One problem that I’ve had when working with dynamic DOM nodes is the inability to use entities with document.createTextElement(). I’ve read suggestions about using utf–16/ucs–2 values, but how do you find them and how do you convert them? This led me on a journey to figure out how to handle this. I ended up digging through some TinyMCE source code, and found a gem of a function that I then added a ‘stupefy’ mode to. Here’s the code: function entity(str, mode) { var str = (str) ?

I’m a creature of habit. I haven’t lost my keys in years, simply because I always put them in the same place when I get home. I never have to fumble around in my pockets to find something, because I already know what’s there: wallet and phone in my right pocket; keys, chapstick, pen, and loose change in my left. I’m also a perfectionist, and I find myself driven by and towards excellence. That’s why although I use both systems everyday, I prefer my Mac over my PC.

Maybe I’m a little slow, but I’ve found an awesome little trick for people who use Firefox, and who need to dynamically add elements to the page via JavaScript. I’ve been doing a lot of Ajax development lately for an internal webapp where I need to dynamically add nodes to lists. In my source code, I’ll have an empty <ul> tag with an ID, then I use that ID when I go and add <li>’s to it. No big deal, right?

I just came across a BBC article about man suing over an iPod ‘hearing risk’. OMFG. Are you kidding me? How stupid can some people be? And it’s all a matter of money. Stupid lawsuits brought on by stupid lawyers are really dragging our legal system through the mud, not to mention using up my tax dollars to do it. Maybe Apple really should discontinue sales to stupid people…

In response to Shaun (Jan 31, 2006), I took some time to try to get the new IE7b2 release working. This is the download package that was made available as the Internet Explorer 7.0 Beta 2 Public Preview. This version of IE7 writes a couple of keys to your registry. Don’t try to run the iexplore.exe like you have in the past (even with the standalones). Instead, run the __RUN_ME.bat file. This will make sure that the above-mentioned registry entries are removed, and will automatically add the .

The newest release of SimplePie is here! There is barely a single unchanged line of code in this release, as we’ve been working for months to completely overhaul the entire SimplePie engine, and we’ve added several new features while we were at it. I could sit here and go over each and every things that’s new or better or changed, but I’ve already done that. To find out more about SimplePie, and what all it can do, check out the official SimplePie website.

It’s been a year since the last SimplePie release, but that doesn’t mean the project is dead. Fortunately I was able to get some help from Geoffers, and he actually ended up driving most of the development since he came on board over the summer. I wish I could tell you that a shiny new version 1.0 was available, but alas, not yet. What we do have, however, is a shiny new Preview Release — soon. What is SimplePie?