Tag Archives: web site

Automated cache-buster on images in PHP

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I have a particular site I manage where one particular image (a grid of sponsors) gets updated quite regularly.

Rather than edit my source code each time I upload a new image, I thought I’d let PHP do the work for me.

<img class="img-responsive" src="images/sponsors/silver.jpg?<?= date('U',filemtime('images/sponsors/silver.jpg')) ?>" />

Now, every time I upload a new image, replacing silver.jpg, it will automatically update the image in the users’ cache.

Just a silly little time saver.

Note: I wouldn’t do this on every image on a site since it means an extra hit to the filesystem. That could mean a performance drop if a site is checking the filemtime of 100 images. In my case, it’s just a single image, so it’s okay.

Receive full Category5 Technology TV weekly episodes by email for free.

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Here’s a new feature of our service which I’m really excited about…

Now, you can receive Category5.TV’s weekly episodes by email!

It looks something like this:

Receive Category5.TV episodes by email.

Receive Category5.TV episodes by email.

This is really exciting because it means you can receive this really cool (and non-spammy) reminder each week once an episode is available.  It’s not a dumb notice, or a “click here for our web site”.  It’s literally an email that gives you 1) a screenshot from the episode, 2) a description of what we did in the episode (the main topic), 3) direct links to download the episode for free and 4) a handy “play now” link which will open a player window and instantly begin streaming the show to your device.

Activate Weekly Email

To activate this awesome feature on your free account, simply login at Category5.TV and choose “Members” -> “My Profile”, and you’ll see the new option “Weekly episode by email” as per the above image.  Check it off and press Save Settings.  Don’t worry, you can turn it off at any time, and we never spam you (it’s against our beliefs as non-spammers)!

Don’t have an account?  No worries; it’s free, and easy!  Just visit http://register.category5.tv/ and sign up today.

Please activate the feature, and once you’ve received your mailout (comes out when each episode becomes available; usually Wednesday mornings), let me know what you think.  I would love to hear your comments below.

Thanks for watching Category5 Technology TV!  Thanks also to _Jot_ for assisting me with the beta testing.

@Blip is [no longer] down.

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Blip.TV, the video provider relied upon by many independent digital shows has been down since a little after 2am PST, according to isitdownrightnow.com.

Because of this, any videos hosted on Blip.TV (for example, Category5 Technology TV on-demand and main RSS feeds) are entirely inaccessible, and even the Blip.tv web site is not available during the outage.

I must say, this is a first that I’ve ever seen such an extended outage for Blip.TV, who have always been pretty reliable in spite of their growth. Their Twitter feed is silent, and since their site is down, we know nothing yet about what’s going on, but we know it’s down, and has been down for several hours.

Update #1 – Auto tweets and blog entries continue to auto-post (albeit, laced with deadlinks), but no sign of any realtime notes from Blip.TV directly.

Update #2 – Tasherre Risay commented below that Blip.TV is located in New York.  Absolutely understandable then that there’d be issues.  I hope everyone is okay, and our thoughts and prayers go out.  Hoping for at least an update as to the status and what’s actually happening.

Update #3 – 11am Eastern: as Peggy George commented, the Error 503 message has been updated on Blip.tv to the following:
I received a note from Blip “We are currently experiencing unexpected downtime due to flood water in Manhattan affecting our colocation data center. We expect to be back up within the hour as the generators come online but may experience temporary outages through Friday.”  Our thoughts continue to be with the Blip team and all those who are affected by Hurricane Sandy.

Update # 4 – Annie Tsai (Blip.tv’s social media manager) informed us below that she’ll be able to update us via social media now that she has access to power.

Update # 5 – 12:45pm Eastern – Blip.tv is responding and serving up videos!