Kill Fee

A kill fee is simply a cancellation fee. This is particularly important for designers and developers because it specifies that you will still get paid for all work completed to-date, even if a client cancels the agreement. Most kill fee clauses are worded to protect the contractor and ensure they get paid, regardless of the reason the client cancels.

Independent Contractor

This clause should clearly state that you are an independent contractor and not an employee of your client’s organization. It’s an important clause because it ensures that you are not entering into a non-exclusive arrangement, gives you control over how and when you work, and states that you will not receive benefits from the client. Basically, this clause protects you and your independent status.

Non-Exclusivity

Many times this clause is worked into the Independent Contractor clause, but it’s so important that there is some value in giving it its own paragraph. It should reiterate that you are not providing services exclusively to the client and that you have the right to perform services for other clients during the term of the contract.

Indemnification

The Indemnity clause is considered a “hold harmless” clause because it states that you are not an agent of the company. Essentially, it protects you as the contractor from future losses or damages experienced by the client.

Confidentiality

This clause is one that is meant to afford protection to the client and their knowledge capital. It states that as an independent contractor, you will not divulge confidential or proprietary information that you encounter as part of your working relationship.

Warranty

A warranty states that you will do certain things in a certain way and that the client can have certain expectations about the result of your working relationship. This can apply to stating that you will provide services that are consistent with high-quality standards in the industry. It can also specify any support services, troubleshooting and bug fixes you will provide as part of your agreement. If you do include a warranty, it’s important to limit the term and be very specific about what is included.

Ownership

The ownership clause is an especially important one for those in the creative and technical fields because it specifies who owns the final product as well as the working files that were used during the course of the work. This clause can also outline what rights you have as the contractor to use the work and related images in your portfolio. It can also provide permission to include a credit line, stating who did the work, on the final product.

There are other important clauses that should be in your agreement, but these are among the most important ones. Please note that this shouldn’t be considered legal advice and it’s always best to consult with an attorney in order to make sure your contract is bulletproof.

Sebastian Bergmann's presentation on "The State of QA Tools for PHP" at the FrOSCon 2009 conference raised demand for an overview page of .

This page is a first attempt of creating such an overview.
The State of QA Tools for PHP
View more documents from Sebastian Bergmann.
PHPUnit

PHPUnit is the de-facto standard for unit testing in PHP projects. It provides both a framework that makes the writing of tests easy as well as the functionality to easily run the tests and analyse their results.
phploc

phploc is a tool for quickly measuring the size of a PHP project. Its goal is not not to replace more sophisticated tools such as phpcs, pdepend, or phpmd, but rather to provide an alternative to them when you just need to get a quick understanding of a project's size.
phpcpd

phpcpd is a Copy/Paste Detector (CPD) for PHP code. Its goal is not not to replace more sophisticated tools such as phpcs, pdepend, or phpmd, but rather to provide an alternative to them when you just need to get a quick overview of duplicated code in a project.
pdepend

pdepend can generate a large set of software metrics from a given code base. These values can be used to measure the quality of a software project and they help to identify the parts of an application where a code refactoring should be applied.
phpmd

phpmd scans PHP source code and looks for potential problems such as possible bugs, dead code, suboptimal code, and overcomplicated expressions
phpcs

phpcs tokenises PHP, JavaScript and CSS files and detects violations of a defined set of coding standards. It is an essential development tool that ensures your code remains clean and consistent. It can also help prevent some common semantic errors made by developers.
bytekit-cli

bytekit-cli provides a command-line tool that leverages the Bytekit extension to perform common code analysis tasks on the PHP bytecode level.
phpUnderControl

phpUnderControl is a continuous integration solution built on top of CruiseControl. It aims to make your first steps with CruiseControl and PHP as easy as possible.

Gitso is to support others.

Gitso is a frontend to reverse VNC connections. It is meant to be a simple two-step process that connects one person to another's screen. First, the support person offers to give support. Second, the person who needs help connects and has their screen remotely visible. Because Gitso is cross-platform (Ubuntu, OS X and Windows) and uses a reverse VNC connection, it greatly simplifies the process of getting support.

Let's make the web faster

Tools and downloads

There are many variables that affect a site's performance. The tools listed below can help you discover those variables and improve your site. We recommend that you experiment with these tools. Multiple simple changes can improve the experience for your users around the world by several seconds.
From Google:
Page Speed

Open source Firefox/Firebug Add-on that evaluates the performance of web pages and gives suggestions for improvement.
From other developers:
AOL Page Test

Open source tool for measuring and analyzing web page performance using Internet Explorer.
Cuzillion

Tool for quickly constructing web pages to see how components interact and how behavior differs across browsers, sometimes in unexpected ways. Also lets you share sample pages with others.
Fiddler 2

Web debugging proxy which logs all HTTP/S traffic between your computer and the Internet. Inspect HTTP/S traffic, set breakpoints, and "fiddle" with incoming or outgoing data.
Firebug

Firefox Add-on that lets you edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page.
Hammerhead

Firebug Add-on for measuring the load time of web pages.
httperf

Tool for generating HTTP workloads and measuring web server performance, and constructing micro- and macro-level benchmarks.
HttpWatch

HTTP viewer and debugger integrated with IE and Firefox to provide HTTP/S monitoring without leaving the browser window.
IBM Page Detailer

Graphical tool that assesses web page performance and provides details include the timing, size, and identity of each item in a page.
JSLint

Tool that looks for code quality problems in JavaScript programs.
JSMin

Filter which removes comments and unnecessary whitespace from JavaScript files.
Microsoft VRTA

Tool that visualizes web page download, identifies areas for performance improvements, and recommends solutions.
mon.itor.us

Provides a personalized Ajax dashboard interface, checks server performance and availability, generates uptime reports, tracks visitors, checks CPU, memory and other systems resources, and alerts when it detects abnormalities.
OOCSS

Development environment and framework for creating fast, reusable CSS objects and modules.
Pylot

Open source tool for testing the performance and scalability of web services. It runs HTTP load tests, verifies server responses, and produces reports with metrics.
Smush It

Online tool that allows you to upload images for lossless compression and optimization. Provides a report of bytes saved and downloads a zip file containing the optimized versions of the files.
Wbox

Performs various tests, including page load benchmarking, web server and web application stress testing, and verifies correct configuration of virtual domains configuration, redirects, and HTTP compression.
Yahoo! YSlow

Firefox/Firebug Add-on that analyzes web pages and suggests ways to improve their performance, based on a set of rules for high performance web pages.
YUI Compressor

JavaScript minifier designed to yield a higher compression ratio than other tools.

Today more or less everyone can put a simple web page together but implementation of professional Web based Application Front Ends is not as simple as some people may think. It is a complex task requiring deep knowledge of several technologies like html, css, javascript, php, etc. In this article you will find essential cheat sheets for the most commen web based technologies that you are likely to use if you’re a Front End Web Developer. First you will find resources covering client side markup and development (html, xhtml, css, javascript, jQuery etc.) and then you will find resoures covering server side development that are to some extent required for Front End Development (php, asp.net, …). Please make sure that you post a comment if you know an important resource that have not been included in the article. I hope you will find this article useful, lets get started!

Design patterns were first described in the 1960s by Christopher Alexander, an architect who noticed that many things in our lives happen according to patterns. He adapted his observations to his work and published many findings on the topic. Since then, design patterns have found their place in many areas of our lives, and can be found in the design and development of user interfaces as well.

In short, design patterns are solutions to recurring problems. By extension, UI design patterns are solutions to common user interface problems. This article goes over 10 interesting UI design patterns that you can use in your own projects. In fact, you may already be using them now without knowing it.

The beauty of code snippets is their ability to save you time when developing a site. Whether you keep a file with your own often-reused snippets or turn to one of the many online repositories, snippets can really speed up your site development.

There are plenty of places online to find code snippets and get answers to your coding questions. And many of these places let you upload your own snippets, either for personal use or to share with the community. They can also be a great place to find inspiration if you’re trying to figure out the best approach for any aspect of your site’s development.