Caching added on Sellstuff.co.za

I have added code to cache the title's and other potions of ads on www.sellstuff.co.za.

Before I did this though I added a small section at the bottom of the pages on the site to show how long the code ran for and how many queries were executed to generate the page. The difference in the number of queries run has been substantial, the total execution time has also been affected but not quite as drastically.

I work out the time with the following bits of code;

This is added in the file I am calling

PHP:
  1. $mtime = microtime();
  2. $mtime = explode(" ",$mtime);
  3. $mtime = $mtime[1] + $mtime[0];
  4. $starttime = $mtime;

and then in my footer I have the following bit of code

PHP:
  1. global $starttime;
  2. $mtime = microtime();
  3. $mtime = explode(" ",$mtime);
  4. $mtime = $mtime[1] + $mtime[0];
  5. $endtime = $mtime;
  6. $totaltime = ($endtime - $starttime);

I then just disply $totaltime in the footer. Easy hey!

Posted under Classifeds Sites Updates, PHP Web Development

This post was written by Shaun on November 25, 2009

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Sellstuff blocked words

It saddens me that I had to do this, but I have now written in validation to block certain phrases and words in ads on www.sellstuff.co.za.

This was due to the large amount of spam ads that I had to de-activate on a daily basis.

Obviously I will have to keep adding phrases to the list but at least it means that once added I won't have to worry about it again.

I am hoping this makes browsing and advertising on www.sellstuff.co.za a more enjoyable experience for everyone who visits it.

Posted under Classifeds Sites Updates

This post was written by Shaun on November 23, 2009

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SIXTH SENSE to make our lives easier…

We have senses. Born with them. We use each and every one of the in our day to day lives and manages to do basically everything that needs doing. Right? Who needs a SIXTH SENSE when we can already do what needs to be done. Wrong!

Pranav Mistry, an exceptional student from MIT, has invented what he calls our "Sixth Sense" and basically describes it as "a wearable gestural interface that augments the physical world around us with digital information and lets us use natural hand gestures to interact with that information."

Just image when you go shopping. No longer do you have the hassle of comparing prices manually. Just use your "Sixth Sense" to do all of that for you and even include prices from neighboring stores. Want to take pictures when you're on holiday? Hold out your hands in the shape of a photo frame and "Sixth Sense" will take that photo for you. Meeting new people? Let "Sixth Sense" remember them for you so that when you see them again, you already know everything about them. The possibilities are endless!

"The SixthSense prototype is comprised of a pocket projector, a mirror and a camera. The hardware components are coupled in a pendant like mobile wearable device. Both the projector and the camera are connected to the mobile computing device in the user’s pocket. The projector projects visual information enabling surfaces, walls and physical objects around us to be used as interfaces; while the camera recognizes and tracks user's hand gestures and physical objects using computer-vision based techniques. The software program processes the video stream data captured by the camera and tracks the locations of the colored markers (visual tracking fiducials) at the tip of the user’s fingers using simple computer-vision techniques. The movements and arrangements of these fiducials are interpreted into gestures that act as interaction instructions for the projected application interfaces. The maximum number of tracked fingers is only constrained by the number of unique fiducials, thus SixthSense also supports multi-touch and multi-user interaction." - Pranav Mistry, excerpt from http://www.pranavmistry.com/projects/sixthsense/

Posted under Technology

This post was written by Derik Nel on November 17, 2009

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Vuka to buy out Loncin in SA

I wrote about something similar (SAM to purchase Gomoto) a while back.

Now Vuka in SA has signed a buy out deal with Loncin, a chinese manufacturer.

Seems like these partnerships will go some way to ensuring that people warrantees are upheld and that the products they purchased will not lose value.Whenever a manufacturer pulls out of a country, anything attached to their name invariably becomes a whole lot less valuable.

Here's wondering if we will see any more of the same, it's odd to note that there seems to have been none of this in the car world.

Read more info on IOL motoring

Posted under Motorcycle news

This post was written by Shaun on November 13, 2009

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War Eagle Racing Details Updated

War Eagle's details have been updated at their request.

The details updated include their website address, email address and physical address info.

If you are a dealer, or know of one that is not on the site PLEASE let us know!

Posted under SA Dealers Updates

This post was written by Shaun on November 13, 2009

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