Zenphoto is an answer to lots of calls for an online gallery solution that just makes sense. After years of bloated software that does everything and your dishes, zenphoto just shows your photos, simply. It’s got all the functionality and “features” you need, and nothing you don’t. Where the old guys put in a bunch of modules and junk, we put a lot of thought. We hope you agree with our philosopy: simpler is better. Don’t get us wrong though – zenphoto really does have everything you need for your online gallery, and you’ll even stare in awe at some of the innovative innovations we innovated upon. Read the rest of this entry »

Joe Hewitt somehow managed to find the time to write an article on Ajax Debugging with Firebug, which he created.

The article will show you that Firebug is more than just a JavaScript console:

• The Firebug Workflow: modify the page in place
• Exploring Objects: An AJAX-ian web page never stands still. HTML nodes are constantly being created, modified, and removed by JavaScript. As changes occur, Firebug’s HTML view stays up to date in real-time and highlights the changes in yellow. When you see things moving and changing in a page, this gives you a quick way to learn how it was accomplished.
• Pixel Perfection: Firebug helps visualize the previously invisible. When your mouse moves over anything that represents an HTML element in Firebug, the element’s rectangle in the page is highlighted, and its margin, border, padding, and content are each shaded a different color.
• Experimenting and Tweaking: Firebug is not just an inspector, it’s also an editor. Virtually every object in Firebug can be edited inline just by clicking or double-clicking it. As you type, Firebug applies changes immediately, giving you constant feedback. All editors support autocomplete. The CSS editor autocompletes as you type, and the DOM editor autocompletes property names when you hit the Tab key.
• Network Activity: The core idea of AJAX is that small snippets of data will be fetched from the server using a channel called “XMLHttpRequest”, then used to update the page. Without Firebug, all that traffic is invisible. But with Firebug, you can observe the progress of each request and inspect the sent/received text.
• Log Debugging: Firebug is not just a way for you to examine a page from the outside; it is also a place for you to send messages from within the page itself. To facilitate this, Firebug provides every web page loaded in Firefox with the console object that contains a number of functions for logging. As your script executes, you can fill the console with an ongoing stream of data for you to analyze.
• Breakpoint Debugging: Firebug’s Script tab contains a powerful debugger that lets you pause JavaScript execution on any line. You can then step forward line-by-line to analyze how the state of the program changes in real time. Breakpoints need not be triggered indiscriminately; Firebug lets you specify the circumstances under which a breakpoint is triggered.
• Profiling: console.time(”loading”); loadWidgets(); console.timeEnd(”loading”);

Here are 20 things you can do to make your apache configuration more secure.

Disclaimer: The thing about security is that there are no guarantees or absolutes. These suggestions should make your server a bit tighter, but don’t think your server is necessarily secure after following these suggestions.

Additionally some of these suggestions may decrease performance, or cause problems due to your environment. It is up to you to determine if any of the changes I suggest are not compatible with your requirements. In other words proceed at your own risk.

First, make sure you’ve installed latest security patches

There is no sense in putting locks on the windows, if your door is wide open. As such, if you’re not patched up there isn’t really much point in continuing any longer on this list. Go ahead and bookmark this page so you can come back later, and patch your server. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s the time of year to be posting random predictions for 2007. Here are 2007 Ajax predictions from Dion and Michel from ajaxian, please post your own in the comments.

Read the rest of this entry »

Richard MacManus has posted on The State Of Web Development – Ajax set to surpass Flash in ‘07.

This is in reference to a report on the subject (free preview).

The current stats are good, but take a look at the future. Ajax is here to stay.

Read the rest of this entry »

Sphider is a lightweight web spider and search engine written in PHP, using MySQL as its back end database. It is suitable for adding search functionality to small or medium sites (up to around 100,000 pages). It also works great as a tool for site analysis – finding broken links, gathering statistics about the site etc.

Take a look at the demo section or the showcase for sample sites running Sphider.

10-November-2006: Version 1.3.1d released. Check the Download section. Read the rest of this entry »

The BBC (which could stand for anything, though common opinion is that it’s either Bottom Blasting Conspiracy or British Bullshit Company) is an association of Emo kids led by Jar Jar Binks, commonly known for his debut in the Star Wars movies, where he was voted Most Appealing Movie Character three years in a row. In a welcome twist of fate Binks’s life was cut short after a violent episode at the BBC studios in 2015. Anarchists led by blue collar stalwart Wicket the Ewok, long unhappy with Jar Jar’s tyrannical rule, convinced a team of out of work Wookies to prise one of the giant ‘B’s off from above the gate outside the BBC studio, the first step of a cruel and cunning plot to arrest control. After refusing to listen to the Union demands for the abolishment of full body hairnets and a meal between lunch and afternoon tea simply called ‘wuuu-wobba’, Bink’s was caught and tied down, then the deadly letter was dropped from the top of an AT-AT that someone had carelessly double parked outside, causing instant death and a pinkish stain that lingers still. Read the rest of this entry »

Richard Hammond is a British radio and television presenter and former resident of St. Leonard’s Mental Health Institution in Southwick, UK. Most famous for presenting television motoring show Top Gear.

Illness and Radio

Hammond began as many British people do, taking education from the government, while studying for an A Level Graphics qualification became interested in prehistoric animals and hoped to go into Palaeontology, but unfortunately at the age of 17 Hammond was diagnosed with the fatal Insyncontricity Disorder, a disease of the mind that caused his “eccentric” behaviour, he was spotted because of his unexplained violence towards vehicles and lamp posts, at the time he received treatment he learned how to turn his anger from violence into critique, and so decided to become a presenter and journalist on St. Leonard’s Mental Health Institution’s prime time radio show “The Crackers Show”.

When he was discharged from the institution he was immediately put into a Presenter roster for BBC Radio Southwick and was a hit with the local population before being moved to the much bigger BBC Radio 2. Read the rest of this entry »

Jeremy Clarkson is one of Britain’s most recognisable lampposts, and is responsible for every motor vehicle ever built, except for Volvos, which are excreted from Sweden’s bowels. He is also widely believed to have caused Global Warming.

Top Gear

He fronts Top Gear, a weekly television program on BBC 2, in which he and fellow Lampposts (as they are popularly known) encourage viewers to drive at incredible speed and end their pitiful lives in exciting and explosive car crashes, which are then cut, mixed to funky House music, and broadcast to the remaining 5 viewers worldwide who haven’t passed out from the brazen excitement. However Jezza (as he demands to be called) is very very afraid on motorbikes as he once fell off a tricycle while riding to work aged 56. He is also very scared of cyclists and has vowed to kill them all by running them over at traffic lights, although secretly he is rumoured to have a fetish for men in lycra and other forms of tight clothing. Read the rest of this entry »