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PullQuotes using CSS

CSS, no javascript pullquote not blockquoteI looked at a lot of different ways to display quotes and pullquotes and even though the javascript solutions are very nice, esp. the 456bereastreet.com solution, I decided to just use CSS (Keep It Simple Stupid).

CSS

Mirroring an Entire Site using Rsync over SSH

Sometimes there is an urgent need for creating an exact duplicate or "mirror" of a web site on a separate server. This could be needed for creating Round Robin Setups, Load-Balancing, Failovers, or for just plain vanilla backups. In the past I have used a lot of different methods to copy data from one server to another, including creating an archive of the whole directory and then using scp to send the file over, creating an archive and then encrypting it and then sending that file over using ftp, curl, etc., and my persistence at learning new ways to do things has paid off because now I use rsync to keep an exact replica of the entire directory on an external server, without having to use all the CPU and resources of other mirroring methods.

Security

Robots.txt Secrets From Matt Cutts

Watch out googlebots got a weapon!The secrets in this post were really more of enlightening bits of seo wisdom. The secret is how to combine robots.txt with meta robots tags to control pagerank, juice, whatever.

SEO

30x Faster Cache and Site Speed with TMPFS

NOT a typo.. 30x is measurable, well-documented, and easily tested. This is what open-source is about. I haven’t had time to post much the past year, I'm always working! So I wanted to make up for that by publishing an article on a topic that would blow your mind and be something that you could actually start using and really get some benefit out of it. This is one of those articles that the majority of web hosting companies would love to see in paperback, so they could burn it.

Optimization

Firefox Add-ons for Web Developers

askapache favorite addonsAdvanced Web Development by AskApache is a Firefox Collection I created since I'm always trying new Addons out and using multiple computers and I wanted a quick and easy way to install my favorite's and keep a running list. Firebug, YSlow, LastPass, and Web Developer are the only ones I always use regularly.

I like the idea of the last.fm but it's not as powerful as the site, which is awesome. Lately listening to Kings of Leon Radio...

Software

PHP to handle HTTP Status Codes for ErrorDocument

Fast, HTTP Protocol, protection. If you are reading this article, you already know enough about the benefits of making sure your site can handle HTTP Protocol Errors. This is a nice single php file with no dependencies or requirements, will work on anything. Optimized for minimizing bandwidth and resource-hogging connections from bots and spambots.

<?php
ob_start();
@set_time_limit(5);
@ini_set('memory_limit', '64M');
@ini_set('display_errors', 'Off');
error_reporting(0);

PHP

Advanced .htaccess Tricks for Securing Sites

This is all new, experimental, and very very cool. It literally uses .htaccess techniques to create several virtual "locked gates" that require a specific key to unlock, in a specific order that cannot be bypassed. It uses whitelisting .htaccess tricks to specify exactly what is allowed, instead of trying to specify everything that isn't allowed. Also, by setting specific cookies/tokens after successfully passing through a gate, we can then require the exact cookie/token from the previous gate, which stops an attacker from skipping or bypassing gates.

Htaccess