I began using SiteUptime to monitor my blog's up-time a couple of weeks ago; so far I have been quite pleased. I am only using the free version of the service, so I do not get all of the bells and whistles that are offered with the paid accounts; however, I have already been notified of some downtime I had recently on this blog. I received an email and began taking action to get the blog back up.

There are three different accounts available offering different features. You can sign up for a free plan, a premium plan for $5 per month, or an advanced plan for $10 per month. All plans include the following features:

• 4 Monitoring Locations
• Email Alerts
• Monthly Reports
• Online Statistics
• Control Panel
• Web Server (http)
• Email Server (pop3)
• Email Server (smtp)
• FTP Server (ftp)

For more information on what is offered in the different plans, check out SiteUptime's comparison page.

What service(s) do you use to monitor your website's up time? Let us know in the comments.

In case you were wondering... this website answers the question: should I use tables for layout?

I just wanted to share the link; I found it quite amusing.

Now that you have a definitive answer that you should not use tables for layout, here are some CSS resources to help you establish your new layout:

• 15 Places to Find Your Next CSS Layout
• Dynamic Drive CSS Layouts- Tableless, CSS based templates
• The Perfect 3 Column Liquid Layout

I have spent a lot of time recently working with Zend Framework. As I get further into its features and capabilities, the more I enjoy developing websites and web applications with it. While researching ideas and options, I came across ZFDebug, a plugin that adds a debug bar to the bottom of your pages if you are in the "development" environment. The plugin is hosted on Google Code and is licensed under the New BSD License.

At current release (1.5) ZFDebug offers the following features:

• Cache: Information on Zend_Cache and APC.
• Database: Full listing of SQL queries and the time for each.
• Exception: Error handling of errors and exceptions.
• File: Number and size of files included with complete list.
• Html: Number of external stylesheets and javascripts. Link to validate with W3C.
• Memory: Peak memory usage, memory usage of action controller and support for custom memory measurements.
• Registry: Contents of Zend_Registry
• Time: Timing information of current request, time spent in action controller and custom timers. Also average, min and max time for requests.
• Variables: View variables, request info and contents of $COOKIE and $POST

(list from ZFDebug)

I was scouring the web for some MySQL tips, tricks, and documentation to help me as I work on the blog and other development projects. Tuning is often times overlooked; sometimes once the database table structure is built and normalized, development stops there. I am trying to be more conscious of that and during my research I came across a performance tuning video published by Google during one of their Google TechTalks. You can check it out at Google Video or view it embedded below.

There is a new section on the Resources page for Frameworks. This section of the resources page lists popular PHP frameworks like Zend Framework, which is my personal favorite, and CakePHP. The six common PHP frameworks that were added are also listed below:

• Zend Framework
• CakePHP
• CodeIgniter
• Symfony
• Horde Application Framework
• eZ Components

Do you use a different framework from those listed above? Leave a comment about it and I'll get it added to the list.

It's been a while since my last post, a long while. However, after a break to focus on finishing my MBA, I am back. The blog has a new look, and I will be posting new content in the very near future. I hope you like the new look and check back for new content.