improveyourweb.com

This page analyzes the challenges face by Web Application Security Scanners when they try check modern web applications. Some of them are Session State Management, Logical Flow and Script Parsing.

// [ Challenges faced by automated web application security assessment tools ]

When you design a new website, it is really useful try it in different browsers. In browsershots.org, you submit your url and a number of distributed computers will automatically open your website in their browser. Then they will make screenshots and upload them to the central server. It is not an immediate process, and perhaps you must be patient, but it is a really useful tool.

// [browsershots.org]

Firebug is an excellent extension for Firefox that allows you inspect and debug your html, css and javascript code (including AJAX).

One of its multiple features is the ability of log all XMLHttpRequest() calls. Nice, isn't it?

// Firebug

Tutorial for tuning PostgreSQL settings for performance. It explains the main parameters of the postgresql.conf files, and gives some good tips for tuning PostgreSQL.

// Tuning PostgreSQL for Performance

IP Blocking Monitor is a security tool that analyses log files in order to configure iptables to reject connections from dangerous IPs.

It is able to synchronize multiple servers with the same configuration. It can detects force brute attacks in ssh and apache logs.

// IP Blocking Monitor

If you need to know what character set is using your MySQL server, you can use the next command:

mysql> show variables like 'character_set_server' ;
+----------------------+-------+
| Variable_name        | Value |
+----------------------+-------+
| character_set_server | utf8  |
+----------------------+-------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

You can change the character set putting the next line in the my.cnf configuration file:

character-set-server = utf8

Good article by Loren Mc Donald with 20 interesting tips about html email, classified in three areas: format, functionality and usability.

[ http://emaillabs.com/articles/email_articles/html_email_design_tips.html ]

Can you navigate a page without clicks...? dontclick.it explores a clickfree environment. It wants to explore how and what changes for the user and the interface once you can't rely on the habit of clicking.

[ dontclick.it ]

Wolfgang Bartelme, a user interface designer, has written an interesting article about improving the navigation of a site (mainly for pdas and screen readers, but for visual browsers, too). A good approach to the accesskey attribute.

[ Semantic Headers ]

Jakob Nielsen has published the list of web design mistakes of this year. Take a look to them and improve your web!. The first one is... legibility. Simple, isn't it?. And easy to solve.

[ Top Ten Web Design Mistakes of 2005 ]