Dennis Barison Blog

The seeds of my gun

I have promised you in my previous blog to teach you on how to install PHP. Unfortunately, not in this post by the way, maybe in the next coming days.

There’s a lot going on with me, these days; a combination of excitement, running for deadline and annoyance at some times like I want to kill someone, lol.

The only motivation I’m getting so far is the thought that I am a superhero (lol) and hero needs to be composed at all times so I am trying - as in trying so hard not to turn green and smash everything I see within 5-meter radius.

I was pissed with my neighbors who make it a daily habit to be in front of their karaoke machine singing at the top of their lungs, like hello, you got neighbors for crissake. I am waiting for the song “My Way” to be played, so they can sing along with it before I’ll pull my gun.

I have this pellet gun in my closet, purchased at a Christmas Tiangge when I was strolling Marikina Riverbank last year with my friends. And I have installed a Styrofoam on my wall, so when a time that I am alone and super bored in my room, I would prick it, er I mean pick it and shooting non-stop while playing my gun (I mean, my pellet gun, lol).

My gun is also my weapon to drive some unwanted visitor like the shrieking cats. I would always welcome them with a flying pellet seed that would left them stunned and with a horror in the face as if thinking not to return in my place ever again.

See, my temper these days is at its peak, so it is unwise to pick on me at this moment in time because I tell you Jihad will be the next big thing, lol.

Now, why I am excited? Well, my sister promised me she will be sending me a box of Cadbury Flakes by next week and I am very excited about it. Yehey! I’ll be back to childhood next week. Cadbury Flakes is my favorite, chocolate candy by the way. And I heard, she’ll be giving me a new lappy. Whoah! What is that? An early birthday gift?

Uh by the way, my birthday is coming and by that I am officially accepting gifts. Avoid the rush, as early as now send in your birthday greetings but I prefer gifts, may it be in kind or better yet in cash, bwawahaha. Lakas tama ba ito, lol!

Yun lang, may ma-i-blog lang talaga ahaha!

Why use Apache?

OPEN-SOURCE! How about that? Yes, it’s an open-source project so it’s absolutely free to use. And not just free but take note, it is powerful, efficient, secure, flexible and fully-featured web server available on the net.

And unless you are creating ASP.NET applications on Microsoft IIS, it is likely that your web host uses Apache server as well. Apache is the web server used by most web hosts and the most preferred web server by both developers and users.

Built as part of the Apache Software Foundation, Apache web server was created by a group of volunteers located all across the globe in an effort to create a robust, commercial-grade, featureful, and freely available source code implementation of an HTTP (web) server.

It’s main goal is to provide efficient, secure and extensible server that provides HTTP service that is compliance of the current web standards.

And why from being a superhero I shifted my interest on the triple W? Come on now, just like Oprah, I’m feeling really 21^st century, lol.

Now, in this issue of MKmA, I’ll teach you how to install Apache server on your pc. I have blogged about it in my previous post that ‘farting is my only way of relaxation” for the past few days due to the toxicity of my schedules. That's because I will be involve in the development of a new system that would use Apache, PHP and MySQL in the coming days not to mention all these platforms are all so new to me, ha-ha so goodluck to me, lol. And to get myself familiarized with the new platforms, part of my daily routine now is helping myself with the new programming.

Now, I will share you what I have learned so far… **Drum roll, please**

How to install an Apache server, lol! But take note this version I will be installing for you is the Windows version, since I am using one and since most Linux users will probably have Apache pre-installed or already available in the base repository of their pc. While Mac OSX already comes with Apache and PHP though they need to enable them manually.

So let’s focus on the Windows version. And I’ll be making it as simple and short as possible.

First you have to download the MSI Installer Package of Apache by visiting this link and choose a mirror for your desired location for download. And it’s hard to choose which location to start when you are seeing a lot of them and with a confusing descriptions right, but being my loyal readers provided there's one (lol), I don’t want you to get lost with all those links. So here is the direct link for the download. Come on, try it. The filename should be httpd-2.2.16-win32-x86-no_ssl.msi, this is the current version as of to-date.
After downloading the file, it’s time to install. Take note that as installation process goes some parameters should be supplied. Here are some parameters need to be set while installing Apache server.
- Network Domain : localhost
- Server Name : localhost
- Admin Email: (any email. Real or fake)
- [checked]: for All Users, on Port 80, as a Service
After installing the Apache, the server automatically starts. In the bottom left corner of your icon tray, Apache icon will now displayed and when an icon appears to be like this , it means the server is running but if the icon displayed similar to this one then obviously the server is stop. You can easily start/stop/restart Apache via icon tray, if you get “The requested operation has failed!” error while starting, use the “Test Configuration” shortcut in the Start Menu to find the error (if the text window pops up then closes before you can read it, your config file is fine).
But the ultimate test if your Apache server is working, is this. Open your browser and type http://127.0.0.1/ or http://localhost/. If it shows the page that reads It works! then your server is working and ready to use.
Now, by default, Apache return files found in its htdocs folder as subfolder of the Apache Software Foundation directory. While this is okay but in times that you need to re-install the application, chances are you will be deleting your previously made pages. So it is recommended to create a new folder outside the Apache directory, let see you have created a partition disk and assuming the location is drive D and in order for the Apache to automatically save the file to your partition disk, we have to set it by changing the configuration and how to do this?

Now assuming under your partition disk you have created a folder called myWebPages and you want to save all the pages you created on this folder while working on your Apache server. By going through this path C:/Program Files/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2/conf/httpd.conf will send you to the configuration file. Now open it with your notepad and let's change some of the lines.

Look for the word DocumentRoot by using the Find keys on your Keyboard, we are going to change this line DocumentRoot "C:/Program Files/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2/htdocs" to DocumentRoot "D:/myWebPages".

Now scroll down, we have to change another line just like we have done in the DocumentRoot. This time, this one < Directory "C:/Program Files/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2/htdocs" > and we will be changing it to this < Directory "D:/myWebPages" >. Now save the file and restart your Apache server.
Now, to double check if it's really working. Compose a simple HTML code and name it as index.html, it should be saved at the root directory of your Apache server which is D:/myWebpages.

Open your browser and type http://127.0.0.1/ or http://localhost/. Your browser should return or display a page similar to this.

Uh I hear, easy!

So that's it kid, maybe in my next post I will be helping you installing the PHP. So until then.

Not My Type!

My ONLY (lol) fan is torturing me by demanding to make a post at least one (1) each day. I know, I am a superhero but my powers do not include multiplicity. But then again I don’t want losing my ONLY fan, ha-ha. So here it is.

As I have told you, I am busy. Like farting is my only way of relaxation, lol. And matter-of-factly as of this writing I am reading a downloadable PDF about the Hypertext Preprocessor or popularly known as PHP. See, we are only starting for the acronym but are you lost yet?

I am wondering where’s the first P came from. Unless you rumbled the preprocessor but according to the net it’s a recursive acronym. Oh whatever!

But I suspect the name was another lame attempt of the geekies to humor us. I mean just like how JAVA got its name, it is said that developer James Gosling while sitting in front of his window overlooking the not so distant oak tree one morning while decoding a program and sipping his coffee in between. Then, the next day he called his programming language JAVA, inspired from a coffee but according to the geeks JAVA means, Just Another Vague Acronyms, lol.

Now back to my PHP self-tutorials and while reading and seeing how the syntaxes goes, I think it’s not that hard, I mean aside from the usual programming it’s also a combination of HTML (Hypertext Mark-up Language) and SQL (Structured Query Language), and I happened to be a blogger, I know the basic of HTML and I can even tweak website modules by going through a CSS or javascripts.

And for SQL, well aside from a programmer, I was also the database administrator in my previous work and my hoax of a boss always gave me figures before I can even run the reports.

You see, I can manipulate millions of record by just giving me the figure you want it to appear, hahaha. That’s by using the Microsoft SQL Server, I don't know how would I react on mySQL environment, though.

Back to PHP, I must say this tutorial I have downloaded is best for beginners; I mean the way it presented is really cool in the sense that it won’t bore you while reading. Most programming books are boring and the mood is serious. This one I got is way too funny with catchy titles; example of the title that would explain about the different types of variables (Boolean, Integer, Float or String) is called ‘Not my Type’. That's for variables alone, how about the other subjects. Hmmm, I smell lotsa fun!

Now excuse me, I got deadline to beat so for now blabbing is definitely 'Not My Type. Now back to work, again. LOL!

Hypnosis, PHP and Aragog, Jr.

Rawr! Lol.

Seriously I am very busy as in super. I am working on the documentations of the system that we are to start coding in the coming days or weeks or maybe in a month and this while self-tuturing myself about PHP programming. We need to code the new system using PHP and mySQL as the backend. And I am the traditional type of programmer where VB is my ultimate weapon ha-ha, I know, it’s so yesterday that’s why even it means eating a lot of my time. I really have to spare some times if I want to learn PHP and you know for the fact that reading computer books is the most dreadful thing a person could ever do with all its thickness and trying hard humor if you ask me. Reading all those lines is like attending an hour of detention, waaah!

Then Aragog, Jr. my tarantula whom I am very worried about because the other week he just molted (I blogged about this in my previous post) again and this time he got some hooks on his legs. An evidence that he is now an adult and that his days being alive is getting shorter as days goes by. And it saddened me, he’s very peaceful, lovely and beautiful and losing him is just an agony. Why can’t he become a female so he can stay longer? Now, my friend and I are in search for a female counterpart so they can meet and mate. That’s the only thing we can do, for Aragog, Jr. I think that’s the best gift we can give him before saying goodbye (crying like Hagrid, lol).

So that’s two, now let’s talk about the third. Even before my friend told me that I have possesed a healing factor which ofcourse I love it, lol. I am already into digging literatures/materials about hypnosis. I want to know how hypnotism is. And how it is being performed. And I was told that the first step to hypnotism is persuasion. And I got this downloadable pdf about ‘Persuasion process’, it’s kind of interesting because it promises positive and good results. This method is said to be best perform with your lover to make your relationship even more fun, smooth and exciting.

I’ll blog about it next time so don’t worry. Now back to work, lol!

Christmas is in the air!

Can you feel it? It’s the BER month and most of us (Filipinos) when September’s clock starts ticking and so is our countdown to the Christmas.

Being a predominant Christian nation, we are always looking forward to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. Christmas is the pen-ultimate celebration of the year. It is the mother of all celebration.

We always take timeout from our busy works and commitments just to be with our love ones and share the fun and feastivity as we celebrate Christmas.

Expect that every FM stations in the country would start playing Christmas songs as soon as day one of September takes place.

And by hearing them, it seems a wake-up call for us to start the panic by buying gifts and items as early as possible as not to get caught with season’s high prices.

So how about you? After all the bad news we are hearing about our country? Is there enough reason to look forward for the Christmas?