I’ve been using mysql professionally for a little over 2 years now, and have found it increasing inadequate for humongous databases. I had first hand experience with this when building out a 7 million record database for a client of mine. I did resolve some of the issues by placing the proper indexes in the table structures, but it still had underwhelming performance issues when it came to the keyword searches. As I knew the client didn’t have the funds to have me solve this issue, I just left it the way it was.

But as a person who is always trying to seek answers to my problems I felt the need to do some investigative research. How are websites like Google able to have billions and trillions of records, and still have fast and responsive queries? It took me a while, but I discovered Apache Solr as the answers to my prayers. Based on the Lucene Search Engine, Solr is able to handle databases into the billions of records. The only catch to using Solr is that you must be on a server that has java. The only servers that allow java are dedicated servers, which can cost up to $200 a month. So obviously this search application is not for your average run of the mill website, but what kind of run of the mill website needs millions or records anyways?

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Programming is an exercise in mental stamina, and a developer may have to hold intense concentration for hours at a time. This can cause unnecessary stress for the programmer, and also physical pains, such as a sore wrist, back aches, and eye strain. Unless you are the type that eats, and breathes programming, you will probably feel the wear and tear of this career over time. But there are a few programming stress management tips I could give that can make your days go by smoothly.

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One of the biggest killers of a website is slow performance. A few years ago, the rule was to have your website load no longer than 13 seconds on a 56k modem. In the age of high speed internet, your site shouldn’t take longer than 5 seconds to load up. This magic number derives from the bounce rate of internet users based on load time, and with such strict guidelines, I find it amazing that most developers place performance last on their priority list. Although there are tons of tips and tricks to use while optimizing a website, a really easy one is to add gzip to your web server.

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Around last December we had the soft launch of Curiosity-Media which quietly went unnoticed. Since that time we have worked on several web projects, were photographers for 3 weddings, 2 birthday parties, and an engagement session. All this was stemmed from pure determination and drive to prove that we could successfully start and run a business. We experimented with many ideas this year, and that experience will be used for future growth of our company, which still has a long ways to go.

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I had recently had an issue with a website where two different URL’s pointed to the exact same page.The website serves up dynamic content, and generates products pages on the fly, which is the norm for e-commerce sites. But instead of using a query string, we use the mod rewrite to change the url into a prettier form (mod rewrite). The issue is that when I inherited the site, the previous developer had used the url in this form.

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I just recently finished a project which involved me developing an XML loaded Banner Rotator and I thought I’d share the process with you folks. The key features of this XML Loaded Banner Rotator is that you can add as many images as you would need, and each image can hold a hyperlink. Bloomingdales has a similar rotating banner, and so I modeled mine after what they had. If you lovely people would like to view a demo of this XML Loaded Banner Rotator, then please click here, or you can take a hike, because hiking is very good exercise.

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This past August, a guy we know from True Religion Brand Jeans has asked Curiosity Media to develop a certificate application for them. This project was the first time that a company, of this size, has asked us to do work. Although we weren’t responsible for their actual website, it feels good to know that we have at least developed a useful application for a big company.

The sites main purpose was to allow visitors to view all of True Religion Brand Jean’s Certificate of Compliance of their products. I’m guessing this is because of some law for the apparel industry, or it might just be a good way for them to instill trust in their customers. The application was very basic, due to the time constraints of the project, but it still has some cool features. You are able to drill down into a folder type infrastructure, organize certificates by name, date, or hits, and search for each certificate from the search bar. I’ve also kept it easy for the company to maintain their certificates by allowing them to just drag and drop them into the ftp server. A script is running in the background that will recognize the updates, and respond accordingly.

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Ever have an issue where firefox puts an annoying image padding under every image?

This is especially annoying when dealing with sliced images that you’re trying to piece together.

Here is a simple solution that I found out, and it couldn’t be easier.

Hopefully this simple css code will prevent you from tying a rope to the cieling and hanging yourself.

Place this style on every page, and you should be set.

If I saved even one life from this, than I know I’ve done my job. Now will someone please give me a job?I’m broke.

Search Engine Optimization is a huge industry where companies get paid millions of dollars to boost their rankings to the top of Google. Now this article will not try to explain all the little tricks to achieve a higher search rank, but one way to improve the likelihood of having better SEO would be to clean up your damn URL.

If you are hosted onto an apache server then please continue, otherwise this information would be complete and utter garbage to you.

So how can you clean up a url that looks like this:

/certificate.php?folder=men&sort=date&order=desc&page=1

To a url that looks like this:

/certificate/men/date/desc/1/

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Decades ago, it was possible for the average family to survive off of one income. As the inflation rate has increased over the years, a one income family is no longer feasible. Two parents must now work to maintain their living standards which is sadly the reality. So today, it’s very important to have a outstanding daycares to look after the children while mom and dad are at work.

Yuth Family Child Care has opened it’s doors in 2005 to the working family in the Signal Hill and Long Beach area. Sambo Yuth who is the founder of Yuth Family Child Care, has ensured that every child she looks after receives the best child care money can buy. She caters to children from nursery to school age and she even provides pick ups and drop offs so parents can have the peace of mind that their kids are safe. Not only is Yuth Family Child Care about quality, they offer their services at an affordable price. So your search for daycares can end right now.

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