George's Technology Blog
» Smart Phones, Web Design, Google or whatever
PHP Local Time – Your timezone
Dec 11th
UPDATE: Better code. Creds for this updated code to my buddy Seth Furchgott who did the googling and grabbed the following from PHP.net, much better than what I originally posted below.
<?php
date_default_timezone_set(‘America/New_York’);
echo date(‘g:i A’);?>
Documentation for timezones:
http://us3.php.net/manual/en/timezones.php (get time zones here by Continent…and Ocean)
http://us3.php.net/manual/en/timezones.america.php (US timezones)
OLD PHP TIME POSTS (newer PHP timezone post): After a comment from a visitor I re-checked my code, did some testing and added the echo statement with formatted time, and improved the comments about how to check for the correct value of $offset. Also, note I have not used this code for a year yet so I do not know if daylight savings has been taken into account.
PHP code to get time in YOUR timezone…
<?php
$mydatetime = time ();
$offset= 0; // offset in # of hours from desired location
// check the time displayed using $offset = 0 and adjust
// the offset accordingly
$mydatetime = $mydatetime + ($offset * 60 * 60);
echo date (“g:i A”, $mydatetime);?>
Check the PHP Time manual page for formatting the time.
Comments/feedback are invited.
Gmail Robot – Hey its Android!
Nov 18th
Sometimes a snippett speaks for itself, and this new feature letting you know which of your IM buddies is “online” using their cell phone (hence not really online, but not offline) is one of those cases:
Turn on Green Robot, a new experiment in Gmail Labs, and you’ll see a robot icon next to people who are currently using Android phones. In the case below, Shirley is online with Android, Nicolle R. is using regular Gmail chat, and Chris I. is currently away but also on Android. Slatka is not an angry robot — she’s online with Android but currently busy.
- Gmail Blog: New in Labs: Green Robot Icon
Click the link above for a small screenshot and more detail (if the snippett above wasn’t enough for you).
Phone, Music, Camera, and Chemical Sensor?
Nov 14th
Smartphones haven’t been “just for phone calls” for a long time. They have also been playing music, taking pictures and shooting video for some time now. According to Engadget (and others) NASA has developed technology to detect ammonia, chorine gas or methane using the iPhone! Maybe there will be an iPhone on the next mission to Mars?
Spock?
Yes, Jim?
I need to call Scotty, where did I put my iPhone?
MORE
1) NASA Loves iPhone
2) Oh, hey I found another alternative to buying the Nokia X6 (coming in at just under $900)… you could buy 4 iPhone 3G’s and still money left!
3) Will this make it easier to Hack NASA?
Gmail more storage for less
Nov 14th
On Nov 10, 2009 the Gmail blog announced lower pricing for extra storage, specifically the price for 20GB is only $5/year. Here’s some extra info on that:
This extra storage acts as an overflow that you only start using when you reach the limit of your free storage, and is shared for use between Gmail and Picasa Web Albums.
- Gmail Blog
Read Gmail Post: More Extra Storage For Less
Nokia X6 or Game Console?
Nov 9th
With a price tag higher than any of the current gaming consoles the Nokia X6 is sure to be a hit – for that crowd that’s currently running around saying “Recession? What recession?” You know, those guys with all of that extra cash right now who aren’t feeling the pinch AND have about $900 for a phone. I mean, its a cool-looking phone, but I *could* buy about 900 double cheese burgers off of the McD’s value menu, or 300 meals off of their value menu. Or maybe I want Xbox 360, a Playsation 3 AND a Nintendo Wii!
NOKIA X6 on YOUTUBE
Choices in Mice and Messages
Nov 9th
Today Wired.com wrote about the OpenOffice Mouse. Not to be outdone by the Apple’s 1-button design, or 2 or 3 button mice for the PC, OpenOffice has created and 18 button OOMouse. OpenOffice users, Photoshop users, and gamers may really be happy about this new 18 button mouse – and gamers especially so if they prefer mouse+keyboard instead of a joystick and play one of the currently supported games.
In the middle of last week, Gmail posted Choose which messages get downloaded for offline use so I guess the theme for the week is CHOICE.
I am a fan of (FREE) OpenOffice, but I don’t know if I’ll be giving that mouse a shot or not. Of course, it could become the next hot PC accessory, who knows!? And about choosing which messages to download for offline, I may give that one a try.
So you are reading about this stuff, what do YOU think?
1 Good Reason to buy Halo 3 ODST
Nov 7th
Hunters that you can actually kill from the front. They were unassailable from the front in previous Halo installments, but now can be killed from the front as it should be (IMO).
Previous Halo: Shoot a Hunter with a missile launcher, you just made him mad!
Halo 3 ODST: Shoot a Hunter with a missile launcher, you just made him dead!
Grenades can also kill from the front, but don’t bother with the ODST’s frag grenades (which are hard to control) or flame grenades (which just aggravate them). Grenades aren’t necessarily a 1 hit kill, but you don’t have to have a Hunter chasing you around all day until you run out of ammo and finally get killed because melee attacks certainly aren’t the way to go! Grenades plus your weapons can take him out from the front.
I do seem to recall that you could kill a Hunter from the front with a sniper rifle if you shot in the small opening that would be their “neck” (between head & shoulders), but this doesn’t seem to be the case now.
Side note: Assassin’s Creed 2 is coming!
Gmail Mobile on iPhone and Android – Faster, Better
Oct 29th
Gmail for Mobile has been re-designed with speed, usability and basic offline support for iPhone and Android devices. For example, smart links take long URLs and use names instead of the link text. So instead of something like http://www.example.com/2009/10/01/using-artichokes-as-paper-weights/ you could change the link to say Using Atrtichokes as Paper Weights.
Android allows developers to make their own apps for Android devices, but also allows Google to roll out features and improvements more quickly. The screenshot below is taken from the original Google post (What’s new with Gmail on iPhone and Android). See also video below.
