Author Archives: Scott Allen

About Scott Allen

Scott Allen is from Indianapolis, Indiana. He has been working with HTML, CSS, PHP, & MySQL since the late 1990s, and has extensive experience in database design and development, server-side scripting, content management, and front-end user experience in both client services and in-house settings. You can connect with Scott on Twitter or via email.

Eagle Creek Greenway construction

Posted on March 5, 2015 by Scott Allen

I wrote a guest post at Urban Indy with some comments and photos regarding the impending greenway extension project going past my neighborhood. I imagine there will be some more as things progress through the summer. The project is slated … Continue reading →

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VCALENDAR file with newlines in DESCRIPTION field

Posted on June 23, 2014 by Scott Allen

Hopefully if anyone else has this problem, they’ll find this post. If you’re attempting to output some data in a MySQL database as a VCALENDAR file that is viewable in Apple Calendar or Outlook or whatever, an incorrect newline character … Continue reading →

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Apple ID doesn’t Just Work

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Scott Allen

I changed the password on my Apple ID a couple days ago. As a person who works with technology and user management and database design and—albeit cursorily—web security, this is something we preach that people should do with online accounts. … Continue reading →

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iOS Status Message

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Scott Allen

This is something I’ve been meaning to write, and hadn’t yet, but this post on Engadget (which I’m sure will be followed by the same info on a million other sites) reminded me of it, and makes me hopeful that … Continue reading →

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iTunes Match

Posted on March 11, 2012 by Scott Allen

I’ve been using iTunes Match for a couple months now, and wanted to post some thoughts. The initial matching and uploading process was pretty slow. I can’t imagine how long it would have taken if I was uploading everything like … Continue reading →

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Fixing Messages for OS X

Posted on March 9, 2012 by Scott Allen

Now that Apple has released the Messages for OS X beta software, it’s possible to be able to send and receive iMessages on my computers alongside all the iOS devices in our house. It makes it very convenient to be … Continue reading →

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On College Athletics

Posted on February 10, 2012 by Scott Allen

Inspiration for this post: NYT: Let’s Start Paying College Athletes I spend a lot of time reading and absorbing thoughts from various media members and other pundits about What To Do About College Athletics™. The divide between coaching/administering haves and … Continue reading →

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Clean Up OS X Lion Launchpad

Posted on October 16, 2011 by Scott Allen

I’m not especially a big fan of the OSX Lion Launchpad, but it pops up every once in a while. It would really bother me that it showed every single app in my Applications folder, including uninstallers and prefpanes and … Continue reading →

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Steve Jobs (1955-2011)

Posted on October 5, 2011 by Scott Allen

I’m sure plenty of people will say it more elegantly than I ever could, so I’m not going to go on and on and on about it. Steve Jobs’ passing came too soon, and the future is not going to … Continue reading →

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MySQL Transactions

Posted on July 2, 2011 by Scott Allen

MySQL has the ability to handle what are known as transactions: a series of queries that must be executed in an all-or-none fashion. As a bonus, it’s super easy to use. Using PHP, you can do the following: mysql_query(“START TRANSACTION”); … Continue reading →

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