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PHP code to add st, nd, rd or th to a number

This one's short and sweet: while working on a PHP application I needed to format some numbers as text so that, for example, '1' became '1st', '13' became '13th', '22' became '22nd' and so on. There isn't a built-in PHP function to do this (as far as I know) and none of the code snippets I came across online were very neat, so I ended up writing my own function. Since it's something that I imagine gets used a lot, I thought I'd put it up here.

Review of Trine, a physics-based PC game

As the lack of recent updates might suggest, things have been quite busy work-wise recently! Since I've been working a lot, and since it's Christmas, I thought I'd write something a bit different for this article. While I haven't had much free time lately, I've spent a bit of it playing a game by the name of Trine. It's promoted as a physics based platform/puzzle game, so there is a vague science angle to tie in with the rest of the site!

The Netgear WGR614v9 wireless cable router: replacing Virgin Media firmware with standard Netgear firmware

A friend was having some trouble with the Netgear wireless router he was given by Virgin Media, which I fixed by replacing the Virgin-supplied firmware with the latest Netgear firmware. Doing this required a bit of digging around, so I thought I'd write a quick guide to sum up the information I found online.

Setting up Ajaxterm on Ubuntu and Debian PowerPC

Like many people, I rely heavily on ssh to maintain and configure computers remotely. However, doing so usually requires making an outbound ssh connection from the computer you're working on, which isn't always convenient. For example, if you're using someone else's computer, the chances are they're using Windows and don't have an ssh client program installed.

Writing a thesis using LaTeX

If you're a science postgrad student, the chances are you've heard of LaTeX. It's very commonly used to write scientific papers, largely because it's very good for typesetting equations. A lot of science postgrads also write their theses using LaTeX, but very few of them seem to be given any training in how to use it. I know I didn't get any while writing mine!

Getting PHP and SQLite running on IIS 6

Recently I developed a web application for a client using PHP and SQLite. As you might expect, I did the development on a Linux system, and all seemed well. When the time came to move to the client's production system, which runs IIS 6 on Windows Server 2003, I naïvely assumed that it would be a simple transition - after all, PHP has been supported on Windows for quite some time. Unfortunately, this turned out not to be the case.

Journal Impact Factors - a good free tool

Recently, I've taken on more consulting work outside my own immediate area. http://www.eigenfactor.org, a free impact factor tool, has been incredibly handy. Here's why.

Getting to grips (well on some level, at least) with a new system is a bit exciting and not a little empowering, too - like the first time you really understood crystalization as a kid (remember those copper sulphate crystals in the jar?)

The problem is that journals always fall into four categories in my book;