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

1. Print Specific Parts of a Page With jPrintArea
   "If you have ever wanted/needed to be able to print just part of a page before, now you can. jPrintArea will allow you to print only the contents of a specific element (Ex: div). There aren't a lot of extra bells & whistles that go along with this jQuery plugin, but it works great. It does exactly what is need with only a few lines of code so there is little extra overhead added to your page load time."
   
2. Hangin’ Around the PatternCooler
   "If you are in need of a background pattern for your website, PatternCooler is likely to have what you want. There are thousands of backgrounds available for download and are freely available for your use: "All artworks on this site can be used freely on blogs, MySpace profiles, Twitter, mobile phone wallpapers, and non-commercial web projects" (PatternCooler)."
3. Book Review: Sams Teach Yourself Ajax, JavaScript, and PHP All in One
   "Sams Teach Yourself books are great resources in a large array of topics. They have released Sams Teach Yourself Ajax, JavaScript, and PHP All in One in paperback version on July 12, 2008. This book is great for webmasters because it includes three of the most popular technologies used on the web."
4. Simple and Free Flash MP3 Players for Your Website
   "There are many cases that require a streaming music solution for your website. If you are in need of a free and simple flash mp3 player for your website then you should check out flash-mp3-player.net. This website offers multiple flash mp3 players that may provide you with just what you need. The available players have very few bells and whistles, but they are easy to use, customize, and set up."
5. How In-Demand Are Your Skills?
   "Have you ever wondered if your skills are in demand? With so many different possibilities available for web development, it is tough to know if you should keep mastering a specific technology or start learning a new one. After reading an article about how PHP programming jobs are in high demand, I asked myself the follow-up question: what other skills do I have that are in high demand, and which skills do I have that are not?"

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

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

1. Why FreeBSD Is My Favorite *nix OS
   "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."
2. Free HTML and CSS Form Templates From Wufoo.com
   "The Free HTML Form Template Gallery offers 75+ HTML form templates to fit a wide array of needs. They have form templates for registration, mailing lists, surveys, order forms, and much more. These templates can be downloaded as a zip file or customized to fit a more specific need you may have (requires a free account)."
3. Free Online Tech Books from Techotopia
   "Techotopia offers free online books that cover a number of subjects including programming languages, security,  and Linux. The books are hosted on their wiki and are available to read online."
4. Easily Compare Lightbox Clones
   "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."
5. PrototypeXtensions Extends Prototype.js and Script.aculo.us
   "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."

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

Adobe Dreamweaver CS3

I use Dreamweaver for all of my coding needs. I use it to write (X)HTML, CSS, PHP, and JavaScript for my sites. There are many free options available to do what I need, like HTML-Kit, but I'm hooked on the code editor in Dreamweaver. I don't ever use the visual design aspect of Dreamweaver, so I don't actually use everything that Dreamweaver offers. Maybe I'll choose a free option next time instead of upgrading to CS4. For now though, I love what Dreamweaver has to offer and highly recommend it to anyone looking for an editor they are willing to pay for.

Adobe Photoshop CS3

I use Photoshop for everything graphics. i have been using it for a long time now and you just can't beat it. There are some other programs out there that offer great features like GIMP, but for me it just doesn't compare. Photoshop is easy to use, easy to understand, and offers an amazing number of features that can be used to create incredibly unique images. Beyond the basics, there are a ton of tutorials available to get the most out of what Photoshop can do. If you want to use Photoshop, but can't drop that much money into it, you can try Photoshop Elements which is a watered down version that includes most of the core functionality needed, as well as the new free online Photoshop Express.

WordPress

I use WordPress to publish this blog and although I'm not able to publish a new post everyday, I am writing drafts and working on posts everyday. I love WordPress because of all the available plugins, themes, as well as the updates to security and features. This is a huge time-saver. I am able to manage the whole blog from an easy administration module of the blog. Maintainance is also really easy because it requires very little coding in the backend; most things can be done with a plugin. Of all the available blog systems, WordPress is my favorite and I plan to stick with it.

FileZilla

I use FileZilla as my main FTP client. To be honest it isn't my favorite though. I used SmartFTP for as long as I can remember, but as of recent I have been using FileZilla because SmartFTP is no longer free. I have thought about purchasing the new SmartFTP, but haven't yet because FileZilla is growing on me. FileZilla is fast, easy and although not the greatest looking, it works very well all the time. If you are looking for free FTP clients, check out the 5 Best Free FTP Program, which includes FileZilla.

phpMyAdmin

I use phpMyAdmin for managing all of my MySQL databases. I have been using this tool for as long as I have been using MySQL and have yet to consider a new option. There are other tools out there, but this one has so many great features. I love the import/export options, the ability to create, insert, delete, and update rows visually, and view query output in a nice table form. Although writing SQL isn't that hard after a few times, it is nice to be able to just click the red X and delete a row or update multiple rows without having to write and update statement for each. I find that some things are a little slow to load and I wish there was some Ajax worked in to speed things up. Hopefully that is on the way in a future release, but even without it, I love this tool.

dotProject

I use dotProject to manage my tasks and projects, both big and small. There are some other options out there for managing tasks like Remember The Milk, but I found myself using dotProejct for the little things because I had already been in the habit of going to dotProject on a regular basis to check and update my progress. There are a number of great features that keep me hooked on dotProject. There is a Gantt chart, a number of prebuilt reports for tracking projects or tasks or people, and an easy to use interface. I have been very pleased with this app and will continue to use it and recommend it.

Google

This one is a no-brainer. I use Google dozens of times a day. Any time I need to find something out, I look to Google to recommend some answers. Thankfully there are websites out there that offer a plethera of information that I refer to time and time again, but Google is there to help me continue to learn new things. I often look for code examples, web standards, tutorials, news, and so much more related to web development and web design. This one does't need much explanation, so I will stop here.

Contribute: What's in your development/design toolbox? Please share in the comments what you find helpful enough to use everyday (or at least close to everyday).

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.

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. Here are 15 great resources to help you pick your layout and download the CSS to get you started.

• Free CSS Layouts

Free-CSS offers over 250 different free CSS layouts for you to use. You can browse them and preview them as a thumbnail as well as click on each to see a demo in a GreyBox. Their terms of use are available in each zip file as well as on the website. The authors give this general explanation "All of the CSS layouts that are featured within Free CSS are distributed under some form of GNU/GPL License or under a Creative Commons License or are free" (free-css.com).

• IronMyers

IronMyers offers three different layout collections. They are the 750px collection which includes 56 different layouts, the 950px collection which includes 56 layouts, and the 100% collection which also includes 56 layouts. You can view an image of the layout as a preview or you can view all the layouts in demo format.

• Code Sucks Layouts

Code-Sucks.com has created a number of different examples of CSS layouts. You can see simple images of them or view them as a demo layout. All 95 of their layouts validate against the Strict DOCTYPE.

• Layout Gala

Layout Gala offers 40 different layouts that are viewable as thumbnail image previews or demos of the actual layout. You can download each layout individually or download all 40 in a zip file if you want. All of the layouts are based on five sections; they each include a header, content, navigation, other stuff and footer section.

• Max Design

Max Design offers a number of CSS layouts covering the typical ones like two and three column layouts. The main advantage to this site is the addition of tutorials to each of the layouts. There is an explanation and help offered for each layout to help you learn a little more than just looking at samples, demos, and code. The code is available to copy and paste for your use.

• Nice and Free CSS Templates

Nice and Free CSS Templates offers a number of layouts including three columns, four columns, and box layouts. Each template is available as a thumbnail preview, a demo, and the CSS code is available to copy and paste for your use. All of the templates validate to W3C standards for XHTML 1.0 and CSS.

• CSS Play

CSS Play offers 14 different CSS layouts including three column and fixed. You can view demos of the layouts and the CSS code is displayed to copy and paste for your use. The copyright and usage policy is listed on the bottom of the main page.

• Adobe Dreamweaver CS3

For those of you who already own Dreamweaver CS3, it has a number of CSS layouts built in. You can easily find them by simply creating a new HTML file and choosing one of the templates provided. They offer previews next to the choices as a selection is made.

• About.com Web Design / HTML

About.com offers a huge wealth of information including a number of CSS layouts. There are more than 25 layouts available, each with a demo to look at as well as a detailed description about the layout. You can save the templates for use in your websites. They also have listed the terms of use on their website.

• SSI Developer

SSI Developer offers CSS layouts in three different categories. They have created two column, three column, and general templates. You are able to view an image preview, view a live demo with some generic content, and download the layouts as a zip file.

• Dynamic Drive CSS Library

The Dynamic Drive CSS Library offers a number of great CSS layouts, among other great resources. They have created almost 50 different layouts in five categories. You can choose from two column, three column, fixed layout, flexible layout, and CSS frames. Once you decide on a layout, you can view an example and get a copy of the code.

• Mitch Bryson - Free CSS Templates

Mitch Bryson has created eight basic CSS layouts. Each layout has a thumbnail image preview, a demo page, and a download link to the layout zip file. The layouts include one column, two column, three column, fixed, and fluid.

• The Layout Reservoir

The Layout Reservoir offers two main CSS layouts. There is two column and the the three column layouts available. The two column layout has an example with a left hand menu and a right hand site menu. Each layout has the CSS code available to copy and paste for your use.

• Glish CSS Techniques

Glish has compiled six of the most common CSS layouts used on the web. They give examples and the CSS code for 3 columns, the holy grail, 2 columns, ALA style, 4 columns, all fluid, 3 columns, static width and centered, and nested float. The offer the code in a textbox at the bottom of the examples for you to copy and paste for your use.

• WebDev - CSS Layout Templates

WebDev offers two column and three column CSS layouts licensed under a Creative Commons License. Each layout has a demo available to check out. Along with the typical two and three column layouts, there are also some discussion board layouts, threaded and unthreaded, as well as some random template layouts. You can download all of the layouts in one zip file.

Webmin

Webmin is my personal favorite of the free control panels. I have used it for many years on servers I have set up at home to test and play with. It is easy to set up and has a great list of feature (or modules) including Apache, BIND, BSD Firewall, bandwidth monitoring, cron job manager, and many more. Beyond the standard modules included, you can download addition third party modules and develop your own if needed.

Currently there is support for many types of Unix (best option: FreeBSD), Linux (best option: Redhat), and Solaris systems. Webmin needs to be configured for each specific flavor of *nix because of file locations, but despite this restriction, there are currently 82 different operating systems supported.

Webmin uses a BSD-like license allowing for commercial and non-commercial use. "All recent versions of Webmin are under a BSD-like licence, meaning that it may be freely distributed and modified for commercial and non-commercial use" (Webmin).

Web-cp

web-cp offers security, flexibility, automation, and management tools to help you manage your servers. Some notable features include system monitoring, statistics, domain configuration, database management, email settings, file manager, and many more. There is a list of supported applications on the web-cp website including sendmail, Apache, Bind, and MySQL.

Running on *nix systems, there are currently 12 different operating systems that web-cp can run on. Multiple versions of Redhat, FedoraCore, FreeBSD, and CentOS are a few of the available options.

The license for this control panel is licensed as Open Source software under the GPL license. This license means that "anyone, anywhere can continue working on the code" (web-cp).

SysCP

SysCP includes management of mail, FTP, web space, CGI, custom error pages, statistics, DNS, and more. Within these categories of supported features, you can control popular applications such as Apache, Bind, Courier, and Proftpd.You can get full feature and supported applications lists from their website. As well as these standard application controls built into SysCP, you can download third party modules to control and manage other aspects of your server as well. Some of the third party modules include management for applications like SpamAssassin, Fetchmail, and a backup module.

You can use SysCP on five major *nix distibutions, Debian, Ubuntu, Gentoo, OpenSuSE, and FreeBSD. These are limited to specific versions so be sure to check what you are using versus what is supported.

SysCP is licensed as open source using the GPL. "The SysCP project was founded, to develop a free server management tool in terms of the Open Source Definition and distribute it freely under the terms of the GPL" (SysCP).

GNUPanel

GNUPanel is written in PHP5 and is intended to run on a Debian Linux system. The main features include domain management, FTP management, database administration, mail management, and much more. You can control popular applications like Apache, PHP, MySQL, Proftpd, and others. There are also some web applications available for auto installation (Wordpress, Joomla, phpBB, and osCommerce).

Although you can currently only run this on Debian, there are other operating systems installations planned. Current development is focusing on language translations of the application.

The license is open source, using GPL. The website stats that "GNUPanel is a completely free (GPL)" (GNUPanel).

ISPConfig

ISPConfig offers management of services like httpd servers, FTP servers, DNS servers, mail servers, database systems, and much more. You can get a full list of features at their website. You can manage popular applications like Apache, MySQL, Proftpd, Bind, and sendmail through the control panel as well. An additional feature of ISPConfig that can be a great deal of help is the four page listing of how-to's at HowtoForge.

There are eight major Linux distributions supported including Mandrake, Fedora Core. Suse, Debian, and Ubuntu. A number of different versions are supported for each of the eight supported operating systems.

ISPConfig uses a BSD license, which allows for redistribution and copying as well as changing the source as long as the original copyright information is retained.

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

1. Library of Over 500 Free Database Models
   "There are over 500 free database models at this website. They are all viewable in data model form and can be saved as an image or printed. You are also able to request an access database for any of the data models available by simply emailing and asking for one."
   
2. 10 Online Magazines for Developers and Designers
   "10 great online magazines for both developers and designers. These sites offer a ton of great information and resources to help a newbie and pro alike."
   
3. Create Standards Compliant Slide Shows With S5
   "S5 (Simple Standards-based Slide Show System) is an easy way to create nice looking slide shows that are completely standards compliant. Using XHTML, CSS, and JavaScript, S5 allows you to view the normal slideshow as well as a printer friendly version. The transitions are fast and smooth."
   
4. 300+ PHP Presentations Online
   "The PHP Presentation System hosts over three hundred presentations, covering a slew of different topics including performance, testing, debugging, XML, and security. The presentations are from speakers at a variety of conferences. You will see (and hear if interested) presentations from speakers like Derick Rethans, Tobias Schlitt, Rasmus Lerdorf and many many more."
5. 5 Free Tools for Picking Your Website Color Scheme
   "Picking the colors for your next website is not always an easy task. There are so many great looking websites out there that use some very nice colors. How do you find the color to start with as the base or add to compliment it? Thankfully for those of us that aren't as creative as we wish we were there are websites available to help us see what a color scheme would look like."

PHP Magazine

PHP Magazine is an online magazine in the form of a blog. There are posts that range many different categories, mainly PHP, but others from within their network of sites. There is information from software and book reviews to articles and tutorials.

Ajax Magazine

Ajax Magazine is another online magazine in the form of a blog from the publishers of PHP Magazine. The Ajax version focuses mainly on Ajax technologies and offers news, articles, and reviews to name a few.

Smashing Magazine

Smashing Magazine is one of the best sites on the web (also an online magazine in the form of a blog). They have amazing "round-ups" and posts bringing together the best sites, services, and resources on the web. They focus a lot on web 2.0 technologies and provide great content for both designers and developers.

Design Mag

Design Mag offers news, articles, galleries, interviews and more. The website is in the form of a blog and is updated very frequently. They have great resources and devote a section to freelance information. This is often a common thread between webmasters/designers/developers. They are the home of the 200+ Resources for Freelance Web Designers article.

Website Magazine

Website Magazine offers their magazine both in print and online. However, the only way you can see the online version is if you subscribe to the print version. The good news: it's free! The website has forums, articles, and blogs full of content. The magazine contains a lot of useful information in typical article format, usually offering one focus article with many other shorter articles throughout.

Digital Web Magazine

Digital Web Magazine offers news, articles, reviews, interviews, and tutorials. News is updated daily and main articles are updated on a weekly basis and are well worth the wait. The content is very useful and very thorough. They also report on upcoming events around the world.

SD Times

SD Times reports on content related to programmers and developers. In both a print version and online, SD Times has over 60,000 subscribers. They report on recent news and stories, write columns and opinions, as well as providing a job board and resource center. This publication reads more as a newspaper than a magazine.

Dr. Dobb's Journal

Dr. Dobb's Journal is another publication both in print and online. They offer information from a variety of different programming and development topics. Some topics include databases, open source, security, web development, and specific programming languages like C/C++ and Java. They also have a resource center and a blog full of information as well.

Developer.* Magazine

Developer.* offers articles, blogs, and book reviews for all things development and programming. There articles are broken down by categories ranging from software design and quality to legal issues and techniques. The articles are well written, the information is great, and the information is very thorough.

.Net Magazine

.Net Magazine is both in print and online. They offer articles to help developer, discover, and design. They also have podcasts and forums filled with content. They cover topics ranging from flash to CSS to Facebook.

The PHP Presentation System hosts over three hundred presentations, covering a slew of different topics including performance, testing, debugging, XML, and security. The presentations are from speakers at a variety of conferences. You will see (and hear if interested) presentations from speakers like Derick Rethans, Tobias Schlitt, Rasmus Lerdorf and many many more. These presentations have been at conferences all around the world and contain a great deal of information. Most presentations are between 25 and 40 slides. You will have to sift through some information in the presentations because some build on each other.

The presentations are best viewed in Firefox and are not available for use with IE. If you try to use IE you will get a pretty funny error code; "IE is not supported - please use Firefox, Safari, Konqueror or just about anything else" (view this presentation in IE). There are presentations dated as far back as 2002 and as recent as August 2008. Take a look around and see what's there.

My Top 10 Presentations

1. Input Filter
2. Webservices with PHP
3. XML and PHP
4. Myth Busting
5. PHP Best Practices
6. Web 2.0 and PHP 5
7. XSS
8. Help, I Found a Bug in my Code
9. Hack Day
10. Designing Good Databases

A traditional web server is made up of many different components, including an http server, mail server, FTP server, and more. In days gone by, a webmaster would install each software package individually to get a custom web server up and running. These kinds of server setups offer many advantages, including testing, learning, and being able to have total control over the web server environment. Today there are many different options available that bundle each component into an easy single installation package.

The installation packages are basically split into two main categories, WAMP (Windows Apache MySQL PHP) servers and LAMP (Linux Apache MySQL PHP) servers. As you can see, they are installation packages that include the Apache httpd server, the MySQL database server, and PHP installed on either a Windows machine or a Linux/Unix machine. There are many different WAMP/LAMP installation packages available that contain the 4 major components, as well as other software to make a more full featured web server. These packages can vary slightly, while meeting the general requirements for running a web server. I have listed some of the most common packages available below.

WAMP

• Apache2Triad - This package includes an incredible list of features. It installs Apache with mod_python, mod_ssl, mod_perl, OpenSSL, and AWStats, MySQL with phpMyAdmin, PostgreSQL with pgAdmin and phpPgAdmin, xmail with PHPXMail and UebiMiau, SlimFTPD with PHPsFTPd, PHP with Pear and Smarty, Perl with CPAN, and Python with Spyce and wxPython.
• XAMPP - This package installs Apache with OpenSSL, MySQL with phpMyAdmin, PHP 4 and PHP 5, FileZilla FTP server, and Mercury Mail Transport System. You can also get Perl and Tomcat as an add-on.
• WampServer 2.0 - This is the new version of the WAMP5 server. It installs Apache, MySQL with PHPMyAdmin and SQLiteManager, and PHP. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles of the first servers listed, but it is reliable and has the ability to install many different releases of Apache, MySQL, and PHP.
• The Uniform Server - This package installs Apache, MySQL with phpMyAdmin, and PHP. It also includes SSL capabilities, but I couldn't find what software is used.
• SpikeWAMP - This package installs Apache, MySQL, and PHP. This version also includes the ability to install popular applications like Drupal, Joomla, Moodle, phpBB, and more. There is also an update channel that allows you to download and install the new beta versions of the applications. This is a nice and easy WAMP installation package.

LAMP

• XAMPP - This package installs Apache with OpenSSL, MySQL with phpMyAdmin, PHP 4 and PHP 5, FileZilla FTP server, and Mercury Mail Transport System.
• Apache Toolbox - This package installs one of the largest bundles of applications and mods I have seen; it boasts almost 100 different modules. Some of these include Apache, MySQL, Apache, WebDAV, OpenLDAP, and gd libraries. Take a look at the website to get the full listing.
• BitRock - This package is based on the BitNami stacks and installs Apache, MySQL with phpMyAdmin, and PHP. There are also some popular applications available for easy installation with BitRock, like phpBB, WordPress, Joomla, and Subversion just to name a few.

What LAMP/WAMP server do you use? Or do you set up all the pieces separately? Let us know in the comments.