Ships are commonly referred to as females, but what about computers? To answer that question, a study was set up with two groups of computer experts. The first was comprised of women, and the second of men. Each group was asked to recommend whether computers should be referred to in the feminine gender or the [...]
8. August 2009
Debugging MySQL Issues in PHP
Possibly the most common issue users have with PHP is working with MySQL. Executing a query requires a three step process: Connecting to your database server. Selecting a database. Executing the query. When a query fails, many users don’t know where to begin debugging. This guide outlines my debugging procedure. Verifying Database Connectivity 1. A [...]
2. August 2009
The IT Project Life
This wouldn’t be nearly as funny if it wasn’t true.
25. July 2009
Microsoft Public License
There is an ongoing battle in the software industry. It exists between those who believe in the open source paradigm and those who believe in closed source (and usually proprietary) paradigm. Throughout the nineties and much of 2000, Microsoft has dominated the software industry. However, in recent years Microsoft has seen competition from open source [...]
17. July 2009
Illogical PHP Logic
In algebra, after we learn the basic distributive, commutative, and associative properties, the transitive property of equality is usually next in the curriculum. For those of you who do not recall the terminology, the transitive property of equality says if $a == $b and $b == $n then $a == $n. Using this age old [...]
9. July 2009
Authenticate to Active Directory with Ubuntu
While Linux is a fantastic operating system, when it comes to user rights management, Active Directory is far superior than anything Linux currently implements. As a result many businesses and organizations implement the technology. For a longtime it was extremely difficult to get a Linux operating system to authenticate with active directory – configuring multiple [...]
9. July 2009
Error 1327. Invalid Drive
There are several causes for this error. The one in particular that I encountered was caused by an incorrect data value in the registry. Check the following locations in your registry and make sure there are no keys referencing an invalid drive location. If there is an invalid location – you may either fix it [...]
5. July 2009
Setting up a LAMP server with Ubuntu
Ubuntu, known for its ease of use, makes no exception for setting up an apache, mysql, and php stack. Since the release of Feisty Fawn, Ubuntu has come packed with tasksel – a user interface for installing tasks. 1. At your command prompt, run tasksel as root. john@earth:~$ sudo tasksel 2. Select LAMP server 3. [...]
4. July 2009
What does this process do?
I am often given computers, that according to clients, are “running slow.” Despite my recommendation to reinstall Windows, many clients are uncompromising. So I spend several hours douching out the malware, invalid registry keys, and useless applications. One of the many tools that often helps me identify malware (when the computer is too infested to [...]
4. July 2009
Dell Inspiron 1525 CD/DVD Issue
I was recently given a Dell Inspiron 1525 to fix. The CD drive was not working. I am not going to discuss the multitude of causes or methods to troubleshoot this issue. I am simply going to provide the solution that worked for me. 1. Temporarily remove any CD burning software. 2. Edit your registry. [...]
10. August 2009
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