Installing PHP 5.3.5, PHP 5.3.6, PHP 5.3.7 or PHP 5.3.8 on Windows

Which PHP Version do I install on Windows? PHP 5.3.5, PHP 5.3.6, PHP 5.3.7 or PHP 5.3.8?

So you have decided to install PHP into a windows operating system with Apache because it is the best http web server around. The bigger the number the better it should be right?

Not so.

And luckily for you, we have created an easy how to install php for windows walk through guide for you. But before you jump ahead, first ask yourself if you are installing Apache downloaded from the apache website. If so, then make sure you use the PHP 5.3.5 guide when you arrive at the PHP install guide destination.

If you are using (or are willing to use) the apache version compiled at Apache Lounge, then use PHP 5.3.8 or PHP 5.3.6. The newer version is the most up to date version.

PHP 5.3.7 is buggy which is why PHP 5.3.8 was released so soon after it.

Although the install guide says it is for PHP 5.3.6, it actually points to the PHP 5.3.8 version (or the 5.3.6 version if you prefer) and will guide you through the install process and help you to troubleshoot any issues you may encounter.

Should I install PHP 5.4
Only install PHP 5.4 if you understand that it is still in Beta. That means that this version is still in testing mode and may change before an official production version becomes available for general public release.

If you are setting up a test computer for your online website. It is best to install the same version that you have on your website. How to find this out is also covered in the guide link above.

-fin

Website update

It has been said before that the websiteadministrator.com.au website was started as a test site to discover just how effective the last ten years of my part time studies of SEO bear out against the scores of "seo specialists" that are around today.

So i hand coded an old school html website with a little help from dreamweaver, ultraedit, htmltidy and a few other bits from here and there.

I use alexa as a benchmark site and statcounter for collating statistics.

I stopped pushing the seo optimization on that website a few months ago when it ranked under 250,000. The momentum still carried it to under 200,000 where it has been hanging for a few months now. It should start to back away soon until i get i get the time to be serious with it and push the site higher again in earnest.

So, what have I learned that I am willing to share with you?

What I found is that inbound links and pagerank are not high priority (though the inbound links total have now jumped in the last couple of months). Nor is the "look" of the website too important.

Content is just as important as you may have thought.

Also, there are a lot of people who claim to be expert at seo but they mostly talk about improving ad placement, how to make your ads more effective or how to buy cheaper ad placement. Well, this all can and does help drive in more hits whether you are a top 100,000 site or not. But for those of you that want higher page ranking in the first place should look at the seo course I have made available for you online.

If you don't know how to do it, hire me, I am cheaper than you might think. You can also ask me to evaluate your website too.

I will not guarantee that I can place you into the top 200,000. But for 99% of you, I will be able to get your website to freely attract many more hits.

Well, that's about all the rambling I will do for now. I hadn't posted in a little while and there is plans for some interesting stuff to soon start to appear. So stay tuned.

The fb_xd_Fragment and the FaceBook Like button

The fb_xd_Fragment
This is bit of code can appear sometimes in facebook's link back to your site from the facebook like button. However, it's not you, it's them that are creating the extra work for you.

Some sites recommend you correct this in google, bing and yahoo webmaster tools etc. Probably the smarter thing to do is to first ensure you use correctly the canonical  link rel tag. View our How to use the link rel canonical tag.

If you are using apache, you might want to include some code to get around any blank page issue. The following code and the above link are also on our web page that discusses the fb_xd_Fragment

This is the apache code we recommend at this time:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine ON
#Facebook Redirect For Added String
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} .*fb_xd_fragment.*
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.websiteadministrator.com.au/$1? [R=301,L]
</IfModule>

This either drops enough of the offending code or removes it completely from the browser link (use your own www address). So this seems to do the job but should probably be modified a little further. Feel free to add your work-arounds to this post.

Follow up on the above fb_xd_fragment note:
The above code seems to have correctly resolved the issue i was facing on my host. To follow the error, i was using statcounter's landing page url. The landing page is now correct in my reports. No reference to the fb_xd_fragment is reported in the landing page data anymore, just the correct url.

Zombie Cookies - Back from the Cookie Hall of the Slain cookies

Cookie Valhalla seems to have developed a glitch in it's Matrix. Dead cookies are coming back as undead zombie cookies. No, it is not a cookie with similar or new information you are looking at, it is the exact same cookie you deleted that is back to stalk you from the same place it left off in it's previous life.

We have penned an article on this exact manifestation in our two page introduction to the LSO Cookie article. The Lso is a flash cookie that can stalk you for years and years without you ever knowing it. You have to be online and visit adobe's website to set the preferences for how it interacts with you. And Microsoft has now developed their own version of this type of cookie and use it in their Silverlight software (The Microsoft version of Flash). Visit our link above for more data.

And today I thought i might expand the subject with some facts that were gathered by some people kicking around some study campuses around Berkley in the summer of 2009 and who threw together an interesting pilot study on the subject of cookies in general [click on of the four buttons to download the 2mb .pdf file].

Now, we all take what we want from a study. But here is some of the data:
Inspecting cookies set from a list of the top 100 websites, it was found that 54 of these laid 157 LSOs which resulted in a total of 281 flash cookies. And during that same course of study, 98 of these sites set a total of 3,602 HTTP cookies.

The study went on to find that some of the LSO cookies and HTTP cookies had the exact same identifiers stored in variables which of course means you can match the exact same visiting computer. They also found that some of these cookies re-spawned after deletion. Read the study your self for more data.

But what does this tell you? It can only mean that cookie cutting is essential to an excellent seo result. No?

Adwords and using phone numbers in adsense ads

Some Adwords ads are starting to appear that use phone numbers directly in the ad which is displayed in the adsense ad.

Now, this is a little sneaky and underhanded because it means the owner of the ad can draw in clients with out having to pay the adsense publisher one red cent for the service of building up his website and doing the work to allow the displaying of the ad.

What can the adsense publisher do about sites that display phone numbers in their ad?

Google gives the adsense publisher a tool to sort them out. It is called the Competitive Ad Filter. You'll find it in your adsense setup page. From there, you simply select the Competitive Ad Filter and add the url of the offending site into this list provided and that will ban them from covertly trying to get advertising on your site for free.

And the best way to do this is to fully block their site by entering the domain name without the www part of the address. for example, you would enter www.example.com/deals as simply example.com

Google aussie does it too for their $75 adwords starter kit freebie, but i let that one slide. But the other two that I found today, let's just say you'll not see those businesses advertise on my websites anymore.

I am sure some might say "But these are display ads!" to which i would say "Prove it". There isn't a way to tell at the moment, and as display ads can be as little as 50 cents per 1,000 views, i don't think the lost revenue will be much missed by most. That might explain why some click ads don't convert. But I am certainly not convinced this is true for many of these that are starting to surface.

That'll learn 'em!

How to remove Php 5.3.x. An un-install Php loop solution.

Have you had an endless loop problem when trying to remove Php 5.3.x from your Windows system? You run the install or un-install program and you are continuously told the software is unable to complete the process (install or un-install)?

There is a solution to this problem which lies in fixing the Windows registry keys. We have updated our Php 5.3.5 and Php 5.3.6 troubleshooting guides to assist those in need of a method to break the endless chain.

Installing Guide for Apache 2.2.19 in Windows

Looking for a guide for installing apache 2.2.19 in Microsoft Windows?

WAS has now published their online apache 2.2.19 walk-through guide to step you through the process. The 2.2.17 guide is now archived but still available through the same above link. This is a great release from the guys over at the foundation and comes with an improved httpd.conf file which is much for friendly for those looking at installing ssl on their servers.

The War of the Roses, a now single man's guide to the subject of separation

Ok, so this entry has little to do with websites or seo, but i'd still like to share this tale.

In 1989, Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, and Danny DeVito put their creative energies into their third film together, namely "The War of the Roses" movie. Danny DeVito always seems to be able to add that "it" factor to a movie and this one is no exception. (Danny plays "shorty" in Get Shorty which is one of my all time favorite movies to watch).

Anyway, movies can be a great way to impart pearls of wisdom and The War of the Roses has one of the best lines of wisdom you ever did want to hear (for a man separating from a woman). Danny looks, Michael in the eye and advises him just how easy it is to settle things with Kathleen "Give her what ever she wants, when it comes to women, there are no degrees of winning, just degrees of losing!"

Of course a stubborn Michael decides that there are degrees of winning and so we have a movie.

A few years rolled by and I now had a couple of kids in tow and a few spare hours to whittle away and the darnedest thing happened, i discovered a little book with the same name as this movie: "The War or the Roses" by Warren Adler. So I found myself on that winter's evening by the heat of the fire and tearing through the pages of this well written book.

And what do you know, my favorite line wasn't anywhere to be found in there. It was simply the genius addition of the script re-writers. Oh well, it still made for a great read and of course the movie adaption isn't always completely devoted to the original printed source, but both are well worth a little time out to entertain yourself with. And if you enjoyed either, you will enjoy the other.

 

Media-Wiki setup password error

When installing Media-Wiki, a default password for your database is displayed during the initial setup process. If you don't personalize this part of setup, you might encounter:

error: Check username and password

This is MySql waiting for the magic password which will allow mediawiki to access the database.

So, when asked to insert your database password in mediawiki, make sure you use the database password you used when you first installed and setup your MySql.

Why does Php 5.3 need or require Apache VC9?

Pre Php5.3.6

If you are looking to install Php 5.3 with official Apache Http Server 2.2.17 software on a Windows Operating System (XP SP3 or later), you can happily install and use Php version 5.3.5 or earlier. Our install guides cover apache VC6 compatible download and install for Php versions 5.3.3 onwards. You can select the version you wish to install from top or side menu selections. Our 5.3.5 guide carries an updated troubleshooter and other more contemporary data. This includes a discourse on VC6 and VC9 which is further expanded upon in the 5.3.6 guide.

Post Php5.3.5 

The only reason your Php installation would need or require Apache VC9 is if you were determined to install Php 5.3.6 (or a newer version of Php) on a Windows Computer that is serving the web or you plan to use this exact setup to serve your web pages on the internet in the future. The Php-Windows team (for Apache software) is currently using a VC9 Apache compiled resource for their own further development of Php-Apache on Windows software. This is a specific Windows thing and is further covered in our 5.3.6 guide.

What Web Server

So the main question to resolve here is what operating system are you running on your web server? If you have a web host, this information will be detailed in the configuration notes you were given when you signed up for your hosting package. If not, send an email to tech support and ask them what server software configuration you are using to host your website.

My website is run on Unix.. Therefore my server side software is Unix-Apache-Php and suffers from none of the limitations of a Windows-Apache-Php setup.

My work system is MicroSoft. So my website testing software setup is going to remain VC6 simply because this is the only software the Apache Website lists as an approved Windows-Apache download. Would  I ever switch to a MicroSoft as a website server? Never!

What are my options

But some of you might use windows as a website server and so this question might be more dear to you than it is to me. And this raises four potential paths of action for you.

• Do nothing, (use Php 5.3.5 or earlier).
• Change to a Php endorsed VC9 version of Apache software
• Wait for an Apache Software Foundation endorsed VC9 version of software
• Switch to a Unix/Linux or other operating system using the Apache HTTP Server that does not suffer from this ongoing issue.

Of course, in many cases, we can transfer your site and setup a hosting website package for you from as little as $100/yr* on a unix server if you want to look at the last option.

Re-installing MySql 5.1 notes

Using our MySql 5.1 install guide helps to get you up and running fast. We might include a 5.5 / 5.6 update at some point but i thought this note on re-installing might be of use to those who encounter reinstalling issues.

These notes are in reference to installing an established third party software program on apache-windows.

The Most important part of MySql setup is to record your username/passwords when you first setup MySql. Nothing can test or use the database without this (i would still ignore all VC9 versions until after you get it all working, there are still things that are not VC9 compatible and this side-steps any potential issue. Php 5.3.6 for windows is only moderately open source because not all of the files required to compile the windows source code are easily accessible at this time. So, this means not all can easily compile their own VC6 version yet either).

Your error appears to be that you did not include the correct username password for MySql. And because MySql was not removed properly (not your fault), MySql was not re-installed properly, so just having the right user/pass might not have fixed the problem anyway.

Yes, use windows add-remove first and then you will also need to remove the left over files/folders for both 5.5. and/or 5.1 manually. You will find that these folders still exist. Delete them if there is nothing in your database or move them somewhere else for now if there is anything in them you think you might need later. You can also do a full search for my.ini to make sure the ini file is gone or moved. I would probably re-boot after these steps just to be sure there is no lingering configuration data in memory.

When you get rid of MySql completely, it will re-install like a first time installation. Yes, the custom setup guide displays the windows in a different in order. This gives more control to the installation process and is better to use.

You can also ignore extra developer options in fig. 04, no-one needs these for normal database use. Only useful for developers.

HTML5 and target=blank detractors

Notes to page coders from our target=blank article

"...And to your target=blank detractors say only this... Like any program, a website too will only ever be as efficient as the mind that codes it and though they may be unaware of the principles of least astonishment, it doesn't mean you are. And furthermore, like it or not, this domain shall forever be overrun with the literates of any contemporary time. So think freely and code as you wish for you will be damned if you do and damned if you don't. Which only leaves you the guarantee of being damned. But you kinda knew that coming into this game didn't you?..."

Introducing HTML5  

HTML5 in 10 Minutes

HTML5 for Dummies

Content Genius For Hire

One of the facets of the websiteadministratorcomau website is to have an easy point and click job finder tool for those that are seeking work on websites. I singled out the core countries that were hitting on the site and posted links into various job boards which should return a great resource of jobs that are current in the area.

But i gotta admit, when it comes to content of a website, many techies have no idea. Hint: Brush up on some grammar and have fun with the language. Especially if you would like to offer seo.

And i too enjoy a good play with words now and again and sometimes i will write something that is just way cool and i end up going 'gee, that is way cool', and that above link is an example of some my content genius that is for hire.

I actually pulled my first ever website article from the site because it might have been just a little too much along this same line and a little too confronting, no matter how true it was (is). Occasionally on the site, you'll find these sudden bursts of literary prowess ebbing forth that may very well signal an epiphany in another.

adding adsense to make sense

The scope of the internet has begun an earnest change. And i wanna throw in my two sense on adsense for the honest webmasters. Many of which do not know that there are many that aren't. But you can tell a genuine site from a false site. The real ones are not simply disguised adverts. False pages often have little or have no attempt at providing real and resourceful information.

Now, Adsense is a great way for webmasters to fetch a little return on the hard work they do for providing the rest of us with information and we all love these hard working webmasters for just that reason. And most of the time, there is little that these honest workers ask for in return. Because let's face it, many of these informative sites are not motivated to sell, sell, sell and so they are not found by the keywords that are buy, buy, buy and so they do not attract those that surf the internet through ads. And many are happy just to have been able to enlighten you with some shared data they have gathered in their travels.

But we love many of these free to use sites and tend to overlook that they put in a lot of time to ensure we have access to information when we need it most.

But there is something we can do for them to make their day a little cheerier for their good deeds. And that is to take note of any ads that appear on their web sites and click on some of them now and again that are of interest to you. And i don't mean click and not view the link at the other end. Have a look at what is on offer because some of these sites are by the small struggling business that does hope to get a lead from their ads.

And i am not saying to start clicking ads on this page (especially if they are of no interest to you). I am saying, as you browse through the web, and when you find yourself on these smaller sites with ads from those smaller businesses that can only afford to advertise on these smaller sites, give them both a thought. You might even find something that is a real treat to you.

Official VC9 Apache downloads

An interesting question came up today regarding where on the Apache site does one get the official VC9 build.

Most that ask this question would be new Http Server Setup users looking to install VC9 Php 5.3.6 or VC9 Php 5.3.8 with VC9 Apache 2.2.17 or Apache 2.2.19.

Now that query actually had me stumped because i am pretty sure our latest Php 5.3.6 install guide pretty much answers this question with solutions quite adequately.

But here was this question from a purely apache point of view. And our Apache 2.2.17 install guide or Apache 2.2.19 install guide is pretty darn good too. But yes, it didn't quite answer this fully. So I have made an amendment to the apache install guide which now includes a link so that you can check in case this ever changes, but for now, the only official Apache for Windows downloads are the VC6 version downloads.

You can also download official apache 2.2.17 / apache 2.2.19 through our apache install guide or access non-official Apache VC9 versions through our newer php install guides.

And by official we mean the x86 32 bit binaries as provided by willing Apache Software Foundation community members and are available for download from the official apache website.

And this means that if you want to use official Apache software, you should look to install Php Version 5.3.5 (or earlier) as Php, with malice aforethought, did not release a 5.3.6 VC6 update with this or any other new release. See our newer PHP guides to learn where to download the VC9 Versions which work with the newer PHP releases.

Get Apache HTTP Server 2.2 Docs

Apache HTTP Server 2.2 Official Documentation Volume I
Server Administration

Apache HTTP Server 2.2 Official Documentation Volume II
Security and Server Programs

Apache HTTP Server 2.2 Official Documentation Volume III
Modules A-H

Apache HTTP Server 2.2 Official Documentation Volume IV
Modules I-V

Affiliate Website Support and Commssion Junction

Affiliate Website Support is something that larger affiliate sites should take note of.

Commission Junction is one of those larger affiliate network sites which webmasters can join a link to products and services that are more applicable to your web page rather than leave it to the advertising gods and gurus to randomly select products that compete for your business rather than compliment your business. Ah, but they seem to have lost a bit of marketing nous at the moment.

Lo and behold, the websiteadministrator site has been officially forewarned that due to no paying hits over x amount of time, they plan to cancel the affiliate status. This doesn't particularly bother me as what is the point of my promoting someone else's website if it is not returning a commission as planned. Though sometimes it is not about money, but rather support. And i don't use them exclusively, in fact i much rather prefer Share-a-Sale. And you should try and find a products that better compliment your pages so that sales do occur in an orderly manner. There have been many visitors from my site to Commission Junction, so in my view, it is the marketers inability to close the sale, not my inability to provide a warm lead.

But this is not the point, there are two sad sides to marketing reach with his behavior.

One is that if you have a small website that does not get a lot of hits, this is one network you should make sure you do not join. I quite like the idea of smaller websites being able to set up a web page, link in some affiliate products (because of the reasons above) and let the owner go off and do his thing til the cows come home. More than likely, over the next ten years or so, he will sell a product here or there and that is great for all. And the product gets free promotion for years and years. That saves a bundle in advertising costs for the product.

Two is, that if you are a smaller business promoting your products through affiliates, you lose all these prospective clients til the cows come home and all that free advertising that goes along with it. There are more sites have much less hits than our site, so to me, Commission Junction has proven beyond doubt that it is not really interested in supporting small business to become big business. That's just imho.

Perhaps clickbank is the better solution. They also pay much a higher commission with a much greater range of products on offer.

Stuart Townsend to star in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit with Saiorse Ronan

For middle-earth fans...

Stuart Townsend (XIII) to star in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit with Saiorse Ronan (The Lovely Bones). Well, this is what the guys at theonering.net were hoping for a few days ago (link to article: www.theonering.net/torwp/2011/04/01/43183-key-roles-filled-by-stuart-townsend-saiorse-ronan-for-the-hobbit/ ) and so began a little media frenzy, until they posted the corrections in red.

Oh, you want real news on Stuart? Try here: www.stuarttownsend.org

The middle-earth page was originally intended to feature Saiorse Ronan's "The Hobbit" role and is now corrected and posted 2nd 04 2011 (link to article: www.theonering.net/torwp/). Peter Jackson's Part I rendition of The Hobbit is slated for a 2012 release. Also to star is that Melbourne lady who attended Hawthorn's MLC and went onto better things (Blanchette).

Php tip - how to explode time and get rid of the 0s and add an ordinal sufix

When displaying time, i like to have 1, 2, 3 etc. No zeros. Not only that, i like the ordinals. So i want 1st, 2nd, 4th etc.

So i was plying with php again today and figured this to be a simple way out, there may be other ways, but this one works just fine (Here is a live working demo of this with the same code to copy and paste if you prefer to see it in action too.)

First we work out what we want to display eg. this is my favorite:
<?php echo date('l, dS F Y'); ?>

And that takes care of most of it, except for the first nine days of the month where we get 01st, 02nd, 08th etc. and that makes us feel pretty ordinary about our ordinals.

So, second, lets lop off those zeros. Explode and using ltrim on the 2nd variable in our new explode array fixes that if we tell it to expunge any 0s. Then ltrim will go into action and fix our 01st-09th days and so...

<?php
$BlitDate = explode(" ", date('l, dS F Y'));
$BlitDate[1]= ltrim($BlitDate[1], "0");
echo "$BlitDate[0] ";
echo "$BlitDate[1] ";
echo "$BlitDate[2] ";
echo "$BlitDate[3] ";
?>

You can run an if instruction if you want to only run ltrim on the first several days of the month like so..
<?php
$BlitDate = explode(" ", date('l, dS F Y'));
if ( $BlitDate[1] < 10 ) {$BlitDate[1]= ltrim($BlitDate[1], "0");
}
echo "$BlitDate[0] ";
echo "$BlitDate[1] ";
echo "$BlitDate[2] ";
echo "$BlitDate[3] ";
?>

they both smell of roses and you're all fixed up and ready to go again!

Php Code tip. Displaying your server location by exploding time

I was playing with some php code earlier today and wondering if i could write a little piece of lazy code to write the local location of my server instead of having to type the city/town and country each time. And then i remembered the timezone gave almost exactly what i want.

You know, this bit of code:
<?php echo date('e'); ?>


except it is backwards and can have up to three fields all with a pedantic / in the middle, so i thought ok, how about i strip out the slash and reverse the order. Close enough.

<?php
$zones = explode("/", date('e'));
echo "$zones[2] ";
echo "$zones[1] ";
echo "$zones[0] ";
?>

and then i thought, oh yeah, that works. But i can't be bothered with it anymore. Maybe some else is looking for it. And there it is

step guide to installing php 5.3.6 on apache windows

If you are looking for a step by step guide to installing php5.3.6 on your computer then take a look at our newest walk-through for setting up your php5.3 on  apache. It is near complete now and pretty much ready to roll.

This version is also a nice easy install for the threadsafe module setup option. A little config editing on the other two set up types but still very simple no matter which way you plan to use it. I added some resource notes about VC9 apache for those who wanna play with that too. This Php release addresses over 60 bugs etc. when compared against the 5.3.5 version.

php 5.3.6 threadsafe cgi install: The requested URL /PHP/php-cgi.exe/ ... .php was not found on this server.

Ok, so having a little more fun with php5.3.6 installs and i must say it is nice to see the windows install file go so smoothly, you can now nearly install the php module with next, next, next...

Now, with the threadsafe cgi install, you might encounter a The requested URL /PHP/php-cgi.exe/ ... .php was not found on this server error, and again this is pointed out in the php 5.3 troubleshooter (scroll down a coupla lines till you get to Other common PHP 5.3 setup errors).

This is probably only because some extra data is not in your .htaccess file but i found i needed to add this line into the middle of the php added data at the very end of the httpd.conf file: AddType application/x-httpd-php .php

The copy paste code for that entire bracket is here if that makes it easier (see the light blue font under change 2 near the top of the page). Check that your path data is correct and that it is in the coRRect CaSe.

This same point might also resolve similar issues encountered by those using the nts install.

PHP5.3.6 nts: You have chosen to open ... .php which is a php script.

I was having a play with installing PHP 5.3.6 nts (which has been out for about a week now). So i'll just pretend this is a trusty step by step windows guide to installing Php5.3.6 to walk me through that. (link now updated to to the 5.3.6 guide -  1th April 11)

After install i noticed the browser error (in Firefox and Internet Explorer): "You have chosen to open ... .php" "which is a php script" and i noticed that guide doesn't really discuss this message completely in it's Php 5.3 troubleshooter for those that encounter this error upon first testing.

So this data applies to an apache 2.2 install on a home test system. But you'll get the gist of it either way. Obviously, the browser doesn't know what to do with the file and asks what to open it with or asks if you want to download it.

But the problem actually lies earlier, the browser should not care if it is a php file, that is why we are configuring the apache config file..

So, two possible scenarios come to mind which will spit back that exact error. To fix it, One, configure your apache httpd.conf file correctly and then Two, now that your .conf file is corrected, stop testing the cached copy which wasn't working and still isn't working.. So either select another .php file to test or rename the test file (reboot system / clear browser cache - what ever works for you). But fix the configuration first.

On my install, I noticed the httpd.conf edit steps were incomplete (the installer expects that you self edit this step) and so needed to use the above link for the copy paste code for change 1 & 2 and then reboot a couple of times (yes, reboot a couple of times, and no, i don't know why - i'll guess it is because my Apache is VC6 and this version of PHP is VC9 only) for everything to come up roses.

The Cyberian CyberBlaster

Those of you who wonder through my profile might want to know a little more about my midi days. I put one of my original midi tunes in as my profile audio link.

I wrote and published a few midies, some of which ended up on Rocco's early Dos platform game Mutant Earth. The drum patches are all hand coded and are as if played by a real drummer as are many of the slightly off-timings and echo effects to give it a more real feel.

I play guitar or keyboards but guitar is more my forte (one day I'll treat you with some of my newer original melancholic misery via some mp3s.) I have played in Melbourne Clubs with either Crystal Vision or with The Edge (no, not U2's guitarist, it was the name of the local band i was doing keyboards in).

Now my cyberian cyberblaster midies were written for the OPL2 or OPL3 yamaha sound chips which are different to the sound chips in sound cards we get these days. The patches of the sounds have changed in the newer cards and therefore are no longer exactly the sound i originally intended for you to hear.

So most of you are not going to hear the sounds as they were originally intended to be heard, but the idea still communicates in a few of them so crank up the volume if you got stereo speakers as there are various sounds including panning drum rolls in a few of them that are awesome.

And those of you who have midi machines might enjoy a bit of a play by reassigning various instruments to alternative patches as some of these midies are designed to spook the bejeebies out of you, and they will. This does not mean you can rip me off. I retain the copyright for my works and you must contact me first if you wish to commercially use any of my works.

Not for those prone to psychotic episodes or self induced exaggerated altered states of consciousness.

More content on Content

The subject of content is highly discussed in Seo circles.

To succeed, one should ensure he clearly enunciates the significance of his communicated idea so that the gist and composition of the subject matter is fully understood by the reader.

The constitution of the text should leave no doubt as to the essence of the matter being reviewed and the exact  meaning should be precise yet full of substance.

Let's  recap. Ensure the constitution subject, and any gist or essence of your idea in the proposed text, demonstrates that you have the matter of the composition firmly in your confident yet leading hand.

Google Real Estate Search Retired

Sadly, Google retired their Real Estate Search feature in February 2011. It was a really useful tool which you could find houses to buy or rent in any area with a bunch of useful fields like from how much to how much, or number of bedrooms etc.. And when you scrolled the map this way or that, the page would refresh with the results for that page. It made house hunting a breeze. But in Oz at least, we are pushed back into the dark ages wondering exactly where the heck a property might be and the amount of time it takes just to go through the motions...

The google article points to a new android tool which apparently does the same thing, and the online maps are supplied by Bing, and funnily enough, the big aussie R/E's are now also using Bing maps for their location maps too.

I wonder if Bing will introduce this easy search feature for those of us who really liked it? It would definitely give me cause to consider Bing in a new positive light...

mozilla thunderbird Vs microsoft outlook

When it comes to business email, many are so ingrained into using microsoft that they often don't look at what else is around.

Thunderbird became a serious contender many years ago. Features such as filtering incoming email to different folders multi account setup are all there.

If you have a client that doesn't have the wherewithal for the on going expenses with outlook (like various community funded groups etc.), then you can easily setup a very similar email network with the Mozilla group of mail and calendar products.

Me, i've been using Thunderbird for years and love it.

Installing PHP 5.3.6 on windows XP iii without trouble shooting problems

A while back i was wondering where you find a simple step by step guide to installing Php 5.3.6 on an Apache Windows XP computer. And then i remembered this site has one of the best and most informative installing php resources for the latest 5.3 series around.

Especially when doing a clean install, you still have to navigate the rocks in the waters. And this guide brings you home safe. Also has a really good trouble shooter in case you get lost along the way. And you can step through apache or mysql 5.1 too.

How to submit a sitemap.xml for your blogspot blog to Google

So i was wondering how you would submit your sitemap.xml for your blogspot site when you can't upload one to the root dir. And that is ok because these guys offer a great little service for all.

And it can be done very simply if you have another site that you have previously (or if you do this in the future) Google Verified. These are sites you have listed in your Google WebmasterTools. We can upload the map to our blogger blog site to any of our verified sites in the list. Choose one you can upload files to.

So go ahead and create your site map for your blog but save it as a unique filename like MyBlogOneSitemap.xml (or if you have more than one blog site), MyBlogTwoSitemap.xml etc.

Then upload the map(s) to the verified site you selected that appears in your WebmasterTools. Browse to sitemaps (you'll find it under site configuration) and use the Submit a Sitemap to upload your blog sitemap.

As long as google has verified you as the site owner, you can load as many sitemaps as you like from the one location. You can even combine them into one site map if you like. Just remember to link them different urls correctly if you choose this path.

How to do Photo Framing using a tables element and css

Ever wondered how you can create a photo frame effect using tables? A little while ago i was playing with tables code to produce a nice table template for any web page design.

This included having the copy and paste code at your finger tips. And then by adding a little css, you can have a tool to check your if your table is rendered correctly and to help spot exactly where the code is out.

The i took it one step further and showed how you can take the outside and use it as a frame or, even insert a graphic in there. The basic color frame is cut and paste. For the graphics demo, you'll need to review my source code.

CSS image sprites example

CSS image sprites are a great way to load a group of images in one fell swoop.

I use these images sprites in my exhibit boxes for displaying the thumbnail images. Like in the promo photos for XIII in Stu's pages for example.

You declare each sprite as a class twice in your css code like so...
.css_image_sprite_01, .css_image_sprite_02{include size dimensions etc. here and the source image}
.css_image_sprite_01{x,y for the first image goes in here}
.css_image_sprite_02{x,y for the second image goes in here} etc.

It is really a very simple affair. Check the example above. Google exhibitbox for more examples.

Tables Versus CSS

When i first encountered the subject of widths for tables in html4 i was dumbfounded and left to walk the streets of Melbourne in a drunken-like stupor.

Tables are a great tool for saying "now this table is going to go this many pixels this way and not a pixel more" and you would declare such a thing in your width= statement. But in HTML4, width does not mean maximum width. It means minimum width! And there goes your pretty design.

You can slam the breaks on this anarchistic restructuring of your previous designs by dropping your table inside a css div container and assigning that div an exact width. Transparent images of nothing can also hold the form of cells.

But once you get used to the idea of divs and the assigning of widths to them, you can easily use css to replace your old tables. There are a few approaches to this because you can assign percentages, pixels etc. as the basis for distance.

A smart way to start is to first  package the whole proposed table into a fixed width div and then just go about your business with exact height and width for each individual cell (div) there after. Some divs don't require size delineation but as you start to get the hang of positioning, you will work this out for your self. It helps to draw a picture of your table design first too. For example, Colspan=3 is as easy as declaring one div and putting three divs inside it's open and close tag.

binary-tools.zip and PHP compilation

Some folks like to compile their PHP software themselves. To do this, you require the binary-tools.zip.

Funny thing is that you actually get this file from the same place you get all your other needed files from but some of us just forget to do that at the time. So I decided to link the needed binary-tools.zip and other needed resources here so that anyone can easily throw together a VC6, VC8 or VC9 compilation.

Hope it helps

Amended note:

You can now download the binary-tools.zip from our website's free downloads page.


This note updates the note below. If you visit the first link in the article, you will be able to also download the source code for older Php versions including 5.3.5.

(The official compile-your-own download link has been down since March 19, 2011, two days after the release of 5.3.6 which has no VC6 release. We have provided a resource for download of the binary-tools.zip file at the above link)

  

Website Content

Everybody knows that content is the most important part of writing, and i dont mean that feeling of smugness. And when you browse around the web, you will find a lot people have a lot to say. And the best way to say something is just to say it. So there! I said it! is wot one would then say.

But really, some people really do suck at it. And this can create a problem for them. Many people go through life and guess at the meanings of words or try to understand a word by the other words that surround it. Now this is ok if you are new to the language or are a child. But as you go through life, it is expected of you to increase your word skills. Especially if your work or home interests  involve the manipulation or restructuring of more n' more words. And this means opening up a dictionary and discovering which definition is in use or you should use. Not just using a thesaurus to find another word that you don't really understand to use in it's stead. Take some time out and read how others use words and try using new words yourself. The penny will drop when it drops and at some point in tomorrow, you'll awaken wiser for your efforts and you'll have become a better version of you.

Plagiarizing the work of others by using a search and replace algorithm is the stock in trade of the infinitesimal mind. And the sad part is that those that do this, really don't think they are doing anything wrong.

But i assure you, the better you really understand the words of your language, the greater are the joys realized in further intellectual pursuit. You see, it comes down to: if you never knew you missed it, then, did you really miss anything at all? And so it goes that ignorance may truly be bliss for others, but is this your calling?

SEO Help Needed and Wanted

Ever asked yourself just where can you get some really good seo help when you have needed or wanted it?

And what does an SEO do anyway? Can i do my own SEO work on my website and save a couple of bucks?

You can find the answers to these questions by browsing through our free online seo training course and learn the basics you  need to establish your website properly on the internet. These are the basic needed website SEO steps and may take some time for you to complete.

This is not a complete study but we will step you through how to get your SEO skills well on the road to establishing your internet presence. We also offer a paid route if you want personal assistance or we can even do the work for you. Ask about our special offer for all SEO work to your web page code.

Free Website Templates

Free Website Templates to fashion your new web look can take a bit of time uncover. If you want to quickly find a great looking template that is free and available for download now, then this is the page for you.

You get to browse free templates for your website with one click. There is a great range to choose from or you can enlist our services to modify or create a specific look if you cant find the exact one you need from the hundreds of templates you find through here.

algorithm

Wot sort of a dumb word is algorithm?

It just doesn't sort of fit into the English language. Wot other words rhythm with that?

I guess when you start to look at it's roots it begins to make more sense. The guys at mirriam peg the first use to 1926 and even oxford agrees that it comes to us from the french going back a couple of hundred years earlier. And if you squint your eyes just right, you can make the word out of the pronunciation of a pretty clever fellow writing math in arabic an eon earlier.

And the world starts to make sense yet again.

Wot's it mean? It's nerd for procedural step by step problem solving of course.

steve campisi

Website Administrator Website Blog

G'day mate, welcome to these simple webmaster pages where you can throw some ideas out there. The idea is that you can talk about stuff you would like to see more stuff on.

At the moment, this blog is directionless. I accidentally created two when i only wanted one. So, it is here for now and it might stay or i might revamp it. Make it interesting and i'll leave it be.