Brussels web design blog

php: force download script + convert url to localpath

For a “force download script” to which i send as variable a full URL, i needed to convert this url into the local path, so that the system can check whether the file exists or not, and then read it to output with the correct mimetype.

Here is what i came up with. It seems simple but i couldn’t find such an easy way anywhere on the web so here is my modest contribution to a better (documented) world .

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Michael Heim – The Erotic Ontology of Cyberspace

Michael Heim wrote a book in 1993 called “The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality” and one chapter in particular strongly affected my relation to the internet and my desire to make it my play/work ground since about 10 years now.

This article was called “The Erotic Ontology of Cyberspace”. You can still find the original here, but i shall keep a copy in this blog post, just in case, as I like to read it again every now and then, a kind of paegan bible in a way.

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lisapram.com navigation system elected n°1

Today was quite a heavy, dare I say tough, day.
I’m even more so pleased to end it by discovering, while browsing through today’s referer list for Lisa Pram’s website, that Lisa’s interactive barcode website has been chosen as number 1 in taragana.com’s article: 5 examples of jquery navigation at its best.

I’m not bragging here, it’s not so much about me – who cares – as much as it’s about seeing an artefact that you built and cared after passionately taking its spin in the world, day after day. Much like seeing your child take its first steps, really, that kind of pleasure.

Bah, enough of that sentimental crap, here ’s what Soumya says about it:

In this genre when 95% of the web-designers use Actionscript, Flex, and Flash in general. here are some of the most stunning and impressive collection of 5 sites that use jQuery to make the navigation clean, sharp, and elegant. These sites use the framework to do more than just add gracious effect. There are these particularly creamy look to it which I like so much in all of them. Fluid animation at its best.

And then, specifically about Lisa Pram’s website:

There is no way I can put it at the second spot.

Thanks Taragana.com !