PHP/CSS versus ASP/tables
For the past few days, I have been tinkering around with PHP while rebuilding our site at work. I initially did everything in tables and ASP back last year sometime. Just some small stuff, nothing major.
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Archive for August, 2004
Apache/PHP local install
Today on my Windoze XP machine at work, I installed Apache 2.0.5 and PHP 5.0.1 locally for development. Previously, I had a mapped drive to our server, and I would copy/paste files from my machine to the server, then reload the page in the browser. Repeat 5,895 times. Okay, so maybe not that many times, but it was a pain. Actually, the current version of our lab site (our server is currently “in repair” so I can’t give you a link to it) I did in *cough* ASP *cough*, because I didn’t know PHP at the time and needed to get some Access databases on the web quickly. Now, however, in the coming months I plan on migrating all of the Access data to MySQL and powering it all with PHP (as I learn it). Soooo, I decided to install Apache and PHP today. I’ve heard horror stories of installing server packages and getting it all configured. I found this tutorial that helped alot. I did the Apache binary installer and PHP zip package installation, tinkered with the Apache httpd.conf file settings and some Windoze system file settings, and by 9:30 this morning, I was parsing PHP locally. It was alot easier than I thought it would be, especially since this was my first attempt at installing/running a server. All I can say now is why the hell didn’t I do this earlier?
Happy birthday, Priss
Today would have been Priss’ 5th birthday. Part of me wonders would have I even remembered her birthday if she were still here today. Perhaps not. We sometimes tend to take things (like having someone you love around for another year, a.k.a., birthdays) for granted. You think the ones close to you will always be there. As if they’re 10 feet tall and bullet-proof. And then they’re gone, and you’re left in shock. You know, the old saying that Poison Cinderella ruined with that crappy-ass song of theirs: “You don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone”. Probably the one thing Poison Cinderella ever sang that’s true. Priss died in February. February 6th. Six months ago. Hard to believe it was that long ago and I still miss her this damn much.
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Ode to coffee mug
Note: This post inspired by Timmy’s “Ode to Smelly Hat”
We’ve been together for many years now, you and I have, eh? I got you from a Town Pump gas station in the-middle-of-nowhere Montana back in the summer of ‘99 (no, not the summer of ‘69, that would be a crappy Bryan Adams song). Who really knows how many cups of Joe you have so graciously kept warm for me. You’ve been there for the good times, and hung with me through the bad times; never once complaining, even when we stopped at that truck stop in Mitchell, South Dakota during the summer of 2002. Remember that coffee? That was, quite possibly, the worst truck stop coffee we ever had, huh?
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Email from caring strangers
Just when you think that there is no one out there that cares about you, all you have to do is go to your Inbox. Here are some emails I have received lately from some very generous and caring people (subject line followed by sender):
- Dirty thoughts of you - Britney
- Horneeey wifes - Joey
- Solve your erectile problems once and for all - Lana Britton
- Get vicodin and much more here - Barbara
- breastplate - Reyes
- i love you - Mitch Winslow
- Buy cheap Viagra through us - Cleo E. Pope
Right now I would like to take the time to respond to you all, since, regretably, I don’t have the time to do so on an individual basis:
- Britney - Perhaps I just don’t remember you, or maybe I was drunk? At any rate, I wouldn’t let my fiancee find out about these so-called “dirty thoughts” of yours, because honestly, she would whoop yo’ ass.
- Joey - First off, at least learn how to use plurals. Secondly, I’m not interested, thank you (also please refer to the reply to Britney above).
- Lana - Right now, I’m good. However, please feel free to contact me again in, oh, say 35-40 years.
- Barbara - I told you, I will contact you, dammit!
- Reyes - WTH are you even talking about?
- Mitch - Sorry dude, but I’m not a switch hitter (also refer to earlier replies to Joey and Britney).
- Cleo - Please refer to above reply to Lana.
Damn spammers.
Damn you Notepad!
I have a bad habit of relying on Notepad to edit my CSS files. This bit me in the ass tonight. I don’t quite know what causes this, but my file automagically went from looking like this (this is only a small sampling of the screw-up):
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Extract day from date in Excel
This isn’t rocket science, but I found it useful (once I got it right), especially when you have 20,000 records to extract the day from, as I often do. This works for dates formatted as such:
1/1/2001 (without leading zeros on the month or day)
and will give you the day, in the above case: 1
=IF(MID(A10,2,1)="/",(IF(MID(A10,4,1)="/",MID (A10,3,1),MID(A10,3,2))),(IF(MID(A10,5,1)="/", MID(A10,4,1),MID(A10,4,2))))- Download this code: extract-day-from-date-in-excel-1.txt
