me talking out loud

Well since I recently lost 2 of my computers to “crashes” I’ve been trying to find an easy way to backup some of the office computers. Well I got a hold of a version of Norton Ghost 9 and wanted to see how it might handle being used as a back up method.

So I set it up on my computer to do scheduled incremental backups with the main backup every Friday. My rational - this will give me at worst a week old full back up . (But then maybe I have no clue what I am doing or why )

Anyway - to make a long story short - these backups have managed to fill my 250Gb hard drive in less then 2 weeks. (I was informed of this when there was only 80Mb left.) So here I sit trying to clean up my hardrive to get back my space. Needless to say - I will not be using Norton Ghost to be doing my backups.

Edit: It took me a while to figure out how to free up my space. I didn’t know that when Windows empties it’s trash bin - it doesn’t really delete the files. Instead they go into a recycler folder. Anyway I eventually found this page (thank goodness for Google(tm)) and with playing with the recyling bin properties (right click) - I got it to actually delete the 212Gb file.

MySQL AB :: MySQL 5.0 Certification

Crap - I don’t have my certification for 4 yet… and 5 is already starting to come out. time to hit the books.

I only recently heard about this and figured I should pass it on. It seems that php|a and Pro-PHP podcasts (run by Marcus Whitney and Chris Cornutt) have hooked up and what they are planning on doing together sounds awesome.

I admit to not hearing all the podcasts - but I do try to listen to all the interviews. Well it seems that with this new partnership that I can do more then just listen to the interviews now - I can participate.

According to the press release they will use the php|a webcast technology and broadcast the interview in real time. A person simply needs to sign up ahead of time to be in the “audiance” where they will be able to “participate in the live interviews, where they will have the opportunity to interact and ask questions in real time.”

How cool is that? And if you miss the real time event - have no fear - it will be recorded and you can download it later.

There next interview will be with Andi Gutmans on Jan 27th. You going to be there?

Chris Shiflett: Technical Vocabulary and Grammar

Ouch - my bad. I have used depreciated instead of deprecated a number of times. Sorry about that.

I admit it - I was stunned this morning coming into work and finding the superbowl this year is going to be Denver vs. Pittsburgh (Broncos vs. Steelers). I was all excited about the superbowl match up of Patton vs. Brady (these champianship games where just a formality - everyone knows Colts and Pats are the teams that are going). This was going to be a great game….

Then what happens - both teams lose! I mean New England was supposed to go for their 3rd title - a record breaker. Indianapolis was supposed to be blocking the road by continuing to play fantastic football. It was supposed to be great! *sigh* The superbowl isn’t even here and I’m already let down.

Edit - OK so it wasn’t who was to play in the Superbowl (Steelers and Seahawks actually) . I have been so out of it this year.

Today I managed to download, configure and install apache2 from the command line on my laptop. It was great! It is the first time I have ever done it on my own. Woohoo.

Had a few problems getting the apache to start though. Kept getting an error on the “apachectl start”. Ended up opening the apachectl file to see what it looked like inside. Noticed it seemed to be issuing a series of commands to the httpd, so I did “sh apachectl start”. That gave me another error - so do the “sudo sh apachectl start”. And what do you know - It works! haha.

Now just need to get mysql and php… and my wireless card working.

I don’t normally work with pecl much but on a forum I use I noticed a thread on pecl and windows. When I went to the pecl site, all I could find was the *nix information and packages - nothing for M$ - and thought that was odd since PHP has such awesome documentation. Do a little investigating and find pecl4win.php.net

Wonder why there isn’t a simple link between the main pecl site and the pecl4win site…

While reading through Perl Monks a while ago I found this thread. It deals with who exactly owns the code your write - on and OFF working hours. Reading it REALLY made me nervous. Granted I haven’t written anything worthwhile - but the idea that my company can own EVERYTHING I have EVER written while employed is just plain old wrong. I think I need to talk to my boss about this and get it straightened out and on paper.

I don’t know how the other feel - but to me PHPCommunity is a success. Sure the site isn’t the greatest, and almost no code has been written.. but that isn’t really what PHPCommunity is about. It’s about the people, and the people are there on the PHPC irc channel on freenode.org. Meeting people, creating friends, asking about families,lives and careers, developing relationships, learning about projects and PHP news, finding mentors - that is what PHPCommunity was about - The people behind the code.

If I have questions about how to code something - I go to the PHP channel on freenode - that is what it is for. But if I want to know if I have a good idea for a script, or discuss something that is on the mailing lists, an article in one of the magazines, the latest conference or if it is worth my time to learn about XYZ - to the PHPC channel go. The people on the channel are always willing to talk these things - or just about anything else

I have found all these things and so much more on the PHPCommunity IRC channel. Community - Oh yeah, it’s there if you want to come and join us.

Had and earthquake last night just after we went to bed. Didn’t last very long or was particularly strong (registered 5.8) - but it was rather startling. Lately we have been having quite a few earthquakes (2 days ago had a 5.7 and on the 26th had a 5.0 - I didn’t feel either though Jason felt the 5.7). Hopefully a series of small quakes means fewer large quakes. The biggest I have ever gone through was an 8.2 - and that was wild.