Change Permissions [chmod] with Dreamweaver [Update]

Last April, I reported my findings on how to use Adobe (formerly by Macromedia) Dreamweaver to change the permissions of web files and folders. The versions of Dreamweaver I had used were older, and the only way to accomplish this was to use a command-line interface built into Dreamweaver to enter FTP commands the ol’ fashioned way.

Being, by far, the most popular post with several follow-up comments, I felt it was time for an updated post with all the tips rolled together.

Speeding Up Web Sites with Flushing [PHP Speed Tweak]

Though, you should be careful when using it because it may or may not be helpful, depending on your application.

When a client requests a php (or any other server-side page) the server parses the whole page, then sends the resulting code to the client when it’s finished. Once the client receives the page, it can begin fetching images, or whatever media is on the page.

Using the following flush code could speed up the process for the client:

< ?php flush(); ?>

Be sure to remove the space between the right angled bracket “<” and the question mark “?”.

When the server encounters this tag, it will immediately send everything it’s already processed to the client before continuing on the rest of the page. For example, I use this code on another site right after the 3 codes for the 3 random header images are processed. This way, the client can begin fetching the images while the server processes and sends the rest of the page, which is mostly text.

Ultimately, we’re talking about milliseconds here, but its hundreds of milliseconds we might be shaving off. Again, with the site I mentioned above, it seems that by time the header images have loaded, the rest of the web site has completed it’s load. Not only did this save time for the user, but it gives the appearance that everything loaded at once rather than the page appearing with the header images appearing a few moments later.

Code responsibly.

Sounds Effects on the Cheap [Free]

What blew me away is that I hadn’t come across this web site before! I’ve done a few sound projects before and I always had to deal with what I could find, what I was given, or have to make the sound effects myself.

Usually the web sites that offer sound effects offer low quality stuff, or preview only. Other professional sites will offer a small free collection and keep the good stuff under lock and key. Still other sound effect sites look like a high school project hastily thrown togther with excessive animated GIFs and too many text colors.

Well, I was delightfully surprised to find Soundsnap. Soundsnap is a community web site where users upload, share, and download sound effects and music loops. Best of all, it’s all free and most of the stuff I previewed where of good or high quality. This isn’t a small collection either, there’s something like 80,000 different sounds. Though, 50,000 clips are music loops, but I suppose if that’s what you’re looking for, you’re in luck!

Here are some samples of stuff I was looking for:

127 BPM Monkey (I wasn’t really looking for this, but came across it, thought it sounded neat…)

Monkey

Powerful Thunder and Rain

Also, according to the FAQ and the Terms of Service, everything is offered at no cost and users are free to use for any purpose, commercial or not.

How to Find Your Server Path [Path to Folder]

Usually, one can just look up their absolute server paths in the help files of their web host. Sometimes your host isn’t so helpful. Just put the following code in a .page and drop it in the folder you want to know the server path to and tada!

< ?php echo getcwd(); ?>

Don’t forget to remove the space between the angled left bracket “<” and the question mark “?”.

Once you do that, send a complaint to your host.

Google’s New Blue Fav Icon [Favicon.ico]

So… A new blue fav icon adorned my Firefox location bar this afternoon when I fired up my iGoogle homepage.

New Google Fav icon:

Old Google Fav icon:

Is Google redesigning their logo or was someone at Google just having a slow Friday?

Perhaps it’ll just change back on Monday and the world will never know!! No. No. Never. I refuse to believe it!

Maybe changing the Fav icon was just a little nugget of nothing for the blogging community to chew on and create buzz… simply a clever ruse…

EDIT: Apparently the new icon isn’t yet appearing on localized versions of Google, but this is normal of anything Google rolls out anyway.

How Margins Work for the IMG Element

I usually use a WYSIWYG editor for getting code out in a hurry, but I’m fairly proficient when it comes to HTML. Today, however, I wanted to force a margin around an image for a buffer but I incorrectly used a parameter of “margin” and assigned a pixel value. What one is supposed to do is use HSPACE and VSPACE.

HSPACE will create a margin of the specified pixel size on the left and right of the image.
VSPACE will create a margin of the specified pixel size on the to and bottom of the image.

For example:
<img src=”http://www.365discoveries.com/images/image.jpg” hspace=”5″ vspace=”3″ />
Will create a 5 pixel margin on the left and right of the image and a 3 pixel margin on the top and bottom of the image.