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How to Install PHP Redis on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

Previously, I had shown you how to install PHP Redis from source but things changed with the latest Ubuntu LTS release. Now you can install the phpredis extension from the Ubuntu respositories. First, if you don't have it installed already [...]

Swallow your pride and stop blaming your tools

I was at my favorite neighborhood biergarten last week when I spied a flyer on the bar for the today's Cinco de Mayo event. Upon closer examination, I noticed that the kerning was set very high in between the Ma [...]

How to Install the MongoDB PHP Module on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

Installing the PHP module for MongoDB on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS is just a command away, but first, let's ensure that we have MongoDB itself installed: sudo apt-get install mongodb Once we have MongoDB installed, we can proceed with installing the [...]

Linode SSD vs. DigitalOcean

Time for another installment of my Linode vs. DigitalOcean series. The most notable improvement this go around is on Linode's end by offering SSD Linux servers exclusively. This had been the pain point for many as DigitalOcean has been offering [...]

How to Setup a LEMP Stack on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

Last week I covered setting up a LAMP server on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS but for my money, it's all about LEMP stacks. The "E" actually stands for Nginx (pronouced Engine X) and it's an altnerative to the Apache web server [...]

The pros and cons of being accessible to your users

How accessible I am to my site's users is something that I've went back and forth with over the last few years. When I say "accessible" I don't mean venturing into offline interactions or anything like that, just in regard [...]

How to Setup a LAMP Stack on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

The newest long term support release of Ubuntu (Trusty Tahr) is finally here! I just spun up a droplet over on DigitalOcean to walk through setting up a LAMP stack for this post. I also recommend making sure that your [...]

Reducing Redis used memory by moving back to MySQL

If you know me then you know I fucking adore Redis. Over the last few years it's slowly worked it's way into the majority of the things I have built. Unfortunately, recently I ran into a problem that Redis could [...]

Compressing and uncompressing a string with PHP

Today I went on a mission to find a PHP function that I've never used before and knew nothing about. The mission was such a success that I have two functions to discuss and honestly, I'm pretty sure I'll never [...]

PHP's /e modifier is deprecated, use preg_replace_callback instead

I've discussed the use of preg_replace_callback in the past in regard to passing variables to anonymous functions but never touched on how to use preg_replace_callback or the fact that the /e modifier has been deprecated in PHP 5.5+. Even though [...]