Blog Archive for 04/2007

Add a new host record on OS X is not quote a straight forward as it is on Windows and Linux (though it is still very easy). You need to do this:

• Open up Finder
• Click on Applications
• Go to Utilities
• Open the Netinfo Manager application
• Choose Machines
• Click localhost (or any other host record)
• Click the padlock and enter your admin password
• Click duplicate and click the Duplicate button
• Double click the IP address in the right column and enter your new host IP
• Double click the name in the right column and enter your new host name
• If there is a serves row there make both columns blank
• Click the lock to save the changes and close the application down
• If you are prompted to save any changes do so

Have you ever used the Save for Web option in Photoshop and found your image looks much lighter on the export than on the canvas? It happened to me when I switched from CS on XP to CS 2 on OS X.

The problem is that your canvas is using one colour profile (sRGB is best for web by the way) and exporting using another. If you're working on web here's how you fix it:

Choose File > Save for Web and then click the arrow located to the top right of the canvas. Choose Use Document Color Profile - this will ensure the canvas and the exported image match.

I recently launched a site that had a crazy amount of URL rewriting. It involved a huge database and a huge amount of filter options. I was in my hoster's control panel (which hosts around ten sites) and I noticed by bandwidth had gone through the roof! So much so that at its current rate I was due to run out very soon. I checked my Analytics stats and there was nothing untoward. I then checked Webalizer and the in question was using gig upon gig a day (Since Analytics requires JavaScript it would suggest the bandwidth hogger was a bot or a user with JS disabled)! I did a site: query in Google and found my problem - Google was indexing over 150,000 pages a day!

I've since used robots.txt to control Google's thirst for information but let it be a lesson to you if you try to get clever with ModRewrite.

This is all not to mention the duplicate content penalty Google may be putting on the site!

It's a funny little irony that I used URL rewrites in the first places to help my SERPs.