Ranta Blog

6 Sep

Archive for the ‘Code notes’ Category

Twitter Backgrounds

Thursday, July 29th, 2010

I really wish Twitter would allow more options in the styling of it’s backgrounds. Currently there are two ways to make your twitter page look a little less cookie-cutter:


1) you can make a background that repeats or “tiles” (no x or y, just both). Background color won’t show up so don’t even bother.


2) Make a single image background combined with background color. Good for fading.


Although I appreciate the fact that twitter is growing and allows us to change a couple things to our twitter page there’s a couple things I don’t like. If you choose #1 for your background good luck making it the perfect size for monitors of all large and small. Hence, pick #2 and you’re very limited to what you can put in there, practically have to be a expert in graphic design to get it to work.


Happy tweeting. I’m anticipating the day when Twitter will have a advanced setting that will be more flexible with their designs.

How to Change System Hosts File (Vista)

Thursday, March 18th, 2010

So I was waiting for a domain to propagate today(rush rush for a site) and my co-worker showed me a nifty little trick. Change your hosts file:

1)  Browse to Start -> All Programs -> Accessories
2)  Right click “Notepad” and select “Run as administrator”
3)  Click “Continue” on the UAC prompt
4)  Click File -> Open
5)  Browse to “C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc”
6)  Change the file filter drop down box from “Text Documents (*.txt)” to “All Files (*.*)”
7)  Select “hosts” and click “Open”
8)  Make the needed changes and close Notepad.  Save when prompted.

Changes needed in this case are as follows(IP address, domain), example below:

127.0.0.1 www.yourdomain.com

Wordpress Image Upload Problem

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

I’ll be writing more on this is in the future but for now I just want to talk about custom installs of wordpress and a couple problems you may encounter when trying to upload images:

#1 Make sure the folder you have chosen to store your images in is writable. This should be the same for the whole folder. The file attributes on that folder should be 777 and recursed into all subdirectories.

#2 Make sure you’re uploading your files to the right place. This problem happens a lot when sites are being developed and moved to a different server, etc….. You can find where you’re storing your images under Settings > Miscellaneous > “Store uploads in this folder”. Kind of a tricky little spot to find that info.

Hope this helps someone.

Repeating Background image not showing up in IE

Monday, September 14th, 2009

Ever have the problem with your repeating background just not showing up in Internet Explorer but it does in Firefox? Try a space.

See the example below, this true and I have no idea why but if you don’t have a space after you specify your url it won’t work in IE:

background: url(images/your_image.jpg)top left repeat-x;  <<<<<<notice there is no space

background: url(images/your_image.jpg)  top left repeat-x;  <<<<<< now notice there IS a space

This slight difference will cause your css to be ineffective in IE.

Just a FYI………happy coding

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