The following is a simple php script I created for debugging.

Features:

• Easy to setup and use.
• Outputs variable values to a text file.
• Handles php errors.
• Generates easy to read output.

Usage

To use the debugging function simply include the debugging script file at the top of your code, then pass the element you wish to debug as a parameter like so: debug($element);.

The function also takes three additional, optional parameters debug($element, $descriptor,$location,$mode); where $element is the variable you wish to debug, $descriptor is a user input string which defaults to the line debug was called if no value is given, $location is the output location of the text file created, possible values are ‘webroot’ and ‘currentdir’ the default value is ‘currentdir’, and mode is the file mode for writing to the output file which defaults to ‘a’ so data is appended to any existing data by default ‘w’ could be passed to the first debug call to remove any existing data from the text file ex. debug($element, ‘Element var value is’,'w’);. Read the rest of Simple PHP Debugger »

Becoming a Google verified author is a great way to promote your personal brand,  promote your business, attain increased credibility, and gain social connections and followers.  Upon becoming a Google verified author your Google+ profile photo will appear next your content in Google’s search listings along with a link to your Google+ profile. Currently if a user is signed out of Google they will also see a link to more articles by you, helping readers to find more of your content.  It’s surprising to me that more bloggers and website owners have not started to take advantage of these features by becoming verified authors, so I will list different ways to verify your content, starting with what worked for me.  Given the info already provided so far it should go without saying that a Google+ profile is required for all methods listed below.

Relative Links

This first method should be simple enough for anyone with some basic knowledge of HTML, and requires an author page as found in most WordPress themes. Author pages usually have URLs similar to http://yoursite.com/author/author-name/.

1. Place a link with rel=”author” on your post pages to your author page like so:
   <a href=”http://yoursite.com/author/author-name/”  rel=”author”>Author Name</a>
   Again this is usually already  the case with the byline in most WordPress themes
2. Place a link  with rel=”me” on your author page to your Google+ profile like so:
   <a href=”https://plus.google.com/yourgoogleaccountnumber”  rel=”me”>Google +</a>
   The easiest way to do this with most WordPress themes is to list your Google+ profile as your website  in your WordPress user profile .
3. Last but not least go to your Google+ profile and add a link back to your author page  in the “Contributor to” section of your links, and that’s all folks.

You can use Google’s rich snippets testing tool to insure your markup is implemented correctly simply by entering a link to any of your posts in the testing tool.  If for some reason your prefer not to list your Google profile as your website, this article  shows how to add a Google Plus link to your WordPress author Page.
Instead of simply adding a link as listed in step two above, Google+ profile badges can also be used, which allow visitors to add you to their circles without leaving your site, this however requires adding Google Plus JavaScript api to the head of your document if you don’t already have it, also since the content section of author pages doesn’t allow HTML you’ll have to custom code your author page or add the WP HTML Author Bio plugin. Read the rest of Become a Google Verified Author »

System Scheduler is a program akin to Windows Task Scheduler, I had used this program on a computer at one of my past jobs to automate certain tasks at regular intervals, and after some searching I recently managed to find it again online.

System Scheduler doesn’t have as many event triggers as Task Scheduler, but it does have a more intuitive user interface, and slightly more robust scheduling features. For example Read the rest of Software Spotlight: System Scheduler »

QR code stands for Quick Response code and is a type of 2D bar code. I’ve written about QR codes before on another blog, and they’ve gained a lot of popularity since then so I won’t go into too much background information but if you would like more history on QR Codes Wikipedia has a nice article about them.

Why Use QR Codes?

QR Codes are a great way to augment traditional media and  quickly relay data to mobile users allowing them to instantly view it on their mobile device or easily store it for later reference.   Mobio Identity Systems Inc an international mobile payments and marketing company released a report showing a 9840% increase in QR coded scanning  during the second quarter of 2011 in North America. Internet marketing research company comScore also recently gave a press release revealing 6.2 percent or 14 million mobile users in the US scanned QR codes on their phones during June of 2011.

Creating Codes and Identifying Content

There are lots of mobile apps and websites which allow users to create QR Codes. Simply search Google for the phrase “qr code generator” and at least the first eight results will be just that. My preferred generator is one by the ZXing Project, who are also the developers of the Barcode reader app for Android. Virtually all QR code generators allow you to identify the type of content you are placing inside of the code which is important because it helps the decoding app determine the best way to handle the decoded data. For example if you’re placing a URL inside of a QR code you would like who ever scans the code to be able to automatically visit your link and not simply have it appear on their screen as static text, which is why you should make sure to identify a QR code containing a URL as a URL and not text.

Read the rest of QR Codes »