For as long as I can remember, I’ve loathed .DS_Store and Thumbs.db files. They always seem to crawl their way onto my hosting servers. By definition, the .DS_Store file is “a hidden file created by Apple’s Mac OS X operating system to store custom attributes of a folder such as the position of icons or [...]

I’ve recently started programming an international traveling website that accepts input from users all over the world. Since it’s likely that users will type in their native language, the functionality to accept accented characters became an absolute necessity. I’ve recently incorporated some of this new functionality into the MySQLGoodies class for PHP. This class is [...]

This page was loaded in 0.0587 seconds! Go ahead, refresh this page and the load time value you just read will change. This is possible because I wrote a WordPress plugin that calculates the time it takes to load a page from start to finish. This is the first plugin I have ever created for [...]

The Internet contains an unlimited number of websites and pages. While most websites are harmless and their primary focus is to share information, some websites are malicious and will stop at nothing to acquire your personal information or cause harm to your computer. These websites actively spread viruses and malicious programs in an attempt to [...]

I use a lot of the same functions over and over again for almost every project I work on. A perfect example of what I’m talking about is MySQL-related functions. One day I asked myself, I said, “Self. Why are we hunting for previously-written functions, copying them, and pasting them into the project folder?!” I [...]

During my internet travels, I have gathered bits and pieces of code and have compiled my preferred XHTML template for starting new web projects into this article for anyone looking for new tips and tricks. I know some readers will agree with this article and some will completely refuse to accept it. In any case: that’s completely okay! We all have our own definitions of what’s “standard” and our preferred way of writing code.