iPad Experience - Day 4

1 June 2010
Tuesday

Day 4: iPad Experience

Okay, we're back here again. So far so good with the discovery of the iPad.

Already tackled the mystery on linking a physical keyboard for typing manageable instead of settling with the cramped virtual keyboard. This purpose was intended for anyone who does lots of typing or editing. I found it a bit awkward initially using the virtual keyboard and got used to it as time went by. I suppose it's more of a different feel in comparison to using the iPhone's keyboard.

The mouse is another accessory a must for computer enthusiasts. It makes navigation thorough, and a delight.

iPad Experience - Day 3

31 May 2010
Monday

Day 3: iPad Experience

Good morning! It's a lovely day.

My agenda today is to try the wireless keyboard. I pulled out my Apple wireless keyboard out of the box and inserted the 3 AA batteries included that came with it, turned it ON. Didn't take more than half a second to see it. Paired it and working just ducky! I had this Apple wireless keyboard for a while now; it won't work with Windows Vista laptop.

Using the iPad as a tablet, netbook, or a mini-laptop, or whatever was quite great. Pity though you can't save it in a different directory and perform multi-tasking.

Purchased ebook '206 Bones' by Kathy Reich's from Borders was a breeze. It downloaded straight from the Online Store and into Borders Apps using Wifi. I also installed the desktop version to my laptop.

Using this unit as an eReader was quite impressive. Read a few pages at night without the need of an external light. Adjusted the brightness of the screen in the dark according to my likening. By the way, this was one of main purpose in buying the iPad. So, this part was 10 out of 10 for me.

Read a few pages from the Holy Bible Apps. Downloaded the Translation for offline reading; however, you can't view the Reading Plan without connection either Wifi or 3G.

Next on the agenda is to turn my iPhone 3GS into an Apple air mouse. STAY TUNE.

NOTE: Used Chronicle for iPad Apps in writing this initially. Chronicle for iPad lets you upload to Google Documents.

iPad Experience - Day 2

30 May 2010
Sunday

Day 2: iPad Experience

If you've read my blog about the iPad Chase on 29 May 2010 in countlessmemoirs.blogspot.com, as in the cake...this is the filling.

Woke up this morning, and cooked sausages for breakfast.

Started on my iPad, browsing through the Apps searching for useable Apps. Downloaded Skywalk, Brain, Pages, History Today, Holy Bible, Human Body 3D, Chronicle for iPad (which I'm currently working with), Borders by Kobo eReader book.

Discovered that the iPad not sensing my bluetooth Plaintronics headphone via the USB connection for camera. Evidently, there's no power going through the USB connector. That's out!

Been trying to tether my iPhone 3GS to iPad using bluetooth but the iPad wasn't seeing the iPhone 3GS as well. Jailbroke my iPhone 3GS using Spirit and installed MyWi through Cydia, I'm entitled to use it for free as a trial for 10 days then have to pay $9.95. MyWi acted as a Wifi Router. Managed to tether iPhone 3GS to iPad and it picked up my laptop as well. Oops...I've forgotten to key in WEP or password! The world will be piggybacking on my internet for free.

Yes, I've been syncing Contacts from Windows to iPad now. One thing though, the Contact Apps in iPad won't allow you to delete the full contact entry. So, have to update it in Windows or Mac.

Oh well, have to sign-off for now. See you next time.

Hello World!

Wow! Since the landing of the new 3G iPhone to Oz, the buzzing is everywhere. Very disappointing though you cannot purchase it outright Though Optus has Prepaid for $749 in 8gb and $849 in 16gb.

I purchased my 2G iPhone 16 gb in Bangkok last April 2008 perhaps more on out of curiosity. Mind you, I just bought a N95 8gb in last January 2008 during my visit to Manila. It was on sale already there … I mean, the iPhone.

Unlike the N95, the iPhone does not suupprt MMS and video calling and no video capture.

Difference between 2G versus 3G lies in data speed where the 3G offers HDSPA and claiming it’s the fastest.

Last July 16, I accidentally updated my iPhone from 1.1.4 to 2.0. Imagine how I had forgotten that it will simlock my phone!!! No iPhone for 8 days. Thanks to Unlock iPhone UK that I found in the web. There I discovered how you can jailbreak/unlock your iPhone for free… but there is a catch it only does to until version 1.1.4. I tried downgrading but wouldn’t do it. The software update for version 2.0 from unlockiphoneuk.com just came in time $69 and will keep on receiving updated software; otherwise, I would have send my iPhone to an authorized repairer in Canberra for a fee of $148.

I managed to unlock my iPhone on 24 July using Mac. I found the PC method bit hard for me to seriously understand.

Had enough of that since my last task back in March 2008- dual booting Eee PC running Linux 4gb in HD then XP in 8gb SD card.

It was a real learning curve…

Now, I have my eyes set on doing another project!

Web Host Yourself in 75 Ways

One of the biggest issues involved with becoming a web publisher is the question of hosting. With an internet clogged with false hosting review sites, hosting companies trying to rip you off, and hosting companies run by 14 year olds, the majority of web publishers are at the mercy of random chance when it comes to finding a quality host. To solve this huge problem and to grant freedom to all, we have come up with 75 extremely specific steps that will get you up and running with a *nix box (running FreeBSD), along with the most recent versions of Apache, Perl, PHP, and MySQL.

Minimum Requirements:

To use this guide, you are going to need the following:

1 burnable CD-R
A computer with at least a 4GB hard drive
A working ethernet card
A network that uses DHCP.

Overview:
Part I of this guide will guide you through the installation of the operating system
Part II will explain the installation of MySQL 5.0, Apache 2.0, and PHP 5.1.2.

Part I
1. Download the FreeBSD 6.0 Disc 1 from the internet (http://www.freebsd.org/where.html). If you are going to be running on what used to be a Windows machine, you probably have i386 architecture, so select that one. If you have a 64 bit processor (AMD makes several of these now, including the Opteron processor), select a 64 bit architecture.
2. Burn the FreeBSD “6.0-Release-i386-disc1.iso” to a disc.

3. Insert the Disk into the CD drive of the computer you want to turn into a server.

4. Start the machine.

A menu titled “sysinstall Main Menu”, this is the menu that will give you all of the installation options.

5. Use the arrows to select “Standard” and hit enter.

6. Hit OK to the message that pops up.

7. Hit Shift+A, and then Shift+Q.

8. Choose the “BootMgr” option.

Either the "bootmgr" or "standard boot manager" will work, but for simplicity we will go with the default option.

9. Hit OK to the message that pops up.

10 .Hit Shift+A and then Shift+Q

This will select the standard and most likely best setup of your hard drive.

11. Select option 8, “User”.

12. Hit “Yes” when you are prompted whether or not you want to install the FreeBSD ports collection.

The FreeBSD ports colection is a collection of thousands of open-source software programs that are extremely easy to install. We want this so that it is easy for us to install MySQL, Apache, and PHP.

13. Scroll back up to “Exit” now that we have selected a configuration set.

"Configuration set" is just the name for the settings and features of the operating system that we want.

14. Select option 1, “CD/DVD”.

You could also choose FTP at this step, but for reasons of speed, I recommend you just use the disk that we already have in the drive, since we already burned it. You may want to choose FTP if you burned the disk more than a couple months ago, and you want the absolute latest features of the operating system.

15. Select “Yes” if you are absolutely sure you are willing to sacrifice this machine to be a web server, and that you will never need any of the current contents of the hard drives again.
Hitting "Yes" is going to erase and reformat the entire hard-drive, so make sure that you actually want to do this before hitting it.

Approximately 15 minute wait.

FreeBSD has now been installed!

16. Hit OK to the installation message.

17. Yes, you would like to configure Ethernet or SLIP/PPP.

18. Select your Ethernet card (Mine is “3COM 3c90x / 3c90xB PCI Ethernet card”)

19. “No” do not try IPv6 configuration.

20. “Yes” try DHCP configuration.

This step is going to assume that your network automatically assigns DHCP addresses.

21. Enter one of the main domain names that will be hosted from this server (preferably the main one) in the “Host” box.

By one of the main domain names, I mean that if you are going to be hosting johndoespersonalwebsite.com, enter that domain name.

22. Note the IP that your machine has been assigned (Will probably look like 192.168.*.*, where the stars could be any number between 1 and 255). Tab to the end and hit OK.

23. “No” we do not want this machine to function as a network gateway.

24. “No” we don’t want to configure inetd and the network services that it provides.

25. “Yes” we want to enable SSH login.

SSH login is the standard way that people can access a *nix box remotely. If you want, you will be able to use any machine in the world to access and manage this server by using SSH.

26. “No” anonymous FTP access.

27. “No” not an NFS server.

28. “No” not an NFS client.

29. “No” don’t customize console settings.

30. “Yes” set the time zone.

31. Most machines are set to local time, and not UTC, so hit “No” unless you know that your machine is set up otherwise.

32. Select your region (America – North and South for me)

33. Select your country (United States for me, number 45)

34. Select your time zone (11, Central for me)

35. Select “Yes” the time zone looks reasonable.

36. “Yes” we want to enable Linux binary compatibility.

Approximately 3 minute wait.

37. “No” we don’t need to bother with a mouse.

38. “No” don’t browse the collection of packages.

39. “Yes” add an initial user account to the system.

40. Select option 2; add a new user to the system.

41. Enter the username that you would like to normally use and enter it in the “Login ID” box. Also enter a password for this user.

This step ensures that you have a user in the system other than the all-powerful "root". It is a good idea to have at least one other use in the system that you use on a normal basis, because if you always work as root, there is chance that you could accidently modify or delete some system files.

42. For the “Group” field, enter “wheel”, if you don’t do this, then you won’t be able to perform remote admin tasks.

43. Hit OK.

44. Go back up and select “Exit”.

45. Hit “OK” to the message that pops up.

We are about to set the “root” password, which is the most important password on a *nix box, so make sure that you come up with a good password that you are not going to forget or lose. You need to balance the difficulty of the password because if you forget it, you may have to reinstall the entire machine, but if the password is too easy, then malicious users or hackers will be likely to gain control of your machine.

46. Enter the root password twice.

47. “No”, you don’t want to return to the configuration menu.

48. Select “Exit Install”.

49. Select “Yes”, and while the system is rebooting, remove the FreeBSD disk from the drive.

50. As the machine boots up it will ask you for an entropy source, just hit a few keys at random and hit the enter key.

You have now installed and configured the main FreeBSD operating system, all future configuration and installs can be done remotely without ever touching the machine again. And, barring any unforeseen hardware or software problems, you should never need the monitor or keyboard of this machine ever again.

Part II

Use a program called Putty to connect to the machine via the IP that we were assigned during the DHCP step, or continue using the local keyboard and monitor connected to the machine.

1. Log in using the username and password that you came up with (webmaster, myJa3e9@npasS)

2. Log in as the super user by entering “su”, and then entering the “root” password when prompted.

Logging in as the super user gives you access to install and configure programs and change operating system settings.

3- 11. Enter the following commands, waiting until each completes before running the next one:cd /usr/ports/databases/mysql50-servermake install cleanmysql_install_dbchown -R mysql /var/db/mysql/chgrp -R mysql /var/db/mysql//usr/local/bin/mysqld_safe -user=mysql &cd /usr/ports/www/apache20make install clean

12. Hit OK

13-14: Enter the following commands:cd /usr/ports/lang/php5make install clean

15. Select "use Apache 2.x instead"

16-17. Enter the following commands:cd /usr/ports/lang/php5-extensionsmake config

18. Select any php extensions you want for your webserver and hit "OK".

This is part of the configuration for PHP. PHP has many possible features that come in modules, such as the ability to manage user sessions, interface with a database, etc. By selecting a module at this step, it will automatically be installed and configured for you. 19. make install clean

20. Simply hit "OK" for any option configurations that pop up.

21. Type "cat >> /usr/local/etc/apache2/httpd.conf". On the next line type "AddType application/x-httpd-php .php" and hit CTRL+D.22. apachectl start

23. To be able to upload the files for your website, you will need to download a program like WinSCP.

24. Upload all of the files to /usr/local/www/

25. (Optional step) Purchase a domain name and point the DNS to your IP.

Connect to the server by the domain name that you have purchased, or by the IP that you wrote down in an earlier step, and everything should work. Congratulations, you have installed a FreeBSD server, complete with Apache, PHP, and MySQL!

Dislaimer: I understand that this article does not include router setup, domain name pointing, bandwidth, uptime, or TOS issues. This was intentionally an article that just shows you how to set up FreeBSD, Apache, PHP, and MySQL. This article does not cover security concerns or teach you how to manage the server after it has been set up. Setting up your own box by following this guide is a decent way to create an intranet webserver, get into *nix for the first time if have previously always used external hosting, and from these steps you can feel free to deviate in order to explore and learn. If you are looking for more information, I recommend you look up the individual install processes, or perhaps try setting up these webservices with different operating systems to learn for yourself what is going to make sense for you or your business.

PS: I got from a site a long time ago... credits to him

Web Host Yourself

There are very few reasons to host yourself these days. Web servers are faster than ever, prices are down, and the majority of internet sites use such a small portion of a web server's resources that a large number of web sites can be hosted by a single server without any negative side effects. However, if you are thinking about hosting yourself, you should first see if you meet any/all of the following requirements:

You are technologically savvy individual.
Understand the basic issues in securing a server.
You have access to a broadband internet connection for the server.
Have a large amount of time to allocate for this project.
Excellent problem solving skills.

If you believe this pretty much describes you, then hosting your own server may be a reasonable solution. However, if you do not meet these requirements, we suggest that you skim through this information and continue on with Web Host guide. Chances are setting up your own server would only be an unnecessary headache.

Server Requirements

There are many things to consider when setting up your own web server. We have a compiled a short list of a few key items:

• A computer that can be dedicated as a web server, not as a personal computer.
• An NIC (Network Interface Card) and a broadband connection. A high upload rate is of the utmost importance.
• A computer that will be enough to keep up with server requests. Processor intensive web sites will require a higher quality PC than a web site that only has a few static HTML pages.
• Installed copy of the Linux OS. Though any OS can serve a web site, Linux is one of the most popular server OSes and is becoming an industry standard.
• An ISP or Internet Connection that supports web traffic. Many ISPs will not allow users to run a web server unless they pay an additional fee. Contact your ISP for more details

Most of those items should be easy enough, except for the Linux OS. It is possible to serve a web site using the Windows operating system, but many more security issues need to be addressed than with the Linux OS. If you would like to learn more about linux, read a Beginner's Tutorial to get your feet wet.

Windows Hosting Information

If you have chosen to stay with windows to host your web site, please take a look at these tutorials on how to set up a Windows-based web server.

Windows Web Server - A steb-by-step process of building a windows web server.
Windows 2003 - A great resource for setting up a Windows 2003 based server.

The most important part of getting a windows server ready is to ensure that IIS/PWS (different name for different versions of Windows) is installed. Without installing this you will not be able to serve web documents to the public. If you are using Windows ME or XP Home Edition there is not a safe way to install IIS/PWS to your system. You will either have to use a different OS or install a different version of Windows.

XP Pro - XP Pro IIS Installation Guide.
Windows 98 - Windows 98 PWS Installation Guide.

Linux Hosting Information

There are many flavors of Linux to choose from. The most popular are RedHat, Slackware, and Debian. If you are new to Linux, do not worry. Many web sites are out there that will teach you all the need-to-know information to get started with linux. Here are a few helpful web sites:

Debian Server Walkthrough - A step-by-step guide to set up a secure, reliable Debian Linux server.
Slackware Server Walkthrough - A step-by-step guide to set up a secure, reliable Slackware Linux server.
New2Unix - A compiled FAQ for newbies to Linux.
YoLinux.com - The best resource for anything linux related.

There is a huge community that supports linux and most are more than happy to answer your questions, provided that you have done a little research prior to asking your question. If you have any problems with getting linux to run, the place to ask your questions is at Linux Questions.

Setting Up Your First Web Hosting Account

Setting Up Your First Web Hosting Account

The Basics

Setting up a web hosting account for the first time can be confusing and frustrating for the novice. This article will guide you through the steps of setting up a new web hosting account for your website.

Setting up your web hosting account will depend upon many things, the first of which is:

Do you already have a website built and ready to be hosted?

If the answer to that question is yes, then your next set of questions should be:

How was your website designed? Did you design it yourself using Microsoft FrontPage, or did you use some other WYSIWYG website building software? Did a professional designer build your site for you? Did they use Microsoft FrontPage, or did they use some other WYSIWYG website building software? Did your designer use a database driven software, such as Cold Fusion? Maybe they coded your site using a text editor – you’ll need the answers to these questions.

If you have a FrontPage website, you’ll need a web host who supports FrontPage. If your site was developed with Cold Fusion, you’ll need a web host who supports Cold Fusion. This also applies to other design software not mentioned here. Check with your web designer and/or web design program’s documentation for further help with this.

Maybe you haven’t yet designed your website. Many web hosts offer online website building software that requires no programming or HTML knowledge. If this is your strategy, make sure your web host offers such software, and find out if there’s a cost for you to use it.

Finding The Right Web Host

Locating a web host that gives you the reliability you need, plus excellent customer service, and that offers all the features you’re going to need, can be challenging.

You can begin your search by asking business associates, friends and relatives who have websites of their own, who they use. Just as you would get a recommendation for a good restaurant, word of mouth can sometimes steer you in the right direction.

You can also check out the many web hosting directories on the web. These directories are set up to allow you to search using the features that you’re looking for in a web host. Keep in mind though, that many of the listings you see may also be paid listings that are pushed your way for obvious reasons.

Once you narrow down your search to a few potential web hosts, your next step will be to visit the many web hosting message boards and forums on the web. Perform a search on each of the potential web hosts that you have in mind – read through the posts and see what other people’s experiences have been with the hosts you have in mind. If you see too many negative comments or experiences by others, you might want to take a hint from that and rule out that particular hosting company.

Once you’ve narrowed down your search to a few web hosts, you should make contact with them and get answers to any questions you have. Since you’re a beginner at this, you might strongly consider using a web host that provides telephone support. A web host that provides only email support may not be able to fully answer questions that you have – this applies to sales questions as well as support questions.

When you make your inquires, keep track of which host responds to you the quickest. Which of these hosts answers your questions patiently and takes the time to go over details with you? Do they seem more interested in getting you to sign up, or do they address topics you have no concern about, beware of those danger signs.

Signing Up For Your Web Hosting Account

Most web hosts have multiple plans that you can choose from. The trick is to choose a web hosting plan that provides you the features you actually need, without choosing a plan that offers you features you don’t need, or may never use. This is probably the most difficult thing a novice will be faced with when choosing a web host. You’ll need to choose a plan that strikes an even balance between what you need right now and what you may need a month or two down the road. Your website might remain the same size as it is today, by next year; however, your site may grow quickly, requiring additional resources in a relatively short period of time.

Consult with your web designer and with your potential new web host about these issues. Ask you potential web host if it’s easy it is to upgrade your account if you need additional services. Ask if there are any additional charges if you upgrade your account.

The last thing you should do before signing up for a web hosting account is to read your web host’s AUP (Acceptable Use Policy), and/or their TOS (Terms Of Service), and/or their SLA (Service Level Agreement). Make certain that you understand and agree with your new web host’s policies, and that your website does not break any of your new web host’s rules and regulations. By not reviewing your new host’s contracts with you, you may find your website and email shut down without prior notice for breaking a rule you were not aware of, or you might end up paying for fees you didn’t know you were liable for.

The majority of web hosts require you to sign up for a hosting account by using your credit or debit card. Some hosts offer online check payment, as well as paper check payments. Many web hosts accept PayPal. You might want to ask if your host offers discounts for advance payment. Some hosts offer substantial discounts if you prepay a year in advance. I don’t recommend this until after you’ve had some time to experience your new host’s level of service and support.

Most importantly, don’t rush into signing up. Wait until you get all of your questions answered to your satisfaction.