I found the documentation on using CodeIgniter’s Image Manipulation class (image_lib) in a loop, creating multiple sizes of a graphic a little confusing and hard to get a handle on, so the following is an example of how to do this… This example assumes that you are also using CodeIgniter’s File Uploading Class to upload the image you wish to resize (if this isn’t the case, you can replace the “uploaddata” variable with whatever you want. I opted not to use the “create_thumb” parameter, as I want to keep my file names identical.

The big catch for me was understanding that, as far as I understand it, the initialize function is used each time through a loop iteration to read in a new config, and that while you can provide a config when the class is initially loaded (“$this->load->library”), this should only be done once. I’m not completely clear on whether both clearing out the “$config” array and running “$this->image_lib->clear()” is necessary, but this worked for me.


// uploaddata contains an array of information about the file you just uploaded using
// CodeIgniter's File Uploading Class (http://codeigniter.com/user_guide/libraries/file_uploading.html)
$uploaddata = $this->upload->data();

//$this->image_lib->display_errors();


There may be times when you wish to SSH or establish some sort of network connection to a local VM guest while you don’t have an internet connection. Using bridged networking you can facilitate this. By default your VM host and guests are probably using DHCP, which means that without the internet connection they will have no IP address (or a self assigned IP). You can “force” an IP address by doing the following:

sudo ifconfig en0 192.168.0.10 netmask 255.255.255.0

where “en0″ is an available network interface (this is the ethernet adapter in OS X), and 192.168.0.10 is some sort of private IP address. If you do this on both your VM host and guest, they will be reachable internally using these respective IP addresses despite having no route to the internet. You can verify that these machines are reachable with a ping to these respective IP addresses. To check to see what interfaces you have available and what IP addresses they have been assigned you can do the following:

ifconfig

As implied, all of this works in OS X as well as other BSD OSes and Linux. Be sure to update any firewall rules to recognize your new IP and/or interface, where applicable, or else just disable your firewall while you are not connected to the internet.

More information about this release and the Canadian Brass can be found on their website.

For now we’d like to highlight two of the most important new features of this new version…We are pleased to announce the near completion of a brand new version of the NetMusician Store software. This new version includes many improvements which will be detailed shortly here. As always, you can receive notifications of updates such as this by joining our Facebook group or following us on Twitter.

For now we’d like to highlight two of the most important new features of this new version…

One is the simplification and advancement of being able to sell tracks from your CDs (and/or other downloadables), and/or complete albums as downloads from within your store. When a customer has selected to download a product from your store, at checkout time the customer is quickly prompted to enter a password to go along with their email address, they are automatically logged on using this information, and upon successful payment they are automatically sent an email where they can login to your site (if necessary) and access the materials they purchased at any time, from any computer. Additionally, the store continues to support the shipment of products (shipping prices can be configured to your liking), and any order can include a mix of physical to-be-shipped items as well as downloadable ones.

Another important new feature to the new store is increased pricing flexibility, including the ability to create sales and highlight these sales and/or special deals, new products, etc. throughout your site. The store will launch with a single sale calculator you can use right away which will discount certain items when other items are also purchased, but additional sale types including percent discounts, referral codes, and others can be easily installed as well. Sales can be set on shipped purchases from the US, Canada, or elsewhere, and also can be set on downloadable items.

We will be providing a working demo once it has been completed, and will be working to upgrade all existing stores to this new version free-of-charge. Please contact us if you are interested in selling downloads from your store!

With work to the new NetMusician Store module nearly complete, we are just about ready to market NetMusician to a wider audience and support the creation of free websites that can be managed through the Webkit.After many, many years of nearly constant work, this is a very exciting time for NetMusician!

With work to the new NetMusician Store module nearly complete, we are just about ready to market NetMusician to a wider audience and support the creation of free websites that can be managed through the Webkit.

This service is not intended to be a replacement for our custom designed websites, but is intended for those who want a quick website, perhaps for a one-time event or a project that doesn’t justify a financial expense, and don’t mind having their site based on the design of a pre-made template and the capabilities of their site limited in comparison to the full set of Webkit features. Unlike other free sites (such as those on wordpress.com), for an additional fee we support template alterations and a (paid) upgrade path to support all Webkit modules including the Store and Events Calendar, both of these tools custom “skinned” and configured for your site, additional support options, and we even support having the look and feel of your site completely redesigned at some point in the future for the cost of the graphic design work and a modest install fee.

Ultimately, these “starter” websites will remain free for those that don’t want any template alterations and don’t mind not having their site hosted under their own domain, but by paying the usual $10/month for NetMusician hosting these users will be able to host these websites under their own domain.

Please stay tuned for the full announcement of this service and when it will be available to the general public… It is currently undergoing testing by our current members.

If you are thinking of purchasing a .com or .net domain, now might not be a bad time to do so! NetMusician is not a domain registrar, so this registration will have to come via a third party. Please contact us if you have any questions…

Their site also features the NetMusician Mailing List Webkit module which provides their customers a painless way to subscribe and unsubscribe from their newsletter.

His website features the NetMusician Webkit Events Calendar, Twitter Status, TweetMeme and Facebook integration, Photo Gallery, YouTube Gallery, Discography, Sound Clips, Mailing List, Press Kit, and Email modules, as well as a blog and the ability to post news items. His Events Calendar events are automatically synced with the Canadian Brass event data, also hosted by the NetMusician Webkit, since he performs with this group regularly.

Nathaniel Fox Beversluis has been appointed Assistant Conductor of the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of the Greensboro Symphony Youth Orchestra, and wanted to use his site to communicate with his students,  colleagues, and audience about the many musical projects he will be involved with through these new collaborations. His site did include a blog where we would post news relating to his musical projects, but there was little to connect the discussions already taking place on Facebook with his site, and little to make visitors to his site aware of his Facebook community or Twitter “tweets”.

By adding the “Like” and “Share” Facebook widgets to his blog, Nathaniel will make the visitors to his site aware of his presence on Facebook, and will provide an easy way to grow his fan base by making it easy for visitors to post news stories that catch their attention to their Facebook walls where potentially hundreds of avid Facebook friends can read and help spread his news.

Nathaniel has also started using his Twitter account to “micro-blog” events in his life, providing the people interested in his musical projects, which include friends, colleagues, and students, with a sense of exactly what he is working on and thinking about, or simply a general status update.

The popularity of the social networks including Facebook and Twitter have clearly become the next “killer app”. Recently Facebook has been surrounded by controversy due to their, some would say, overreaching privacy policies, but despite these dents in their armor it is clear that the services that Facebook offers are of great value to the world and will therefore remain intertwined with our culture whether it is Facebook or some other company providing these services. Some believe these applications to have become the most familiar and frequently used applications in the world, surpassing Microsoft Office. However, while some people have become virtually addicted to social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, some haven’t, and many don’t really grasp the attraction to being this connected to events that may seem relatively mundane in the mind of the musician.

I understand this best in thinking about who I idolize or respect greatly, and watch how this same sort of devotion manifests in people younger than myself. There seems to be a natural curiosity that goes along with this, a curiosity in wondering “what does he/she listen to?”, “what is life like on the road?”, “what is it like to be him/her?”, or “what does he/she feel about the press and attention they are getting?” If you aren’t yet a big superstar and don’t have hordes of adoring fans, there is still a natural, perhaps less intense curiosity that might exist perhaps with your local fans: “what is it like making this music?”, “what is it like trying to make it in the world of music?”, or simply “how is so and so doing? How are they feeling?”

In addition, Nathaniel transformed his homepage into a very convenient portal showcasing a summary of his upcoming events, excerpts from his latest blog postings, and his latest Twitter status update. It is a good idea to keep your homepage fresh, as not only does Google visit and index your homepage more frequently than your inner pages, but often times repeat visitors to your site won’t even bother poking around if they don’t have the impression that the site has changed or new content has been added since they last visited.

Using the NetMusician Webkit Nathaniel can specify how many upcoming events should be displayed and how many blog posts should be displayed on his homepage, and he can even have his Twitter status update automatically hidden if he hasn’t updated it recently. The NetMusician Webkit also drives his blog, and every other piece of content featured on his website. It provides him with an easy way for him to update his content on his own, or get somebody else without any experience in HTML or web programming to do this on his behalf. The NetMusician Webkit is tightly integrated with the popular content management and blogging tool WordPress which includes its own application for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, allowing Nathaniel to update his site when he is away from his computer.