No PHPeeking!

One thing that really gets my goat is when a website's URLs expose the underlying processing engine used to generate the content of the page, rather than reflecting the content type of the page itself. For example, "about.php" instead of about.html. Who in the world needs to know that PHP generated the page after it's already been rendered as HTML. (I don't mean to pick on the PHP developers out there. Of course, ASP and Java Servlet users are just as guilty of this nonsense.)

Fundamentally, a URL is part of the user interface of a web page. The user can almost always see the URL, can always bookmark it for later reference, and sometimes wants to be able to remember it. There are plenty of other URL naming conventions that should be followed to ensure a high level of usability on a website, but hiding the engine from the user is generally a simple process that can often be automated using three lines. Drop the following "code" into a .htaccess file, which is supported almost every web host running the Apache web server, in the root of your website:

    RewriteEngine on

    # If requested .html file doesn't exist, rewrite to .php
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteRule ^(.*)\.html$ $1.php [T=application/x-httpd-php]

Now why don't more people do that?

Bus-ted

Though I ride the same bus every morning, the same driver looks upon me blankly each time I board, as if to say, "fare, please" (though likely less the "please" -- we're in Israel after all). His memory can't possibly this bad, or else he'd certainly not know the way to my stop in Herzliya each morning. But I'm only all to happy to oblige the man. I love proving my credentials, demonstrating openly my right to ride for free and then proudly strutting on board with out the exchange of so much as an agora. I can't help but wonder whether he derives a reciprocal pleasure, thinking to himself every morning before he comes to work, "What great fortune in passenger fares awaits me today?" and then experiencing a small elation as each traveler presents their offering.

Mozy on over for a perfect backup solution

I was devastated last May when my computer hard drive completely bit the dust without any warning whatsoever in the middle of my Negotiation final exam. I was no less distraught upon realizing that my last backup had been around nine months earlier, leaving me with no records of any of my coursework other than the online transcript HBS offers.

I've done my research, and the best-of-breed backup solution I've been seeking for many years is now available. It's called "Mozy," it's free for up to 2GB of data, and you can click this link to get an extra 250 MB of space. (I pay the extremely reasonable $55/year to back up an unlimited amount of data, so I do not directly benefit from your clickage.)

Why I'm so ebullient and effusive with praise: Mozy is cross-platform (well, Windows and Mac -- still waiting for Linux) and automatically backs up files incrementally, over the Internet, securely, in the background, without competing with you for bandwidth or CPU. It's a long-standing dream come true (yes, I dream about perfect backups), and as long as Mozy continues to exist (and I believe it will thrive), I will never again in my life be without a backup.

Click this link and you'll get an extra 256MB on top of the

There's no place like homepage

It used to be the case when a person wanted to sell their house that they would buy a classified ad in the newspaper. Maybe there would be some fliers outside of the house, or distributed via real estate agents, that contained a couple black-and-white photos. Eventually the photos became color, and people started listing their homes online.

But technology is in a continual state of advancement, perpetually offering new opportunities to open-minded thinkers. In the latest iteration, real estate has been given the YouTube treatment, and doesn't it make all the sense in the world?

From Wired:
Craigslist and YouTube Make Great Roommates

I wonder whether my parents, who want to sell their beautiful New Orleans home -- untouched by floodwaters -- will consider this approach, or whether Dad's A/V equipment is reserved strictly for videos of family members voluntarily humiliating themselves on camera.