Are your hideous WordPress URLs frightening away your readers? Here is how to tame those unruly URLs:

• Create a .htaccess file in your main wordpress folder (the same one as index.php)
• Make the .htaccess file writeable
  chmod 777 .htaccess
• Ensure mod-rewrite is enabled for Apache2 (/etc/apache2/mods-enabled). There should be a symlink to /etc/apache2/mods-available/rewrite.load. If not, create it.
  sudo a2enmod rewrite
• Restart Apache2
  sudo apache2ctl restart
• Login to your WordPress admin. Go to “Options” > “Permalinks” > select the one you want. (I chose “Date and name based” e.g. “http://www.example.com/2007/11/07/sample-post/”)
• Reset the .htaccess file permissions
  chmod 644 .htaccess

I only do this like once every six months, so I have not memorized the man page. Here is how to extract a tar.gz file from the Linux command line.

tar zxf important.tar.gz

The header picture on this website changes based on the time of day. You can change your website photo automagically throughout the day too. It isn’t very hard with a few photos and a bit of PHP. This is similar to what Google does on their customized home pages.

<?php
// This neat piece of code changes the header image
// based on the the time of day, EST.
date_default_timezone_set("America/New_York");
$hour = date("G");
if ($hour < 6){
$pic = "twentyfour.jpg";
}elseif ($hour < 9){
$pic = "six.jpg";
}elseif ($hour < 12){
$pic = "nine.jpg";
}elseif ($hour < 15){
$pic = "twelve.jpg";
}elseif ($hour < 18){
$pic = "fifteen.jpg";
}elseif ($hour < 21){
$pic = "eighteen.jpg";
}elseif ($hour < 24){
$pic = "twentyone.jpg";
}
?>
<img src="./images/<?php echo $pic; ?>"/>

So you have to design a MySQL database for your incredible new application. What tool do you use to do the initial diagramming? Pencil/Paper, whiteboard, Microsoft Visio?

Well the folks at MySQL would like you to consider a visual database design tool called MySQL Workbench. The first release candidate showed up on March 17, 2008 and from what I have seen so far, it is the best tool available for designing MySQL databases. There are two editions Community Edition (OSS) and Standard Edition. I have been using the Community Edition for a project I am working on now and it is a great upgrade to MS Visio.

Maybe you want to add PayPal, some cool Google map, or vacation pics from flickr but Joomla is being a jerk and stripping out your custom code. Here is what to do:
Switch off the TinyMCE editor and write raw HTML (Site > User Manager > click on the user you want to change > User Editor > select “No WYSIWYG Editor” > Save)
Now you can edit your content without annoying Joomla interfering. After adding your custom content you can turn TinyMCE back on.