ohryan.ca

A Web Developer in Winnipeg

  • Winnipeg’s Mayoral Candidate “Judy” Needs A Web Presence

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    Judy Wasylycia-Leis, Winnipeg’s only official mayoral candidate announced her candidacy 1/2 an hour ago.

    At the time of writing, neither her official website or facebook fan page have been updated.

    Fail.

  • Winnipeg’s Golden Era

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    This post is somewhat outside of the scope of the types of things I normally blog about here, we’ll see if I continue this sort of thing.

    I came across a great series of photographs from The Winnipeg Transit archives via the Winnipeg blog Rise and Sprawl. Here are some of my favorite photos from what could be dubbed the Golden Era of Winnipeg, they exemplify the vibrant city of an era gone by that many of us are pining for.

    1910s

    Caleron Hotel , now vacant “A&B Sound Building.” I wonder what happened to the top 3 floors – Google Streeview

    Main St, “Peace Day” June 19, 1919 – the end of WWI. Look at all those people! – Google Streetview

    1920s

    Fort St – Google Streeview

    VE Day, 1945

    Portage & Main. Look at that stubby little bus and giant streetcar – Google Streeview

    1940s

    Selkirk & Salter – Google Streetview

    Portage &  Main, northeast corner. I appreciate that we are still using historically accurate street lights, too bad they closed this intersection to pedestrians – Google Streeview

  • How To Detect Mobile Visitors Using .htaccess Rewrite Rules, Simplified

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    Since my original posts on mobile redirection in .htaccess files I’ve gotten some comments and emails asking for step-by-step guidance on exactly how to “install” these rules. I hope this post will answer some of those questions.

    Before you continue reading, if you have php installed on your server, you may want to consider Andy Moore’s php based detection solution.

    The Basics

    First off, some basic requirements. You’ll need:

    • Apache/Linux Hosting. Microsoft’s IIS has a completely different method for handling this sort of thing.
    • FTP access.
    • Apache mod_rewrite enabled. Depending on the type of hosting you have, it may be difficult to determine if you have this module installed and it may be impossible to enable if you don’t. If the steps below simply don’t seem to work, there is a good chance you don’t have mod_rewrite installed. Ask your tech support.
    • Mobile site in a subdirectory, eg. www.yourdomain.com/m/. This set of rules I’ve posted will not work with a mobile subdomain.

    The Steps

    1. Download mobilerules2.1.txt.
    2. Open the file in your favorite text editor, replace the 2 instances of “mobiledirectoryhere” (without quotes) with the directory name you are using for your mobile site. Save it.
    3. Open FTP client, enable ‘view hidden files’ – files beginning with a dot are hidden on linux. This option is typically buried in a “view” menu or something to that effect. Results may vary.
    4. Navigate to your site’s webroot (probably ‘htdocs’ or ‘www’).
      • If there is already a .htaccess file present in the directory. Download it, open it in your favorite text editor. Copy & paste the contents ofmobilerules2.1.txt into the file. Save it, upload it.
      • If there is no .htaccess file present. Upload mobilerules2.1.txt as is, rename it to .htaccess.
    6. Your Done. Test it from a mobile device.

    If you have any questions please leave a comment.

    Note: This script treats all opera mini, iphone and android the same as other phones and browsers. Leave some comments if you’d like me to address this.