Useful articles and links 5

• Free Admin Template For Web Applications
  It is a 3 column design with a tabbed menu. The idea is having the standard categories in the tab menu for an easy reach and have all the detailed ones in the left menu. And there is an info box at the right to inform users what’s going on at that page. You can customize it however you want to fit your project. It has a listing and a new entry sample which covers %99 of an admin screen.
• Lightweight JavaScript Accordion with CSS
  The JavaScript accordion above is 1.65 kilobytes when packed. If you have a small project that could use an accordion and don’t want to include an entire JavaScript framework to do the job then give this script a try.
• 5 PHP 5 features you can't afford to ignore
  There are dozens of reasons to switch to PHP 5—not least the fact that, if you're still stuck on PHP 4, the PHP team is about to pull the rug from under your feet. Despite the fact that you may not have a choice in the matter, upgrading comes with a number of bonus new features that can help you write better code and gain access to new functionality that required a fair amount of hacking in previous version. Here's a quick list of 5 personal favourites
• 30+ Unusually Awesome Freshly Created Designs
  Today we got you some incredibly awesome website designs that is freshly created with unique ideas, graphics and layouts.

Useful articles and links 4

• Build custom templates for your data-driven Web sites
  Most developers dread dealing with HTML tables and cells to build their Web sites. For one thing, tables make it difficult to modify the site later or to change its appearance. Discover some basic techniques for writing Web sites that you can later re-skin by using templates during the site's initial creation. Also, learn why you should use data-driven techniques for your own Web sites.
• 30 Exceptional CSS Techniques and Examples
  In this article, I’ve pieced together 30 excellent CSS techniques and examples that showcases the capabilities and robustness of CSS. You’ll see a variety of techniques such as image galleries, drop shadows, scalable buttons, menus, and more - all using only CSS and HTML.
• Interview with Donald Knuth
  Andrew Binstock and Donald Knuth converse on the success of open source, the problem with multicore architecture, the disappointing lack of interest in literate programming, the menace of reusable code, and that urban legend about winning a programming contest with a single compilation.
• So long TextMate?... Hello NetBeans? Really? Yeah, really.
  I'll admit it, I'm one of many folks that used to treat NetBeans as a whipping boy. Questioning why Sun would bother dumping money into the horse that so obviously lost the race to Eclipse and IntelliJ to win the hearts and minds of Java developers around the world.
• Build a customizable RSS feed aggregator in PHP
  You'll appreciate this article's fully functional PHP code snippets, demonstrating the use of PHP-based server-side functions to develop a customizable RSS feed aggregator. In addition, you'll reap instant benefits from using the fully functional RSS feed aggregator code, which you can download from this article.
• Website Screenshots capture services
  Here’s the list of some websites that are offering website screenshots services which you can use if you are planing to start a web gallery for example.
• jQuery Thumbs: A JQuery plugin to easily create thumbnails
  jThumb dynamically wraps images and/or link images with a div. You can add them an specific size (width and height) inside the css file. And optionally it can automatically center the image inside the frame.
• SQL Injection Attacks on IIS Web Servers
  You may have seen recent reports that have surfaced stating that web sites running on Microsoft’s Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 have been compromised. These reports allude to a possible vulnerability in IIS or issues related to Security Advisory 951306 which was released last week.
• How to install RESTful Authentication on a Ruby on Rails 2.0 application
  It’s time to upgrade your Rails 2.0 application with user authentication, and we hear that RESTful Authentication is the way to go, but all the instructions out there (even on the plugin repository sites) are out of date or don’t completely work or only work on Rails 1.2.x. In this tutorial, however, we’ll go step-by-step to install a complete RESTful authentication suite with all the trimmings your advanced Rails 2.0 application requires. Best of all, we’ll maintain complete control of our user administration code instead of relying on 3rd party and/or outdated software.

Useful articles and links 3

• Google Code University
  This website provides tutorials and sample course content so CS students and educators can learn more about current computing technologies and paradigms. In particular, this content is Creative Commons licensed which makes it easy for CS educators to use in their own classes. The Courses section contains tutorials, lecture slides, and problem sets for a variety of topic areas:
• AJAX Programming
• Distributed Systems
• Web Security
• Languages
• 10 JavaScript Effects to Boost Your Website’s Fanciness Factor
  Here’s a collection of 10 powerful – yet easy-to-implement — JavaScript effects to supplement your web page’s interface. These were picked using a “bang for your buck” methodology; meaning that these effects were chosen specifically because they provide high-impact effects with very little effort in installing and using them.
• 10 things IT needs to know about Ajax
  The introduction of any new Web technology will affect a network's infrastructure in ways that range from inconsequential to earth shattering. Ajax is one of the more disruptive new Web technologies traveling across networks today. To help you minimize future surprises on your network, we've outlined the 10 things you should take to heart about Ajax.
• Calling WebServices via AJAX
  how do you call web services from JavaScript? At least, that's what they asked me, but not really what they meant (I'll explain what their real question was in a subsequent post).

Useful articles and links 2

Multithreading in PHP with CURL
Most PHP developers have heard of the CURL extension for PHP or even used it. However it is mostly used in a basic form: to retrieve content from other websites or (RESTful) webservices. Ofcourse PHP itself offers several functions (like fopen or fsockopen) for getting this content, but they are all very basic. It is easy to run into limitations, for example you might want to define the request method or set another user agent (if you're building a webspider). This is where the curl extension kicks in. It is a separate library that has to be compiled with PHP in order to use it. The Curl extension has many functions and options which offer the developer more flexibility than the standard PHP functions.
Top 10 tips to get better PHP jobs - PHP Classes blog
1. Qualify yourself to stand out from the crowd
2. Stay upto date with the latest trends
3. Get more exposure to yourself in the PHP community
4. Advertise yourself conveniently
5. Do well on job interviews
6. Get ready to adapt to a new company culture
7. Evolve in your career making your employer profit more
8. Preserve your job
9. Get ready to move on to a better job
10. Other people tips
Scaling Out MySQL
With the recent acquisition of MySQL by Sun, there has been talk about the MySQL open source database now becoming relevant to large enterprises, presumably because it now benefits from Sun's global support, professional services and engineering organizations. In a blog post about the acquisition, SUN CEO Jonathan Schwartz wrote that this is one of his objectives.
33 Most Beautiful Javascript and Flash Galleries
This is Vivalogo's list of the most beautiful free Javascript and Flash gallery software.
Programming is all about passion.
Yes, you can be a programmer and get your job done without actually loving your job. You can clock in 9 am and clock out 5 pm and collect your salary at the end of the month, day in and day out but you don't enjoy the job at all. You can even climb up the management ladder and collect a far fatter paycheck after you grow tired of the technical things. Oh no, moving up the management ladder is the way to go (besides switching track, of course) if you don't love programming.
The 6 Most Important CSS Techniques You Need To Know
I thought I would give a quick tutorial, with examples, of the 6 most important CSS techniques that I think you need to know:

1. Get a Consistent Base Font Size
2. Get Consistent Margins
3. Set a Float to Clear a Float
4. Image Replacement
5. Faux Columns
6. CSS Sprites
Learning jQuery: A Roundup Roundup
I’ve been really getting into this jQuery phenomenon lately. jQuery is tightly tied to CSS, so if you are already comfortable with CSS and are looking for ways to expand your possibilities, jQuery is the place to be. You can achieve so many cool effects with it, and there are so many good learning resources out there for it I think it makes sense for serious web designers to start getting their hands dirty with this.