Personal Forums! Woohoo!

Huzzah! I’ve got my computer hosting my own personal forums!

Early this morning, before work, I installed an Apache HTTP Server 2.2 on my machine, enabling me to serve up web pages over the internet. It was pretty easy for someone with my level of familiarity with computers to install and set up. I was hosting a test web page in no time!

Then I installed the PHP 5.2.6 module for Apache 2.2, which allows my computer to run PHP scripts which are necessary for fancy web-based programs like bulletin boards. This pretty much set itself up for me.

After that I installed MySQL 5.0, a database server. This is needed to store posts people make on my forums.

I installed the MySQL extension for PHP so that PHP-based scripts could access the database. This was a little tricky, but I managed to get it working after remembering that I had to modify the Apache server configuration file to also load the new extension.

Lastly I installed the forum software, configured it, and blammo! Done!

So far I haven’t actually created any proper topics and such for my forums, but I plan on using it to record discussions for some programming ideas with friends.  But it’s pretty cool to have it all up and running from nothing in such a short period of time!

Steampunk Star Wars Customs

Check out some neat, hyper-technological Victorian-era custom Star Wars action figures at Sillof’s Workshop. Very nice!

I like the little tuft of steam coming out of the smokestack on the R2 unit.

This guy has made a lot of other custom stuff, too. The Gaslight Justice League features DC comic superheroes in a late 19th century style. And the Star Wars: 1942 Biker Scout is great!

R2-D2 Wireless Webcam

I am so tempted to buy an R2-D2 Wireless Webcam…

• Access R2-D2 Webcam from anywhere in the world using Skype software.
• Full-function: Forward, reverse, turn 360 degrees. Lens has a 62-degree vertical adjustment.
• Record and playback digital movies (video only) and snapshots
• 2.0 zoom lens with 628×582 pixel resolution.
• Lightsaber-style IP phone with stand. Has original movie sound effects and controls movement of R2-D2.
• Lightsaber VoIP/USB Phone allows you to make calls using Skype software.
• Control the R2-D2 webcam from anywhere in the world!
• 14-day battery life in standby mode

Someone give me permission to drop $400 for this thing. I could so use this to spy on my rabbits when I’m away from home.

dondueck.com

Yes, I finally got around to registering dondueck.com.  I’ve set it up to point to this blog for the time being.

Take that you stupid squatter who bought that address a couple of years ago.  It’s mine now, and I didn’t have to pay you.  Jerk.

April Fools!

The folks at Blizzard Entertainment put out crazy news items relating to their famous MMORPG World of Warcraft every April Fools day. This year, however, they’ve outdone themselves! Check out these new joke articles:

• World of Warcraft: Molten Core for the Atari 2600

• New “Bard” class

Bravo, guys! Well done!

From the What-The-Hell-Am-I-Watching Files

If you figure this video out, please let me know:

The Internet Movie Firearms Database

The internet is a beautiful thing. A buddy of mine directed me to the The Internet Movie Firearms Database. This awesome site is a developing online encyclopedia of guns in movies, TV, video games, etc. It still appears pretty new, but it’s already got a lot of great stuff, like the list of real-world weapons the guns in GoldenEye 007 were based on and the firearms used in the movie RoboCop.

Oooh! Browse by screenshot! Awesome!

Google Maps: Street View

Google recently added a fantastic new feature to their Google Maps service called “Street View”. Google has sent vehicles fitted with a 360° camera driving down hundreds of roads, taking thousands upon thousands of photos. At each point where one of these photos was taken, you can zoom in and have a zoom-able, full 360° view of the surrounding area from that point. It’s incredible!

Here is an example, chosen for its shameless humor value: 588 44th Ave, San Francisco, California, USA

You can click and drag the image to rotate your view, and you can use the slider on the top-left to zoom in and out. I hope they’ll eventually get to doing this with my home town, but I’m not holding my breath.

MySpace

Ugh. I made a MySpace profile, too. But I had a real excuse to make that one.

Facebook

I’ve created a Facebook profile. I feel dirty now. Why would I do such a thing?

I did it for the page hits on my blog. I admit it. I’m a page hit whore. I remember way back when Don’s Rant Page was still in existence, I was getting over a thousand hits a month. I had a taste of the power. I want more. How am I supposed to engage in successful psychodynamic manipulation of a specific subset of people for mysterious purposes when my sphere of influence is so small? Not that I’d ever do such a thing, of course, but, hypothetically, it would be almost impossible.

I suppose it doesn’t matter, really, since, in the near future, we’ve already los– oh, I’ve said to much.