k_nitin_r

Hi!@BuffaloHelpThe settings that you've provided for the HtAccess file hook up the PHP processor to files with the HTML interface. An alternative to get scripts from files that do not include the .php extension would be to read them through a PHP script and to evaluate the string. It achieves the same effect but would involve a greater overhead from having to do it through PHP instead of orchestrating the whole process through a C-coded application (both Apache and the PHP processor). The advantage of using HtAccess, however, is that it gives you the benefit of keeping the original URLs. You can also use the Mod_Rewrite module to get the .html in the URLs to map to the .php extension of the files without having to rename the files to .html. It's a better solution if you already have existing scripts uploaded to the server.The file extensions do not have an effect on the search engine results because you have lots of content management systems that add in their file extensions to the URL and URL re-writing modules that take away the file extension entirely! On most blogs today, we see the article title as the name of the 'file' in the URL and there's definitely no association with the .html extension in that case. In fact, in traditional UNIX systems, file extensions are just vestigial appendages that were added on for the administrators to be able to figure out what they do - the file processing utilities are able to handle files with any kind of extensions. When creating the HtAccess file using Windows Explorer (of course, when trying to run Apache on a Microsoft Windows-based system), you can't really create a .htaccess file because it has no characters before the period - you cannot create a file that has only an extension and no 'primary' name in Windows. However, you can modify an existing .htaccess file normally so the only way to create a .htaccess file would be to programmatically create one, or create one on a UNIX based system and copy it across to the Windows based system either through FTP, SCP, or sending across an archive.

Hi!@TrueFusionI believe Java and Python are just as popular, except that Java is more popular for enterprise computing projects while Python is more popular for web development and scripting projects. We rarely hear about enterprise service and messaging buses for PHP and Python, though interfaces for Python and PHP do exist, but they are commonly associated with Java. Sure, Java may be more of a memory hog, but it does ensure that the system is able to run across multiple platforms without modification and maintains binary compatibility, which is more than what we can say for most other development platforms including the Microsoft .NET platform. There are, however, disadvantages of using Java. You can't really match the development speed that you get when working with PHP or the Microsoft .NET platform and you don't really get the cool development tools that Microsoft has to offer. Sure, we have Eclipse and NetBeans but Microsoft commercially builds and licenses Microsoft Visual Studio and the Team Foundation server while providing express versions of Visual Studio for free.

Hi!@web_designerThe forum theme update came to me as a surprise too! I posted a couple of messages this morning and we still had the old theme. Then, I'm away from my computer for about an hour and now that I come back and type in the URL for Xisto, I get a very different look so I check to make sure that I'm still on the Xisto website and that we didn't have some big corporation come and take over the place that I love to hang out.The new theme feels nicer and brighter, but I was accustomed to the old theme and the features. For example, the new theme tells me on the right which the new threads are but does not tell me where the latest posts have been made, so if somebody did reply to an older thread I wouldn't be able to tell unless I've got email notifications enabled. I don't have email notifications enabled for most of my posts so it's hard to reply to something that I don't know has a post.The shoutbox is missing too, but right now I do see Opaque online so I suppose Xisto is running in maintenance mode for some of the plugins to have been disabled. I'm sure there would be folks talking about the update to Xisto if the shoutbox were open.

Hi!I've got a Panasonic Lumix which had a 12 mega pixel resolution and the only problem that most people seem to have is that when they look through the viewfinder, the picture is brighter than it really is when they shoot on auto mode in darker environments. If you select the Scene type instead of the automatic mode, you will be get the picture to look exactly the way you want it to in the viewfinder... by viewfinder, I mean the LCD screen on the back of the camera. The problem only occurred under poor lighting conditions, so it didn't really matter all that much.If you are looking for a cheap camera that comes with all the niceties of a higher end camera, buy a Benq. I don't really know how they do it, but they charge really low prices even for cameras that have high resolutions. They look just as good as regular cameras, but I have never really had the chance to try a Benq.@sheepdogYou can use some software like Xilisoft to convert your videos, but for the most part videos are too large to send via email. You might be able to use a free file transfer service, such as YouSendIt.com and it'll deliver your file across by simply sending across a link to the file via email to the person you want to send the file to.

Hi!@sheepdogI believe police vehicles and taxis used the Crown Victoria because of the great deal that they offer for the engine that they provide. If power is all you are looking for, then the Crown Vic is it! However, for fuel economy, you might want to go in for a Japanese car if you are planning a daily commute. Toyotas and Nissans can get you there without putting a real burden on the planet - the Toyota Yaris, Toyota Corolla, and the Nissan Tiida are good choices if you are concerned about rising fuel prices.

Hi!@dirty_kesoYour hardware is underpowered to run Microsoft Windows 7. If you are running Windows XP, you are getting the best value that you can from it. If you do wish to move to a more modern operating system, Linux us the way to go as roger112 has suggested.Windows 7 does introduce a new taskbar. It takes the grouping of windows from the same application to a different level and it is getting closer to where the Mac OS X is in terms of displaying larger program icons, displaying icons of applications that are not currently running (though some might say that it is the Quick Launch toolbar functionality). The biggest selling point of Windows 7 is the support for multi touch so unless you have got multi touch hardware, you don't really have a reason to upgrade.

Hi!As an individual, there is only so much that you can do. Freelancing is a great way to live life on your own terms, though you might run into a dry period when you have lots of time and you do not really have much to do to utilize your time, but when you work alone, you can only do so much. My point is that if you do want to rake in large profits, you have got to form an organization. You could have a human resources consultancy where all you do is interview people and send them to organizations that do need them - you would have to pay for individuals to interview the job applicants and would be earning your revenue from the organizations, often as a percentage of the job applicant's offered salary.Setting up an organization also has the advantages of achieving economy of scale and economy of scope. Economies of scale are the cost savings that an organization achieves from manufacturing a product or providing a service on a massive scale. An organization that build specialty cars and custom-builds each of the cars will have to charge much more to make the same profit per car as an organization that engages in mass production and builds ever car in exactly the same manner. When engaging in activities that involve purchasing from a supplier, it is possible to get discounts on bulk purchases, such as the kind that you get at the stores when you purchase two items and get a third one for free. You can also get preferential fulfillment of orders if you are a bulk customer because the supplier would want to make every effort to retain you and to keep you from going to one of their suppliers - taking your business elsewhere would mean a pretty huge loss of sales for them, if you are a major customer. Economies of scope is the cost saving that results from being able to utilize your organization's assets to the maximum possible extent. For example, if you have a car that you want to utilize for your business, you drive it from home to work and from home to work, plus some driving around in the evenings to run errands and for going out shopping with the family or out to see a movie with friends, you still have a period when the car is left in the parking lot either because you are in the office and have a job that does not involve travel or are back from home and have a business that shuts down for the night. If you were to save on the cost of insurance of the vehicle, which is paid on an yearly basis, by using the vehicle for the transportation of night workers and for having other employees in the organization use the car while you are in office, you achieve economy of scope by reducing the idle time that your assets have within the organization. By having a human resources officer within your organization manage resources for multiple geographical locations within the organization, you are achieving economies of scope by utilizing the transaction cost to achieve the maximum benefit.As an organization, you would also have the added benefit of having specialized workers that perform a particular task extremely well. They would be able to provide you with greater inputs on how a particular process can be made more efficient and they would be more knowledgeable about the role that they perform within the organization.Online businesses deal with their customers online and usually provide services online, but you do have to maintain physical resources to be able to run the business. For example, you do need to get individuals to maintain the website, you would need individuals to help broker the deals that you provide to your customers, and if you are manufacturing goods that you sell over the Internet, you need to be able to set up a manufacturing plant or at least a small scale manufacturing division within the organization that can produce the goods as quickly as you are able to sell them.In terms of customer perceptions, the stability of an organization exceeds that of an individual and therefore you would come across as more credible and would give the customer the impression that there is somebody that he or she can rely on and will not disappear overnight in the face of a crisis.So, anyway, the point is that you either need to pool together your investment with like-minded individuals and form an organization or you might not really manage to "earn quick money."

Hi!Before we go into the details of what is a 501c3 organization, let us first define what the term means for the rest of the forum readers to be able to contribute to the discussion.An organization is something intangible. We interact with the people who work for organizations such as WalMart and British Airways, and we see things that are owned by organizations such as, for example, the hypermarkets owned by WalMart and the jumbo jets owned by British Airways, but we never really see an organization. An organization is simply a group or individuals and certain resources that are used in combination to work toward the goal of creating value and engage in a mutually beneficial exchange. Organizations are often formed to fill a need that exists and may not be adequately satisfied by existing organizations. Organizations are started by investors and entrepreneurs. Investors see organizations as a means to increase their funds over a period of time. Entrepreneurs attempt to identify the gaps in the current market in order to engage in exchanges. Organizations such as Amazon have been able to make books more easily accessible to consumers by reducing costs and increasing accessibility to books due to needs identified by entrepreneurs such as Jeffrey Bezos (Amazon ships books internationally too!).A 501c3 organization is a specific form of organization that is exempted from tax by the U.S. government and engages its efforts in religious, knowledge-related, or charitable causes. Some of the characteristics defined above hold true for most organizations, but do not apply to charitable organizations. Investors who contribute to charitable organizations do not seek to increase their funds but instead intend to contribute to society and to help in forming a self-sustaining organizations that would not require continual input of finances. Entreprenuers have to create business plans that can attract investors, and also need the business plan to register the organization and acquire a license. Licenses obtained by an organization enable it to engage in certain types of exchanges of value. Charitable organizations do not necessarily have exchanges, but they could raise funds for charity by providing services or products in return. A business plan should not only mention the activities that the organization would be engaging in, but also how it plans to perform those activities. A statement of finances has to be created to indicate the consumpting of funds, acquisition of new funds, and the sustainability of the firm through its efforts to balance the consumption and acquisition of finances. The profits generated by a firm can either be released to shareholders as dividends or can be re-invested into the business in improving its activities or in expanding its business. A 501c3 organization may not be able to issue dividends due to the fact that it does not seek to generate profit and therefore returning finances to share holders would be against the organization's charter. If you have all of these aspects thought out and can present a business plan and projected financial statements, you are half-way there and need to be able to produce certain additional documents, as required by the local body issuing trade licenses and registering organizations, to indicate your capabilities in running the organization.

Hi!@kira423I've tried looking for RubyCode but I can't seem to find it. Perhaps they've rebranded the product or renamed the project on their hosting site? Was RubyCode free and open-source or was it a commercial product? From the name, I would guess that it provided syntax highlighting only for Ruby code, and perhaps for HTML, cascading style sheets and some Javascript too.Eclipse is a really popular platform for building integrated development environments (IDEs). You can build an integrated development environment for your own programming language if you wanted to and Eclipse would be the best place to start because it provides application programming interfaces for you to hook up your own code to for providing auto-complete suggestions to the user while typing in source code, you can attach debuggers to the code while it is executing so you can trace the execution, look up variable values, examine the stack, look up the errors that occur during execution, and you can define which keywords are highlighted by the syntax highlighting feature of Eclipse. Eclipse itself is Java based so the users would have to install the Java Runtime Environment (JRE). It is a small download (though not too small), and is different from the Java Development Kit (JDK) which is what you would be installing if you wanted to build the integrated development environment for your programming language. You might find some references to the Java Development Kit with the term Java Software Development Kit (SDK) - they are one and the same but they used different naming conventions at different points in time.You might have heard about NetBeans, which is quite popular as a Java integrated development environment. NetBeans can do pretty much whatever Eclipse can do, but Eclipse seems to be more popular outside the Java development community. NetBeans also has a customized version for PHP development. I'm not aware of any NetBeans based integrated development environment for C, C++, Ruby, or any other programming and scripting languages but I would not be surprised if they do exist, given the flexibility of the IDE development platforms.

Hi!@The SimpletonAt first, I thought it was a bug in the system because the error message says, "15 seconds," and I was pretty sure that I was waiting for longer than fifteen seconds. I'm not sure if there was an announcement posted to the board to indicate that the flood control interval has been increased because I am on and off the forum so I may have missed any discussion that the administrators or moderators may have posted to indicate the change. If you look at the thread that I linked to in the past, there was a request to reduce the limit, but a twenty five second limit is pretty reasonable - reducing it to 10 seconds doesn't really help much because it takes at least thirty seconds to scroll down to the bottom of the page, type in a response of considerable length and click the submit button. However, a fifteen minute delay is a little excessive. We must have had some really bad spammers for the flood control interval to have been increased to fifteen minutes. I wonder if it would be logical to assume that the older members of Xisto/Trap 17 would be less likely to spam the board and to place them within a separate group to which the flood control interval does not apply.I don't really want to have to do something along the lines of closing my browser to post another message because I usually have a couple of other tabs with pages open that contain stuff that I would like to read before I close the browser windows. Perhaps we could have some sort of a poll for members to indicate if they would be more likely to participate in the forums if the time interval for the flood control were reduced to (a) 2 minutes, ( 5 minutes, © 10 minutes, (d) 15 minutes. The results of the poll would not be binding on the administrators of the board, but it would get the message across of what people think is reasonable and would help them make any decisions on changing the flood control interval. Folks who compose their messages offline and want to post their messages as soon as they're able to connect would probably not want a flood control because that would mean that they have to return to the forum every so often to be able to post all of the messages that they have written up. I guess logging in as a guest user would help in getting around the flood control, but then we wouldn't get MyCENTs for those posts.

Hi!@rogerThat's pretty neat! I was trying to do some Drupal development along with a buddy from the forums. I didn't really get very far because as soon as I got the hang of building themes for Drupal, I got occupied with some other stuff and that was about all I got to investigate Drupal for. Hey, perhaps if you come up with some interesting stuff to share about Drupal, you could post to the forums - you can rack up on MyCENTs for hosting and the rest of us can follow you as you explore Drupal as a software developer.Web development is pretty cool, but some do not consider it to be true programming because for the most part, instead of dealing with memory leaks, concurrency, and threading, we are dealing with layouts, Javascript, and working our way around security 'features' that browsers implement to keep us from our goal. Sure, browser security measures are meant to prevent us from doing certain things but then why do the workarounds exist? And if the workarounds do exist, wouldn't somebody else make use of the workaround to write malicious code the same way we do? Proponents of the idea that web programming isn't true programming suggest that having to target multiple web browsers and ensuring that the client-side scripts work for everybody is more of a quality control role within software development and it isn't exactly the kind of stuff software engineers should be worried about.I don't really agree with the view that web programming shouldn't be considered true programming. It's just a different kind of programming and it has its own challenges that have to be appreciated and treated as genuine problems within the software development community.

Hi!@BaniboyLinux-based phones are pretty neat because they are open and there's a lot more that you can do with them when compared to other types of devices. Apple locks down most of its phones and mobile devices so I'm pretty sure that the iPhone 2G that I have right now is the last purchase that I would be making from them unless they come up with something truly revolutionary and amazing that would blow my socks off.Qt is a library that you would use when programming in C, so comparing Qt to C isn't really appropriate (Qt... cutie... the cutie always wins over all else because she turns out to be the one that survives through all else at the end of the movie in the fact of earthquakes, zombie attacks, mutantation-inducing viruses, and stuff of the sort). It is like comparing the engine to the automobile when saying that they are both really powerful when in fact one fits within the other. Python is definitely so much easier to develop with because of the fact that it is a scripting language and you can get away without having to concern yourself with things like memory management and type declarations. Python has another unique feature - you do not use brackets to define blocks, such as functions and control structure statements, but rather you would be using indentations. That's right, you would indent all of the statements within a function to indicate that they belong to the function. It's a case of convention over configuration and there's really not much to learning it since you're pretty much indenting your code already when following coding conventions.BTW, I'm not really sure of what you mean when you say that two squared is zero, because my Y2K-compatible brain and my trusty calculator would both agree that it is four. Perhaps I need an upgrade - new brain and a new calculator. Are you running Ubuntu 10.04? Ubuntu was released quite recently so if they haven't included Python 2.6.5 yet, I would look for any updates that Ubuntu provides from its package repository. Using the repositories ensures that the automatic update checks for the latest versions instead of having to stay signed onto mailing lists or watching RSS feeds to stay informed. In either case, it is just a minor version update so you do not really have to concern yourself with sticking to the latest version - it is probably just a bug fix or something minor that will not stop you from achieving what you want to do and should not affect development in any way, unless the bug that they've fixed is relevant to something that you want to do.Learning Java is one of the best things that you can do because when you do start developing programs with Java, you can write a piece of code once and can expect it to run on all kinds of devices, or at least that's the theory that holds good in most cases and as with all other things in the world, there are exceptions. Java does tend to consume a lot of memory but since memory is cheap, it isn't something that we need to worry about. When running Java on a mobile device, the virtual machine (or runtime) takes care of memory management in a more aggressive manner, so yet again you don't really have to make any changes to your code but instead the device manufacturer has things tweaked to run perfectly on the mobile device. I had a Nokia Communication 9210i and that could literally run the compiled Java bytecode (.class files) without requiring any packaging. That was so cool, because I could just write a piece of code, compile it, copy it onto a memory card or hook up the phone to the serial port and get the file across, and use the file manager to execute the Java code just as I would execute any other piece of code through Windows explorer. Java is also used to build enterprise applications and right now, I see just two platforms that are making it really big and those are the Java platform and the Microsoft .NET platform. Other scripting languages, such as PHP and Python, are quite popular but in terms of performance, they do lag a bit and are more CPU-intensive than their Java and .NET equivalents. I still do use PHP for my development because I'm not expecting to build a web based application that attracts thousands of users within the first couple of months, but I'm not saying that it is impossible. If such a load does exist, I would probably do whatever I can through caching while building a Java or .NET based version of the web application.

Hi!@anwiiThere are a couple of different approaches that you could try. You can use a client-side approach and create a Javascript that makes an AJAX request to determine if a particular page exists on the server. The request is make to retrieve the directory, which basically means that the default document within that directory is retrieved. If it gets back an error response, we assume that the directory does not exist and can display a message to the user, again via Javascript. The advantage of this approach is that the page does not refresh. We can accomplish something similar using inline frames - the user would see an error within the inline frame while the textbox for entering the directory is still visible... it is a crude approach, but it gets the job done with AJAX.From the server-side, you could implement a solution with any programming language of choice, such as PHP, Java, or ASP.NET. What you are trying to accomplish is pretty much what many MVC frameworks do - when you type in a directory name in the URL bar, the server-side script that makes up the MVC framework checks to see if it can find a controller and view to match and then either displays the page or goes BEEEP... wrong answer! You can specify a custom error page to say Page Not Found or something similar. However, I'm not really sure if you are trying to create your own web development framework or are simply developing something to enable visitors to browse through the site, so if you can provide more details about what you are trying to accomplish, that would really help us in telling you the exact course that you need to follow to achieve your end result.

Hi!@The SimpletonWhen going broke, many people turn to the Internet for advice and support, so you're not the only one out there. The only difference is that you aren't broke in real life and are only broke in the virtual world, so logically you would want to get from the virtual world to the real world for consolation and support.Recently, there was a post online about a 25-year-old guy who was divorced by his wife, he lost his job, and was living in his car. He posted about it on online and soon enough, there was advice pouring in. One poster suggested places to park the car while sleeping in it. Apparently, WalMart lets people park in their parking lots overnight while motels have security guards who check for folks parking their car and sleeping within the cars sometime in the middle of the night - the more the people sleep in their cars, the less the motel makes, so it is a kind of a business strategy rather than anything else. There are national parks that let visitors park for up to two weeks but nobody really checks for how long a vehicle has been there anyway. Churches are generally more sympathetic and let folks park in their parking lots while sleeping within their cars, so that's cool. One other thing that poster says is that parking in a bad neighbourhood will get you robbed while parking in a good neighbourhood will have the police paying you a visit and asking you to move. I wonder if there's a neighbour that's neither too good nor too bad.I haven't had to run into MyCENT bankruptcy yet, but I'm sure that there might have been other members who got onto the free web hosting bandwagon but then had stuff happening in their lives... marriage, kids, work and stuff of that sort that took them away from us. May they rest in a holy matrimony :-P

Hi!@The SimpletonIn most Linux distributions, we have some kind of a package manager that can enable you to upgrade certain components of the operating system without upgrading other components. Ubuntu provides us with the "apt-get" command that can be used to upgrade software packages independently. Generally, you do not have to upgrade components manually because the automatic updater kicks in and tells you that you have got packages to upgrade. You do not have to use a package manager, but it is the most convenient way to upgrade software. You can download source tarballs of the packages that you want to install, you can manually compile them using the gcc compiler, and you can configure the system to start up those packages. During the process, you might have to install additional software libraries - these software libraries too can be downloaded in their source code form and can be compiled to form the binaries. Compiling source code can become very time consuming as the LFS project documentation might tell you.You might want to try installing updates for Ubuntu 10.04 to check if it runs. Do you get any specific error messages that might help in troubleshooting Gnome 2.30 on your computer? Any information that you can provide to the Ubuntu development team will help them make Ubuntu Linux a much better product.

Hi!@The SimpletonI agree, this thread has seen quite a few posts today. All of what I and the other members have said does not change the fact that software piracy is illegal, unethical, and should be stopped. There are anti-piracy measures in place that do affect the rest of the consumers and increase costs.People, by nature, crave freebies and they get attracted by promotional offers that give you something for free in exchange for a purchase. Software pirates who sell CDs on the streets are aware that they could be deported if they are caught and may have to serve jail time, but they do what they do to feed their families and are forced by circumstances into what they do. The rest of us who have a choice are more fortunate in that we get to decide for ourselves. When working for an organization, we push the management to buying licenses for software that we really do require.

Hi!@martvefunI've looked at the source code that you have inserted into the post and I see the problem right there!In the PHP code sample, you are echo-ing the return value of the file_exists function and are not returning the actual file itself which is where the problem is. The file_exists function returns a true or a 1, which is what your PHP script is return to the web browser client. If you echo some actual content there, you should be able to obtain the file through your web browser.BTW, you did mention that the file you have is stored within the database and not on the file system. There is a bit of a disagreement among software developers over which a good approach is. For some software developers, the storage of files on the file system implies additional administrative overhead in that the backup schedule has to backup both the data stored within a database and the files stored on the disk. When using a storage area network, the problem is actually a non-issue because the files are stored on a network drive and are backed up anyway by some other utility. Advocates of storing files on the disk suggest that it reduces the load on the database and are in the favor of using less resource intensive methods of storing and retrieving data within the system. The thought about managing files within databases isn't as much of a concern as it used to be because databases can hold huge amounts of data and any operating system limits on the file sizes can easily be worked around because the database stores the logical data within blocks that can be split across files, directories, and even physical disks.The solution that you choose in the end should be something that you can manage and maintain in the long term, so you might want to perform a comparison between storing the files on the disk and storing the files in the database to be able to determine which is a better solution for you.

Hi! The flood control is managed through server-side code so clearing the browser cache will not help in most cases. You probably have not been waiting long enough for the flood control to let you post again. As a general rule of thumb, look up the timestamp (date and time) of the last message that you have posted to the discussion forums and wait for about 15 minutes before you try posting again. I believe moderators and administrators are the only users exempt from the flood control so it doesn't really matter if you are a new user or have been on the forums for a while. If you have been on Xisto and haven't posted in a while, you probably think that the flood control is 25 seconds like it was a long time ago. See this forum thread for a reference to the 25 second limit: http://forums.xisto.com/Floodml&hl=flood However, the flood control limit was later changed to 15 minutes so you've got to have more patience. I know, I know, it is a long time to wait between postings and keeps us from participating in the forums as much as we want to, but then again, it does encourages to type long posts that have a lot of content like the ones that anwii posts - it takes roughly 15 minutes to come up with something that long.

Hi!@iGuest (Julie)You cannot implement the search functionality that you are looking for with HTML alone because HTML is simply a markup language. What you should be using is a server-side scripting or programming language that can process the form input and can access information from a database. You could use either ASP.NET, Java, PHP, Python, or a wide range of other technologies so you would have to pick the one with that you think you can learn quickly and work with. There are tutorials available for all of the abovementioned programming/scripting languages and you can most definitely find a couple of videos on YouTube too.An alternative that you could use is to put all of the information that you have on the page and to show/hide the information based on the ZIP code that the user enters into a text box. Alternatively, you could use a dropdown list for the user to select from if there is a relatively small range of values that the user can enter.

Hi!@kira423I use Notepad++ too! It's open source and free. I have never been able to get the automatic updates to work on Notepad++, but it still remains as an interesting piece of software to work with. I use Notepad++ when there's a specific PHP file that I need to modify the source code of, but when I am working with an entire project, I prefer to use the Eclipse-based integrated development environment for PHP. I have had the Eclipse PHP IDE stop recognizing PHP files after the latest update, so it has its own share of bugs but I do like the way Eclipse presents the files in the folder in a toolbox. Notepad++ can present a light version of the folder explorer too, but does not support the advanced syntax highlighting that Eclipse does. I find Adobe Dreamweaver quite useful for working with CSS and the markup.I've tried using NuSphere's PhpEd, which is a pretty good IDE though it is a commercial product.

Hi!@anwiiI sometimes wonder how you manage to write so much in day. You might have voice recognition or something in your computer! :-PI sometimes wonder about what extend open-source software helps in reducing piracy. In terms of selling computer hardware, vendors can claim that they provide Linux with their hardware instead of Windows. They do not really have to pay for the licensing fee of providing the user with an operating system and therefore can put up lower prices. The vendors that do actually provide their customers with Windows would put up a Microsoft Windows logo or something to justify the added cost.I guess the only folks who would pick the Linux box are folks who really do want Linux, the folks who intend to pay for the hardware and illegally install a pirated copy of Windows, or folks who have no idea what the difference between Linux and Windows are or who simply have not looked into what they are getting with the computer. In either of these cases, the hardware vendor does not engage in any illegal activity but that does not really say that open-source and free operating systems reduces software piracy because when the consumers do install a pirated copy of Windows on their computers, it isn't really possible to track the installation and trace it back to the computer that was sold with Linux pre-installed. Also, the store salesman could have promised the customer to install a copy of Windows on the computer if he or she purchased a Linux based system in an attempt to close a deal and make a sale, earning his commission.Lately, we have been seeing a lot of anti-piracy measures being implemented by software vendors. Windows activation and the use of serial keys probably does increase the cost of producing and selling the software. If all they had to do was build something that works, it was no real biggie in that they can just take what they already had before the anti-piracy measures were introduced, slap on a couple of enhancements and then sent it out the door. However, by having to implement and maintain additional source code that has no real purpose other than to check for piracy, it is the consumers that are paying for the additional anti-piracy measures. However, it is hard to tell that the cost actually comes from the software pirates because the software vendor could also be cutting back their profits while charging their customer the same prices as they have been before the anti-piracy measures were implemented, in which case the only people who lose from having to implement the anti-piracy measures are the shareholders due to the reduced profits.There isn't really a competition between operating systems today because Apple fanboys and Mac lovers would get themselves something that runs Mac OS X, Linux would be taken on by those who wouldn't want to pirate software and are not willing to pay the extra cost of software licensing, and the rest of the folks would get themselves a copy of Microsoft Windows. Of the lot, Microsoft Windows holds a huge portion of the pie in terms of market share and therefore there is no real competition. Sure, there are 3 different key players but unless Mac OS X and Linux come close to the market share that Windows has, it can't be called true competition. Perhaps the only competition that Windows faces is with earlier versions, such as vendors with computers running Windows 7 trying to sell more units than computers running Windows Vista, for example, and again that is a matter of preference for a user to run Windows 7 over Windows Vista and they both come from the same software vendor.My point is that there is no concrete way to prove that piracy or competition influences prices among operating system because there are so many factors at work, from activities that cannot be detected (Eg. installation of pirated software when a free operating system has been bundled with the hardware) to consumer preferences and software licensing costs.

Hi!@KubiI remember seeing you by looking up your Avatar animation. I haven't seen it in quite a while.It must have been quite upsetting to know that T-Mobile had fired you for doing what you can in the battle field to keep the T-Mobile stores and their customers safe from military threats. It's just as much of a contribution to the company as the guy standing in the store pitching a product to a prospective customer.The ESGR must have been pretty serious and probably threatened to sue for T-Mobile to change their stance and have you offered your old position and pay. I would be a bit concerned about joining T-Mobile if I were you because joining an organization where they are legally obligated to hire you would adversely affect your future prospects within the organization.I wish you luck with the GoDaddy interview - GoDaddy is much bigger than T-Mobile in terms of the geographical regions that it serves so you are much better off with them.

Hi! Just to give you an idea of the kind of stuff to look for, here's a car auction site that lists various cars along with some info about them: http://www.goldenbellauctions.com/current.asp Auctions can get you a really good deal on a car but then again, there are also the ones that are well beyond their useful life. The first one on the listing (assuming that you follow the link this week) is the Mini Cooper 2006. It is about five years old, so we do know that there would be an availability of spare parts at the workshop if you did get into an accident or need to go in for a periodic servicing. Clicking on it gives you more information about the car. It has got a triptronic transmission, which you can drive even if you have a license for an automatic transmission since a triptronic is basically an automatic with a push-button override for the gear change. The picture provided does not show any signs of damage, though a visual inspection would still be necessary. Most auctions let you examine the car before the bidding takes place so you go get to examine the car for rust and poor bodywork. Many cars that are up for auctions do not have a service history so you don't really know if the owner drove the vehicle on and on and on without going in for the periodic servicing. The mileage on the car is pretty high, so if you are planning to use the car for a commute, you are better off finding a different car. This auction house is particularly better than most because they certify the cars that enter into auctions after a thorough inspection so you do know that the body and engine have been examined. The little note attached to the windshield of the car documents any abnormalities that the car might have. Anyway, so we scroll further down on the page and look for the Toyota Camry GLX 2009. As the car is last year's model, the car is a good long-term purchase as the workshops will carry the spared for a couple of years into the future. The mileage is pretty good - 10,558km on a used car makes the engine almost as good as new (emphasis on the almost). The car doesn't have a service history, which could mean that an inspection of the engine would be necessary to ensure that the user did actually service the vehicle regularly. Running an engine on old oil can lead to pretty expensive repair work. The rest of the information provided by the auction site tells you about the options that the vehicle has, and the only problem that could prevent you from wanting to buy the car is if a lot of other bidders bid for the vehicle and drive the price up. For a glimpse at what qualifies as a bad purchase with just the information on the website, scroll down to the BMW Z3 Convertible 1999. The car is from about ten years ago and that would make finding parts difficult, the mileage is quite high, the cost of a service from a local BMW dealership is quite high too. Sure, you could get the car with a low bid but it isn't really worth the amount you would spend on it while driving it around. For a fair idea of auction prices, ask for the prices that past auctions have been able to fetch and you'll get a fairly good idea of how much to bid for a car.

Hi!I believe a pretty good way to get started with C and C++ development would be to get a good book that helps you pick up concepts quickly and to try to implement the various common data structures and algorithms using C or C++. For most people the list includes: Linked Lists, Circular Linked Lists, Double Linked Lists, Binary Search, Bubble Sort, Heap Sort, Quick Sort, Selection Sort, Insertion Sort, and Radix Sort.The above data structures and algorithms will give a developer a quick run through of structs, pointers, and recursion in C/C++ and would be a great way to get started. However, to get beyond the basics, it would be necessary to look at some open-source code such as the Linux kernel source code to be able to figure out how all of those programming concepts fit into the real world. Now, if one were to read through source code and were to say, "I don't get any of this at all," that isn't really an uncommon reaction especially considering that the Linux kernel source code is quite complex. The point to note is that the API helps programming in developing better source code and in designing their applications to accomodate changes in future. Using function pointers, clearly defining checks on array size limits, and ensuring that parameters are easily definable help in writing software that is extensible and maintainable by other developers who might have to inherit and work with the code in future.You can probably find a good used second-hand text book along with some notes. In India, since C programming is required for all engineering students, it is a fairly common text book and second-hand book stores. There are a couple of copies available on Internet-based stores too, so if you are willing to pay for the shipping price and then some, you can get yourself a slightly used copy of the C or C++ text book. You might want to ensure that you are getting a recent copy of a C or C++ book because the standards defining C and C++ have changed considerably since they were first introduced. A book that instructs you to use the DOS-based Turbo C or Turbo C++ is a definite no-no because it is based on very early standards.If you want to go beyond the basics, you should look for the C and C++ programming puzzles. They even get the pros a hard time trying to figure out what the code does because there's just so much there that even a simple programming language like C has to offer when working with arrays and pointers alone. Toss in data types and some arithmetic too, and you've got a mix for some obfuscated fun. You also ought to check out the obfuscated C programming contest - they have some interesting stuff there that would take you a while to figure out.When working with a versatile language such as C and C++, you can't really stick to just one book because there are libraries that Microsoft provides for Windows development, then there are the Symbian development libraries for mobile development, and there's OpenGL and DirectX for 3D programming, and the SDL library that helps with both graphics and sound programming, so you could get a book specific to every library there is out there and you still would have the libraries that do not really have books published yet, so there's pretty much an innumerous list of topics that can be found within C and C++ development alone. You can also use C/C++ for creating extensions for PHP and for building components that the Java platform can call using the Java Native Interface (JNI) or Microsoft .NET based applications can call using Interop.

Hi!@kira423What do you use for writing PHP code? Do you use an integrated development environment or simply a text editor with syntax highlighting, or maybe even Microsoft Notepad!! :-PAmong ASP.NET developers, if anybody can write an application using Microsoft Notepad, he or she attains guru-status in his or her community because most ASP.NET developers rely excessively on the Visual Studio IDE. Using Microsoft Notepad may sound very amateurish to most people in management because, quite literally, it sounds like something that even the managers can work with :-DPHP has a really extensive set of functions that covers just about everything from string processing to creating flash based files and that makes it difficult for a novice to master without having had considerable experience and a really good memory to memorize all the function names and class names. Having auto-complete, which Microsoft refers to as Intellisense, does help greatly in getting new converts from other programming languages and platforms in joining the party because it reduces the learning curve that developers need to use in order to start developing applications.Lately, there have been a lot of PHP-based code generators coming up that help developers in getting started. That's in addition to the content management systems, blogging engines, and web development frameworks that make software development effortless, quick and simple.When Rasmus Lerdorf first put together PHP, it was intended as a simple server-side scripting language for putting together personal web sites guest books and counters. The programming language itself has evolved a long way since then and it is used for serious development, such as the development team at Facebook uses. Among the open source community, PHP is considered a first-class development platform for web applications and you can find libraries for just about anything from building Twitter clients and Facebook applications to working with all of the common database management systems, such as MySQL, Postgresql, ORacle, and Microsoft SQL Server.PHP has had a lot of competition gunning for it lately. There's the Python programming language that has had a lot of attention and the Django web development framework is being heavily promoted as a framework built on present-day technology for building the web-based applications of tomorrow (that sounds almost like a marketing slogan for a programming language or platform that a commercial vendor might issue for promotion). Two months ago, Facebook introduced a PHP extension that enables developers to use XML within PHP source code, such as by echo-ing an XML document part instead of having to convert it into a string. Essentially, it eliminates the need to put quotes around XHTML markup that you want to echo and it uses the semicolon as the statement delimiter so you can echo the markup without having to use heredocs, nowdocs, string concatenation, or conversion of the XML into a string.Sure, Facebook is a social networking firm and they did get a free lunch (referring to the free availability and open source nature of PHP) like everybody else, but they do like to give back to the community and they have been investing quite heavily in optimizing PHP to run with heavy user loads. Zend is another major player that focuses equally on building web development frameworks and runtime environments for executing PHP code. Zend provides community editions of most of its software so you can try it out before you do decide to reach for your wallet and purchase a license to use their software. Zend also includes a customized version of the Eclipse development environment for PHP called the Zend Studio that rivals features that NuSphere's PhpEd has to offer.