A lot of Mac users choose to install Snow Leopard from scratch; this is very good if you are thinking about starting fresh, because you will surely notice the performance difference of a clean install. However, upgrading from the previous OS X version is not bad at all. You can save a lot of time installing Snow Leopard, and you will still be able to enjoy new features and improved performance.

Upgrading to Snow Leopard is actually pretty easy. All you have to do is insert the upgrade disc and hit install. Snow Leopard will select your primary drive, and all you have to do next is to wait for about 45-90 minutes for the upgrade process to be completed. What you need to do before upgrading is what’s important. Why, because there are apps that work fine with Leopard but won’t with Snow Leopard. A crucial step is to make sure you delete iStat Menu and system preferences related applications before installing Snow Leopard; if you skip this step, you will see that Snow Leopard takes forever to boot up and System Preferences will cause errors.

It will also be best to check other installed applications for compatibility issues. The best way to do this is to use SnowChecker to help you. You will be able to spot incompatible applications instantly and check if updates are available; you don’t have to remove them before upgrading to Snow Leopard, but if you see too many incompatible applications then it would be best to wait for updates for the applications before upgrading to Snow Leopard.

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Releasing the Recent Comments widget for blogspot/blogger users.

How is it different from the other Recent Comments widget?

The problem with other widgets is that the source code for them lies with the widget author and the authors often integrate it in within their own site. If because of some problem their site is down, the recent comments widget will not work.

Here, I am releasing the source code so that the logic would reside within your blog itself and hence you can do away with dependency on 3rd party site not under your control.

How to install Recent Comments widget for blogger?

1. Login to the blogger dashboard.
2. Go to ‘Page Elements’ tab
3. Click on Add a Gadget. Select HTML/Javascript widget type.
4. Now this is the most important step. Select the whole code given below and paste it in the widget box you have just opened above.

   <script style="text/javascript">
   function showrecentcomments(json) {
     var numcomments = 5;
     var showcommentdate = true;
     var showposttitle = true;
     var numchars = 100;
   for (var i = 0; i < numcomments; i++) {
       var entry = json.feed.entry[i];
       var alturl;
       if (i == json.feed.entry.length) break;
   for (var k = 0; k < entry.link.length; k++) {
         if (entry.link[k].rel == 'alternate') {
           alturl = entry.link[k].href;
           break;
         }
       }
      alturl = alturl.replace("#", "#comment-");
      var postlink = alturl.split("#");
      postlink = postlink[0];
      var linktext = postlink.split("/");
      linktext = linktext[5];
      linktext = linktext.split(".html");
      linktext = linktext[0];
      var posttitle = linktext.replace(/-/g," ");
      posttitle = posttitle.link(postlink);
      var commentdate = entry.published.$t;
      var cdyear = commentdate.substring(0,4);
      var cdmonth = commentdate.substring(5,7);
      var cdday = commentdate.substring(8,10);
      var monthnames = new Array();
      monthnames[1] = "Jan";
      monthnames[2] = "Feb";
      monthnames[3] = "Mar";
      monthnames[4] = "Apr";
      monthnames[5] = "May";
      monthnames[6] = "Jun";
      monthnames[7] = "Jul";
      monthnames[8] = "Aug";
      monthnames[9] = "Sep";
      monthnames[10] = "Oct";
      monthnames[11] = "Nov";
      monthnames[12] = "Dec";
      if ("content" in entry) {
        var comment = entry.content.$t;}
      else
      if ("summary" in entry) {
        var comment = entry.summary.$t;}
      else var comment = "";
   var re = /<\S[^>]*>/g;
      comment = comment.replace(re, "");
   document.write('<br/>');
      if (showcommentdate == true) document.write('On ' + monthnames[parseInt(cdmonth,10)] + ' ' + cdday + ' ');
   document.write('<a href="' + alturl + '">' + entry.author[0].name.$t + '</a> commented');
      if (showposttitle == true) document.write(' on ' + posttitle);
   document.write('<br/>');
   if (comment.length < numchars) {
   document.write('<i>');
            document.write(comment);
   document.write('</i>');}
      else
           {
   document.write('<i>');
            comment = comment.substring(0, numchars);
            var quoteEnd = comment.lastIndexOf(" ");
            comment = comment.substring(0, quoteEnd);
   document.write(comment + '...<a href="' + alturl + '">(more)</a>');
   document.write('</i>');}
   document.write('<br/>');
     }
   document.write('<br/>');
   }
   </script>
   <script src="http://xyz.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/default?alt=json-in-script&callback=showrecentcomments">
   </script><a href="http://reviewofweb.com/blogging/recent-comments-blogspot-widget/">Widget </a>by <a href="http://reviewofweb.com/">ReviewOfWeb</a>
   

5. Scroll down to src=http://xyz.blogspot.com and replace xyz with your blog’s name. For example if your blog’s URL is http://abc.blogspot.com then the code should become src=http://abc.blogspot.com DO NOT TOUCH any other part of the code or else it might create problems.
6. You are done! Lastly please do not remove the footer credits*.

Please let me know if you face any problem implementing the code above.

If you like the above widget. Consider donating and encourage us to come up with more such widgets.

*The code is released under the condition that footer credits should remain intact.

If you have had any encounter with a WordPress theme, WordPress plugins etc the first thing you would require is, knowledge of PHP. I think PHP is one of those languages that everyone aspiring to have (or already having) a web presence should learn.  Here is how you can install(its a bit tricky) and start learning PHP.

Installation:

All steps given below are for Windows XP SP2

1. PHP is a server side scripting language. To work on this language, you need to have a web server running successfully on your local machine. Though PHP goes well with many web servers, for our learning sake we will install Apache on Windows XP.
2. Go To http://httpd.apache.org/download.cgi
3. Download the latest version of Win32 Binary without crypto (no mod_ssl) (MSI Installer) [As of writing this post Apache HTTP Server 2.2.9 is the best available version]
4. Now follow each and every instruction carefully at this link http://www.buzzle.com/articles/109196.html
5. By now, Apache must be up and running successfully.
6. Now we will install PHP. Go To http://www.php.net/downloads.php
7. Under Windows Binaries, download the PHP 5.2.6 zip package[Current as of writing this post]
8. Again, follow the instructions religiously given at this link http://www.buzzle.com/articles/109200.html
9. Now, if after following all the steps given at link of pt 8 above, you encounter an error such as "httpd: Syntax error on line 486 of C:/server/Apache2.2/conf/httpd.conf: Cannot load C:/server/PHP/php5apache2.dll into server: The specified module could not be found", go to pt 10 in that file change the first line from c:/server/PHP/php5apache2.dll" to c:/server/PHP/php5apache2_2.dll" Hopefully that should solve the problem.
10. Test if PHP is working as given in pt 16 of link above.   

Learning PHP

Now that’s simple. Go through this link. It is a very easy step by step guide for anyone wanting to learn PHP. Though the articles on this link were written way back in 2004, I find that nothing has changed till now.

Do comment about your experience of learning PHP.