Since the PHP build version became so important with Zend Framework, I made a list of some (on the Belgian market) prominent hosting companies and the PHP version they offer on their shared hosting.

It does not pretend to be a complete list, but rather an alphabetical list of hosting providers I bump or bumped in to once in a while. The PHP version listed is mentioned on their site or, if not on their site, retrieved through their support.

(*) they offered to install any version required.

As you can see, Combell is worst for PHP developers. There currently is also no way to get any higher version with them. It is a sad thing.

Besides them, only Weble mentioned (luckily a proper) full version number on their site. Although customers that tend to find the complete PHP version number important are probably a (growing) minority, it can make a sale.

Also, I’m surprised by the cheapest one, One. It’s the only “big” one that offers a recent version.

Please, don’t hesitate to add any others to the list.

I try to enforce Zend Framework for every new project started. If not in the requirements section of my quote, it is not that hard to convince a client of its advantages.

Tell a client how Zend Framework

• improves stability,
• lowers development time

and in particular

• makes them less dependent on you as other ZF developers can pick up projects you started a lot easier.

Now, please don’t start to think about job security. Just don’t.

But, Zend Framework has a fairly high PHP version requirement. Since version 1.7 Zend has quietly changed the requirements to PHP 5.2.4. In respect of a client’s (shared) hosting, this can be the most difficult part.
This was probably a logical thing to do since the requirements mentioned PHP 5.1.4 until ZF 1.6.2 and pre-5.2.4 versions miss some great features and contain nasty bugs (in reality some ZF components didn’t even run on PHP 5.1.4).

In Belgium however, it is difficult to find a hosting company that supports PHP 5.2.4.

Since I installed a recent update of FireFox 3, cookies were not being saved after a browser session ended.

While there seem to be different causes, if you’re on Windows and using AVG, the file that contains cookies may be locked by AVG for some reason. Deleting that file or disabling AVG to scan cookies may help.

FireFox saves cookie information on Windows in:

[DRIVE]:\Documents and Settings\[USER]\Application Data\
Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles

The file is named cookies.sqlite.

If you delete it however, you’ll have to check quite a few “remember me” boxes in the near future.

After PHPEclipse and PDT, a new PHP IDE based on Eclipse is available: Aptana Studio.

Read more about it in Federico Cargnelutti’s post on PHP::Impact ( [str Blog] ).

I’ve had a look at the screencast available on the Aptana site and in my opinion the only neat difference to PDT is the “Generate Getters and Setters…” option. As you could suspect, it generates get and set methods based on a selection of existing class properties.

Apart from that, the majority of features shown also exist in PDT.

But it is only version 1.0 so who knows what future versions may bring.

For many self-employed/companies the fiscal year also ends at the end of December and the ones that aren’t near bankruptcy always want to create some extra costs to lower their profit. Some forced shopping (for business related stuff, of course) can be both entertaining and useful.

Who knows. Maybe you’ll save the economy!

I like these:

• Advertising in general, Google Adwords (or similar) in particular. On the PPC advertisement programs (like Adwords), you can increase the funds in your account and use them when they are needed.
• Gifts for your customers. Coupons are nice because they can also be used when needed.
• Training: push yourself to take an exam next year and pick a date now!

And the obvious:

• Hardware (ask your accountant what urgently needs replacement – who else knows best). Don’t forget to recycle the replaced parts!
• Software licenses.
• Pension plans.
• And books of course. One I’m currently reading and highly recommend:
  Landing Page Optimization by Tim Ash – highly recommended (although I didn’t finish it yet)
• A Nabaztag.

If you don’t over-spend foolishly, you’ll have the same “problem” next year.

Other tips? Let me know and I’ll add them to the list.

Ever wondered what color that one pixel on your screen is?

While you also have great FireFox alternatives, Instant Eyedropper lets you select a pixel anywhere on your desktop by magnifying a 5 pixels square underneath your cursor.
Of course it also copies the selected color’s hex value to your clipboard when you release your mouse.

It saves me a lot of time!

If you live in Belgium, you may get a “private” call once in a while (and no, I do not mean calls from your mistress). I have no idea if it exists in other countries, but these calls appear on your phone with an unknown or hidden phone number.

Some people probably have a solid reason to hide their number and I will respect their choice. But if a business has requested their phone company to hide their number, I am clueless.

Why on earth would they do that?

I have no intention to ever pick up the phone when I receive a “private” call. Never.

If, for some obscure reason, you have such a hidden number and you cannot change it before you start calling, it may be a good idea to leave a voicemail message.

There are some companies (especially in the recruitment sector) that do not get why this may be a smart thing to do. If you are the owner or decision-maker of such a company, I have one small request: please, do everyone a favor and get another job.

You can use Google Analytics in 2 main ways: as a bloated Webalizer or as a list of possible improvements for the site in question (or both of course).

If you just start using it the second way, the number one improvement suggestion that has always been in front of your nose is the list of Top Landing Pages (which you’ll find under “Content” in the menu) and their bounce rate. Keep it sorted by “Entrances” and the only thing you then have to do is pick the page with the highest bounce rate in the top 10. Now fix that page (as clearly something is wrong).

Make sure people that hit that page find ways to lengthen their visit to other parts of the site. Clearly visitors to that page aren’t noticing your navigation or other links.

You can use this knowledge to direct them to the content that you want them to see or to the content that they are looking for. To get a hint of the latter, click on the page in question in your report and click on the “Entrance Keywords” under “Landing Page Optimization”. The list of search keywords used to reach that page, for instance, could set you off in the right direction.

Of course you can continue with other high bounce rate-pages but it may be a good idea to monitor if your changes had any effect first.

The more data available, the more relevant the Top Landing Pages report is. But even if your site only attracts a few visitors per day, just stretch the time span your report covers to have a larger data sample.

Hopefully this helps to improve retention bit by bit.