Webmasterspot - Website creation and management
Exploring Web development and everything that goes together with trying to run a website!

Monday, February 25, 2008

Excellent service from Valueclick

I just want to take this opportunity to congratulate Valueclick on the excellent service they recently provided after one of my cheques got lost in the mail.

The cheque they issued on 20 November 2007 never reached me. I thought it might just be due to the Christmas season and the general slowness of the international postal service. I waited till the end of January and finally on the 3rd of February I decided to contact Valueclick. On the 4th I got a reply back that stated that they would cancel the lost cheque and issue a new one.

I was very pleasanly suprised today when I found a Valueclick cheque waiting in my post box. At first I thought that it must be the lost cheque, suddenly making it's appearance (of course only after I already cancelled it!).

In actual fact it was the newly issued cheque. The cheque was re-issued on the 11th of February and took just 14 days to reach me over here in South Africa. It arrived on the same day as my Adsense cheque which was issued on the 25th of January.

Now that's what I call service. Keep up the good work Valueclick!

Sunday, February 24, 2008

PHP and XAMPP

Well one of my resolutions or rather goals for 2008 is to get started with PHP programming. For the last couple of years I’ve been meaning to do it, but just never got round to it. As websites need to become more dynamic, PHP is becoming an essential tool for any webmaster to master. Sure you can make use of Open Source content management systems, but you never get something that fits your needs 101%.

So this year I’m setting out on the quest to get to grips with PHP and MySQL. In order to use PHP you obviously need a webserver with PHP and MySQL installed. Not having a 24/7 internet connection I had to find another solution. I’m not inclined to go through the hassle in trying to set up a Linux box and web server so I went searching and found the solution to all my problems - XAMPP for Windows.

XAMPP is the ultimate web development platform. It contains the following:

  • Apache HTTPD 2.2.8 + Openssl 0.9.8g
  • MySQL 5.0.51a
  • PHP 5.2.5
  • PHP 4.4.8
  • phpMyAdmin 2.11.4
  • FileZilla FTP Server 0.9.25
  • Mercury Mail Transport System 4.52
Best of all you are able to load XAMPP onto a flash drive and take it with you wherever you go. The full installation takes around 120MB of space on the drive. You can then start the web server and any other services directly from the flash drive. It works in both Windows XP and Vista.

I'm sure XAMPP will be a lifesaver for me in the coming months. Now I'm just waiting for the PHP book I ordered from Amazon to arrive and I'll get started in the world of PHP. Wish me luck!

Friday, February 08, 2008

A bad case of writers block

It doesn't take a genius to notice that I've more or less ignored this blog for almost 7 months. I must confess that I had a severe case of writers block when it came to find interesting things to write and post about. Couple that with living in a third world country that doesn't offer any 24/7 internet access in my location (yet!) and you've got a surefire recipe for a seriously neglected blog.

Hopefully this situation will change since I've heard rumors that ADSL might... and that's a big MIGHT make it's appearance here this year. Of course that's all in the hands of our local Telecoms monopoly, so I'm definitely not holding my breath.

As for the writers block... well I'm hoping that I've seen the end of it. I'll do my utmost to find at least one thing a week to write about. If I can't do that, then I might just as well give up altogether.

So here's to a post filled blog for 2008 (hopefully)!

If you've got any tips or ideas on subjects you would like me to rant and rave about let me know... I'm wide open to any suggestions.