Geshan's Blog

Before you sign up to a web host and get locked in spending your hard earned cash, do consider evaluating all the options available and read what others have to say about the web host you are choosing. In this regard, web hosting review websites help you make your life easier and your decision better.

In search of good web hosting reviews websites I found, www.webhostinggeeks.com. This website has top 10 web hosts listed in its homepage, with summary of the web host's features and bonus features highlighted in the table it makes it easier for a potential customer to know what the site offers.
The homepage has a good information section about web hosting toward the bottom of the page describing simple things as what is web hosting to how to choose a web host. These things are very helpful to people who want to know how to evaluate a web host for their needs and how much they should pay for the services.

The Webhosting awards, section awards hosts for best blog hosting, best PHP hosting, best VPS hosting etc. Here I guess they want to promote the best in the business as per the reviews they have received in the past year.

Hosting review looks very well organized with ratings for major factors we look in a web host like up time & stability, technical support, customer support to name some. I can post a review of the web host without even signing up and can rate the host in 9 factors in a scale of 1 to 5.

All in all, if you want a new web host or want to change your existing web host search for good options at www.webhostinggeeks.com which provides in depth and honest reviews of web hosts.

Some time back, we needed to get a random header image on every page refresh for a client. So I devised a simple way to select a header image from any 5 given images and show it on a page. How did I do it with PHP and CSS is explained below:

Ingredients: Template File, CSS and Images

The Template File

First you need to find out the div where the random header image is going to be displayed, as its the header image then its obivious that we need to add a class to the header div. Problem is how is the single class going to have 5 different images as its background and that also changed in every page refresh.
For this just add a class called header-x, x is replaced with a random number between 1 and 5 by using PHP's rand() function. This will require your template to be a PHP file, if you are using a CMS like Drupal then in Drupal edit the header div's code in page.tpl.php file as below:

The CSS Code

After the template is fixed, now you have to apply a different background image to the classes 1-5. So header-1 will have header1.jpg,.... till header-5 will have header5.jpg as its background image. The code can be seen below and downloaded here.

The Images

Create 5 images of the same size and relevant to the website. You have your random header on page refresh working. Make sure the images are named correctly and placed relative to the CSS file for it to work.

In case of 5 images when page refreshes the same image may appear but in case of 10 images the chances of same image repeating is slim. Back-end Caching can also affect the PHP's random function call.

Live Websites

Live websites to check out similar implementations: www.gurkhaencounters.com and www.nagdaha.org.np.

Hope you liked this small but effective tutorial, have fun with PHP and CSS.

Just searching for some cheap but feature rich and good web hosting I stumbled upon LayerOnline. It is a good host that has a myriad of features to offer. The best thing is they offer cheap web hosting at amazing prices starting at just 0.99/month for 1 GB web space and 1 GB Bandwidth with unlimited domains and 10 databases.

The best plan they have is Platinum Plan with unlimited disk space, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited domain and unlimited database. They boast they provide semi-dedicated structure and have a long list of things they imply for their data center. It surprisingly is available at just $4.99/month with Code: 50OFF while registering. A very good "Gold Plan" is also available for just $2.99/month so go grab it.

They have used many words with layer and suffix like layerspeed, layeredge, layereasy that have been described in the Common Questions page here. They could have added a "features" page that portrayed all their features in a coherent fashion but never the less the site is flashy but still user friendly.

The cart and process are also enticing and the knowledge base seems extensive. They say they provide good support services like search engine submission, first website assistance etc. There are some commercial software free for customers like template expert, Universina. Servers have Apache, PHP 5.2.8, MySQL 5.0.67 Community and Rails 2.2.2 to name some.

If you want cheap and feature rich do have a look at LayerOnline.

Podcast simply seem like a person blabbering about one thing or the other, of just gets some of his friends and tries to make you understand thing you never want to understand. Complementing to it the host again invites one or more experts on the topic and interviews in a funny, lets say annoying manner.

Ok, that's too bad a definition I tried to portray in the above paragraph, Podcast is a series of audio or video digital media files which is distributed over the Internet by syndicated download, through Web feeds, to portable media players and personal computers. Though the same content may also be made available by direct download or streaming, a podcast is distinguished from most other digital media formats by its ability to be syndicated, subscribed to, and downloaded automatically when new content is added. - If you read it at Wikipedia here.

Now getting back to the topic there are some cool podcasts that you should listen to go get the news about Drupal how to user this module or upgrade that theme or even know about up coming Drupal event be it conference or training or other things. Below is the list of 3 podcasts you can enjoy:


1. Lullabot :- Jeff Robins one of the vibrant and jolly podcast hosts I've ever listened to. Lullabot has now reached the 69th Podcast find all of them here. Jeff Robins and the bots at Lullabot really put up a great show(podcast) every time they get their hands to the mic or the Skype phone :-). The interview with who's who of Drupal from Dries to Earl Miles(Man behind views and Panels and other modules too) are great to listen to. So make use of you broadband and download all the healthy Drupal dose from Lullabot.


2.Acquia :- Acquia is a company co-founded by Drupal Project Lead Dries, they provide "Commercially Supported Drupal." Hosted by Robert Douglass, this Drupal Podcast series mainly has interview with all the Drupal Ninjas we hear about. You can get the podcast here. Acquia has othere very good resources including the Acquia Drupal Distro. Now they have reached their 10th Podcast.


3.Volacci :- is a SEO company and they have done a great deal in maiking Drupal more SEO friendly. The SEO Checklisk module is a great tool to know your marks when it comes to know how SEF your Drupal site is, get the module here. It is available for both Drupal 5 and 6 now. About the podcast, it is hosted by Ben Finklea the head of Volacci. He also has a good way of presenting and taken tips from the Podcast Master himsef Jeff Robins of Lullabot. If you want to know more about general SEO and Drupal SEO don't miss this podcast here.

Have a great time listening to the Podcasts, may you know more about Drupal and Drupal SEO. Downoad them and subscribe to them to get the latest. Happy Listening.