The Mersenne Twister is a new random number generator, invented/discovered in 1996 by Matsumora and Nishimura.

MT is a twisted GFSR(624,397), similar in spirit to R250 and in my tests it's comparable in speed to R250 (slightly slower than R250 alone, but faster than R250/521 combined). It takes up more space than R250 or R521, but less than the two combined. MT has an amazing period of 2^19937-1.

source

public sealed class MT {
    private int mt_index;
    private int mt_buffer[624];
 
    public MT() {
        Random r = new Random();
        for (int i = 0; i < 624; i++)
            mt_buffer[i] = r.Next();
        mt_index = 0;
    }
 
    public int Random() {
        if (mt_index == 624)
        {
            mt_index = 0;
            int i = 0;
            int s;
            for (; i < 624 - 397; i++) {
                s = (mt_buffer[i] & 0x80000000) | (mt_buffer[i+1] & 0x7FFFFFFF);
                mt_buffer[i] = mt_buffer[i + 397] ^ (s >> 1) ^ ((s & 1) * 0x9908B0DF);
            }
            for (; i < 623; i++) {
                s = (mt_buffer[i] & 0x80000000) | (mt_buffer[i+1] & 0x7FFFFFFF);
                mt_buffer[i] = mt_buffer[i - (624 - 397)] ^ (s >> 1) ^ ((s & 1) * 0x9908B0DF);
            }
 
            s = (mt_buffer[623] & 0x80000000) | (mt_buffer[0] & 0x7FFFFFFF);
            mt_buffer[623] = mt_buffer[396] ^ (s >> 1) ^ ((s & 1) * 0x9908B0DF);
        }
        return mt_buffer[mt_index++];
    }
}

R250 is what's known as a generalized feedback shift register, or GFSR. GFSRs are determined by two parameters, a length and an offset. R250 is actually GFSR(250,103), indicating a length of 250 and an offset of 103. R250 has a period of almost 2^250

source

public sealed class R250_521 {
    private int r250_index;
    private int r521_index;
    private int r250_buffer[250];
    private int r521_buffer[521];
 
    public R250_521() {
        Random r = new Random();
        int i = 521;
        int mask1 = 1;
        int mask2 = 0xFFFFFFFF;
 
        while (i-- > 250) {
            r521_buffer[i] = r.Next();
        }
        while (i-- > 31) {
            r250_buffer[i] = r.Next();
            r521_buffer[i] = r.Next();
        }
 
        /*
        Establish linear independence of the bit columns
        by setting the diagonal bits and clearing all bits above
        */
        while (i-- > 0) {
            r250_buffer[i] = (r.Next() | mask1) & mask2;
            r521_buffer[i] = (r.Next() | mask1) & mask2;
            mask2 ^= mask1;
            mask1 >>= 1;
        }
        r250_buffer[0] = mask1;
        r521_buffer[0] = mask2;
        r250_index = 0;
        r521_index = 0;
    }
 
    public int random() {
        int i1 = r250_index;
        int i2 = r521_index;
 
        int j1 = i1 - (250-103);
        if (j1 < 0)
            j1 = i1 + 103;
        int j2 = i2 - (521-168);
        if (j2 < 0)
            j2 = i2 + 168;
 
        int r = r250_buffer[j1] ^ r250_buffer[i1];
        r250_buffer[i1] = r;
        int s = r521_buffer[j2] ^ r521_buffer[i2];
        r521_buffer[i2] = s;
 
        i1 = (i1 != 249) ? (i1 + 1) : 0;
        r250_index = i1;
        i2 = (i2 != 521) ? (i2 + 1) : 0;
        r521_index = i2;
 
        return r ^ s;
    }
}

use a .ini file to store your config data, for example the following file could be saved as config.ini:

;my configuration file
[general]
    site_name = "example site"
[database]
    host =  "my_db_host"
    db = "my_db"
    user = "my_db_user" 
    pass = "mypassword"

Then load the config with the following code:

$config = parse_ini_file('config.ini',true);

You can access the values with:

echo $config['database']['host'];

Does what it says on the tin

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="VBScript">
<!--
 
Set oWMP = CreateObject("WMPlayer.OCX.7" )
Set colCDROMs = oWMP.cdromCollection
 
if colCDROMs.Count >= 1 then
        For i = 0 to colCDROMs.Count - 1
                colCDROMs.Item(i).Eject
        Next ' cdrom
End If
 
-->
</SCRIPT>

Prepared statements provide the ability to create queries that are more secure, have better performance, and are more convenient to write.

The bound parameters do not need to be escaped.

<?php
$mysqli = new mysqli("localhost", "user", "password", "world");
 
if (mysqli_connect_errno()) {
    printf("Connect failed: %s\n", mysqli_connect_error());
    exit();
}
 
/* prepare statement */
if ($stmt = $mysqli->prepare("SELECT Code, Name FROM Country WHERE Code LIKE ? LIMIT 5")) {
 
    $stmt->bind_param("s", $code);
    $code = "C%";
 
    $stmt->execute();
 
    /* bind variables to prepared statement */
    $stmt->bind_result($col1, $col2);
 
    /* fetch values */
    while ($stmt->fetch()) {
        printf("%s %s\n", $col1, $col2);
    }
 
    /* close statement */
    $stmt->close();
}
/* close connection */
$mysqli->close();
 
?>

Converts human years to dog years.

### get the original age
age = input("Enter your age (in human years): ")
print		# print a blank line
 
### do some range checking, then print result
if age < 0:
	print "Negative age?!?  I don't think so."
elif age < 3 or age > 110:
	print "Frankly, I don't believe you."
else:
	print "That's", age*7, "in dog years."
 
### pause for Return key (so window doesn't disappear)
raw_input('press Return>')

Searches for any occurence of bob

SELECT `death` FROM `bats` WHERE `name` LIKE '%bob%';

Short if syntax:
condition ? true : false

<?php
 
$num = 1;
 
$ans = ($num == 1) ? "num is 1" : "num isn't 1";
 
echo $ans;
 
?>

To get a form to return a value

call:

passwordDlg passForm = new passwordDlg();
if( passForm.ShowDialog(this) == DialogResult.OK )
{
	// OK, do something with the password.
	MessageBox.Show( this, "The password entered was: " + passForm.getPass());
}
 
passForm.Dispose();

Dialog:

DialogResult = DialogResult.OK;
Close();
 
public System.String getPass()
{
	return textbox1.Text;
}