jQuery: Nice looking slide show in no time !!

Sometimes we need to add sideshows to our website. Today we are going to see how to achieve it very quickly with a little bit of coding. We will use the jQuery to reduce the amount of coding we have to do. Now let us see how can we do it -

What we will need -

1. jQuery script [jquery-1.3.2.min.js]
2. Images which will appear in the slide show
3. Some JS and HTML coding

 First we will need to add the jQuery library file.

<script type="text/javascript" src="jquery-1.3.2.min.js"></script>

 Next we need to setup our own jQuery code to define the slide show materials and properties.

 <script type="text/javascript">
    var srrc = ["1.jpg", "2.jpg", "3.jpg", "4.jpg", "5.jpg"];

srrc is the array variable which holds the image paths of the slide show images. You can add as many path as you want. 

    var id =0;
    var max = 5;

id is the variable whose value tells the browser to load which images from the srrc array. It is acting as a index variable for the srrc array. max variable defines the maximum number of images defined in the image array.

function run() {
        id = id + 1;
        id = id % max;
        var cur = srrc[id];

 Nothing much to describe here. cur variable holds the path for current image which we are going to display.

        $("#images").hide();
        $("#images").attr({src: cur, alt:'', border:0});
        $("#images").fadeIn("slow");

$("#images") will return the handle of the html element with the id of images. Don't worry about the element for now, it is a <img> element, we will be introduced with it in the latter section.
First we used the jQuery hide() function to hide the element.
Then we use the jQuery attr() function to add the html attribute to the <img> element. The important part is the src: cur. cur variable is holding the image path for current image. So, we just add the image path to the img tag. It can be translated as <img src="the image path in the cur variable">.
Now the img element has the image but it is hidden. Now we show the whole element using the jQuery fadeIn() effect. This adds nice looking transition effect while changing the images.

        setTimeout(run,10000);
    }

 Now to run this script indefinitely we use setTimeout() javascript function. We want to keep each images for 10 secs. So the second parameter is 10000 (it is in mili secs). The first parameter is a callback function.
Whenever 10 secs has passed since the timeOut() function is called, the callback function is called automatically.

    $(document).ready(setTimeout(run,3000));
</script>

 Lastly we use the $(document).ready() function to initiate the first call to the run function.

Now all we need is to add the <img> element into body section of the html page

<img src="1.jpg" width="395px" height="245px" alt="" id="images" border="0" />

 We are all done.
Here is the total work.
If you have any suggestion or question please leave a comment.

Activate GPRS on China Mobile's Cell Phone in Win7

This is a complete step by step guide to use your China Mobile as a GPRS modem for connecting to the internet.

1. Plug-in your mobile into USB and select the "COM Port" if any option on your mobile device pops up.

2. Right click the "Computer" on desktop and go to "properties". Click the "Device Manager" on the top left side of the properties window.

3. Find out your modem device. It should be appear with a yellow exclamation sign.

4. Download this driver. [MTK CPU USB Driver] 17 KB

5. Double click the sign in the device manager to bring up the properties window of the modem device. Click "Update driver" located in the lower left side of the dialog. Now Select the "Browse my computer for driver software" and show the location of the driver. Click Next to install the driver. Select "continue or install anyway" if any dialog pops up saying that the driver is not signed digitally.

6. Now the driver for your modem should be installed. It should say something like "62xx USB Modem Driver (COM yy)".

7. Now open up the start menu and in the search box type "modem". Now select the "Phone & Modem" located under the "Control Panel" section. You can also go to the control panel and in the search box (upper right corner) type "modem" and then choose the "Phone & Modem".

8. After opening the "Phone and Modem" palette, select the "Modems" tab. Click "Add" to add new modem. Now a "Add hardware wizard" will pop up. Check "Don't detect my modem" and click next.

9. Now download this modem driver. [MT6225_Modem_Driver] 31KB

9. On the next section click the "Have disk" button and browse for the modem driver. You will see the modem driver, but the driver is not digitally signed. Click next to continue installation with the modem driver.

10. Now in the next section select the "COM yy" as the communication port for your modem. Click next to add the modem. You can find your modem's "COM yy" from the device manager.

11. Your Modem is now installed. You can create dial-up connection using it. Now let us test the modem.
Again open the "Phone & Modem" control panel palette. Go to "Modems" tab and double click the installed modem. Modem's property dialog will pop up. Now go to "Diagnostics" tab and click "Query Modem". After a short while it will show the result of the query. This is a proof which indicates that your modem is working.

Now create a dial-up connection using this modem and enjoy edge or gprs service.
This walk-through is for win7 but you can use it for win xp also.
If any of the link becomes invalid, please notify me. or you can google out the driver yourself.

For any question and suggestion, please leave a comment.

GIMP: Create Nice Looking Button For Your Website

It is very easy to create nice looking button in modern graphics editor like PS CS3. I will show the basic behind creating in creating such nice and cool looking button. I am using GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) for creating such an image. The method is almost similar in PS CS3 or earlier.

Here is the button which we are gonna create using the graphics editor -

1) First we need to create an empty space for creating the button. I am using 300x150 pixel dimension stage. The stage is set to full transparent. This is how it looks like -

2) Create a new layer to create the background effect of the button. Use (CTRL+L) to bring out the layer dialog if it is not showing.

3) Now select the "Rectangle Select Tool" from the toolbox and draw a rectangle. See the option for the "Rectangle Select Tool" and find and activate the "Rounded Corner" property. This will make the selection look like a rounded box.

4) Now Select the "Bucket Fill Tool" from the toolbox. Select your desired background color and click the selection to fill the selection with that color. This is our background of the button.

5) Now we have to create the top layer of the button. Again we create a layer and then draw a similar rectangle tool, but this time it is a little smaller than the background.

6) After creating a slight smaller selection similar to the background on top of the background, we have to fill the selection again to get the shape of the selection. But this time we will not use the "Fill Bucket Tool"; instead we will use the "Gradient Fill Tool". It is know as "Blend Tool" in GIMP. We have to select two color for gradient fill. Then using the tool mentioned above we will fill the selection. The output will look similar to this -

7) So far we have completed the shape of the button. It is now time for to put some text. Select the "Text Tool" (T) and click on the button to enter text. The text itself will appear as a different layer. So you do not have to create a new layer for the text.

8) Adjust the text as per your need by using the "Move tool" (M). Now we are gonna add the shadow of the text. For this we need to duplicate the text. Select the text and open the Layer dialog box (CTRL+L) right click the text layer and click the duplicate layer option.

9) Double click the layer name to rename it. Rename the new duplicate layer into an understandable name. Now select the new renamed layer, and move it down. Put it just under the text layer. This newly created layer will be acting as shadow for the old text layer. So, the layer should be immediate below of the text layer.

10) Now select the text layer and click the "eye" on the left of the layer. This will hide the layer. Now you can edit the shadow layer. We need the shadow layer text to be a different color. In precise we need to define the shadow color. So, select the "Text Tool" and click on the text of the shadow layer. Make sure the shadow layer is selected. Change the color of the text to your desired shadow color.

11) Now we have to place the shadow in proper position. The layer should be moved slightly to the desired shadow direction. We have to move the shadow layer just a little to the left and down direction to create an optical illusion of drop shadow of the original text. Select the shadow layer and select the "Move Tool" (M) from the tool box. Now select the stage and press left and down twice. This will move the shadow layer just a bit in the left and down direction.

12) Now set the text layer to visible. This is done by clicking the "eye" of the text layer in the layer dialog.

13) As you can see a nice and cool looking button is created with shadow effect :) . We are just a little tweak away from using the button. Select the background layer bn_bg. Go to stage and then go to Image->Autocrop Image from the menu. This will make the button compact. Now we can export the button into different format and use it on our website :) .

Here is the total work.
If you have any suggestion or question, leave a comment.