Without gzip compression, the homepage of the Oz Broadband Speed Test was 32.37 KB (33142 bytes), with gzip turned on the same page was 7.61 KB (7789 bytes).

That’s a massive 75% saving in data. While it might not seem like much, on a high trafficked site it really starts to add up.

Turning gzip on is also easy, with the use of an .htaccess file on an Apache web server, and is done with a single line of code.

php_value output_handler ob_gzhandler

I’m not sure how much extra load this will add to the server, but I am hoping it is minimal. I’ll keep an eye on this over the next few days.

The best thing with this is that if your browser doesn’t support any compression methods (highly unlikely in today’s browsers) then it will simply send the page back without compression.

It’s really win win.

I should also point out that this only compresses PHP files, and not CSS, JavaScript or images.

The problem was that there was no scaling on the graph when using extended encoding, so values of the graph were plotted with the y-axis having a maximum value of 4095.

This meant that smaller values look insignificant on the graph, not to mention all the wasted space. The solution I came up with is to scale the data so it fills the chart appropriately.

The PHP code I came up with is below, and also extends on a function written by Ben Dodson.

< ?php
/*
 * Returns a scaled value.
 *
 * @param    value     Int to scale
 * @param    max       Maximum int in array to calculate scale value
 * @param    scale     The int to scale value to
 * @return             Scaled value
 * @author             Alex McKenzie 
 */
function scale_value($value, $max, $scale = 4095) {
	return ($value/$max) * $scale;
}
 
/**
 * Retunrs an extended encoded string for use with Google Charts API.
 *
 * Modified function - original by Ben Dodson (http://bendodson.com/blog/2008/02/28/google-extended-encoding-made-easy/).
 *
 * @param    array     Array of values to encode
 * @param    scale     Whether to scale the values
 * @return             Extended encoded string
 * @author             Alex McKenzie [alex [at] alexmckenzie [dot] info]
 */
function array_to_extended_encoding($array, $scale = 'yes') {
    $characters = 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789-.';
 
    // Scale values before encoding if required.
    if ($scale == 'yes') {
        $max = max($array);
        $scaled_array = array();
        foreach($array as $value) {
            array_push($scaled_array, scale_value($value, $max));
        }
        $array = $scaled_array;
    }
 
    // Encode values in array.
    $encoding = '';
    foreach ($array as $value) {
        $first = floor($value / 64);
        $second = $value % 64;
        $encoding .= $characters[$first] . $characters[$second];
    }
    return $encoding;
}?>

Now using some sample data, we can see the difference scaling makes in the following two examples:

The graphs above were generated with the following code:

< ?php
$graph = array(200,300,200,250,350,150,100);
?>
 
<img src="http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=bvs&chs=200x150&chd=e:<?=array_to_extended_encoding($graph, $scale = 'no')?/>" alt="No scalling" />
<img src="http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=bvs&chs=200x150&chd=e:<?=array_to_extended_encoding($graph)?/>" alt="Scalling" />

An example input string might look like “HELLO world. This is a test.” The required output is “Hello world. This is a test.”

Below is a function which will help you achieve this:

1
2
3
4
5
6

function uc_first_word($string) {
    $s = explode(' ', $string);
    $s[0] = ucfirst(strtolower($s[0]));
    $s = implode(' ', $s);
    return $s;
}

Now I know this function isn’t full proof, and assumes that the string you are passing actually contains words. If the first word was a roman numeral for example, this function would not work (ie VI would become Vi).

Usage of this function is quite easy:

1

$string = uc_first_word('HELLO world. This is a test.');

I hope that this might help someone searching for a similar solution.

Turns out there is a simple option to show hidden files such as .htaccess in Transmit FTP. Simply select View -> Show Invisible Files.

So simple! I can’t believe I have missed this option all this time.

Most things seem to be running quite smoothly in Vista, albeit slightly differently to XP. I have a few shared folders in XP which serve as place for family members to share and swap files over our network. With Windows XP users have never had any trouble connecting to my machine. This has all changed with Windows Vista however. When I first created the same shares in Windows Vista the other XP machines were unable to connect to the Vista shares. Each time it was asking for a user name and password. This was quite frustrating as when you install Vista it never asks you to setup any user accounts with passwords.

The final solution to the problem is to create a new user on the Vista machine. The user does not need to have administrative privileges but must have a password. Once this is done your XP machines should be able to connect to the Vista shares using the user name and password that you just created. This could become frustrating but thankfully you are able to save the user name and password in XP so each time you connect to the share in Vista from then on you no longer need to put in these details.

I hope you find this information useful and that it saves you a few headaches. I know I spent a few hours trying to find away around this problem. I take it the requirements for a password is part of Microsoft’s attempt to up security in Windows Vista.

The list of supported blogs is quite extensive; Windows Live Space, WordPress.com, Typepad, Blogger, LiveJournal, Movable Type, WordPress Custom Installation, Radio Userland, Community Server, dasBlog as well as any other custom made blogs that utilise the Metaweblog API or Movable Type API are all supported.

The ability to insert links and pictuers is also painless. It’s all done with the click of a button, with a WYSIWYG interface. So far this programme seems more complete then the blogging featuers in Microsoft Word 2007 Beta. The ability to save blog entries as drafts will also come in handy for some, especially those who might be traveling but are unable to connect up to the Internet for a period of time. I suggest anyone that is into blogging give this software a try. It’s really nice to finally see some innovative and useful tools come out of Microsoft.

P.S. The Simpsons Season 18 premiers September 10th in the US with The Mook, The Chef, The Wife & His Homer.

If you would like to download and trial Office 2007 Beta, head to the Microsoft Office 2007 Beta Preview site.