Revisiting development environment

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So running Aptana through a JRE via USB which also hosts the SVN and apache/mysql/ftp servers turned out not so great.

I’ve removed Aptana and the JRE from the flash drive.
Aptana now needs to be installed and configured (just once) on whichever machine I’m using to develop on (usually my desktop and laptop).

It will now only host the XAMPP setup and Aptana workspace files.

XAMPP’s servers aren’t really affected by the “slow” USB flash drive, and once Aptana loads its workspace files they stay in RAM from what I can tell.

Random thought: Growing up a gamer today

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So while I was playing Minecraft yesterday, a player on the server and I were talking.
He asked me my age (30), and I asked his (14).
Without thinking I typed the following:
”Ah, you’re growing up in an interesting time in gaming!”.

At the time I don’t know exactly why I said it or what it meant.
After giving it some time today, I think I’ve got it. Read More

Very interesting

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Just attached Windows Live Domain to my .com here.

So far pretty interesting in that now with the help of the Outlook.com app on my Android phone I’ve regained the ability to sync between my phone and desktop.

I honestly looked into this after Google and MS had a spat apparently and now they barely talk to each other (lost my calendar sync!).

Now not only do I have my calendar again, but now I get all sorts of cool sub domains to attach Live services to my main domain!

It also kicks Google Apps in the shins since it’s still free, supports more users, and apparently provides the same services.

And to top it off, my webmail interface kicks directly to Outlook.com, very nice.

I think I finally got it!

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Thanks to the power of Google (and a very patient wife!) I’ve managed to set up a portable development and learning environment on a flash drive.

It contains:

  • XAMPP (Apache, MySQL, FileZilla)
  • SVN via Apache
  • Eclipse (Aptana Studio)
  • Java runtime for Ecplise

So far I’ve only tested on 2 systems but it appears to work just fine!
Should make this a lot easier than relying on 1 PC to host everything, so long as I sync the drive for backup.

Office 365

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Just got my complementary copy of Office 365 (working in retail has its perks).

Going to see what the new features can do for the average person.

I’ll be learning the new stuff that Office can do, which will be interesting because I barely use it at all.
Granted I WANT to use it more often.
I’m sure I’m missing out on something!

A New Year!

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A happy new year to everyone!

It’s also around this time I’ll actually be planning database layouts and getting into some actual code (holy crap!).

Stay tuned.

“I’m always careful, I’ll never get infected”

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I hear that all the time from my customers who refuse to get good antivirus or run without any at all.

Well, no matter how careful you are, servers DO get hacked.

A post from ESET shows that yet again you cannot say you’ll never get a virus.

Testing Windows 8

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So I’ve now had Windows 8 installed on my desktop for a few weeks.

I have to say the changes are significant, but I’ve quickly grown accustomed to it, so I don’t feel a loss of functionality.

I know a lot of people will hate it just because it’s different. But they also said that about GUI’s, mice, and the Start Menu in Windows NT/95; yet here we are!

*Cough*

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Whoah, getting dusty again.

Well, more like Sandy…

Cleaning up your toys

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A common issue seen in the wild is removable clutter on PCs.

I’m not talking about temp files, browser cache, etc.

I’m talking about something that requires us, the users, to directly maintain, and it requires no additional software tools.
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