing, health care, and then several staffing places. There’s only a few employers that I might be interested in and it almost doesn’t make sense to go for three or four specific places. (And I don’t even see them on the web site for the job fair now.)

Right now, mom’s talking really highly about going out and getting the new monitor and then going clothes shopping. I might do that and just go hit the staffing places either online or on my own.

I got an internship with Second Life, working on an experiment for one of the professors at my college.

While I’m seriously geeked over the prospect of an internship in an MMO, my time over the past few days in Second Life has taken my video card to the brink of death.

So, I had two options: A.) Burn the money on a new video card or B.) Get a new computer.

Lets see…Buy a new video card when: The current video card is dying, the heat sink on the north bridge spontaneously fell off so I probably have heat damage (which is probably half the reason for the graphics problems), and now the hard drive has been clicking intermittently. Yeah, new computer it is.

Not happy with the factory-built systems I have been finding, I decided it was high time to build my own. So, $830 later, I have parts coming from Newegg.

Here’s the specs/parts:

• ASUS P5K PRO LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard
• Intel Core 2 dual core processor, 3.0GHz 6MB L2 Cache
• Seagate 500GB, 7200 RPM hard drive
• SAPPHIRE Radeon 512MB 256-bit HDCP Video Card
• 700 watt power supply
• CD/DVD RW Drive
• 1 GB memory (They were out of the 2GB sticks I wanted and figured this would be enough to get me started.)
• And finally, last, but not least: The Case

And finally, since I’ll have access to XP Pro once I can get back to my programming classes, I ordered an OEM version of XP Home to tide me over.

So, in roughly three days, the poor UPS guy should be planning my homicide. *laughs* (He seems to be deathly afraid of Luna!)

Description: Places a mandatory limit on how long a summary can be. If the summary exceeds the limit, the user is kicked back to the preview screen with the notice that they have to shorten their summary.

Summary length is controlled in your admin settings, under “Submissions.” If a limit is in place, a small notice appears above your summary field on story submissions notifying your users of the limit. If you turn it off, nothing appears.

To turn it on, simply type in a length. (I suggest at least 750 – 1000 characters.) To turn it off, set it to 0.

This was originally a 2.0 mod, but frankly — it’s a much easier, neater, and more sophisticated mod on 3.0.

As usual, my line numbers are only there as a reference to put you in the general ballpark. They will likely change as you progress through the mod.

This always bears repeating: Please be sure to backup your files and database before you begin this or any other mod.

Requirements: eFiction 3.2.1

Difficulty: Easy – Intermediate (Depends on how well you follow my instructions.)

Files Involved:

• admin/settings.php
• includes/storyform.php
• stories.php
• languages/en.php
• languages/en_admin.php
• 1 Database Modification

Modification History:
- 22 March, 2007 — Mod Released

Modification & Support: eFiction.org

Instructions:

It would be so much easier to keep my project RSS feed up-to-date if I actually updated every time I released a mod, instead of doing it 3 – 6 months later. ^^;

What’s sad, is that it seems to be getting a lot of use. Pretty funny for something I rarely think of. Anyway, still working on moving my eFiction mods here for my portfolio. I got that horribly long story disclaimer mod added this morning and

I wonder if I should include my fanlisting script? That’s entirely stand-alone, though not the prettiest in terms of code. It’s something I made just to see if I could do it, so it’s technically my first script that’s 100% mine.

Need to figure out how I’m going to hook up the screenshots in my portfolio too.