With this update I have drastically reduced and simpified the code to produce the same results.  I did some rigorous testing of my own to make sure this script will calculate the correct date, but that doesn’t mean it’s bullet-proof.  If you find a bug, please email me so I can fix it.

first-friday.php

<?php // first-friday.php v0.1.3 by, Chris Kankiewicz <http://www.web-geek.net>
 
  // Calculate next Friday 
  for ($x = date('d'); $x <= (date('d') + 6); $x++) {
    $timeStamp = mktime(0,0,0,date('m'),$x,date('Y'));
    if (date('w',$timeStamp) == 5) {
      $nextFriday = mktime(0,0,0,date('m'),$x,date('Y'));
    }
  }
  // Check if next Friday is the first friday of the month.
  if (date('d', $nextFriday) <= 7) {
    $firstFriday = $nextFriday;
  } else {
  // Calculate first Friday of next month
    for ($x = 1; $x <= 7; $x++) {
      $timeStamp = mktime(0,0,0,date('m')+1,$x,date('Y'));
      if (date('w',$timeStamp) == 5) {
        $firstFriday = mktime(0,0,0,date('m')+1,$x,date('Y'));
      }
    }
  }
 
  // Echo next first Friday
  echo date("F j, Y", $firstFriday);
 
?>

The first is a new software page found at http://code.web-geek.net/ck-gallery.  This page will be the future location of all the CK-Gallery documentation.

Second, I have registered a twitter account that you can follow to get updates to the gallery.  You can follow the updates here: https://twitter.com/ckgallery.

1.1.1 Changelog

  [ Changes to 1.1.1 ]

    - URLs now point to new CK-Gallery page, http://code.web-geek.net/ck-gallery
    - Error messages will no longer be displayed if the update check can't
      connect to the update site
    - Added title text on pagination link
    - Moved functions to bottom of file
    - Minor code changes

1.1.0 Changelog

  [ Changes to 1.1.0 ]

    - Added an option to enable update notification (disabled by default)
    - Moved most in-line CSS into gallery.css reducing generated code
    - Corrections/changes to the Readme for this version
    - Other minor style sheet changes

After my phone finished booting I forgot all about taking pictures.  The following pictures were taken about a week later after I had been using the phone for a while.

I’ve now had my Storm for just over 3 weeks and I love it!  Every aspect of it is great.  Sure there are some problems with the software, but nothing major or inconvinient, and since it’s software, there’s a good chance it will be fixed in the near future.  Bottom line though, I don’t know how I lived without a BlackBerry up until now!

The following items are clean, honest ways to optimize your site.  I do not condone, nor solicit, any form of “black hat” search engine optimization and frown upon it greatly.  If that’s what you’re aiming to implement, I sincerely hope that Google blacklists your site tomorrow.  Please don’t send me any emails asking how to get your sight listed as #1 tomorrow.

Now, onto the list.

Code to Standards

Whether or not you’re aiming for SEO, keeping your code standards compliant will make your site better all around and help make post-development changes much simpler.  While the effectiveness of coding to standards is still debated in the SEO community, it’s generally believed that a standards compliant page will rank slightly higher than a non-compliant page with the same content.

Also, by adhering to standards, you’ll have a much easier time implementing the rest of the processes on this list.

Content is King

The first and foremost rule you’ll hear from many SEO “experts” mouth will most likely be “content is king.”  Of all the processes detailed on this page, if your site doesn’t contain valuable content to the end user, your page rank will likely not be very high.

To take this concept one step further, I’m going to add to that saying to create my own spin off.  As opposed to just “content”, my saying specifies that “dynamic content is king.”  While a site with any content at all is far superior to one without, I believe that adding something as simple as a twitter feed to your home page will help convince the search engines that your site is more important.  After all, users (and therefore, probably search engines) love new content.  To expand upon this idea, if it would fit your site, try adding a blog or a forum to keep that content fresh.

Separate Content and Style

When a search engine crawls your site, it doesn’t see the same thing your end use sees.  The search engine sees the underlying code that is output by your site.  For an example of what the search engine sees, right click your web page and choose “View Source.”  This is a much more accurate (though not exact) representation of what the search engine sees.

If you clutter your code with multitudes of nested tables and lots of in-line styling properties the search engine may have a hard time finding your content to index.  Instead of nesting table after table, consider using divs.  If you don’t know how to use divs, I strongly suggest you learn.  Also, instead of adding the “style” property in line with your (X)HTML, create a separate file named style.css and add the following code between your pages head tags to call this file upon page load:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css" type="text/css" />

All you have to do now is add your CSS elements to this style.css file, and give your (X)HTML element either a class or id.  For more on classes and ids, see http://www.w3schools.com/Css/css_syntax.asp.

Use Human Readable URL’s

The ability for a user to accurately guess what a page will contain by looking at a link will not only help your users find what they’re looking for, but is also a good SEO technique.  See below for an example of human readable URL’s.

Good Examples:

• www.domain.com/dog-food
• www.domain.com/dog/food

Poor Examples:

• www.domain.com/1337
• www.domain.com/index.php?page=1337

Page Title Format

While it may not seem too important, the title of your page can make a difference to your page ranking.  While a title in the format of “Site Name | Page Title” is in no way bad, it’s generally believed that the best format for a tile is “Page Title | Site Name.”  Also, there are many pages out there that list every directory in their title, this is not necessary and clutters the title so readers have a tougher time identifying the page.

Good examples:

• SEO Guide | Web Geek
• CK-Gallery • Web Geek
• Menu – Taco Bell

Poor examples:

• Web Geek | SEO Guide
• Web Geek > Web Development > SEO Guide
• www.web-geek.net | projects | php | ck-gallery

Header Tag Prioritization

The importance of a title should directly affect which header tag that title gets (ie <h1>. <h2>, <h3>, etc…).  The more important a title is, the closer to <h1> the title should be with <h1> being the page title and something like a paragraph heading being an <h2> or <h3> depending on it’s importance.  If one topic is just as important as another, they should have the same title tag.

Create a Sitemap

Every website with more than a single page should have a sitemap.  You can make a sitemap in many ways and in many formats, though the most widely accepted by most search engines is an XML sitemap.

My favorite site for sitemap generation is http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/.  This site will automatically crawl up to 500 pages and generate XML, GZipped, and HTML sitemaps that you can then upload to your own site.  Once you have uploaded your sitemap, head on over to https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools and add your sitemap for Google to index.

Note: Even though you can put a sitemap anywhere, the most common location for a sitemap is in your sites root directory (http://www.web-geek.net/sitemap.xml)

Use Relevant Keywords

Keywords are a difficult area in SEO.  You need to specify keywords relevant to your site but you don’t want to have too many keywords or you’ll be hurting your site more than helping.  The generally accepted maximum number of keywords to include on your page is usually 10, for most sites, and definitely no more than 20 for larger sites.  Though major search engines don’t take the number of keywords on your page into consideration when assigning you a page rank, by having to many keywords, it’s harder for a search engine to identify which ones are more relevant than others.

To include keywords on your page, place the following code between your head tags.

<meta name="keywords" content="keyword 1, keyword 2, keyword 3" />

Also, you generally don’t want the exact same keywords on any pages unless they’re content matches.  Give each page keywords that are relevant to the content on that page.  You also may wish to consider generating your keywords dynamically.

Use the “title” Attribute for Links

When creating a link, be sure to include a relevant description of the link using the title attribute.  This adds content for a search engine to pick up and also, when a user hovers over that link, they will get a popup showing your description.

Example:

<a href="http://www.web-geek.net/ck-gallery" title="Dynamic PHP Photo Gallery">CK-Gallery</a>

The above code will create the following link (hover over it to see the title): CK-Gallery

Submit your site for indexing

One of the best ways to get your site noticed by a search engine is to manually submit it for indexing to major search engines.  This is especially useful when your site isn’t yet listed in a search engine.

Google: http://www.google.com/addurl/

Yahoo: http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit

Create a robots.txt file

A robots.txt file can be used to limit what directories/files a web robot can access.  This helps prevent a robot from accessing data you do not wish to be cached by search engines and instead cache only the pages you want to appear.  A good resource on creating and using a robots.txt file can be found at http://www.robotstxt.org/robotstxt.html.

1.0.1 Changelog

  [ Changes to 1.0.1 ]

    - Style changes to fix a display bug with the pagination navigation when the
      script is installed to a pre-existing web page
    - Changed PHP compression code
    - Updated Readme to reflect these changes
    - Miscellaneous index.php changes

Skills marked in Bold are skill I have and have used, or have all the essential knowledge to perform without reference.  My notes are [encased in square brackets].

View the original article @ http://gizmodo.com/5078829/the-50-skills-every-geek-should-have

Check out the list after the break.

The List

1. Install a hard drive in a laptop
   
2. Perform a clean OS install on a machine with two OSes
   
3. Swap out the battery on your iPod/iPhone
4. Jailbreak an iPhone
5. Wire your house for Ethernet and Coax cable
   
6. Use BitTorrent and RSS to automatically download new shows from trackers
   
7. Use an A/V receiver to its fullest capability (every port is taken) [with the right equipment]
8. Calibrate an HDTV without the manual
9. Use a DSLR in full manual mode
10. Hack the encryption and mooch your neighbor’s Wi-Fi
11. Solder cleanly enough to get around a circuit board
    
12. Use your 3G phone as a Wi-Fi access point
13. Shove the guts of a modern game console into a retro game console
14. Design a webpage in HTML by hand that features a picture of your cat
    
15. Use Photoshop to imperceptibly doctor a photo
16. Abstain from buying extended warranties [a definite must for a geek]
17. Know where to buy cheap cables and accessories [newegg.com is a good start]
18. Fix your parents’ computer over the phone without looking at a computer19. Enter the
    
19. Konami code [Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start]
20. Comment on Gizmodo from your phone
21. Type quickly using T9 texting
22. Program a universal remote
23. Contribute code to the Linux kernel
24. Hide porn from your significant other [though I'd prefer to share it with her ]
25. Avoid DRM on everything
26. Know how to back up your data to networked storage—and actually do it [set this up on a scheduled task]
27. Watch TV shows on the internet for free [hulu.com, BOOM BABY!]
28. Edit together digital video ripped from YouTube
29. Play any SNES game on your computer through an emulator
30. Reset expired trial software by messing with the registry [been a while, but have done this]
31. Hackintosh your PC
32. Download pre-release movies from Usenet
33. Hack the Wii to play homebrew games
34. Get around web content filters on public computers
35. Get into a Windows computer if you forgot your password
36. Securely erase your data so it can’t be recovered
37. Share a printer between a Mac and a PC on a network
38. Build a fighting robot
39. Write your own Firefox plugins
40. Navigate and reorganize the files on your computer in DOS
41. Get something on the front page of Digg
42. Get through to executive customer service
43. Rip a CD to V0 quality MP3s
44. Rip a DVD to DivX
45. Build your own computer from parts [there is no other way]
46. Swap out the hard drive in your DVR for a bigger one
47. Get an NES cartridge working again by blowing in it
48. Calibrate a 7.1 surround-sound system
49. Play downloaded games on a Nintendo DS
50. Talk about things that aren’t tech related [possible, but difficult]

30 out of 50… not too bad I guess, though I’m sure a simple Google search or two and I’d have the knowledge most of these other skills require.

Examples:

http://www.google.com/search?q=Rip+a+CD+to+V0+quality+MP3s

http://www.google.com/search?q=Hack+the+Wii+to+play+homebrew+games

Now that’s where the true test of a Geek lies, in his ability to find solutions where he has none, aka Google-fu.

Behind the scenes much work has also been done.  Not only have I improved the speed and reliability of the gallery, but I’ve also managed to improve compatibility with older versions of PHP as well.  Also, GZip compression was enabled on the default index.php to help reduce load time and bandwidth when possible.  And don’t even get me started on the number of bug fixes I’ve resolved!

This has been a fun month and a half, and I’ve learned more about PHP in that time then I ever thought I could cram into my brain.  Thanks to all the people who helped me along the way, without your help, the CK-Gallery wouldn’t be where it is today.

Lastly, to the end user, if there’s anything you’d like to see added, changed or tweaked, please contact me with your requests, I’d love to hear them.  Comments are welcome, too.

Okay, enough waiting, get CK-GALLERY now!

  [ Changes to 1.0.0 ]

    - HOLY CRAP, PAGINATION!!!
    - Miscellaneous code tweaking/reorganization to get pagination to work
    - isImage() function now checks file type instead of file extension
    - createThumb() function now checks file type instead of file extension
    - File rename algorithm will now rename *.jpeg to *.jpg eliminating an error
      with createtruecolor()
    - File rename algorithm will now replace spaces in file names with
      underscores allowing page to validate
    - Integrated rename algorithm into page array loop so it will only rename
      images that are displayed on the current page
    - Thumbnail cleanup algorithm will now only cleanup image files
    - Added GZip compression to the default index.php
    - Markup output tweaks/changes
    - Default style additions/changes
    - New versioning scheme
    - Readme updated for version 1.0.0 changes
    - Minor fixes to this changelog
    - Miscellaneous bug fixes
    - Oh, and uh... PAGINATION!!!