Tryangled Solutions web designing tips tricks

People are looking for information, they use a variety of types of search such as Google, Yahoo, Live and Ask as the predominant channels. There’s also news search , blog search and search within social media sites. Any time something can be searched on, that’s an optimization opportunity. Increasing awareness comes from making it easier for people to find you when they’re looking for information.

I’ve spoken previously about Windows Live Contacts but never really did much with it. I didn’t have an immediate use for it and I was growing increasingly apathetic about the entire area of contact grabbers / importers. It was a shame really as it was a really exciting project with Microsoft leading the way in the area. It’s been only recently that Google and Yahoo have caught up and released their own APIs for accessing their users data.

I’ve moaned about how great it would be if we could get a users contacts without having to ask for their password. With services like Windows Live Contacts this is finally possible

With the possibility of actually using the code myself creeping up on the horizon I decided to put the time in to write wrappers for PHP. It can be broken down into two components.

Windows Live Delegated Authentication The first thing we need to do is get permission from the user to access their data. There was already a PHP wrapper for this but it did far more than I needed so I’ve rewritten it and ignored the parts I don’t expect to need. This evening I submitted it to the PEAR proposal process.

Windows Live Contacts The second step is fetching the contacts for the user after you have their permission. I could only find a small test script for this so a more complete implementation was definitely needed. Again, I’ve just submitted the code for this to the PEAR proposal process.

Both of these packages will likely undergo changes as they go through the proposal process but if you can’t wait to get started the files are available to be installed now on the proposal pages. The easiest way is using the PEAR installer. If you haven’t used PEAR before please take a look at the manual. If you’re still unsure of anything post a comment below.

When it comes to optimizing PHP for performance, there’s no end of resources available, and no end of conflicting opinions either. Everyone seems to have their own approach to writing “fast” PHP code; using single quotes, avoiding require_once() and using isset() before is_array() are some of the most common. But with reliable benchmarks thin on the ground, how do we know if any of these techniques - often touted as “performance best practices” - actually deliver benefits? Chris Vincent’s new PHP benchmark suite at PHPBench.com aims to “set the record straight” on PHP performance techniques, with a simple, comprehensive view of how various approaches actually stack up.

The benchmark suite covers all the usual bases, taking a simple task — like iterating over an array — and speed testing almost every possible way to achieve it. Most importantly, however, Chris takes raw numbers out of the spotlight and instead focuses on how the options compare with each other. Each test takes the fastest technique as the base value for execution time; all the other options are measured as percentages in relation to this. …

A lot of the computer manufacturers today actually have a recycling program. That means you can pack up your old computer and send it back to them. You can’t just throw it out in the trash because your computers contain environmentally unsound material. If you don’t want to send it back to the manufacturer, you can go online and check to see if the place you live in has a e-waste program that will be easier. You can just go there and drop off your computer.