I had a lot of people asking me how I learned all my PHP coding skills as well as AJAX… Well, if you’re up for the task, and have patience, and the intelligence (if you are a natural with math, physics and other logic-driven subjects, you’d do just fine) to handle it, all of it can be learned online. I am a fully self-taught coder - I never took a class of any sort in my whole life (apart from the crappy computer courses taught in the public school systems). All my learning comes from the internet. The sole exception of it was Illustrator - I was in a rush to learn it in a week or so, hence I bought a book so I can read it and do it faster rather than having to search for tutorials online. It was worth the $40 I spent.

I’d likely briefly share the sources from which I learned. Remember that it always helps to look at different websites by different people in order to fully understand it. Everybody can explain things differently, and even the coding method to achieve the same results can differ from one coder to another.

• www.W3Schools.comThis website is probably the best place for basics of any language. Before you delve into the complicated PHP tutorials about how to handle database connections and spit out product directories etc., read this first, to get a more general understanding of how it works. This website gives you the most standard and compliant information for just about any web-related coding/scripting languages out there. HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP etc. Remember that they do not have the hardcore tutorials for difficult things (with the exception of the javascript section.. their javascript examples are quite abundant).
• www.tizag.comI found this website a long time ago, and I haven’t looked at it until today. But I remember taking some valuable lessons from here, and today I mastered another PHP trick while I was searching for information on Google. This website shows you a lot of great in-depth tutorials for handling PHP. I haven’t checked out the Javascript or HTML section yet, but if they are as good as the PHP section, I’d give this website a thumbs up for sure.
• www.php.netThis website will make sense only if you already have a good understanding of PHP. On this website you can search the functions, look at the parameter options and everything. You can also pick up neat information on server restriction settings and what not. Also, each function page has a comments function - just like Wordpress blogs do, so that users can discuss the applicability of each function. You’ll see some smart people leaving smart comments there for sure!!!
• www.mysql.comThis site also requires some basic understanding of things before you can delve in. But to research more complicated SQL queries to optimize and speed things up, this site is probably the most reliable, resourceful, and authentic source for it.

So there it is. That’s where the coder Jeff Kee was trained out of. That’s the only 4 that’s on my mind, but there were numerous other places where I learned about DIV positioning, CSS, Javascript, XML, AJAX, etc. Look them up on Google and you’ll see tonnes of results. Also here’s another handy tip - if you want to do specific things, type that entirely into Google, and you’d be surprised at how much information you can find. For instance, “how to create new files with PHP” will give you some good results. Also, if you are looking to do something with a specific function that you already know about, toss it in. “http get header request with php pfsockopen” will return fabulous results for you. The more specific your target is, the more specific your query should be as well!

When Google gives me a pagerank (which is expected to be updated in April, so I will finally be given a pagerank), they determine the quality of my outbound links as a factor.

So far, because my blog was so new and I’m such a nice guy, I just exchanged blog links with everybody who asked, basically. I had an interesting chat with John Chow today over lunch, and he pointed out a few things to me. When Google gives me a pagerank (which is expected to be updated in April, so I will finally be given a pagerank), they determine the quality of my outbound links as a factor. My pagerank is forecasted to be 4/10 according to a somewhat-trustworthy 3rd party engine I found somewhere, and I don’t want to ruin that opportunity.

Starting today I am cropping out the following type of blogs from my blogroll :

1. Does not update regularly (I’m not asking for once a day - just regularly. I don’t care if it’s once a week).
2. Has no valid content. By valid content I mean it generates its own content (instead of gathering posts from other blogs and putting it all in one blog), and is not commercial (i.e. if your blog exists for the sole purpose of selling things for your affiliates). I will only link to blogs that have valid content that have valid information for surfers.
3. Has no relevancy to my blog. There are great logs out there that have great content that I do read, but it’s bad for my pagerank if that other blog does not have anything that is related to mine. I will do blog reviews of these type of blogs, but no links will be posted on a permanent basis.

For other bloggers out there - I suggest you do the same.

Well, the stats are in for February, and I’ve done some things to this blog to enhance the looks and the functionality of it, as well as keep up diligently with new and informative posts.

Let’s do a quick recap of the growth in traffic :
(more…)

Well, Wordpress 2.1.1 was released less than 24 hours ago and I just did the upgrade. It’s not a crucial upgrade, but whatever. May as well keep it up to date.

The upgrade is available at the Wordpress Download Page. Also, a description of the new upgrade can be found here.

In my case, I simply re-uploaded the entire wp-includes folder and wp-admin folder. I never touched anything within those folders or modified them so it’s good to go. I did do a database backup, however, just in case, and I did do a full backup of everything under the wp-contents folder before I started.

It worked for me. That’s the easiest way to upgrade Wordpress, as long as you don’t modify the core files outside of the wp-contents folder. If you want a care-free WP upgrade, that’s the ONLY folder you should ever be touching!

The Golden Question : WHY am I announcing the upgrade of Wordpress?

(more…)

As of today, Google.com, the internet Giant, has been taken over by their competitor, Googe, as announced on the Google homepage.

Here’s what you see when you visit www.google.com right now.

Googe is the new search engine giant.

I’m just kidding, it’s a spelling error!!! Geez.