BartvH.nl

Jinn, the PHP framework that works for you!

I have my own PHP framework which used to be called FastMVC, a name I never really liked. Now that I have access to PHP 5.3 and its namespaces, I wanted to use those in the framework. Since this meant changing every file and breaking backwards compatibility, this was an excellent opportunity for a name change and reboot. Now it’s here, Jinn, and I’ve just now put up it’s first simple site.

Jinn is a new PHP framework, and different from the others. Sure, there are many frameworks that can help you build a blog in 10 minutes, but what if you want something more or different? Jinn is flexible and modular and will help you even if you want to do something that nobody else has done. Using the full power of objects and PHP 5.3’s namespaces, your code is cleaner than ever. Jinn does not try to reinvent web standards like HTTP, but provides full access to these tried and tested technologies.

You can see this site here and learn more about Jinn!

Now on Delicious

I’ve been sharing items through Google Reader for a long time now, but unfortunately (though logically) it doesn’t allow me to share things that I come across on the web without being linked there from a feed. For this reason I’ve now started using Delicious. You can see my shared items on my Delicious page, in the “My Bookmarks” sidebar on the right side of this page and through my Delicious feed.

Installing suPHP

If you’re a PHP developer, you’ve probably had to mess with Linux file permissions at one point or another. The user account that you upload/edit your scripts with is, in a normal LAMP configuration, not the same user that will be executing your scripts (that will be the webserver user, www-data on a Ubuntu server). This prevents many scripts from working out of the box and requires you to change the permissions of files and directories that your script needs to edit, to a probably unsecure value. A good example of this is the auto-upgrade and installation of Wordpress and its plugins.

Fortunately, we have suPHP. SuPHP is an alternative “link module” that connects Apache to PHP, and causes PHP scripts to be executed with the user that owns them. On an Ubuntu server, it’s really easy to install and configure. Here’s how I did it:

First, we install suPHP:

aptitude install libapache2-mod-suphp

Then, we disable the default PHP module:

a2dismod php5

This should be enough to make suPHP work for scripts in your global document root (e.g. /var/www). There’s a security check though, which causes execution of scripts outside that directory (e.g. in /home/bart/public_html) to not execute. To fix this issue, open /etc/suphp/suphp.conf and put a semicolon in front of:

docroot=/var/www

This is all I needed to make automatic upgrades in Wordpress work.

Revora has been upgraded

Today is a great day in the history of Revora. After months of working on it…

…we have a new website on http://revora.net

What is new?
- It looks better…loads better
- The frontpage is now more than news. It includes vital information about Revora for new visitors, including a cool division showcase. Also displayed are a summary of recent news, the contents of the latest magazine, a quote of the day and other bits of information.
- The about pages describe our network, staff, technology and history in a way that is fun and easy to read.
- The magazine now has it’s own special section.
- A new forum skin is made (Revora 2009) which better integrates the forum with the site. It really feels like the forum is part of the site now.

Credits and Thanks
This new website was not made possible by one person. We’d like to really thank:
- WhatFace and ShadySaiyan for the awesome graphics. We couldn’t have done it without you!
- Jeeves, Litso and others for the important feedback on the design and content.
- Ash and Hostile for their textual contributions.
- Myself, for developing the code and overseeing the project.
- Dark Lord of the Sith, for being my valued co-leader.

What to do
Check out the new site, try the new forum skin and submit quotes for the quote of the day in the our quote topic.
And of course, post your comments, positive and negative!

Announcing the Revora Magazine!

As you may know, I’m one of two network leaders over at Revora Creative Network.

For a few years now, there has been talk there of creating a Revora Magazine. Quite recently this idea was picked up by our staff. A dedicated team has worked on it for a while, under the effective leadership of Dancam, and now, after all this time, the magazine has become reality!

You’re probably wondering what this whole thing is about and it’d be a pretty good question. Keeping it simple, we are a representation of the wider community here at Revora. In this monthly online magazine, we will be highlighting the best project and mod related work going on out there, give you a greater insight into the minds of those keeping this place alive and hopefully have a little bit of fun along the way. I hope you’ll take the time to read through the articles that we’ve put together for you and that they will keep you interested enough to check out our work in the following months as well. ~Dancam

Read the first issue of the Revora Magazine.

(Comments on the Magazine can be posted in this official announcement.)

Mario Kart: The Movie

A bit “cheap” at times, but an interesting idea nonetheless:

Lego Chrome

Google is asking for people to make videos showing the logo of their Chrome browser in an extraordinary way. I personally really like this one.

Lego stop motion videos are pretty simple, but still fun to see.

I need a help!

I just came across somebody asking for “I need a help” on Stack Overflow. Litso and I decided that this should be the next big internet meme. What better way to accomplish that than…Lolcats!

Click on them to go I can has Cheezburger, where you can vote on them, to get them to appear on their (hugely popular) frontpage. You can see more of my lol’s here.

Back from Vacation

You haven’t heard for me for over two weeks. This is because I was on vacation, but I didn’t announce that beforehand for safety reasons. Anyway, I’ve been to Crete (in Greece), and it was good. I’ll post the pictures later.

Unfortunately, my Google Analytics Wordpress plugin decided to deactivate itself before I went away, so I have no idea how many people went here.

The Prince of Harry Potters

As some of you may know, I’m a pretty big fan of Harry Potter, or as far as you can go before becoming a fanatic. I’ve read all the books, and seen the first 5 films, multiple times. I also keep up with the news on The Leaky Cauldron. When I first saw the Order of the Phoenix film 2 years ago, I thought it was pretty good, though the third film (Prisoner of Azkaban) was still the best. Well, now that I’ve seen the latest movie, the Half-Blood Prince, I’m affraid PoA will have to be thrown from it’s throne. The 6th Potter is most definitely the best!

For the first time since the 4th movie (Goblet of Fire, the first really big book in the series) I didn’t feel that anything was missing in this film. Surely, bits have been cut out, changed, or added in, as you can see many people on the internet complain about, but they’re (almost) all for the best. My only “complaint” is that I would have liked to see some more memories and background about Voldemort and horcruxes, but it’s easy to get over.

The acting is also on a very high level, with special praise to Emma Watson (Hermione) and Michael Gambon (Dumbledore) who, this time, doesn’t run around like an angry madman.

I will say though that it definitely deserves the minimum age requirement of 12 it got here in the Netherlands. Not only is it much darker, at times, than before, but most importantly, it’s no longer fun for the younger audience. There’s a lot less whizzing and banging (though still a good bunch of it) and a lot of the movie hangs on character development, emotion and a grimmy atmosphere that children won’t be able to appreciate. I think I’ll let this great IMDB review from a South African parent do the rest of the talking (it was hard to find, below all the whining Americans :p):

I was lucky enough to see a preview of Half-Blood Prince three days before opening day. I saw it a second time with my son who is not quite ten, but who is generally mature for his age and doesn’t scare easily. The two viewings give me the unique advantage of both the adult and the child perspective on the movie.

I only recently started counting myself a true Harry Potter fan after my son introduced me to the movies a couple of years ago. I finished the last book only three weeks before seeing the movie adaptation of Half-Blood Prince the first time.

With all the book details very fresh in my mind, I had high expectations of the movie. And Yates, the production crew and the cast definitely delivered. The movie impresses on many levels from an artistic point of view. The stripped landscapes and washed out colors convey a constant feeling of dread and foreboding. The standard train trip to Hogwarts was particularly stark, seen against a landscape scorched by a hot summer sun and dotted with dark pools of water. The usual lush greenery and joyous train ride are nowhere to be seen.

Personally, I felt the pace was spot-on and that the movie elegantly made time for all key plot points. But only if you enjoy a plot line driven by character and emotion. For the younger lot, looking for frightening wizard duels and attacks by magical creatures, the first hour and a half of the movie drags on a bit. My son certainly became fidgety, and didn’t appreciate the finesse and sophistication of the plot and cinematic approach.

Most of the threatening and darkening tone of the movie was also lost upon him, whereas I reveled in the finer details contributing to a general sense of ever-encroaching darkness. There are worse things in life to be afraid of than big hairy spiders. My son missed seeing those – I was a lot more intrigued by the ominous undercurrents made palpable by the indomitable trio of David Yates (director), Steve Kloves (screenplay) and Delbonnel (photography).

Some people feel that the romantic comedy aspects played too large a role in the movie, but I felt this aspect added some much-needed lightness and human drama to the movie. Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Hermione (Emma Watson) and Ron (Rupert Grint) all find themselves dealing with the vagaries of young love – from dealing with unwanted advances to finding love in unexpected places. The romance was aimed perfectly at the young teen market, and I found myself cringing ruefully at some of Lavender Brown’s love-obsessed stunts and smiling wistfully at the tenderness between Harry and Ginny. Haven’t we all been there at some stage of our lives?

All in all, Harry Potter is growing up. And so is the market for these movies. If you’ve seen all the movies up to now or read all the books, and your are at an age to appreciate the adult themes and movie techniques, this movie should fall pitch-perfect on your ear. You are likely to leave the cinema filled with a heart-wrenching sadness for innocence lost.

Purist fans will most certainly complain bitterly about numerous sub-plots, events and characters that were cut from the movie and the odd scene that doesn’t exist in the book. But Yates’ truly gutsy adaptation really works and brings a depth and clarity to the main themes of the book that is quite extraordinary. He manages to capture the lingering lightness of that time before the serious business of adulthood sets in, alongside the relentless buildup to the final showdown between The Dark Lord and The Chosen One. And the lack of closure at the end of the movie is no accident, I believe. Just like the book, this movie leaves you aching to see how it all ends (never mind the fact that you already know).

I must also commend the acting. The young leads have all matured in pace with the maturing content of the books and their acting shows it. Rupert Grint shines brightly in the somewhat Shakespearean love comedy he finds himself in, and makes the most of his new-found sport hero popularity. Emma Watson hits the spot, portraying Hermione’s emotional vulnerability with gentle confidence and softness.

As for Radcliffe, it’s easy to miss the evolution he’s undergone as Harry, since there are other actors ostensibly given more to do in this outing, like Tom Felton and Bonnie Wright, both of whom get the opportunity to take their characters to a new level. Tom Felton, especially, does a remarkable job. But Radcliffe’s task of playing the steadfast and courageous, yet not flashy or arrogant hero, remains a difficult one. Especially on second viewing, it becomes clear how his understated and controlled performance speaks very much to the type of man Harry Potter is shaping up to be. A man who is left with a tremendous responsibility at the end of this movie and takes it up without flinching. The boy-wizard is no more.

Of the older guard, Alan Rickman’s Snape was a consummate performance, … obviously. And Michael Gambon’s portrayal of Dumbledore never felt more right than in this movie. Jim Broadbent’s Slughorn is deliciously played with just the right mix of off-putting sycophancy and endearing pathos.

All in all – a triumph all around!

Original somewhere here.

So, if you haven’t seen this movie yet, go and do so! I know I’m looking forward to the last two.