Monthly Archives: July 2008

The Dark Knight

Dark Knight Ticket

Damn. I’m particularly biased since I’ve been a fan of Batman’s crazy antics forever. In fact I still distinctly remember owning a batman comforter. MAYBE I STILL OWN IT. Anyway, the movie was phenomenal and I would highly recommend it to everyone. 

It was intense and everything played out perfectly (without divulging any spoilers). Everything they said about Heath Ledger as the joker was true: he’s amazing. Makes the fact that there won’t be a reprisal of that role quite disheartening … … just, wow. 

Two things that bothered me (some spoilers): I’m sorry but I can’t get over how ridiculous the voice of batman was, just … too deep. Also: the sonar made me think of shark spray. Indeed, it was clever but it could’ve done without it. 

★★★★★

Dead Macbook

Macbook + Desk - July 2008
The Box

If you don’t have a Applecare for your mac, I suggest you get it ASAP (assuming you can). I learned the hard way when my beloved Macbook unexpectedly shut off while I was watching a movie. 

Taking it in for ‘diagnosis’ revealed that the motherboard had fried — it would be cheaper to buy a new mac than to replace the damaged board. Fantastic.

So … being the plugged-in freak that I am, I had to replace the laptop and I am now an owner of a Macbook Pro! My 5 bullet point review:

  • Illuminated keyboard = outrageously cool novelty. 
  • I prefer the 15.4″ matte LCD to my separate LCD panel. It’s that pretty. 
  • CAN’T EASILY INSTALL A NEW HARD DRIVE? Fail.
  • Everything feels faster and more responsive (particularly Aperture)
  • Fans are a hell of a lot quieter.

jQuery Input Text Replacement

Edit (July 1, 2011): This snippet has been dated for years.

A Modern Approach

If you need something quick that targets modern browsers you might want to consider using the HTML5 placeholder attribute instead of a javascript solution. Cross-browser support isn’t the best (it doesn’t look like IE9 supports it at all, but if the placeholder text isn’t critical to the functionality it might be the right solution.

<input type="text" name="search" placeholder="Search"  />

Further reading on the placeholder attribute.

If that won’t do it, check out this Cross-Browser HTML5 Placeholder Text on Web Designer Wall if you’re looking for something more modern.

Finally, you can do it with jQuery (or plain ol’ Javascript) as my original post from 2008 demonstrates…

Thought I’d save this handy dandy function for later.
Makes the text in an input disappear when you click on the input.

The Function

function textReplacement(input){
   var originalvalue = input.val();
   input.focus( function(){
      if( $.trim(input.val()) === originalvalue ){ input.val(""); }
   });
   input.blur( function(){
      if( $.trim(input.val()) === "" ){ input.val(originalvalue); }
   });
}

Using It

textReplacement($('#inputname'));

Example