This is one of my most popular posts, so I am revising and reposting it.  This is truly one of the best free books for learning PHP.  Download and Enjoy! 

If you run a website or blog you need to have a basic understanding of PHP and SQL.  This free ebook is required reading for you.

No I don't think you need to be a programmer writing applications.  You just need general information about how PHP works and the syntax of the language.  This information is extremely important if you run WordPress as your platform, as WordPress is a PHP based platform.

The author doesn't really HATE PHP as you will quickly find out as you read through this book.  I would consider it on par with the Dummies Guide on PHP and SQL.

I ran across this ebook a while back and want to share it with others.  It is available for free download at the Virtual Library.

Let me know what you think about this book!  If you have any difficulties, just send me an email and I can get the book to you another way.  Give it a read and let me know what you think!

Another educational offering by TheTeachingBox.com

-Loren  

Download the Book HERE or click on the Graphic above.

In the spirit of education and the mission of  TheTeachingBox I agreed to take a look and do a review.  I will approach this review by first looking at the website and then using the software through the free trial that Keywordcompetitor offers.

As a webmaster I am a part time student of Search Engine Optimization (see my blog PagerankToday where I study these concepts).  Initially I was not too excited about another tool that will help me with SEO because there are lots of them out there.  As I studied the Keywordcompetitor website I found out that this software is different.   First of all this software package performs Real time Keyword Research.   Second it allows you to Research AND monitor.  Third it produces detailed reports that you can download and study. 

The website provides informative videos that allowed me to understand exactly what this product is, and how it is different from traditional offerings.

The website is very professional looking and easy to use.  The Video Tutorials are well done, and they use a great flash based tool to present them to the user.  There is also an informative FAQ that answers basic questions.  I signed up for a free trial and within minutes was using the software. 

The first thing to say is this is a well designed Web 2.0 tool.  It runs totally within a web browser so you do not need to download anything to your local computer.  This allows you to access the software from anywhere.  Buttons allow the user to download data, and even e-mail it to an address.  The software works flawlessly within a Firefox browser, and I would guess IE as well.  I will have to test it on my Mac when there is time.  As I said earlier, this is True Web 2.0 software.  

I set up some searches and worked with the email and export buttons.  Everything is fully functional.  TheTeachingBox is a website that doesn't make any money, and I really haven't researched my competition, nevertheless  I am interested in getting more traffic to my Blog and this tool can help. 

The trial lets you monitor 1 domain and 2 keywords.  This is enough to allow you to use the tool understand its functionality.  One interesting aspect is the ability to research paid keywords.  This ability will help you understand what keywords are considered valuable enough for people to pay for.   The monitoring capability is useful.  The software will e-mail you daily reports on how your research is progressing.

I will continue to play with Keyword Competitor in order to understand more about how it works.  This is an in depth software package that has lots of potential for SEO research.  Until I report back, I encourage you to visit the site, give the trial a run and let me know what you think about this tool!

- Loren

iDevBooks

Esa Helttula contacted me through Twitter about reviewing these useful educational tools.  In the spirit of Education and Technology it is very fitting for TheTeachingBox to give Esa a quick review and send you back to his web site to check out these Cool Apps.

The best way to introduce Esa and his site is to use his own description:

This site is about my Math Apps for iPhone. It all started when I was looking for a Column Addition app for my daughter. I was surprised to find out that there were no apps that teach the basics like column addition, column subtraction, long division and long multiplication. I had experience about designing visualizing algorithms for computer science students. I decided to use that knowledge to make great teaching and learning apps for children and everybody who wants to study math. You will find my apps by choosing the my apps -link.

The apps are quite unique.  There is a total collection of 10 apps covering such topics as:

• Long Division
• Long Multiplication
• Column Addition
• Column Subtraction

Esa is easily accessible through email or you can follow him on Twitter.  Stop by his page and give the iPhone Math Apps a try.  You will not be disappointed.

-Loren

I have purchased and installed a program on my companion website PageRankToday called RankChecker. 

RankChecker is a great program written as a php script and is easily installed on a webserver.  It is hosted on a site called GetRank.org.  You can get to the website by clicking on the picture to the right.  The author has a great demo of the front page as well as the administrative area. 

This script gives a tremendous amount of information about any website you wish to explore.  Straight from the website, here are the tools and information it displays.

TOOLS:

• Domain Age
• Google Pagerank
• Alexa Rank
• Google Backlinks
• Yahoo Backlinks
• Alexa Backlinks
• Altavista Backlinks
• AllTheWeb Backlinks
• DMOZ Directory
• Yahoo Directory
• Google Indexed Pages
• Yahoo Indexed Pages
• Bing Indexed Pages
• ASK Indexed Pages
• Digg Links
• Delicious Links
• Google Bot Last Visit
• Site Value
• Pagerank Button

I am looking forward to having RankChecker as part of my SEO toolkit.  I have made it available on PageRankToday as one of my SEO Tools, but I would encourage you to purchase a copy for yourself if you would like to host it on your site.  The $10 cost is minimal. 

If you aren't really sure, there is a free version that doesn't have all of the features, but would give a good "test drive".  You can access the free version from the GetRank.org main page, or just click -> HERE.

I have only good things to say about this script and its author.  There were a couple of small issues with the script running on my hosting server, but they were quickly fixed.  I would rate the Script and Support outstanding.  

RankChecker is a great way to learn many details about any website, not just your own.

Enjoy!

-Loren

Online file storage is a critical feature in todays mobile computing world.  We have large hard drives, but flexibility is important.  In my opinion SkyDrive is the best online file storage system today.

Many people have Windows Live logins for their MSN Messenger (now called Windows Live Messenger) account.  If this is true for you, head over to http://skydrive.live.com and claim your 25GB of free online storage.  I have checked around the net, and have not found any other systems that match the Microsoft SkyDrive product. 

Before I get a bunch of flame e-mails, NO I am not a Microsoft Apologist.  If a product is good, I will recommend it.  This post is just a short review on the pros and cons of this online storage product.

Pros -

• Size – 25 GB is a lot of storage space
• Free – Free is always good
• Stability – Microsoft is going to be around to keep SkyDrive from disappearing
• Flexibility – Works with the Gladinet Cloud Desktop Client to mount Drives on your PC 

 Cons -

• File Size Limit – 50 MB maximum file size (still pretty large)
• Drag and Drop interface only works with Internet Explorer
• Some people are Against Everything Microsoft so they cannot be convinced it is a good product
• Full Functionality assumes you are a PC user – I haven’t tried it on my Mac yet.

I personally use SkyDrive because of the Pros I have listed above.  The Gladinet Cloud Desktop client is great.  I use the free version, and have found it to be pretty stable.  It allows you to create a mounted drive letter on your Windows PC.  It does a good job of synchronizing and moving files in the background. 

Even if you chose not to install the Gladinet driver you can drag and drop files using Internet Explorer.  Maybe there will be some sort of Firefox Plugin in the future, but I wouldn’t hold out waiting for one. 

For the Anti-Microsoft folks out there, actually SkyDrive is a winner, the problem with many "FREE" programs and services on the internet, is that you are at the whim of the company.  So many of them just disappear overnight, or are purchased by another company and phased out.  Nevertheless I do warn people not to trust these free online file storage systems, make sure you have a local backup Just In Case.

I recommend you surf over to the SkyDrive website and give it a try.  Let me know what you think about this online storage product.  Any tips and tricks you can give are appreciated by myself and the other readers.

-Loren

Update - There are persistent rumors that Google is going to do something similar to SkyDrive, but nothing yet.  I have looked at some clever work arounds to store files on your Gmail account, but they are just that "workarounds" and not really online file storage.

I have been playing with a new script made by Online Zip – http://www.onlinezip.net/

It is set up as a link off my website PageRankToday

Specifically – http://www.pageranktoday.com/onlinezip/

It is a free script and quite easy to set up.  You can configure many of the settings.  Right now my implementation has a file size limit of 350KB which is kind of small.  I am playing with the settings to see how that can be increased.  I realize that .php server settings control file size, but I think that it is a larger number.  For now, give it a try and see what you think.  

Here is a screen shot of the interface.  Very basic and user friendly.  It even has a captcha feature to prevent spammers from using it.

This script is something you can set up on your server as an extra feature for your visitors, or even for yourself.

Let me know what you think!

-Loren

Sometimes it may be a regular version vs. a “Pro” version, but the software is in no way crippled and is full featured.  Many times you must register or notify the author that you have the program in order to get a Key to install or run.  I am OK with this.

There is only one small catch…the offerings are only for 24 hours.  The software with a download link is displayed and active for only one day.  So if you don’t get the program within the allotted time, too bad.  This is their way of driving traffic, so that you look at their site EVERY day.

Going there every day is not a bad thing.  The site is set up quite well and is user friendly.  They do have an RSS Feed, so I just subscribe using it.  They also have a mail subscription notification option as well (not my favorite).

They have a small banner you can add to your site to help them advertise as well.

Overall Giveaway of the Day is a great site.  Keep an eye on it for a while, and you will find some very good offerings.

- Loren
http://www.theteachingbox.com

Arrica over at MochaQuest is shutting down her site, and has moved over to RandomToXic.  (so change your bookmarks)

I have a guest post up titled Carry your Digital Life with you on your Flashdrive.  Stop over to thier site and take a look.  She is just getting started, so drive some traffic.

She is updating and posting to her site so quickly that I have fallen back a couple pages, so I have the direct link to the post above.  Thanks for stopping by.

Let me know about what apps you use on your flash-drive.
What are your Favorites?
Any new cool suggestions?

-Loren

I have an article up at Blog Basics to Blog Pro (http://www.basicstopro.com)

The article is:  What is a FavIcon and Why You Should Have One

I walk through the basics of what a FavIcon is, and how to go about creating your own custom FavIcon for your website.  I don’t go through all of the details.  I have to give the student a small amount  of homework.  I provide an overview and some internet resources to help get people started in their quest for a FavIcon.

Stop by Blog Basics to Blog Pro and check out my post as well as the rest of the site.  Good information for all Bloggers.

-Loren