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Saturday, June 29, 2002
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In other news, here's a tip for those running dual operating systems: Don't format your other OS until your MBR (Master Boot Record) is cleaned and/or modified. Let's just say that after I finally rebooted from WinXP after formatting the Linux partitions, all I got was this:
0101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101 (etc) over and over and over. No stopping it, just a reinstall it looks like. I'm going to try and boot up a bootdisk and run fdisk /mbr but I'm not sure its going to do anything, but we'll see. Anyway, just lettin you know :)
Evan Erwin from URL @ 1:00 PM
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Sweetness! I'm now officially on modwest servers, and as you might've noticed, my neat little redirect (that I found here) provided you with the new address for my blog, blog.misterorange.com. Pretty neat stuff, eh?
Now comes the fun stuff. Soon I'll begin combing the web for code and ideas (take your pick) and then figure out what I'm going to do with them.
At work, the code is going great. I can read, write, and delete records. Hell, before Friday was up I got file uploading to function. So now it's just formatting and styles and in-page updating. There is still more grunt work ahead, and it took a few hours for each function (read/writer/delete) to work, but I'm very happy that everything is coming along to schedule.
The worst part? My boss could not possibly care less. I spring the idea on him, tell him about the floorplan, the instant access to all that information, the file depository so upper management, should they want everyone to have a certain spreadsheet file for example (this happened recently) won't have to send out a dozen 3.5" disks to everyone, just tell them to check the website and download it from there, will have an easier time doing mass-file replacements and updates...Nope, all he cares about is making himself look good. This, combined with what he was telling Travis the other day, has made me decide that I've been here long enough. I won't say anymore, I'm not quitting tomorrow or anything, but I've got a really fantastic prospect and we'll see what comes of it.
Anyway, I'm just very, very happy that the transition was smooth and everything is lovely again. Consider I'll be home most of today (and tonight), I should have time to begin implementing some stuff. You'll see it when I do it.
Evan Erwin from URL @ 12:28 PM
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Friday, June 28, 2002
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Well, I'm getting everything together for the big move. I've already transfered all the necessary files (misterorange.com consists of only 20MB of data) and have went through the wonderful task of changing my DNS servers via Network Solutions. Now I'm just waiting for everything to Stop Working. Once it does, and I'm officially on modwest servers, I can begin implementing my new PHP/MySQL website. You better believe I'll have users and comments and a neat interface. I'm knee-deep in coding our Inventory database here at work, I've successfully retrieved and formatted data via PHP and am beginning work on INSERTing data into MySQL, with DELETE-ing coming sometime later. Then I'll have to make everything pretty with tables and same-page updating, etc, but that all comes later. Nuts and bolts come first, and the gloss is added last.
That's all.
Evan Erwin from URL @ 4:08 PM
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Sweet! I've found a new web hosting service. I'll be switching servers today and probably through tomorrow until everyone's DNS Servers are updated. Until then I'll be reached at http://temp.modwest.com/misterorange.com/.
Basically it comes down to this:
1) The changing of the web interface to manage my account. There were two problems with this: one they only emailed me about the ftp login change. Two the difference between the new and old interfaces is the CAPITALIZATION OF YOUR USERNAME. What The Fuck. Even worse? What I really couldn't believe? The old interface STILL WORKED. No "Hey, your web interface and login has changed. Please click here to go login" etc etc. Ugh. So you thought you were modifying your account when actually you weren't. $#Q%$#@#!$
2) No MySQL database. With this new hosting service, I get PHP4 (which admittedly was available from my old web hoster) AND MySQL (which was not). Now I can work on bank related database and PHP stuff, then come home and do it as well The more I use it the better I get at it, plain and simple.
And last but certainly not least...
3) It's only $11.95 a month compared to $14.95 a month. More features, a great hosting service (I've heard good things), and MySQL and PHP. Hell yeah.
So, that's the news. Until Next Time.
Evan Erwin from URL @ 2:02 AM
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Thursday, June 27, 2002
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Hey Jeremy, I'd be plenty interested in the sessions stuff. Send it on, post it on your site (this is recommended in case I'm at home or whereever and don't have access to email, yadda yadda...this would probably never happen, but I'm not sure exactly what you're offering, instructions, code, or what, so...), etc.
So, how is Warcraft 3? Believe it or not I have yet to play the game. I get home, fix supper, clean, watch a little TV, play a little PS2, go to bed. Getting on the puter is tough because my family is upstairs and the puter is downstairs. But I will try my damndest this evening. I've also should have Neverwinter Nights this evening. I'm downloading the last few files I need thanks to our phat DSL line here at work, so that should be installed as well.
Hmm...thinking of buy a nice big hard drive. But how big? How much to spend? I have, like, no money. Jeez. You'd think there was a Poor Geeks Foundation out there (hey, there's an idea...) to help Geeks In Need (there's a better title for it...).
Tony, no update? Don't you realize the highlight of my day is checking my bud's blogs? (hint, hint Jimmy ;)
Just kiddin, the highlight would have to be Time Spent With Bootiful Little Girl N' Wife. But, you know, otherwise.
Been working at PHP. It gets complicated. Not so much as how things work, because there is a shitload of free sample code to look at around the web, just simply implementing and formatting everything correctly. It's work, but I'm making progress. I have my database setup and the tables in place. I've built the form (this is the easy, easy shit right here), and now I'll start on the actual code to accept and update the database tables accordingly. Wish me luck, eh?
Evan Erwin from URL @ 4:07 PM
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Yes! Today I got the chance to scan a bunch of pics of my gorgeous little girl. Check em out :) (click on an image for a larger version)
Here's a few all by herself:
Here's the one taken on Father's Day with my dad:
And lastly here's her with her father :)
Isn't she beautiful? :) I love her with every fabric of my being. She's daddy's girl all right =) I'm fighting the urge to add "cute" comments to each ;)
That is all for now.
Evan Erwin from URL @ 3:38 PM
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Wednesday, June 26, 2002
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May I recommend This great tutorial here in dealing with both learning PHP and how to interact with MySQL. Thanks to this great tutorial (and it took awhile to find) I'm on a fast track to getting my database stuff working. Everything PHP that works is a triumph, that intangible "good" feeling that can't be described :)
Evan Erwin from URL @ 4:28 PM
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Holy shit. Slashcode actually posted my story about my Installing Slash for Dummies Guide. How fucking sweet is that?
Hmm...PHP. I've given up trying to run a local webserver on this win98 machine. I was testing by writing code and then going to http://localhost and trying out whatever I just did. But then I kept getting errors that wouldn't make sense and then I read that PHP 4.x won't work correctly with Apache 2.x, which is what I was using. To uninstall Apache 2.x, and install 1.3.x, would require a reboot, and I'm just too busy doing other shit (ie, downloading newsgroup shit, like finishing Neverwinter Nights downloading and Tropico (a neat game) using the bank's sweet ass 1.4Mbps DSL connection) to bother with it. So instead I'm reinstalling Mandrake 8.2 on our old mainframe with apache 1.3.x installed along with mod_php version 4.1.2. That should provide a sufficient training ground for whatever I might want to mess with. And if it acts like I hope it will (ie, without the problems I've been encountering in win98), I think this project won't be as daunting as it once seems. Using tutorials and documentation, I could have something functional before August. That seems like a nice goal to me.
I've also wondered if I can run PHP on my web hosting service. If its as easy as its looking (and boy it looks great compared to perl or XML), PHP should be really easy to implement, plus I'd have all kinds of great stuff to mess around with on my own site. If my web hosting doesn't, and me and PHP (there's a rhyme) get along fabulously, I might just have to change web hosting services. Hell, everything is basically $14.95 a month, that's what I'm paying now for those interested, and if one service (that I've read up on) offers CGI, PHP, and unlimited email accts etc, I'd happily transfer. We'll see.
Adios.
Evan Erwin from URL @ 11:11 AM
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Tuesday, June 25, 2002
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Learned some interesting PHP stuff today. Nothing groundbreaking, just mainly how it accepts and deals with variables, transferring form data (probably my most perplexed look came when the tutorials weren't working...and still don't...hmm...if I can't figure it out by tomorrow, I'll seek help elsewhere), and HTML and PHP and how they live together. Anyway, I'm very impressed with PHP. Powerful, easy to use, and anyone with barely any coding experience (such as my limited capacity) can quickly catch on as to how things are done.
One thing about Mozilla that I adore: TABS. Oh yes ladies and gents, the ability to look at different web pages in the same window. This wonderful little feature I fell in love with when I was using Linux, specifically Gnome's web browser, and its great to have it back. Of course some web pages still appear funky (Blogger's web interface for one), but other than that, it's a superior browser that I'm most pleased with.
Two Towers trailer is out (also check out the tips for viewing comment at slashdot). However, I'm a bit hesitant to download it. Yes, yes, I know, what kind of geek am I, but it's like that thing I was thinking about Episode III: I'd love not to know ANYTHING about it. No stills, no plot recaps, no casting choices, no trailers, nothing except that visceral feeling of watching something naked to any and all exposure to the film itself (except perhaps the poster, but damn, I can at least look at the poster...can't I?).
Read that Panic Room will be a Superbit title. Probably the "Superbit Deluxe" where only the film is on one disc and extras on the other (much like they've done with the recent Patriot release). Unfortunately this means no commentaries! Sheesh, and David Fincher is so great at commentaries. Check out Se7en's awesome commentary, specifically on Criterion laserdisc if you can find it. While the DVD's commentary is great, that laserdisc commentary has all of the fantastic se7en DVD commentary material on ONE TRACK. God Bless Criterion and their commentary track editors. And hell, it'll save you three extra viewings :)
Okay, time to spend time with the fam. Adios.
Evan Erwin from URL @ 10:19 PM
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Monday, June 24, 2002
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To Windows98, or not Windows98. Since I have a few minutes to pontificate, I'm curious about whether I should even bother format/reinstalling of win98 on my machine.
Firstly, I've already bitten the bullet and formatted my Linux partitions. I wasn't using them, and hell, I needed the space for newsgroup downloads :) Now, having said that, winXP runs like ass on my machine. It's not terrible, but damn, it certainly isn't that good. Think of a PII-300 running WinXP. Stop laughing. Anyway, it's that bad. So I run it simply because its:
a) The newest version of windows, and the graphics are neat
b) The graphics are neat and its the newest...eh, you get it.
Anyway, the Win98 thing kinda sucks becuase Win98, being Win98, will slowly bog down into utter shitdom because that's what Win98 does. And what's worse, is that I regularly go though this XP-Linux-98 cycle every so often and 10/10 times 98 gets me. Damn, I wish I could find a better operating system, but can Linux run Warcraft 3 yet? Nope. And don't start about Wine or WineX or whatever. We all know what Linux is good at and what it is not. XP has the stability I enjoy. Win2k is a bloated piece of shit, and XP is Win2k minus some bloat and the shit. Sigh.
I'm just not sure. I mean, all the programs I have now, I could burn and reinstall Win98 before the night is out. Sure it would take a few minutes, but I wouldn't be daunted by the fact that everything takes so long to load and practically no games run. Well, games I wanna play anywho. We're talking little shit like SimTower and Roller Coaster Tycoon. Have you ever played Roller Coaster Tycoon? Yes, I was an addict and I miss it terribly now that I have it in my grubby little hands and it looks like that XP, even if it does have that win98 "Compatibility Mode" still isn't going to work. Of course it could just be my warez rip and how its configured (hell, I'm almost sure of it, and besides, I have the RCT ISO, I just don't want to bother with the original if the warez has loopy landscapes and corkscrew follies. Is a 98 reinstall worth that? Some signs point to yes.).
Hrmm...Anyway, I think most signs are pointing to Your System Is Too Fucking Old For This Shit. Man, I tell ya, my little Celeron would be a wonderful bitch box. A 10GB hard drive, 128MB Ram, couple of ethernet cards, you know, just run shit for me and be a firewall. It'd be a really wonderful setup. The problem is that I would be left with a few issues. Basically, this includes the following. I would have to buy:
A processor
A motherboard
A Hard drive
A DVD Drive (you knew it was coming)
A GeForce X (not sure which one yet)
Memory for the new MoBo.
And a floppy. Yeah, a floppy. $10, get off it.
Anyway, so that's the stuff that needs to be purchased. I might even buy a little case to house my old stuff for the Bitch Box. I know one thing, I paid something like $300 for my case (stop giggling, I see ya back there) back in the day (okay, so I was smoking a WHOLE LOT back then) and wanted the best. So the case is staying. However, I would like to get an old legacy CD-Rom for the bitch box and keep my existing CD-R, though the thought of a new CD-R, with 12X + burn speeds...mmm....sounds delicious. We'll see, won't we?
Sigh. New box. I want it. Dell will give me credit for one, but shit, I don't want to be stuck paying $50 for the rest of my life for a machine that will make my purchase seem silly in 6mo or so. Buying things piece by piece sucks as well, because once you have one piece, you want the other, Super Sweet Pieces (SSP y'all) to complete the package. Eh, I don't know. We'll just chock this one up to more of the Poor Guy Wants Rich Guy Stuff.
Finished the Bad Company review for DVDAngle. It needs a little rewrite, but otherwise we're on track. I'll probably upload that one tonight or tomorrow. Probably tomorrow.
I'm now using Mozilla as my main browser at work. IE kept having this weird ass problem where it wouldn't display pop up windows. Not just ads mind you (I mean, seriously, would I be complaining about that?), but any window that is launched inside IE. If I right clicked on a link and said "Open link in a new window", it would open a blank, white IE window that I'd have to click the Stop button to get anything in the display area. Other windows, who don't supply stop/back/etc buttons (such as Tony's comments links, ultimately the straw that broke the IE6 camel's back), I'm just shit outta luck. I read some MS Support documents (from groups.google.com) that SUPPOSED to work, but unfortunately they did not.
Hmm...while I've got time, more thoughts...
Blogging. Strange stuff I tell ya. I've been thinking about using a different service than blogger for awhile now. Unfortunately Radio Userland (look it up; Mozilla doesn't provide the neat buttons that blogger lets IE users utilize to add links to their blog entries) wants you to setup yourself as a web server for that to work. I don't want it to be my webserver, I just want the damn thing to post to the correct URL. Hell, I was even thinking about moving the whole site to the template I'm using now. There wouldn't be that much work involved, a few links here and there, but think about it: Would I have to have a blog setup on blogger for each page I might update at some point? Such as the Writings page or the Finished/Acoustic Music pages? Not sure, don't know, can't say. I don't know if they would be worth all that trouble, but anyone anywhere who has setup a web site can tell you that Web Site Maintenence Sucks. There is nothing more mundane than site-wide content format changes, template additions/deletions/modifications, and graphic layout design implementations. Blah blah blah. But I'm sure Jimmy can tell you all about it.
Speaking of web page designs and implementations, I think I'm going to go with PHP for the bank's database and website stuff. Sure slash is a great system, I mean, hell, look at the dot for evidence, but I don't think it meets my needs like PHP can. I know that perl can do the things I want, but PHP seems a bit friendlier. It's all code in the end, and I expect to learn a lot.
In the meantime, I have a document written up that discusses the phases I would like to take this project I've deemed for myself. The project is simply putting all of the hardware and software information about each user online in a password-protected database. Imagine a floor layout, complete with desks and whatnot, and when you click on a desk, you see all of the information relating to that person's machine. The employee name, serial numbers, IP, hardware info, etc etc.
The first phase would be to simply keep all the information in static pages. If something in regards to this information changes, you'll have to use your favorite html editor to fix it. The second would be to use static information, but to pull it from a MySQL database. This is the tricky part, and probably the biggest leap in terms of what needs to be done. Once I can successfully pull and format data from MySQL (not enter it...yet) into an HTML document that looks halfway decent, then the fun begins. I then hope to design a system that allows dynamic changes, mass changes (such as a user moves to a different desk), etc. Password protection would rely on Apache first, then utilize MySQL second (start easy, I say). Then, after I get MySQL database interaction, you have the possibility of doing a File Repositorium (is that even a word?), where we could have bank-wide documents ready for download. Looking further, you could have bank-wide documents ready for download Based On User Authentication. Such as certain users can see all of the documents, but a teller could only see Troubleshooting ones, for instance. Anyway, thats WAY in the future in regards to what I'm working on. Basically, I'm at square 1, with a board of about, oh, 567,890 squares. But anyway, I digress.
Hmm...waiting for the ATM file to arrive so I can go back and see my wife and child. I miss them terribly! :( Since I've been off from work ever since Ericka went into labor, I've gotten used to (ie, spoiled with) their presence on a constant basis. Just talking to Ericka and hearing Annie cry in the background is enough to make my heart ache. Sigh...I'll be with em soon enough :)
All right all right, I'll shut up now. Adios
Evan Erwin from URL @ 5:32 PM
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Oh mah god: Natalie Portman may possibly be a lesbian. That's all I'm gonna say about that.
Evan Erwin from URL @ 4:27 PM
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Well, my Guide for install slashcode is now up and fully functional. I've made a story submission at slashcode and hope that it is accepted.
Okay, that's all :)
Evan Erwin from URL @ 12:10 PM
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Hmm.. have you check out moby.com lately? Wowza, look at the blogs on that baby! Sweetness. It makes him just seem so much more down to earth, ya know?
Evan Erwin from URL @ 6:59 AM
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Sunday, June 23, 2002
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Well, I officially have Warcraft 3. I don't know if I can run it, but as soon as I grab the serial via the NFO file I deleted (and must re-download) via the newsgroups, I'll see what it looks like.
Almost finished with Neverwinter Nights, though I probably won't have all three CDs until...oh, Tuesday I'm guessing. Now that I have to go back to work it'll be a pick 'n choose type thing until all files are retrieved. The postings are so old that I have to bounce around different usenet servers (I just figured out that my 500mb download limit is for EACH SERVER. So I have a 500MB limit on news.usenet.com, but I have 250MB on news2.usenet.com as well as binaries.usenet.com, etc) to get them. Either way I now have Roller Coaster Tycoon, and I'll be installing that in a while. What a great game, I still have fond memories from my Greeneville days. Living with my sister (who stayed away 85% of the time), it was a wild ride that I can look back on lovingly. Remember those days Jimmy, Jeremy? :)
Anyway, time for other stuff. Been playing the hell out of Crash Bandicoot for the PS2. What an awesome game! :) I've been trying to get Metal of Honor Frontline and Test Drive from Blockbuster, I have those passes for a free rental, but they're always out. Anyway, I got a boxing game this time (Rumble 2 Rumble), and we'll see how fun that is.
Hmm...work Monday. Wow, has it been two weeks? Am I really a father? Is this really happening? Wow, sometimes you just look back and can't believe how events changed your life and the place you are now is but another stepping stone to where you will End Up. ie, The Great Unknown. OOooh. Scary, ain't it. Anyway, I'll take work slow and see if I can wade through office politics (they're getting hairy) and make it through unscathed.
Oh well, Until next time, here's an interesting blog. Peace.
Evan Erwin from URL @ 12:58 AM
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