Author: federico_jacobi

Killer steak sauce (pseudo chimichurri)

Every steak can use this killer recipe! which in turn, it is not a true recipe, but more of a combination of flavors that you can adjust to your own taste. It goes especially well with flank steak or skirt steak. Chicken, pork, and fish also love this sauce.

Parsley or Cilantro (aka Coriander) or both. Lots of it!
Garlic. 2 or 3 cloves.
Cumin powder (or seeds). About half a teaspoon.
Red Pepper flakes.
Olive oil. A lot (think pesto)
Salt and Pepper
Optional: white vinegar

Warm up your olive oil and put the pepper flakes and cumin. Just warm up, so the oil gets infused with the spiciness and flavor of the ingredients. DO NOT FRY THEM … just warm it up. Once happy with the flavor, just leave it to cool down on the side. ( Experiment: put garlic on the oil as well, until soft. Cooked garlic tastes sweet )

In the meantime, chop the parsley/cilantro and garlic real small. Mash them together. Add salt and pepper to taste. When the oil is cool (you don’t want to cook the parsley/cilantro) mix it all together. Whisk it. Eat it! It is going to be AWESOME! I promise!

Static classes on WordPress plugins

If you have a wordpress plugin, more than likely you are using add_action and/or add_filter. No problem, until you get this error:

Warning: call_user_func_array() expects parameter 1 to be a valid callback, cannot access self:: when no class scope is active in /home/wpcom/public_html/wp-includes/plugin.php on line .........

1	Warning: call_user_func_array() expects parameter 1 to be a valid callback, cannot access self:: when no class scope is active in /home/wpcom/public_html/wp-includes/plugin.php on line .........

One of the annoyances of wordpress is that tracking bugs when in actions or filters can be a bit of a hassle, but you don’t know where the error actually originated, but with a bit of grep-ing of searching you can find the issue. With the error above however, what’s going on is not so evident. Consider the following plugin that does nothing:

final class doNothing {
	static $emptyString = '';

	static function init() {
		add_action( 'wp_footer', array( self, 'output' ) );
	}

	static function output() {
		// Don't echo anything
		echo self::$emptyString;
	}
}
doNothing::init();

final class doNothing {

static $emptyString = '';

static function init() {

add_action( 'wp_footer', array( self, 'output' ) );

}

static function output() {

// Don't echo anything

echo self::$emptyString;

}

doNothing::init();

Nothing seems wrong here, however, it throws the warning above. The right way of doing this is:

final class doNothing {

	static $emptyString = '';

	static function init() {
		add_action( 'wp_footer', array( __CLASS__, 'output' ) );
	}

	static function output() {
		// Don't echo anything
		echo self::$emptyString;
	}
}
doNothing::init();

final class doNothing {

static $emptyString = '';

static function init() {

add_action( 'wp_footer', array( __CLASS__, 'output' ) );

}

static function output() {

// Don't echo anything

echo self::$emptyString;

}

doNothing::init();

The key being __CLASS__ instead of self on the add_action line. When using static classes add_action and add_filter don’t like self however, if your class is not static, therefore, instantiated you can use add_action( $this, 'function' ) no problem. Seems odd, but that’s how it is.

Layers on Canvas

TLDR;

Can’t be done natively, use this instead: layeredCanvas

HTML5 Canvas doesn’t implement a layers mechanism. In order to implement this you can do it in 2 different ways:

Multiple canvas elements approach

Think of a layer as an individual canvas and then absolute position one on top of the other. Then to lay it out just wrap on a div with position relative:

<div style="width: 300px; height: 300px; position: relative">
	<canvas id="layer1" width="300" height="300" style="position: absolute;"></canvas>
	<canvas id="layer2" width="300" height="300" style="position: absolute;"></canvas>
	<canvas id="layer3" width="300" height="300" style="position: absolute;"></canvas>
</div>
<script>
function layer1() {
	canvas = document.getElementById( "layer1" );
	ctx = canvas.getContext( '2d' );

	ctx.fillStyle = "#E5E059";
	ctx.fillRect( 50, 50, 150, 150 );
}
function layer2() {
	canvas = document.getElementById( "layer2" );
	ctx = canvas.getContext( '2d' );

	ctx.beginPath();
	ctx.fillStyle = "#88A09E";
	ctx.arc( 275, 275, 150, 0, 2 * Math.PI );
	ctx.fill();
}
function layer3() {
	canvas = document.getElementById( "layer3" );
	ctx = canvas.getContext( '2d' );

	ctx.fillStyle = "#C70039";
	ctx.beginPath();
	ctx.moveTo(100, 100);
	ctx.lineTo(100, 300);
	ctx.lineTo(300, 300);
	ctx.closePath();
	ctx.fill();
}

layer1();
layer2();
layer3();
</script>

</div>

function layer1() {

canvas = document.getElementById( "layer1" );

ctx = canvas.getContext( '2d' );

ctx.fillStyle = "#E5E059";

ctx.fillRect( 50, 50, 150, 150 );

}

function layer2() {

canvas = document.getElementById( "layer2" );

ctx = canvas.getContext( '2d' );

ctx.beginPath();

ctx.fillStyle = "#88A09E";

ctx.arc( 275, 275, 150, 0, 2 * Math.PI );

ctx.fill();

}

function layer3() {

canvas = document.getElementById( "layer3" );

ctx = canvas.getContext( '2d' );

ctx.fillStyle = "#C70039";

ctx.beginPath();

ctx.moveTo(100, 100);

ctx.lineTo(100, 300);

ctx.lineTo(300, 300);

ctx.closePath();

ctx.fill();

}

layer1();

layer2();

layer3();

</script>

What’s crappy about this is if you want to save the image you have to do a screenshot and then cut it, or you can only save one canvas element at a time.

Single canvas element approach

Natively, there is no way of doing this, but with a little bit of abstraction, it isn’t a problem. Think of a layer as a function, now you call the functions in order and you are mostly layered:

<canvas id="layeredCanvas" width="300" height="300"></canvas>
<script>
function layer1( ctx ) {
	ctx.fillStyle = "#E5E059";
	ctx.fillRect( 50, 50, 150, 150 );
}
function layer2( ctx ) {
	ctx.beginPath();
	ctx.fillStyle = "#88A09E";
	ctx.arc( 275, 275, 150, 0, 2 * Math.PI );
	ctx.fill();
}
function layer3( ctx ) {
	ctx.fillStyle = "#C70039";
	ctx.beginPath();
	ctx.moveTo(100, 100);
	ctx.lineTo(100, 300);
	ctx.lineTo(300, 300);
	ctx.closePath();
	ctx.fill();
}

canvas = document.getElementById( "layeredCanvas" );
ctx2d = canvas.getContext( '2d' );

layer1( ctx2d );
layer2( ctx2d );
layer3( ctx2d );

</script>

function layer1( ctx ) {

ctx.fillStyle = "#E5E059";

ctx.fillRect( 50, 50, 150, 150 );

}

function layer2( ctx ) {

ctx.beginPath();

ctx.fillStyle = "#88A09E";

ctx.arc( 275, 275, 150, 0, 2 * Math.PI );

ctx.fill();

}

function layer3( ctx ) {

ctx.fillStyle = "#C70039";

ctx.beginPath();

ctx.moveTo(100, 100);

ctx.lineTo(100, 300);

ctx.lineTo(300, 300);

ctx.closePath();

ctx.fill();

}

canvas = document.getElementById( "layeredCanvas" );

ctx2d = canvas.getContext( '2d' );

layer1( ctx2d );

layer2( ctx2d );

layer3( ctx2d );

</script>

This is still a bit crappy … lets make it slight more layer-like. We can make an array of functions and run them in sequence. This is much better because now we can remove (or change the index) an element from the array effectively replicating a layer feel:

<canvas id="layeredCanvas" width="300" height="300"></canvas>
<script>
render = function( layers ) {
	for ( var i = 0; i < layers.length; i++ ) {
		layers[ i ]();
	}
};

canvas = document.getElementById( "layeredCanvas" );
ctx = canvas.getContext( '2d' );

layers = [];
layers.push( function() {
	ctx.fillStyle = "#E5E059";
	ctx.fillRect( 50, 50, 150, 150 );
} );

layers.push( function() {
	ctx.beginPath();
	ctx.fillStyle = "#88A09E";
	ctx.arc( 275, 275, 150, 0, 2 * Math.PI );
	ctx.fill();
} );
layers.push( function() {
	ctx.fillStyle = "#C70039";
	ctx.beginPath();
	ctx.moveTo(100, 100);
	ctx.lineTo(100, 300);
	ctx.lineTo(300, 300);
	ctx.closePath();
	ctx.fill();
} );

render( layers );

</script>

render = function( layers ) {

for ( var i = 0; i < layers.length; i++ ) {

layers[ i ]();

}

};

canvas = document.getElementById( "layeredCanvas" );

ctx = canvas.getContext( '2d' );

layers = [];

layers.push( function() {

ctx.fillStyle = "#E5E059";

ctx.fillRect( 50, 50, 150, 150 );

} );

layers.push( function() {

ctx.beginPath();

ctx.fillStyle = "#88A09E";

ctx.arc( 275, 275, 150, 0, 2 * Math.PI );

ctx.fill();

} );

layers.push( function() {

ctx.fillStyle = "#C70039";

ctx.beginPath();

ctx.moveTo(100, 100);

ctx.lineTo(100, 300);

ctx.lineTo(300, 300);

ctx.closePath();

ctx.fill();

} );

render( layers );

</script>

DONE! Not too bad … using this principle I created a more elegant approach that allows you a couple more neat little things like show/hide … try it, fork it, use it: layeredCanvas

Quick and Dirty JS slider (qndslider)

We do not need more JS sliders, there is plenty of alternatives. But while looking at them, I realized they all force you into learning their small quirks. That is a total annoyance and waste of time, so I set myself to write a super simple, super easy and understandable slider: the qndslider, the Quick and Dirty Slider.

You can download and use at your leisure: https://github.com/federicojacobi/qndslider

The beauty of it, is that I coded the basics of any slider to save you time, but you are in control of the interaction. I.E. you can call mySlider.next() to move to the next slide, but have a callback on what happens after the slider changes. All the basic funcionality is in, next(), previous(), timers, start(), stop().

It is NOT a jQuery plugin, but it does use jQuery to find the elements.

The Basics
You don’t have to use Divs, it could be UL/LI or P/SPAN as long as the slides have the “slide” class and the wrapper the id you call in the JS, in this case “GreatSlider”.

<div id="GreatSlider">
	<div>First slide, do whatever you want here</div>
	<div>Second slide</div>
	<div>Third slide</div>
	<div>Fourth slide</div>
</div>
<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready( function () {
	var mySlider = new Slider( "GreatSlider" );
});
</script>

<div>First slide, do whatever you want here</div>

<div>Second slide</div>

<div>Third slide</div>

<div>Fourth slide</div>

</div>

$(document).ready( function () {

var mySlider = new Slider( "GreatSlider" );

});

</script>

No, it doesnt have NEXT or PREV arrows, that is up to you. How you place them, how you style them, etc. it is ALL up to you. That way, is a bit hard, but you understand exactly what’s going on. Same goes for current slide and stuff like that. See more detailes at Github.

Introducing Square-War

Originally by puzzle master Scott Kim, Square War takes place on an 8×8 board. Two players take turns, once a move has been done, the piece cannot be moved. The object of the game is to make squares. The larger the square, the more points it’s worth, and they can be at any angle. You win when you get over 150 points AND at least a 15 point lead over your opponent.

There are a couple of versions of this game, including an old-school AOL one. This one however has been modernized with a beautiful interface, online play and facebook integration..

This is a small project that Jeff Herrera (www.amproinspections.com) and I put together just for fun.

Check it out at www.square-war.com.