Back in the 90’s I was browsing the Internet with either Netscape or Internet Explorer, but as soon as I found out there was an alternative I made the switch and have been a loyal Firefox user ever since (occasionally Opera as well). Not that the other browsers are terrible, but Firefox has always felt safer, faster and more up-to-date when it comes to web standards and correct page rendering.

When surfing with Firefox less space are wasted on menu bars and it is extremely customizable due to the huge amount of available plugins/extensions made over the years. In my job as a web designer / developer there’s a few which stand out as VERY useful…

A great guide for converting your Perl scripts to PHP and vice-versa.

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Have you ever wondered how your site is being ranked by Google™? Well the guys at PR checker seams to have figured it out. Not only can you look up any website or page you can also get a tiny snipplet to put on your page to have your PageRank displayed.

Just a few minutes ago I upgraded my WordPress installation from version 2.05 to the latest available version (2.1 Ella). In total, including backup routines and uploading, it was all done in less than 1 hour. I followed the detailed instructions like a zombie, and it paid of as it went flawless.

After logging back on I was probably a bit to enthusiastic, as I was expecting to see a complete new wp-admin with overwhelming functionality and design. Basically it all looks the same, but after clicking around there’s definitely something going on in the background that makes this upgrade worthwhile. Just tried the spell checker but it didn’t work at all, fortunately as a Firefox user this really wasn’t needed as FF already has a nice multilingual spell checker plugin to do just that. See a description of the British English and the US English dictionaries for more on this (other languages available also).

Below is a list of plugins that apparently work with the new release:

• Akismet Spam Count
• Articles
• Contact Form ][
• Download Manager
• Fuzzy Recent Comments
• Fuzzy Recent Posts
• Popularity Contest
• Search Hilite
• Share This
• SimpleCode for WordPress
• WeatherIcon
• WordPress Database Backup
• WP-SlimStat
• WP Movie Ratings
• Youtube Brackets

I’ll keep testing throughout the week and post back here if I come across something worth mentioning besides the obvious notes from the developers.

SimpleCode wasn’t working after all, but an update is availble at the same location.

Over the years I’ve built and repaired more computers than I care to remember, both professionally and while helping out friends and family. This article will try to point out some common symptoms, what’s causing it and the most likely solution.

Note! Please don’t try to solve hardware issues yourself if you can’t name at least three components inside your PC and/or are familiar with a screwdriver (not the drink). You should also be very cautious about static electricity as this might short-circuit your PC (kill it), so use special gloves or keep one hand at the side of the cabinet (at least occasionally) while working inside.

Part I, as the title refers to, will be targeted towards motherboard (MB), RAM and hard disk (HD) related issues. If one or all of these fails the most common symptoms are: