June 2008 Archives

TemplateMonster.com is one of the most famous Template resource site in the world.

It is going to hold a lottery with give-away to any participant.
TemplateMonster.com will expose two of TemplateMonster's website designs. In order to take part in the lottery one should vote for one design or the other.

The design which gets the most votes becomes the winner. Note the best design is chosen during two weeks period.

And here are the benefits for users to take part in the lottery:

- everyone who participates in lottery gets the free Icon Set. All icons included into this free Icon Set also relate to patriotic and 4th of July topic;

- also everyone who participates in lottery has a chance to get one of the special prizes.

The special prizes are:

- 1 Gift Certificate giving the opportunity to get any product from Template Monster database for free;
- two 80% discount coupons for purchasing any product from Template Monster database;
- three 50% discount coupons for purchasing any product from Template Monster database.

Note everyone who purchases any product from Template Monster during this promo will get the Icon Set that I've mentioned for free.

It sounds great. The process is simply.
1) Click the event page link. Fill in your name and email and choose the design you like, then click vote button.

2) Then you will get an email looks like below, to confirm your participating and show you the link to download the free set of icons.

Hello,
We thank you again for participating in the 4th of July lottery from Template Monster.
To show you how grateful we are we provide you with a FREE Iconset that you may download by clicking a link below:
Download link shown here
Thank you.

That's all. Now join the 4th of July Special on Template Monster.

It is a Movable Type Security Update.

Today we are releasing Movable Type 4.01b and Movable Type 4.12. These are free mandatory security updates for all Movable Type 4.x users.

via

Action now, upgrade your MT installation. It is a Security update.

I have some MT 4.1 installation on Dreamhost. I update them just two minutes ago.

It is simply and easy to update.

1) SSH to server.

2) wget http://www.movabletype.com/download/personal/MTP-4.12-en.tar.gz

3) tar -xvzf MTP-4.12-en.tar.gz

4) cp -r -f . ~/sitedir/mtcgi/

5) login MovableTyep and done.

I use Ubuntu 8.04. It is shipped with GNOME Desktop.

Gnome 2.22 now.
You may want to read its release notes.

Go to Gnome official site to find out more.

I wrote PHP Optimization to improve performance. Now I have another ten PHP optimization tips for you.
1. Single-quoted strings.
Use single quote when possible. It is faster than double quote. If it is string only, just pick single quotes.
2. The way output data.
Could you point which is the fastest way to output from below?

print "Hi my name is $a. I am $b";
echo "Hi my name is $a. I am $b";
echo "Hi my name is ".$a.". I am ".$b;
echo "Hi my name is ",$a,". I am ",$b;

The last one is actually the fastest operation.
3. Use single-quotes around array indexes.
So, $x['sales'] is alway best format and fast.
4. Don't use short open tags.
<?php is formal tag.
5. Use regular expressions only when you really need it.

When doing string operation, like replace part of string. strtr is the fastest.
str_replace is faster.
preg_replace is slow.

3 Critical Patch

• Vulnerability in Bluetooth Stack Could Allow Remote Code Execution (951376)


• Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (950759)


• Vulnerabilities in DirectX Could Allow Remote Code Execution (951698)

3 Important Patch

• Vulnerability in WINS Could Allow Elevation of Privilege (948745)


• Vulnerability in Active Directory Could Allow Denial of Service (953235)


• Vulnerabilities in Pragmatic General Multicast (PGM) Could Allow Denial of Service (950762)

Go to check you Windows Updates now, before the virus or hacker break your system.

It is good news Today.

One API to Rule Them All

Stability, Debugging, Testing and jquery.simulate

The Need for Effects: Enter Enchant

Roll Your Own Themes: ThemeRoller!

Plugin Stabilization and Enhancements

jQuery UI v1.5:

Final Release: http://ui.jquery.com/download

When coding in PHP in variety ways, some way is simple, some is not. But there must be one better way that can provide better performance.

Here is a list of 63+ best practice to optimize PHP code performances

I learn some from it.

• echo is faster than print.


• require_once() is expensive


• If you need to find out the time when the script started executing, $_SERVER['REQUEST_TIME'] is preferred to time()


• str_replace is faster than preg_replace, but strtr is faster than str_replace by a factor of 4


• It's better to use select statements than multi if, else if, statements.


• Close your database connections when you're done with them


• $row['id'] is 7 times faster than $row[id]


• Do not use functions inside of for loop, such as for ($x=0; $x < count($array); $x) The count() function gets called each time.


• When echoing strings it's faster to separate them by comma instead of dot. Note: This only works with echo, which is a function that can take several strings as arguments.


• Do NOT use SQL wildcard select. eg. SELECT *

I would like to introduce this Free Paint program. Tux Paint.

My daughter, Grace, loves it. She still remember that she played it one year ago when I use Edubuntu.
Actually, I installed it in Windows XP yesterday.

Yes, this program is Open Source and can run on a variety of platforms, including all versions of Windows (including Tablet PC), Mac OS X 10.3 and up, Linux, FreeBSD and NetBSD. It works well on older, slower systems, as well as thin-clients such as LTSP, Citrix® and Windows Terminal Services. It even runs on some handheld computers!

Let's see a screenshot.

Look, kids will like it. This drawing program for children ages 3 to 12 (for example, preschool and K-6 in the US, key stages 1 & 2 in the UK). It combines an easy-to-use interface, fun sound effects, and an encouraging cartoon mascot who guides children as they use the program.

If you have a kid in this age range, just click here to download and install it.
I promise your child will say thank you to me.