One of the tools in my tool box is xampp, which seems to work better than trying to install everything bit by bit (at least it did at work). One thing I never considered was setting up virtual hosts for each project, I always worked from a folder so that to access the site I went to:

    http://localhost/sitename

That is fine, but what happens when you are working with a site that needs to be the root site (ie: it has links like /page_name.php which bounce you out to the root)? In that case you need to set up a virtual server. In xampp they have separated the files out to ‘make it easier’ on a user to find what they want. Sometimes this is not the case… so here is how to setup a virtual server (at least it worked for me) on Windows Vista (and XP, and with some small modifications Linux and Mac as well).

Find the httpd-vhosts.conf file, it should be:

    C:\xampp\apache\conf\extra\http-vhosts.conf

if you installed it in the default location.

Then go to the bottom of that file and add:

<VirtualHost *:80>
  ServerName http://sitename.127.ca
  DocumentRoot C:\xampp\htdocs\sitename
</VirtualHost>

if that doesnt work, then there might be something in the http.conf files that is stopping access to that folder, in that case, add

 <Directory C:\xampp\htdocs\sitename>
    IndexOptions +FancyIndexing NameWidth=*
    Options Includes FollowSymLinks Indexes
    AllowOverride All
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
 </Directory>

So, you have:

<VirtualHost *:80>
  ServerName http://sitename.127.ca
  DocumentRoot C:\xampp\htdocs\sitename
  <Directory C:\xampp\htdocs\sitename>
    IndexOptions +FancyIndexing NameWidth=*
    Options Includes FollowSymLinks Indexes
    AllowOverride All
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
  </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

While you can probably put the site in any folder on your computer, it makes sense organizationally to keep them all in the htdocs folder (at least it does to me…), so that is why the example uses the path

    c:\xampp\htdocs

You should now be able to access your site by going to:

    http://sitename.127.ca

For why 127.ca see this site.

One feature that everyone was always pushing us for in Jobba the Site (other than the ability to save your resume) was something simmilar to Monster’s Job Search Agent, where you could save certain job searches as your favourites and then it would notify you when there were new posts under that search.

Now, in theory this is a good idea, you don’t have to come to the site periodically to find out if there is anything good for you, but in practice it is not really that good. I had one set up for Junior Developer on Monster so that I could find out when there were jobs that matched that search. Good idea right? Not really…

Some of the more interesting results:

Tax - Manager - US Corporate Tax Services
Program Manager - Ice Rink
Mechanical Engineer
General Accounting Specialist

Hmm, not really what I was looking for. Originally I had tried to do this with Entry Level Web development, which as it turns out was even worse with it sending me results like:

Coordonnateur courrier / Courrier coordinator
Spécialiste de la paie / Payroll Specialist
Entry Level Marketing and Sales ***** APPLY TODAY, START TOMORROW!
Entry Level Print Based Advertising - Start Immediately
CONFUSED ABOUT WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR DEGREE
Seeking Top Performers to Fill Openings as an Account Manager! Start Now

Wow, all those opportunities! I especially liked the ones that were all in caps! Like they were yelling at me to get a job, theirs! In the end, I found my new job with a simple Google search. Google: 1, Job Sites: 0. I hope we can change this with Jobba the Site, but that feature will be one that is added later, if at all since it seems to be so hit and miss. To be fair, it did actually give me results that were good, but those seemed to be outweighed by the ones that were random and had nothing to do with what I was looking for.

Why has windows taken my drive hostage (sorry… my so called ‘Generic Volume’)? Who knows, all I know is that I had problems getting it to recognize the drive (my guess is that the usb port is bunged up… Now about 6 hours after I finally managed to get it plugged in and recognized by Windows (or Ubuntu for that matter…) it will not release its hostage. Very annoying. (On a side note, why hasn’t wordpress hijacked the ctrl+s command yet for posts… I am so used to it in google docs that it has become natural for me to hit it… then firefox tries to save the page). Hopefully the hostage situation can resolve itself peacefully with out me resorting to

format c:

Another strange thing is that I have been recieving emails from Rogers. Ya… Rogers… whoopee, 1 Mb/s connection for 35 bucks (where you rarely get above 100 kb/s)! They say that my online bill is ready for viewing… so I go there, I can’t remember my password, fortunately they do not encrypt their passwords, so they can send it to me (ok, yes they encrypt them, but its one of those two way ones where if someone got the key they could get everyone’s passwords… hash with a salt people!). Good, so I sign in and I see that… no… my bill is not available for viewing. I am apparently not even signed up for the Internet…? Or something? Maybe?

Oh, and if you are looking to get a huge spike in your blog traffic, post something on giveawayoftheday.com that says that you have an equivalent thing but its free all the time instead of just that day. Bingo 1000+ viewers.

I should put up ads..

Alternatively you could post that you hate KDE4… I might do that a bit later…

Don’t you just love the web 2.0? I don’t even need to touch MS Office anymore, not that I have used it for a long long time (I use Portable Open Office). There are software suites out there now that are all web based. Granted it doesn’t have everything that one needs in an office suite (equation editing being an important thing) but that can be mimicked using pictures. I really recommend using Zoho Virtual Office as an alternative to other office programs. It will become even more useful as Vista looms just on the horizon making all your stuff soon to be obsolete (so run off and download linux!)