I have updated my Easy Reflections script to version 2.1 (version 3.1 will follow shortly). This new version allows you to merge the original image in with the output image, thus cutting down on the number of image tags required in your HTML (but increasing server CPU time/RAM needed for the initial hit). This was in response to those people emailing me who were using the script with the Image Flow JavaScript library. I will do the same for V3 - I'm thinking it would make a lot of sense to just merge both scripts into one and make the use of PNG/Alpha support a parameter, so I'll have a crack at that when free time permits - but right now I'm up to my eyeballs in ActionScript3 and Flash game coding.

I have released Version 1.1 of the NFO Viewer script today. This release includes one serious security fix, one minor usability fix and one parameter corruption. The new script can be downloaded (and demoed in action) at http://nfo.corephp.co.uk. Interestingly I also received an email from Ben Garrett who has ported my script over to Cold Fusion! You can grab it from here.

While working on a project I noticed some interesting issues regarding GD images and the amount of memory they take up simply down to where you store them in your PHP script. If you are working with GD a lot then reading this short entry might save you some time / RAM! Update: I've also discovered something very interesting relating to autoloading classes, which again is related to memory allocation.

I've released Version 1.0 of my NFO Viewer. NFO files are 'information' files, made infamous during the cracking / demoscene of the early 90s, often featuring extremely clever artwork considering the images are made of nothing but extended ASCII characters. This script will parse and display an NFO file using a custom font that ensures the extended character set is displayed accurately.

After wasting hours and hours on this, I've come to the conclusion that the PDO SQLite blob support is totally borked, and just doesn't appear to work properly. I really don't know why, or what is going on, but after spending hours trying various code permutations I'm just not getting anywhere. I tried asking on php_general to no avail, so I consider this blog entry my last ditch attempt to get someone to shed some light on this issue before I give-in and ditch PDO for good. I'm trying to store an image in a SQLite database using PDO. Yes yes, we all know that storing images in database files is a bad thing but none-the-less, it should technically be able to handle it. The source code given on http://uk2.php.net/manual/en/ref.pdo.php under Example 1669 appears to be just plain wrong. For example you can't beginTransaction() on a statement! So I had to re-write it a little, but no matter what it just doesn't play ball. The problem appears to be the PDO LOB type. It will only ever send the first 21 bytes of the image to the database. Here's the code:

Today I released Version 3 of Easy Reflections. This version brings about some significant advances, including full support for PNG alpha transparency in the source image, alpha transparency in the output image allowing for overlaying the mirrored images on-top of complex backgrounds or gradients, and colour tinting / saturation support.

I have updated my Easy Reflections code and released v2. Thanks to feedback and some code from Monte Ohrt (co-developer of Smarty) he added in cache support and fixed a banding issue with the alpha levels. It all works really nicely now - and the new version, with the new docs are available at http://reflection.corephp.co.uk. Easy Reflection is a PHP script that will take any given image (jpeg, png) and create a 'reflection' of it, ala Apple iTunes style. You can control the height, the intensity, the background colour and more. Monte has deployed this script all over a new site he built (http://www.motortopia.com) and I too integrated it into a private gallery system, so it can cut the mustard if you have a need for it.

Today I released a piece of source code that will take any GIF, JPEG or PNG and create an new image based on it, which is a nicely formatted reflection of the original. You can use it to give your site that 'iTunes / Apple' look if you so desire. I created it to make image uploads to a site I run look that little bit nicer, so figured I would share it with you all. You can grab it from here along with instructions and examples.

The PHP Mailer class is a wonderful piece of work, and I've used it for years now to handle email sending from PHP (specifically HTML emails and attachments). Although it provides sending via SMTP, it only supports direct SMTP Authentication. Which was great until an application I built moved host and needed "POP before SMTP" Authentication instead. So I wrote this class. I figured I'd post it here incase anyone else had a use for it.

On November 7th Tobias Schlitt and Kore Nordmann released a new alpha of their Image 3D Pear package. The aim of this package is to create 3D objects using nothing but native PHP code (no extensions). The objects can be rendered out via GD, SVG or ASCII. With a number of built-in primitives such as a cube, sphere, cone and torus, plus the ability to place coloured lights, alter object transparency and import 3DS files, this is one powerful package! I gave it a quick run through today and am reporting back on my findings.