May 2005 Archives

As anyone who develops software, I have my very own development environment at home. If you are a developer who works for someone else during the day it may very well mimic the environment at work - but who knows, it may not.

Up until a few days ago my environment was this: Red Hat Linux 9, Java, Apache 1.3, Perl ( not sure of the version ) PHP 4, Tomcat 4, and mySQL ( not sure of the exact version ). I came across a product on another site I visit from time to time that prompted me to try something out. I re-installed Linux with no server components. Then I downloaded and installed XAMPP from Apache Friends.

Actually there isn't much to installing XAMPP. You just unpack it to the directory of your choice ( it suggests /opt ) and then execute the script to run it. No problem. There are a few security settings you may wish to change - but nothing major that will require a rocket scientist be nearby.

XAMPP comes with Apache 2 ( PHP 5 and Perl included ) and mySQL ( not sure of the exact version ) and phpMyAdmin. This makes for a very nice development environment that is current, portable, and easy to install and configure. As with anything new to try out, there are a few things that work great, and a few that work OK. All of the components provided with XAMPP worked well right out of the box ( virtual box that is ) with no configuration whatsoever. I did do the extra security configuration which was a piece of cake thanks to the script provided with the product.

The problem came later.

As a developer who uses Java much more than PHP or Perl I depend on having an application server ( servlet container ) to use. I generally configure my HTTP server to communicate with the app server for seamless development. This generally necessitates the involvement of mod_jk/mod_jk2. Tomcat is not included with XAMPP but mod_jk2 is - strangely enough? It appears as though people have asked for it, as suggested in their FAQs, but they decided against bundling it due to the size of the download. I hate to admit it, but I could not get this configured correctly. No matter what I did, this would not work.

I visited the forum, which is primarily in German or if it isn't has some fairly rough English, but could not find any solutions. I found a few posts that asked for help, but were never answered. If anyone has installed XAMPP and Tomcat and got mod_jk2 working, by all means comment here and let me know. However, all is not lost . . . As frustrated as I was - see I hate having something like this only done halfway - I wanted my environment working 100% with nothing done half-assed. I decided to make another big change to my development environment.

Recently I checked out a book from the library, Red Hat Linux Bible: Fedora and Enterprise Edition by Christopher Negus. It comes with disks containing the OS. Since I was in an experimental mood I decided to install it. Linux Red Hat Fedora is very nice. I was very impressed. Since installing Red Hat 9, I was never exceptionally happy with it. I liked the desktop and all, and it certainly made strides since 7.x - the last version I used, but it never seemed 100% stable and compatible with my needs. Fedora, however, does.

I ended up including the server components I wanted: Apache ( PHP 4 and Perl included ), mySQL, and VS FTP as part of the isntallation. Later I added Java, Tomcat 5 and phpMyAdmin. I set up mod_jk2 and got it working as needed. So, I have my development environment working as I want with a whole new set of components as well as a new OS that I never intended to install permanently. It kind of goes to show that you can package a nice development environment for developers. You can set it up so that it is easy to configure and use. But, the best environment is one that each developer sets up for his/her self because it will suit their specific needs. I think it also goes to show that an open, inquisitive mind willing to try new things will provide the best alternatives. I never would have installed Fedora if XAMPP had worked out perfectly.

The debate over a national ID has stirred up a lot of controversy. There are supporters on both sides of the fence. Personally, I am still sitting on the fence and trying to weigh both sides of the argument.

These are some cool videos Mozilla Europe launched to promote the Firefox browser. Check em' out . . . just so you know - it took a while for each one to load.

There is no shortage of news reports, articles, or journals contending that gaming is bad for you. So much so that I am not even going to try to find links to them in an effort to make this blog even-sided.

However, lately there have been quite a few findings that suggest gaming may be quite good for you. By good this means it may improve your health, visual skills, intelligence and be quite an effective training tool.

Go here to read the original report at Techdirt. Now I won't feel quite so guilty when I play Halo 2.

Wired Magazine is running a story about the Electronic Entertainment Expo that will hit Los Angeles in the upcoming week. Although the article doesn't provide a lot of info about the new consoles coming out, it does re-invigorate a discussion I had with my son recently.

The two of us went to a local book/video/music store. He was looking at the Nintendo DS. I had recently seen a PSP and I must admit that I was pretty impressed with it. He would like to have a Nintendo DS. He already has a Game Boy and a Game Boy Color, but of course, he needs a Nintendo DS too. I asked him what he thought of the PSP. I remarked that I thought it was a better machine given the things it can do ( at a considerable cost over the Nintendo DS ). He disagreed. But I think his opinion is a bit biased because many of his friends have a Nintendo DS and if he had one he could join in their games.

Could this be a resurgence in the hunt for bigfoot? A Cree Indian claims that his video is footage of Bigfoot. Inside Edition has a team of researchers heading into the Great White North to find Bigfoot - so we can rest assured that this will be given a great deal of scientific attention.

The image on this page is supposed to be the result of a CT scan and reveals what he looked like when he was alive.