Category Archives: Programming

anything to do with software & code – on the web or off of it.

Review: WebHostingRating.com

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When I first went out looking for web hosting (back in the mid-90s), I grabbed the first provider that was cheap enough. Locally owned, he ran his place downtown, and looked perfectly fine.

…Until he went bankrupt, taking my advance payment for the year and leaving me scrambling for hosting.

Now, I work smarter – I check reviews, see what people say (both pro AND con) on a provider, and weigh the benefits (and not just on cost – I’ve been burned on that before).

So naturally I was delighted to get an advance sneak preview of a new rating website, WebHostingRating.com

It’s a site dedicated to reviewing Web Hosts and Providers, so you don’t have to do all the digging I once had to.

Although there are sites already out there, this one stands out with a generous helping of information articles on web hosting topics. For example, I was reading one of the web hosting tutorials that dealt with bad hosting ‘neighbors’ and how they can affect your site’s performance (many servers share the same resources between members, so one resource hog can slow everyone down). Few articles mention this at a beginner level, so I was impressed by that.

Overall, just the article section alone (which is live at this time) is worth a drop by, especially for beginners with questions about Web Hosting, particularly inexpensive plans. When the full site goes live, you can also check out the hosting reviews, and be better informed.


Ultimately, price is only one factor when you shop for a plan. As I found out many moons ago, low price can easily become high price if the host goes out of business. So I’d recommend everyone (and especially beginners) take a look at WebHostingRating.com and get a well-rounded look at what makes a good host – one they’ll be delighted to stay with for years to come.

ActiveBlogging: the 18+ Guide!

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No, it’s not porn – it’s a guide where I excerpt some of the last 18 month’s worth of articles from ‘The ActiveBlogging Report‘.

Think of it as a taste, offered at a low price so you can see if you like the site.

I also throw in my bonus beginner’s guide, ‘The ActiveBlogging Solution‘, and a very simple rotator script plugin – ideal for rotating ads in WordPress.

You can get this WordPress Report very cheap (around $8.00 currently), and considering the content/bonus products, it’s a bargain.

An the articles aren’t fluff – here’s a list.:

  • Why Use WordPress?
  • How to ‘Tell a Friend’ – and Become a Spam Gateway!
  • The WordPress MySQL Database Made Easy
  • Easy Edits to Your WordPress Template
  • What is Tag & Ping?
  • Exploring the WordPress Template, Part 1
  • Are Your Blog Pages ‘Section Targeted’ by Google?
  • How to Set Up a Site Map in WordPress
  • How To Add Non-WordPress Pages to Your Blog
  • Make 404s Count!
  • Are You Losing HALF Your Search Engine Rankings?

So like they say get yours today.

Placing PHP Directly Into Your WordPress Posts

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(Note: PHPExec2 is no longer being updated – see this post for details).

Sometimes, adding PHP directly to your blog entries can be a cleaner and simpler solution than other alternatives. Although you can edit the WordPress template directly to display, it can get messy, especially when all you want to do is create a single page with a little extra ‘smarts’ in it.

In reviewing the different solutions out there, I soon settled on PHPexec as it was very easy to set up. Just place the single phpexec.php file in the plugins directory, activate it, and include the special tags around the PHP code you want to execute. The only setting (Under Admin’s Options;PHPExec tabs) is to set the security level – by default it’s at 9, so anyone posting with a user level of 8 or less cannot enter PHP code – simple security for blogs with multiple posters (if you’re the only poster, you needn’t touch this setting).

However, one problem I noticed is that the plugin only works in WP version 1.5 – in version 2 the code doesn’t display properly. So I dug into the code, fixed it, and notified the author about the changes.

Unfortunately, there’s been no response, so I’m posting the fixed code on my site at ActiveBlogging.com. This code will work the same in WP 1.5 and 2 so upgrading won’t be a chore if you have an older blog you’ve been ‘holding out on’ because of this plugin’s bug.

Once set up and running, adding code to pages and posts is very simple – just enter your PHP in the post or page with surrounding tags like this:

<phpcode>
<?php echo date("F j, Y, g:i a"); ?>
</phpcode>

with these tags, the code will be executed rather than displayed – in this case, you’ll see the current date and time displayed (for the server of course, which will likely differ from your local time).

One warning about the version 2 modification – you CANNOT edit the code in the graphical HTML editor . So to enter and edit code, you’ll need to turn off the graphical editor and go back to ‘classic’ mode.

In Admin, go to Users;Profiles; then ‘Personal Options’ at the bottom, and uncheck the ‘Use the visual rich editor when writing’ option, and update the page. Following that, you’ll be able to edit the code properly (you can always turn it back on once you’ve finished).

The PHP plugin stands on its own as a useful WordPress plugin tool, and can be used for anything. Anywhere you want PHP code executed in a WordPress post or page, this can be a real time saver!

(download from here: http://activeblogging.com/misc/phpexec.zip)

What to Program to Make Money?

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I recently received an email – briefly a programmer asked what best path to follow for creating a successful software product:

  1. Create a never-before seen product.
  2. Improve features in current software.
  3. Focus on a unique selling proposition, rather than create new.

Unfortunately, the answers are not easy – but here’s some pros and cons:

1-Do brand new: (think Winamp, Napster, Email, Internet). Brand new has the power to get big – REALLY big. If it’s something people want (or like email, didn’t realize they wanted till they got it), then it has the potential to be huge – the ‘next big thing’.

One caveat – making money being first isn’t easy. Of the ones mentioned, the creators of the email and the Internet have no great related success to speak of, and Napster went downhill fast – only Winamp had success (sold to Netscape/AOL). So for a small company, it may be an uphill battle.

2-Improve current software: Now we get to more common products – Napster is gone, but there are many popular peer to peer replacements. Windows started as an improved DOS, which started as an improved CP/M; Linux an improved Minix; and so on.

The potential here is to get long-term benefits by seeing what the first person did wrong, and improving on it. In effect, you benefit from their scrapes on the ‘bleeding edge’.

The downside? Everyone else is thinking the same thing, so there’s competition. As well, if the first-runner is savvy, they can use patents and other intellectual property to close off competition, making being number two difficult in more ways than just trying to gain market share.

3-Forget new – just different. Here is the majority in the world – just focus on the USP (unique selling proposition), and make sales that way.

Turn on any Television, and you’ll see this group almost exclusively. Whether that means the average television viewer wants comfortable rather than innovative, you decided: but it is the most common way to sell, for obvious reasons – everyone can compete, the barriers to entry are lower, and the potential, while small, can be better.

People will tell you that a small loyal market can be potentially much more lucrative than an wider, but indifferent market. Look at Macintosh computers – that loyalty translates into a higher overall cost for products, willingly paid. Ditto for Linux – if time really was money, each Linux box would be priced at hundreds (perhaps thousands) of dollars – all gladly paid for instead in elbow grease.

And while Windows currently has the market share, there is little or no loyalty, which means that if something better came along, Microsoft could go from top to bottom in very little time (witness IBM in business equipment since the 80s).

So to answer the original question – it depends. Each product placement has positives and negatives, depending on your focus (ie your business direction). Determining what you want out of the business, as well as what you can comfortably provide in terms of skills and resources, may well help decide what direction to eventually go in.