MattBirmingham.com

7 Easy Steps to Install PHP5 on IIS6 and Windows XP

MattBirmingham — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 09:32:35 GMT

There are various tutorials (including in the PHP distributable) on how to install PHP on Windows XP for development. Few are this straightforward, and none (that I could easily find) use the ZIP file, allowing for you to easily upgrade and/or remove PHP cleanly from your system.

Download PHP from PHP.net. Get PHP in the ZIP distribution.
Create the directory c:\php, and expand the distro in that new directory.
Add the new directory to your PATH variables. PATH variables are found by right-clicking on My Computer -> Properties -> Advanced -> Environment. You'll see many system variables. Select "path" and edit, adding "c:\php" (without the quotes) preceding or following it with a semicolon, depending on where you put it in the string.
Copy and rename php.ini-recommended to c:\windows\php.ini
Edit php.ini setting the following:
1. doc_root = c:\inetpub\wwwroot
2. cgi.force_redirect = 0
3. extension_dir = c:\php\ext
4. (optional) uncomment extension = php_mysql.dll
Add ISAPI to IIS by first opening the IIS MMS. Right-click on Web Server -> Properties -> Home Directory -> Configuration -> Mappings
1. Add c:\php\php5isapi.dll, setting .php as the extension, then click OK twice to Home Directory
2. Add same DLL to the ISAPI modules, naming the module "PHP"
Change to Documents tab, and add index.php (to allow for full PHP sites)

Make sure all of your settings are set by stopping and restarting IIS by running NET STOP iisadmin, then NET START w3svc.

To test, create a new IIS virtual directory and create a file index.php, edit it adding the following code:

<html>
<head></head>
<body>
<?php phpinfo(); ?>
</body>
</html>

Save the file, then open your new IIS app. If all goes well, you'll be looking at a PHP screen enumerating all of your file settings.

If you want to remove PHP, just reverse the steps starting at #7 and go backwards. It's really that easy.

[Update: 10/7/08]

In a new virtual XP Pro install, I have had 401.3 errors on this install. I found this (rather draconian) "fix" to the 401.3 error I was receiving. YMMV, but it did seem that the install was having some strange ACL issues.

Technorati Tags: PHP,IIS6,XP,install

Sick Mac: Bad Fan Noises = Lost Revenue

MattBirmingham — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 22:22:18 GMT

I'm 4 weeks into my Grand Apple Experiment, and I've had to officially visit the Genius Bar. Yuck. One of my early concerns with getting into this with Apple is that they provide no onsite support for business customers. If issues like this keep continuing, Apple won't get any of my company's future business, despite their good hardware.

My company makes money directly by billing hours to my clients. If I'm not working, I'm not making money, simple as that. When my MacBook Pro started making a horrifying grinding noise, I was worried. Not a little worried, as this wasn't a "little" noise, but a lot worried. I was able to reproduce the noise on multiple occasions, so off to the Genius Bar I go.

Bad fans, it turns out, and I believe it's either a bad bearing or some missing piece that is causing the fan to get out of alignment. This is not a sound I want my 4 week-old computer making, and it's very likely that a bad fan will cause early failure of other hardware.

The nearest Genius Bar is a 25 minute drive from anywhere. That plus the wait plus the diagnosis plus the drive back easily puts me at 2 hours of lost work. The new fans came in within a week, so off to Apple I go again, (25x2 + 2 hour bench time) for another 3 hours of lost work. That's 5 hours. Gone. Not good.

The Genius Bar did a fine job and my computer no longer makes unexplainable noises. That said, Apple really needs to provide on-site service to business clients for me to consider more hardware from them in the future.

Back from vacation; Have Mac Will Develop ASP.NET

MattBirmingham — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 17:13:23 GMT

Again, I apologize for my absence of late. A wonderful week-long vacation in Southern California which provided my body much needed outdoor time left me renewed and ready to code.

Just before leaving, I began the switch in my company from Dell hardware to Apple hardware. This was a decision I really labored over. All of my pro's and con's could be distilled into the following list:

(Con) I really don't know UNIX, and maintaining a hetrogenous set of OSes in my network scares me more than a little
(Pro) The MacBook Pro is the fastest laptop running Vista on the market
(Con) Entourage is no substitute for Outlook, which is my Killer App
(Pro) I can not only develop Windows-based apps, but Mac and iPhone apps too
(Con) I'm an old dog
(Pro) I like learning new tricks

So there you have it, it's tied. Well, actually not so much; to conserve cash, I like to lease my computers. Sure, it may cost a bit more in the long run, but in the short term I don't have to lay out $1-2k per seat, but rather ~$70 per month per seat. So when I started looking into Apple's corporate financing, I was confused. Although I eventually got it worked out, Apple's online information proved to be out of date and just plain wrong. (Specifically? Don't click on the link to fill out a lease application online.) Hmmm... not a good way to start out a B2B relationship.

My other fear is Apple's pure lack of on-site support. I'm coming from years of owning Dell hardware, and say what you will about their offshore call center, every time I've really needed assistance, Dell's been there and provided me top-notch service. Apple on the other hand makes me go to them. Again, not a great model for B2B and only passable for consumers.

Why switch? Simply this: the iPhone. No, no, I don't have one, but it's arguable that the iPhone is the greatest tech consumer appliance in the marketplace. If Apple gets Exhcange integration right, it really could be The Killer Device for all corporate types, and that's impressive. So, if I ever dream of even touching a line of code for the iPhone, a Windows-only box simply won't do. In short, Apple hardware provides me flexibility that a Windows-only box can't.

So this is the start of the Grand Experiment.

Fewer posts = better Google Statistics??

MattBirmingham — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 20:04:32 GMT

I've been on a vacation from making posts recently, mainly because I've been so busy at work and home. Certainly not because I don't love my readership... all 3 of you.

Anyway, I thought I'd take a peek at my Google Analytics statistics and found that - despite my absence - my readership is growing healthily, getting bigger by the day. How wierd is that?

Well, there might be an answer to this: Grisoft's AVG v8.0 virus protection. It turns out that the latest version (optionally) installs a browser plug-in, called "LinkScanner", that will ping all search result websites to determine if the site is malicious. Although it's an interesting idea, many statistics are gathered from web logs, and these logs are getting artificially inflated due to this extra ping.

I'm not sold that Google or Microsoft analytics are getting artificially inflated, but it certainly could be something to watch, as web masters get more riled about their unnecessarily inflated bandwidth.

30 Days of .NET Windows Mobile Applications

MattBirmingham — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 18:38:00 GMT

Chris Craft is building one .NET-based WM application a day for the month of June, and is documenting the output (source code and all) on his blog, cjcraft.com. If you've ever been interested in .NET development for WM, this is a perfect jump start.

Technorati Tags: Windows Mobile Applications,.NET

ASP.NET AJAX CascadingDropDown How-to help: "method error 500"

MattBirmingham — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 22:56:51 GMT

Joe Stagner and others have produced a long line of how-to jumpstart videos on learning ASP.NET AJAX and the community supported AJAX Toolkit control extenders. Video 3 of 72 , How Do I: Use the ASP.NET AJAX CascadingDropDown Control Extender, has some errors that may cause some newbies to get hung up on learning these tools, which is a shame.

First off, I'm a C# developer, and the videos are written from the VB.NET mind set. If you're like me, you'll need to note that the "shared" VB keyword is functionally the same as the "static" keyword in C#. You'll also need to take note that the method call QuerySimpleCascadingDropDownDocument returns an array of CascadingDropDownNameValue objects, so you, like I, may miss the fact that he's returning an array from the methods GetDropDownContents and GetDropDownContentsPageMethod.

The big issue that I and apparently others came across is the fact that upon running the application as demonstrated, the dropdowns will be populated with the error message:

[method error 500]

The fix is simple: in the HTML, you must define the ServicePath as follows:

...ServiceMethod="GetDropDownContents" ServicePath="~/CarsService.asmx"...

Note the "~/" at the beginning of the ServicePath. Without this, the service will get called, you can step into it, yet the results will be an error.

Technorati Tags: Joe Stagner,ASP.NET AJAX,method error 500,CascadingDropDown Control Extender,How Do I,How To

Got 5 minutes? Learn to play an instrument

MattBirmingham — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 22:35:09 GMT

You know, like learning how to play 32nd not fills on a 3pc drum kit. 5min.com has all sorts of great sub-5-minute tips & tricks, not only about learning instruments, but how to play chess, how to understand pot odds, or how to make a really bad presentation.

Watch More How to and DIY videos

Note to self: time to hit the practice pads.

Technorati Tags: 5min.com,tutorials

Quiet Technologies aviation headset

MattBirmingham — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 01:11:26 GMT

Since I just did an aviation post, I might as well keep the good times rolling. More than anything, this post is a reminder for me: Quiet Technologies' Halo headset has gotten rave reviews from any private pilot trying them on. They offer passive noise reduction vis-a-vis in-ear monitors, rather than the alternative, which is a giant bulky headset which usually runs 1.5-3x the cost of the Halo.

At the price, it might not be beatable, and the fact that they're likely a ton more comfortable than can-style, they'll likely be the product for me, at some point in the future. Extra bonus, you can keep your hat on while wearing them. In Phoenix, that alone is worth the price.

Technorati Tags: aviation headset,Quiet Technologies Halo,in-ear

Netflix-style tutorial videos

MattBirmingham — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 01:02:15 GMT

I was presented with an interesting site that rents out and mails videos direct to the customer, providing a postage-paid envelope for returning the video. Sound familiar? It's not Netflix, but AVNac.com, self-billed as "Aviation's video rental store."

What I find interesting about this service is that there are many markets that offer videos which Netflix does not cover. Aviation is certainly a good example, where thousands of films are produced annually for training, but there are other groups that produce niche videos, including dance and music instruction.

Bravo to AVNac for filling a void, but I wonder if it wouldn't be better to rent some of these products and view them online? Seems like a better revenue model to me.

Technorati Tags: AVnac.com,aviation video,training,dvd,online rental

David Swensen's formula for retirement portfolios

MattBirmingham — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 00:58:30 GMT

I came across a great "article" (is that the right term for an audio segment which is also available online?) on David Swensen. Swensen manages Yale's endowment, and has managed success even during these trying bear markets, realizing an average annual return of 17.8 percent over the last 10 years.

David Swensen's book, Unconventional Success , has received complaints for being a very dry read. That's unfortunate, because the message seems to be a good one:

invest broadly in index funds (avoiding other mutual funds due to their built-in cost structure)
rebalance your portfolio to match your goals as often as you can while still avoiding fees
do it yourself, avoiding costs associated with account managers

Swenson suggests the following portfolio:

30% Domestic Equity (VTSMX, TINRX)
20% Real Estate (VGSIX, TCREX)
15% US T-Bonds (VFISX, TCTRX, VFITX, TIORX, VUSTX)
15% US Treasury Inflation Protected Securities "TIPS" (VIPSX, TCILX)
15% Foreign Developed Equity (VGTSX, TIERX)
5% Emerging Market Equity (VEIEX)

The only challenge (that I'm reviewing) is the above portfolio requires an initial investment of ~$60k, since the minimum buy in for VEIEX is $3,000. Doing the math the rest of the way up yields a starting investment of $60k.

The folks at The Motley Fool agree in general terms. They say, simply, "Buy an index fund."

Technorati Tags: David Swensen,investing,index funds

FontStruct: I heart you

MattBirmingham — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 23:19:20 GMT

GeekDad produced another gem today, FontStruct, a free webservice that allows you to create and distribute fonts. For free.

I'm going to need to practice building fonts, but it's great fun to work with fonts if you're into that sort of thing. For starters, you can always take an existing font, "clone" and modify it to get the feel for how they work. The tool appears to give you a product akin to what you paid for it, so don't expect miracles.

If you'd rather just buy a good font, FontStruct is associated with FontShop, an online font retailer. FontShop also has an interesting RSS feed, again, if you're into that sort of thing. It seems to be fairly low volume, so it might be worth dropping into your reader of choice.

OT, Geekdad is quickly becoming one of my favorite RSS feeds to read. As a geek and a dad, they speak to my soul.

Technorati Tags: fonts,font generator,font software,FontStruct,FontShop