The .htaccess Editor allows you to easily create .htaccess files online. This is a great service for beginners just starting out or a seasoned developer looking to save some time. .htaccess files are not only very useful and helpful, but they are often essential for websites hosted on a shared host. Unfortunately they are somewhat cumbersome to understand. There are a lot of websites and references available to help you understand the files and syntax and available features, but this website makes it east by creating the syntax for you. I have listed the features available below.

Features

• Deny all access to files
• Basic authentication
• Error page
• Default page
• Setup WWW
• Redirect directives
• Access restriction

The form is very easy to understand, which allows you to get started right away. Once you fill in the form, it will write the appropriate entry you will need in your .htaccess file. Not only is it easy to use, but it is a learning resource as well. You can gain an understanding for .htaccess files by simply looking at what is created by the form based on your parameters. Once you have created a few of these files, you won't need a lot of help in creating future files. But for now, take advantage of this great tool.

Zend Technologies held their fourth ZendCon conference, ZendCon 08, in Santa Clara, CA from September 15-18. In case you weren't able to attend (like me) or just want to see them again, the presentations from the conference are available online. You can view the ZendCon 08 Slides from the Zend Developer Zone website.

There are 60 different presentations available currently with a possibility of more on the way. They cover a wide range of topics including MySQL (Jay Pipes), Facebook development (Brett Harris), PECL (Elizabeth M Smith), scaling PHP applications (Shahar Evron), and many more. The presentations are broken down by the day they were presented and show you the speaker and session name. Here are a few of the presentations that I'll be checking out this weekend.

• Getting Started with Zend Framework
• Elegant Ways of Handling PHP Errors and Exceptions
• Pick Your Protocol: Creating Web Services with Zend Framework
• State of Ajax
• High Performance PHP & MySQL scaling techniques

What is CHMOD?

CHMOD is a Unix shell command, short for change mode, that can change the permissions of a file or directory. CHMOD uses references (or classes), operators, and modes to assign permissions for users to files. CHMOD can be used in a string notation and octal notation, which is represented in numbers instead of a string.

How can I see the permissions?

The Unix File System Permissions are easily viewable by a directory listing, using a command like ls. This listing will show the current file permissions in the string or symbolic notation of 10 characters. The first character displays the file type and the next three sets of three characters represent the file permissions per class (owner, group, others respectively). You can see an example ls listing below:

$ ls -l test
drw-rw----   2 testuser  testuser       96 Dec  8 12:53 testdir
-rw-rw----   2 testuser  testuser       96 Dec  8 12:53 testfile

How can I change the permissions?

You can use CHMOD two different ways (different syntaxes as noted above) to change the permissions. A string notation and octal notation are available, one being a symbolic syntax and the other being a numerical syntax. String notation uses "r", "w", and "x" to change the permissions while octal notation uses 4 for "r", 2 for "w", and 1 for "x". These numbers are added together to get the appropriate permissions (For example: 6 = 4+2 = rw). You can check out a simple CHMOD JavaScript calculator that calculates the octal notation for the permissions you choose. You can also see some example uses of both notations below:

String Notation

chmod u=+rw,go=r testfile - Add read/write to the user, read to group/others
chmod o= testfile         - Remove all permissions for others
chmod -w testfile         - Remove write permissions for all

Octal Notation

chmod 0644 testfile       - Read/write for the user, read for group/others
chmod 0660 testfile       - No permissions for others
chmod 0444 testfile       - No write permissions for all

.

Installation

FreeBSD provides a very easy installation process; it uses Sysinstall as an automated installation package to do it for you. All you have to do is answer some questions to create users and tell it which software to install and you are on your way to being up and running in a matter of minutes. The full installation takes longer that a few minutes to complete, but using Sysinstall to set the installation parameters is very quick. This installer takes care of everything needed to have FreeBSD installed and functioning correctly on your system, including user creation, software/application installations, network and peripheral setup, and much more.

Security

FreeBSD is one of the most secure operating systems available. There are a number of security features built into the system that deal with user and file system security. There are also a number of applications compatible with FreeBSD that offer added security beyond the default features. Besides the basic user permissions modified through CHMOD, FreeBSD offers the ability to use ACL and MAC. These options allow user permissions on a more specific level than the basic Unix permissions. You can also use a firewall to secure your system. FreeBSD has two options built in, altq and dummynet, as well as a number of applications available for install like IPFILTER (IPF), IPFIREWALL (IPF), and PacketFilter (PF). Another way to secure your system is change the default password hash from md5 to blowfish in login.conf.

Another great security feature that comes with FreeBSD is the ability to jail a process. This allows for separate environments for processes that are completely locked off from others. These jails function as almost a separate installation of FreeBSD allowing for its own user processes, user accounts, and files. Using a jail helps for testing software and often used by web hosts to give their users control over a virtual server.

Compatibility

There are numerous hardware compatibilities listed on the hardware notice for each release of FreeBSD. It is compatible with all the major processors the most popular being Intel and AMD. There are also thousands of applications available for installation on a FreeBSD system. As well as having all of those application ports available, you can run Linux applications on FreeBSD with the Linux Binary Compatibility system. This allows you "to run about 90% of all Linux applications without modification" (Linux Binary Compatibility).

Ports

The port system is a collection of software that is packaged and ready for installation on a FreeBSD system. You can download the source and install them very quickly and easily. Ports are available from the installation disc, online at the ports collection, or at FreshPorts. Once you have chosen a port to install and have followed the installation procedures, you can stay up to date with the ability to download and compile the updates easily from within the ports system. There are currently over 19,000 ports within 63 categories available for download and use (FreshPorts Stats).

Documentation

FreeBSD has many different options for documentation. They offer eight different kinds of documentation on their website including FAQ, Manual Pages, and the FreeBSD Handbook. There is also a web resources section, a for newbies section, and books and articles. The handbook is in my opinion the the best resource available and can be viewed online in multiple formats and downloaded as a local copy. There are a number of books dedicated to FreeBSD as well; a search on Amazon.com will demonstrate this. You won't have to browse the web for basic command questions; you can use the man pages on your installation of FreeBSD so you can have general command help locally whenever needed.

As many of you know Adobe launched it's CS4 product on September 23^rd. To help with the release of the product Adobe held a CS4 launch broadcast that is available from the AdobeTV website. If you missed the broadcast, you can still check out the hour long video to get some of the information surrounding the new release.

This release includes updates to well known products like Photoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver, and Acrobat, but there are also updates to some products incuded that you may not know about like Soundbooth and OnLocation. You can get CS4 in six different versions:

• Design Premium - $1,799
• Design Standard - $1,399
• Web Premium - $1,699
• Web Premium - $999
• Production Premium - $1,699
• Master Collection - $2,499

Each version includes different combinations of applications. If you would like more information about CS4 or the products included within each version, check out the CS4 website.

As a developer I have often wanted to be able to test query speeds among other things. The problem is I didn't always have a usable data set sitting around that could meet the requirements of my test cases. To make a long story short, I wish I had GenerateData.com a long time ago. This is a great tool and has a lot of potential. It can save a lot of time when you are trying to create your own test data set to work with.

GenerateData.com is currently in version 2.1 (released July 25, 2008) and offers a nice set of features. You can generate data in many different data types like addresses, numbers, lorem ipsum text, email addresses, phone numbers, and more. Once you have chosen what kind of data you would like to generate, you can choose from five different export options. You are able to export the data in XML, Excel, HTML, CSV and SQL formats. The SQL export options gives you the choice of MySQL or Oracle syntax. You can generate up to 200 records at a time, unless you donate $20 or more, which allows you to generate up to 5000 records at a time.

The generator is written using PHP, MySQL, and JavaScript. You can use the online version or download a copy of the script for use on your own server. The downloadable version is licensed under GNU. The website has requirements and installation instructions to follow if needed.

PrototypeXtensions adds additional components to Prototype.js and Script.aculo.us, two of the most popular and widely used JavaScript frameworks/libraries available. While these are extremely useful tools for creating visual effects, UI improvements, and Ajax methods, the creators of PrototypeXtensions realized a need for additional components. The library is currently at version 0.1.2 and is released under MIT License. There are three main categories of additions, or extensions, that are added by this library with specific features within each category. I have listed a basic feature overview below.

Features

There are detailed explanations and examples for each feature available so be sure to check out the website for more detailed features and information. You can download the current release in the original uncompressed form or download the smalled Minified and Gzipped version.

The Lightbox Clones Matrix lets you easily compare different lightbox clones in a table format. The table, or matrix, lists many of the features for each of the options and compares them side by side. Using jQuery to create the sortable table, the comparison matrix is very fast and easy to use. There are comparisons for 46 lightbox clones comparing seven different features. You have the ability to sort and/or filter by each of the seven features as well as the library type.

The filters include jQuery, Prototype, Mootools, YUI, "Can display images", "Can group images into sets", "Can display inline elements", "Can display iframes", "Can fetch content via Ajax", "Can display Flash", and "Can display various Video objects". There are icons to help you visualize the different features and easily sift through them.

Be sure to check it out or read more about it from the creator.

The 5 most popular Posts of the month in September were:

1. Learn HTML & CSS at the HTML Playground
   "The HTML Playground offers XHTML and CSS references by example. The site is still in beta at version 0.4, but offers an easy to use interface that makes digesting all the information displayed simple. It is a fast loading application and I have just found it to be overall a great tool for learning the basics of HTML and CSS."
2. Collection of ActionScript Cheat Sheets
   "ActionScriptCheatSheet.com offers a number of ActionScript related cheat sheets, including one for both version 2.0 and version 3.0 of ActionScript. There are cheat sheets listing the available packages, details about specific packages, and overviews."
3. How To Get Your FeedBurner Circulation With One Simple Function
   "If you have visited a few blogs then I am sure you have seen the FeedBurner stats graphic. The count is very useful, but the graphic itself isn't very appealing, even with the ability to customize it. Thankfully the FeedBurner API was released, which allows you to retrieve your stats without the graphic."
4. 15 Places to Find Your Next CSS Layout
   "Creating a theme is a multistep process. You have to pick the color scheme, decide how many graphics to include and what purpose they will serve, as well as decide on a layout. Sometimes it isn't easy to decide on a layout and it would be nice to have some examples and ideas to look at. That is what I'm focusing for this post."
5. Great Looking Collection of Credit Card Icons
   "Do you accept credit cards through your website? It could be through any number of other third party processing companies like PayPal or Authorize.Net. If so there are some great looking credit card icons available for free. Fineicons.com offers a collection of 23 different credit card icons for download. Be sure to check them out and download for free if you like them."

What was your favorite post this month? Let us know in the comments.

HTML Dog offers HTML and CSS tutorials for a beginner, intermediate, and advanced web designer/developer. The website is very well designed and easy to navigate. The information in the tutorials is clear, concise, informative, very useful, and overall well written. You can also get information from additional references including HTML tags and CSS properties. There are articles available that build on the tutorials providing a more detailed understanding of certain topics. If you would like to see what you have been reading about in the tutorials in action, you can view a large number of examples spread across seven different categories.

The tutorials, articles, and examples from HTML Dog are written with a strict adherence to the Web Standards created by the W3C. The information was created by Patrick Griffiths who has been a front-end web developer using HTML and CSS since 1999. He has contributed to well known and credible sites like A List Apart and the CSS Zen Garden.

If you find the information useful and would like to have a copy of it, you can purchase a copy of the HTML Dog book which includes information similar to the tutorials and articles. You can get your copy at Barnes & Noble, Borders, and Amazon.com.