Author:

Paul Tero is an experienced PHP programmer and server administrator. He developed the Stockashop ecommerce system in 2005 for Sensable Media. He now works for the makers of Cleverbot. He has also released an eBook of his articles and his written numerous other open sourcish scripts and programs.

Website: Stockashop

Avoiding PitfallsA Comprehensive Guide To Firewalls

In the construction industry, a “firewall” is a specially-built wall designed to stop a fire from spreading between sections of a building. The term spread to other industries like car manufacturing, and in the late 1980s it made its way into computing. On one side of the wall is the seething ...

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All About Unicode, UTF8 & Character Sets

This is a story that dates back to the earliest days of computers. The story has a plot, well, sort of. It has competition and intrigue, as well as traversing oodles of countries and languages. There is conflict and resolution, and a happyish ending. But the main focus is the characters ...

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Introduction To Linux Commands

At the heart of every modern Mac and Linux computer is the “terminal.” The terminal evolved from the text-based computer terminals of the 1960s and ’70s, which themselves replaced punch cards as the main way to interact with a computer. It’s also known as the command shell, or simply “shell.” ...

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Introduction To URL Rewriting

Many Web companies spend hours and hours agonizing over the best domain names for their clients. They try to find a domain name that is relevant and appropriate, sounds professional yet is distinctive, is easy to spell and remember and read over the phone, looks good on business cards and ...

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My Favorite Programming Mistakes

Over my programming career, I have made a lot of mistakes in several different languages. In fact, if I write 10 or more lines of code and it works the first time, I’ll get a bit suspicious and test it more rigorously than usual. I would expect to find a ...

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Introduction to DNS: Explaining The Dreaded DNS Delay

Imagine that your biggest client calls because they are having trouble retrieving their email. Or they want to know what their best-selling item is right now. Or their most popular blog post. Perhaps their website has suddenly gone down. You can hardly reply, “No problem, I’ll get back to you ...

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Speeding Up Your Website’s Database

Website speed has always been a big issue, and it has become even more important since April 2010, when Google decided to use it in search rankings. However, the focus of the discussion is generally on minimizing file sizes, improving server settings and optimizing CSS and Javascript. The discussion glosses ...

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What To Do When Your Website Goes Down

Have you ever heard a colleague answer the phone like this: “Good afterno… Yes… What? Completely?… When did it go down?… Really, that long?… We’ll look into it right away… Yes, I understand… Of course… Okay, speak to you soon… Bye.” The call may have been followed by some cheesy ...

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