Have you ever wanted to sort the output of XSL using a custom string list or arbitrary text? Well, I came across such a situation with one of my clients where the order of nodes in an XML feed did not match the order that my client wanted. The answer is to use XPATH to test if the iterator is at the node you want (testing for a true or false), then use that boolean value and multiply by the intended position. Let's demonstrate this with an example.

The following is an example XML feed that we can use to demonstrate XSL arbitrary text sorting in action.

I use Basecamp at work and I love it. We use the time reporting feature of Basecamp extensively, so I have to be sure I have added my time for the day. I find there are too many clicks needed to get the hours for yesterday or the day before. So I came up with this handy tool that allows you to choose and view today's logged in just one click. It also allows you to select a date range with only a few clicks. Maybe in the future I can add more features.

A while ago Martin Laine of 1PixelOut created a WordPress plugin that allows a cool MP3 player to be easily added to your blog post (if you are running WordPress). But what if you were not running WordPress and just wanted to add a player to a regular HTML file? Here is an example of what the 1PixelOut MP3 player looks and acts like (just click the play button).

This is my first blog post on my newly themed website. The first thing I wanted to do after installing this theme was to create a logo to replace the original. Since I do not have Photoshop installed I was thinking there could be an online tool? I then recall that a friend of mine sent me a link to such a tool, but I had deleted the email and forgot the name of this little gem. However, I did remember the interface and that it was very similar to Photoshop. So I Googled "online photo editing" and the first hit was the site http://www.pixlr.com/editor/ .. found it! Pixlr Editor is a very slick Adobe Flash application - and has many features. I created the logo on this site using very little of these features one of which is the Text tool, let's explore...