If you have upgraded from the Apple Safari version 2.0 web browser to 3.0 here are two quick tips that developers and Q&A folks might find useful. The first tip is to turn on the built-in Web Developers Kit which is similar to the Firefox Firebug plug-in. Once you activate it (instructions are below) you can launch it by right clicking the browser window and selecting “Inspect Element.” The other tip changes the page loading progress bar (the standard filling of the address bar from left to write in blue) to a simple pie chart that fills clockwise indicating page load completion. If you wish to deactivate either of these features you can use the same instructions replacing the “-bool true” with “-bool false”

Finder->Applications->Utilities->Terminal
 
defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugUsePieProgressIndicator -bool true
defaults write com.apple.Safari WebKitDeveloperExtras -bool true

I’ve recently been working on performance tuning a set of application servers for optimal performance of a high volume website. YSlow is a Firefox Add-on that works in conjunction with the Firebug add-on that is intended to help you analyze and understand performance based on Yahoo.com’s rules of “High Performance Websites.”

If you work with the YSlow tool in a development environment you likely aren’t going to be using a Content Delivery Network (CDN) such as Akamai or Limelight Networks. Thus, you get a lower optimization score when testing. This can obviously be misleading, and there is a work around documented in Yahoo’s YSlow FAQ. The problem is that the documentation explains the work around must be configured via: “Go to about:config in Firefox. You’ll see the current list of preferences.” The issue/confusion is that many people don’t realize that “about:config” isn’t an option of your browser preferences, or preferences of your plug-ins. You must type “about:config” into the address bar of your browser to pull up these configuration parameters.

The YSlow plug-in itself is very useful. However, the documentation seems a bit lacking so hopefully I am able to save others who attempt to configure it some valuable time.

Here is a quick an easy way to select random rows in SQL Server 2005:

SELECT
     ColumnA, ColumnB
FROM
     dbo.[TableName]
ORDER BY
     NEWID()

I’ve been involved in a lot of E-Commerce development recently. This has lead me to do a lot of research on pending California privacy legislation and PCI compliance. I’ve since come to the conclusion that people have a skewed view of how susceptible people are to credit card fraud and identity theft. I’m sure my dad will be thrilled to find out that I have now confirmed he is a genius, and I am going to follow in his footsteps by taking an action he took many years back when he began to make on-line purchases. I think since I’m so immersed in the “Industry” it is sometimes hard to be objective. At the time, I thought he was a bit paranoid when he told me his plan for making purchases on-line. His plan was to get a new credit card and only use it for on-line purchases. Guess what, this is a great idea… and I recommend it to all!

One of the last major decisions I made in 2007 was whether or not to attend my 10 year high school reunion. After much thought, I decided as always it was a good excuse to return home to San Francisco – and see old friends. It was a very fun, yet a rather unusual experience. I now actually have proof that I showed up to the party.

Evan, Bryan, Christine, myself.

Ally Wolfe, myself, Katy Claypool