My current IT projects
We all have a go at various projects, some work and others never quite get there. This an attempt to record what happens, either way, on some of my projects. There are other sites detailing parts or the whole of each of these projects and I will endeavour point to these, where applicable. I also plan to add some comment over their worth in helping you achieve success. I have come across sites that glibly put in an instruction that amounts to a whole project in itself and you have to solve a sub problem before you can return to the main job. I plan to make sure everything is covered here or I point the reader to somewhere that covers the detail better than I can manage. Now, the projects, what are they?
It's Eee PC
I can not resist the charms of the little machine. A mere 200 quid from PixMania via Amazon.co.uk. Got it loaded up with the advanced desktop manager and added a couple of extra repositories to have easy access to some extra software.
I have added the web trio of Apache, PHP and MySQL. The wireless connection is working well though it didn't cope with a space in my password.
The unit does get quite warm but not dangerously. As others have said the keyboard is a little small but for my fingers still very usable. So far I like the little green machine and it is in real danger of becoming my most used home PC!
I have got the LAMP working for php files but not for the usual HTML so a little configuration work to go there but hey its so much quicker to start and can be used anywhere.
USB Key drive Live Linux installation
The result would a small piece of kit that you can easily carry with you, plug in and fire up a PC into Linux from the stick! And I want lots of tools useful for helping fixing computers. This is a work in progress.
Setting up an old PC with Linux
How to make use of that old, in this case one over ten years old, PC for something you need now. I hope to use it to run a webserver with PHP and MySQL database for testing. I have tried out a live CD of Knoppix. Nice, so may use that distribution or Ubuntu which I have read a few reviews. I will most likely start with a small footprint version of Linux, say Damn Small Linux.
February 2008
I have made progress, read the project diary for more details.
March 2008
Got another old Win98 machine and installed DSL onto it and then added the Linux XAMPP to get a great webserver out of an unwanted bit of kit (550MHz processor and a mere 128 MB RAM) - brilliant.
Ajax
Implementing some Ajax around here. I can use XML files instead of dB if need be but hope to link web pages to a database. I am starting off by reading the great book on Ajax from Headrush. I have tried the simple example and put a very simple example I found elsewhere in my test page. Need to read up more before I embark on something of any value.
May 2007
For more details click here of the story.
Application Development
Some real Turbo Delphi programming and getting better acquainted with the Win32 APIs. The standard stuff, that many hobbyists get up to, I am okay with. I want to move onto more advanced programming that makes an application feel complete and professional. Nice looking icons, of various sizes, a proper installation program and personalised option settings saved to an ini file.
July 2007 - INI Files
Using an ini file proved very easy and looks a better option than the damn registry. I would recommend this route for configuration settings. It is also not platform specific and you can change details with a simple text editor rather than delving into the dangerous territory that is the registry.
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