Best Posts

HOWTO: Use VirtualBox to setup an Internet Explorer testing machine

There are a lot of cases where having one computer just isn't enough. If you're a web developer or webmaster, you'll want to view your website in more than one browser. If you're a PHP programmer, you may be itching to check out the new 5.3 release and test your web applications on it. Using virtualization, you can set up self-contained instances of any Operating System configured to your heart's content on your computer.

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Avoiding frustration with PHP Sessions

PHP's support for sessions make adding "state" to your web application super easy.  Bus because the illusion of state is maintained by storing a Session ID via a user's cookies, you might find yourself losing potentially productive hours chasing down bizarre client side bugs or opening up a potential security hole.  Here are 4 tips to help you avoid wasting your time and securing your site.

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Debian, PHP5, and session garbage collection

Poking around, like you do on your server, I noticed that php session files weren't being deleted, even after a few days. Turns out, PHP's automatic garbase collection is disabled on Debian. Instead, its replaced by a cron script that cleans out the /var/lib/php5 directory, which is where sessions are saved by default. If you're a security conscious PHP developer, you give each php application its own session save path. If you do that on a debian box, make sure you reenable garbase collection by setting seesion.gc_divisor to a positive integer.

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How to draw a monkey

Second, black in the major lines. Trace each one using a spline or bezier curves and then stroke a line using the current brush and color.

Step 3, using a flood fill tool to color in his head, ears, and mouth.

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mini-HOWTO: Netgear PS121 print server + Samsung ML1750 + Max OS X + Linux

Earlier this year, I bought the inexpensive Samsung ML-1750 black and white laser printer to replace the unused and old color inkjet I had. The printer worked nicely but it didn't get much use since I had it connected to a Windows PC. Instead of sharing it through Samba and requiring a whole PC to be on whenever I needed to print, I picked up the Netgear PS121, a small print server. It has an ethernet port that gets connected to our network hub, and a USB port that hooks up to the printer.

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How to: Backup MySQL database & email results using BASH

The script below does the same and only depends on mutt (or another command line email client) being installed. A better solution would be not to email the file but to setup ssh key authentication on another server and use scp (secure copy) to send the file over. That way, your database file is transferred over an encrypted connection, which is more secure, and you don't have to wory about your message being blocked due to a large file attachement.

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The Middle Class Player?

He starts by saying that "Those are the players MLS needs to keep or go out and get, the players who might be great stars one day, but right now are simply solid role players who increase the team competence on the field."  No one can argue with that statement, clearly any sports league needs a healthy mix of rookies, solid supporting players, and stars.  But then, he makes a statement that I just can't process, and if you look closely, contradicts itself quite obviously.

Thank you, dd for saving and restoring my MBR

I finally got around to upgrading my dual-boot desktop PC to running Windows XP.  It was just about time, the version of windows I was running was no longer supported and more and more software requires Windows XP nowadays.  I also wanted to start using my Windows partition for more than World of Warcraft and occasional IE6 Testing.  Mini-rant: One might think that, by now, Windows would play nicely if you are installing it on an existing dual-boot setup and not do rude things like naively overwrite your Master Boot Record.  If one thought that, however, one would

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