Category: Web Development

A look at some of PHP 7.4’s new features

28th December 2019

PHP 7.4 was released on 28 November 2019 and with it comes a lot of new features. In this post we'll examine a few of the more interesting ones along with examples of how they can be used. PHP has long been the punchline in low-effort memes, and though some of the disdain for the language is justified, more recent versions have made significant improvements to PHP and this latest one is no exception. Typed properties With the introduction of typed properties, class properties now support type declarations. This means that only values of the specified type can be assigned… Continue reading »

The Value of Harvard’s CS50x Course

25th August 2018

Harvard is, of course, one of the best and most well-respected universities in the world. If you've ever wondered what it would be like to be in the privileged position of students lucky enough to attend Harvard then you'll be glad to know we are living in a world where you can find out. Since 2016 their CS50x course, along with many other courses in a variety of subjects, has been available online for free. Continue reading »

Taking Control of Video and Audio on Web Pages

18th June 2018

I’ve been using a chrome extension called Video Speed Controller for a few weeks to control speed of videos on web pages which was a productivity-hack recommended by Wes Bos on the excellent Syntax podcast, which he co-hosts alongside Scott Tolinski. As Wes pointed out, most video on the web is just HTML5 video elements and that is what allows plugins of this kind to work. Recently, my friends were discussing the lack of basic functionality, such as even a pause button, on many videos on the wb. I was already familiar with the HTMLMediaElement properties and methods, which I've… Continue reading »

Converting Seconds Into Readable Time

1st June 2018

Converting time into a human-readable format presents a few tricky problems. You can't simply divide by a number and get your answer because time, unlike money for example, is non-decimal; there are 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in an hour and not 100. Then, on top of that, the number of hours in a day, days in a week and days and weeks in a year would seem incredibly arbitrary if it weren't for the fact that we've known them all of our lives. Continue reading »