I read today about Multiple IE Installer. It allows you to install all old versions of IE from 3.0 to 6.0 on your computer. I’ve been keeping an installation of IE 6 on my secondary computer, but this allows me to check web pages I create with all these different browsers without changing computers. I was actually pleased with the way my blog looked. All browsers seemed OK except for IE 4.0.1 which had some style issues. IE 3.0 doesn’t support CSS, so it just displays plain text with no formatting, but I’ve never had visitors who use IE 3.0 (or IE 4 or 5 for that matter) so I’m not too worried about it.

Anyway, I think it’s pretty cool.

Almost every WordPress theme has a 404 template. Some are better than others, and a few are quite impressive, but on problem that pervades all of them is the fact that editing them requires opening finding and opening the correct template file. This is OK for people who know about HTML and PHP and are familiar with WordPress, but what about technically challenged people (like your Grandma)? They’re not likely to be able to edit a WordPress template, so they will be stuck with whatever you give them. If you create a good template, this may be sufficient, but there will still be people who want to change something.

Thankfully you can provide a much simpler solution for people who don’t want to edit your templates. With this solution, users can edit the 404 page contents just like it were any other page. Here’s how it works.

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EDIT: Nick Ohrn pointed out that a function exists for doing this automatically. The following post is still a valid look at how this could be implemented if the functionality didn’t already exist, but it is better to use extract because it is likely more efficient.

Associative arrays are one of my favorite PHP features. They’re simple to use and easy to understand. Sometimes though, being able to reference the values of associative arrays with variables can be more convenient. Today I’m going to share a simple way to convert an associative array to variables.

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I use Wamp Server together with NetBeans to develop PHP applications on my local machine. This works well because I can do debugging (thanks to xdebug) and can readily view and edit files. I usually don’t like to place projects in the c:\wamp\www folder, preferring instead to place them in more logical places in my personal directory.

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XKCD recently ran a cartoon pointing out some humerus/frightening Google trends as well as where they are most popular. While I tend to doubt the veracity of some of them, it sparked my interest, so I did some trend sleuthing myself. My focus was holidays.

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Today was the first day of 2009. I feel that 2008 was a really good year and I’m thankful to God for what he’s done in my life during that time. As I look back at what transpired in 2008, I can see His hand working in my life, so I wanted to share some of the ways God has blessed me in 2008.

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