My Tech Discovery Blog on PHP, Ajax, Security and Web 2.0
Here’s an article by Trenton Moss with 10 excellent tips on CSS. The article covers topics such as CSS shorthand rule, CSS for printing, Image replacement techniques, CSS positioning and much more.
Mambo 4.5 has in-built functions to create search engine friendly URL’s. Most search engines don’t index sites with query strings in the URL. To overcome this, most CMS systems have in-build systems that allow you to clean the URL to make it search engine friendly. For example take the following URLs as an example:
http://project.com/index.php
http://project.com/index.php?option=com_view&task=view&article=4
Most search engines don’t index the inner pages with URL’s like the one above since they assumes that it’s part of index.php. All Mambo pages refer to index.php, so most of the inner contents don’t get indexed on a search engine.
(more…)
Here’s a site which lists out all the “suspect” anti-spyware software available on the net. Some of these anti-spyware end up installing their own spyware on your PC. So before you go ahead and install a new anti-spyware solution on your PC, check them up with this list.
” Some of the products listed on this page simply do not provide proven, reliable anti-spyware protection or may be prone to ridiculous false positives. Others may use unfair, deceptive, high pressure sales tactics to scare up sales from gullible, confused users. A very few of these products are either associated with known distributors of spyware/adware or have been known to install spyware/adware themselves. ”
Link: Spyware Warrior: Rogue/Suspect Anti-Spyware Products & Web Sites
Here’s a two good articles on optimizing and tuning MySQL databases, tables and queries.
“Even the most well-designed database, functioning on its own or as part of an application, needs to be maintained. This hour is part of a 3-hour set of administrative lessons that will give you pointers for optimizing and tuning your database so that you get the most bang for your buck. Think of your database like a garden — basic water and sunlight will allow it to grow just fine, but a little extra plant food will help it flourish.”
Link to Article: Optimizing and Tuning Your MySQL Database
“You know the scene. The database is just too slow. Queries are queuing up, backlogs growing, users being refused connection. Management is ready to spend millions on “upgrading” to some other system, when the problem is really that MySQL is simply not being used properly. Badly defined or non-existent indexes are one of the primary reasons for poor performance, and fixing these can often lead to phenomenal improvements.”
Link to Article: Optimizing MySQL: Queries and Indexes
Here’s a list of Chart & Graph modules which work with PHP. I personally like PHP/SWF Charts and FusionCharts, which are Flash based charts which you can interface to from PHP. Here’s a list of resources which I checked out.
Most of the commercial products like PHP/SWF charts and Fusion Charts have a free version also available.
Here’s a book from Bruce Perens’ Open Source Series called PHP5 Power Programming.
This book deals with :
In this book, PHP 5’s co-creator and two leading PHP developers show you how to make the most of PHP 5’s industrial-strength enhancements in any project—no matter how large or complex. Their unique insights and realistic examples illuminate PHP 5’s new object model, powerful design patterns, improved XML Web services support, and much more. Whether you’re creating web applications, extensions, packages, or shell scripts—or migrating PHP 4 code—here are high-powered solutions you won’t find anywhere else.
You can download the entire book from Prentice Hall (click on the download link at the Prentice Hall site to get the entire book in pdf):
http://www.phptr.com/title/013147149X
Here’s some of the latest web-based Office Suites based off Ajax. Some of these do eliminate the requirement of having a bulky office suite installed on your PC.
Think Free Online:
http://online.thinkfree.com/
“Thinkfree develops cross-platform applications and online solutions. It’s flagship offering, ThinkFree Office 3, is a Microsoft Office-compatible suite, which allows users to seamlessly create and interact with all kinds of documents and files. Because it is platform independent, it is an ideal and cost-effective way for anyone to work with their office files anywhere, anytime.”
Writely:
http://www.writely.com/
“Writely is a web word processor that provides simple and secure document collaboration and publishing on the web using only the browser. ”
gOFFICE:
https://goffice.com/
“gOFFICE.com, by Silveroffice, Inc., provides an online office suite which allows customers to quickly create documents via a web browser. The customer types in their browser, chooses a letterhead design and receives a professionally formatted PDF file in moments. Customers do not require Adobe Acrobat, as the PDF files are created on the gOFFICE servers. The output from gOFFICE is of high quality. Have a look at this example.”
Zoho Writer:
http://www.zohowriter.com/
Zoho writer allows you to access, edit, share your documents from anywhere. Imports Microsoft Word or Open office document formats. Documents created in Zoho Writer can be exported as PDF/DOC/HTML files.
Here’s a very good article on how to optimize performance and improve security on Apache Servers.
“This guide is written mostly for web administrators/developers, who want to optimize the speed and increase the security of Apache web server. Without a doubt, Apache is still one of the best web servers on the Internet. Being open source, loaded with modules that can do almost anything, Apache is a good solution for both development and production needs. This guide will help you get the best out of Apache web server by letting you control its usage with minimum resources.”
Link: Nasim Mansurov » Apache Performance and Security Guide
A new threat for PHPBB users. Here’s a post from the PHP Security Blog.
“At Halloween 2005 I had disclosed a number of bugs in phpBB, including a remote code execution exploit through the signature_bbcode_uid variable. You will not find this vulnerability in the phpBB security tracker because it is phpBB project’s practise to blame their bugs on PHP and/or otherwise downplay them or hide them. Unfortunately there is now a public exploit for this vulnerability, which was released yesterday while most of us were celebrating christmas.”
Link: phpBB exploit in the wild - PHP Security Blog
Here’s a cool way to swap Stylesheets on the fly using UDASSS(Unobtrusive Degradable Ajax Style Sheet Switcher). Works great even if Javascript is disabled on the browser.
The Unobtrusive Degradable Ajax Style Sheet Switcher combines the power of Server Side processing and DOM scripting to swap style sheets on the fly with the power of Ajax. If JavaScript is disabled - UDASSS degrades gracefully to improve your website accessibility. Needless to say, it is very sexy indeed.
Link: UDASSS Official Documentation
Subscribe in a reader
Or, subscribe via email: 