1. Make a checklist of your programs

This may sound silly at first, but make yourself a checklist. The easiest way to start this list, is by opening your Start menu and moving from top to bottom. I will use my machine as an example. Go through your start menu and list everything you need and everything you want on a reinstall. Leave out anything you don’t want or need. Below is my list.

• Adobe Reader
• Microsoft Security Essentials
• Mozilla Firefox
• Windows Live Mail
• 7-Zip
• Air Video Server
• BlackBerry Device Manager
• Dropbox
• Evernote
• FileZilla FTP Client
• GIMP
• Google Chrome
• Google Talk
• Handbrake
• iTunes
• K-Lite Codec Pack
• MediaMonkey
• Microsoft Headset
• Microsoft Mouse
• Microsoft Office 2007
• Microsoft Rich Tools
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express
• MySQL Workbench
• Notepad++
• OpenTTD
• Picasa 3
• PuTTY
• QuickTime
• Skype
• Speccy
• Sun VirtualBox
• Torchlight
• WebEx Recorder and Player
• Windows Virtual PC
• WinSCP
• X-Lite

So that’s quite a list, however this covers me in all aspects of the software I use.

2. Break your checklist down

This is starting to sound like work, isn’t it? You will thank me later… Following this process and getting to know what you want on your PC will allow you to reinstall in a fraction of the time it would have taken, the best part is you can keep the list and use it again at a later stage.

So following on, we need to break the list down. I break my software list into three aspects;

• Downloadable and free software
• Software that contains my data
• Proprietary software

Downloadable and free software

For the downloadable software, in general this is free software or software I have bought a license for etc. Going from the list above, the downloadable list would be as follows;

• Adobe Reader
• Microsoft Security Essentials
• Mozilla Firefox
• Windows Live Mail
• 7-Zip
• Air Video Server
• BlackBerry Device Manager
• Dropbox
• Evernote
• FileZilla FTP Client
• GIMP
• Google Chrome
• Google Talk
• Handbrake
• iTunes
• K-Lite Codec Pack
• MediaMonkey
• Microsoft Headset
• Microsoft Mouse
• MySQL Workbench
• Notepad++
• OpenTTD
• Picasa 3
• PuTTY
• QuickTime
• Skype
• Speccy
• Sun VirtualBox
• WebEx Recorder and Player
• WinSCP
• X-Lite

Please excuse the fact that it is almost an identical list, most of the things I use are all readily downloadable. From this point, the idea is to go to each piece of software’s website and to download the latest version of the software, saved on a flash disk or DVD. This will ensure that you do as little automatic updating as possible post-install.

Tip: For software that uses a downloader to install, generally there will be an “Administrator”, “Network” or “Business” edition available as well. Download this instead of the installer. This allows you to have a copy on hand, as well as the fact that these editions generally leave out all the free toolbars and other vacuous crap that come with the sponsored download. Skype is a prime example of having a business edition available (Skype thankfully is not an example of bundling software with the downloader, they get it right).

Software that contains my data

Go through your list and see what you do with each piece of software. If it is a viewer of some kind, like Adobe Reader, leave it out, however if is is something that contains your own data, for example my photos in Picasa, put it on this list (you can leave out anything that stores files online or in a cloud, Dropbox and Evernote for example). From the list above, I use the following software for the following reasons;

• Mozilla Firefox – Browsing and saving bookmarks
• Windows Live Mail – Email
• FileZilla FTP Client – FTP Logins
• Google Chrome – Browsing and saving bookmarks
• iTunes – Purchased iPad applications
• Microsoft Office 2007 – Documents
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express – Databases
• OpenTTD – Saved games
• Picasa 3 – My photos
• Sun VirtualBox – My VM’s
• Torchlight – Saved games
• Windows Virtual PC – My VM’s

From the reasons next to the software, I can easily work out what data of mine I need to back up, often the programs themselves allow you to do so. Basically I can see from the above that the following needs to be backed up from how I use my computer.

• My Bookmarks
• My Emails
• My FTP Credentials
• My iTunes applications
• My Documents
• My Databases
• My Photos
• My Virtual Machines
• My Saved games

If you noticed a pattern in the above, then that is a good thing. In Windows, it’s very easy to backup most of your stuff by simply backing up anything with a “My” in front of it. All of the above can be easily backed up either from the corresponding “My” folders on the hard drive, or through the application itself (Chrome and Firefox are prime examples). Email outside of Microsoft Outlook can get kind of tricky to transfer, but that’s another topic for another time.

Proprietary software

This is software that you generally would own, and would most likely be on its own media. All that you need to do here is ensure that you have the CD’s/DVD’s on hand and off you go.

• Microsoft Office 2007
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express

Tip: To save on your time spent updating, hop online and download the latest service packs for each piece of software, particularly those from the Microsoft stable.

Note: Some proprietary software comes pre-installed on your machine. If you do not have your media from purchasing your machine, contact the reseller and/or manufacturer to discuss the way forward for your format.

3. Back up all folders starting with a “My”

Following on from the second section, go into the users’ folder (either Document & Settings or Users, depending on which version of Windows you are running), and copy any “My” folders that have not been backed up already. A prime example of this from this article so far, is that nowhere have I mentioned “My Music”.   Once you have backed this up you are pretty much good to go.

4. Format the PC and re-install

Pop your Windows disc in and follow the instructions.   When you are done, insert any driver discs that you require loading, these would have come with your PC.   In the case of Windows 7, drivers have been greatly simplified and should download automatically just after installation.

5. Reload downloaded software

Grab the initial list you have and start moving through one by one, installing each one of the packages you have already downloaded.   Note how quick the installation is going now.

6. Reload proprietary software

Pop in the discs for your proprietary software and follow their installation procedures, once they have finished, install any service packs you may have downloaded earlier.

7. Restore your data

All the items you backed up from the “My” section can now be restored, as well as anything else garnered from the “My” exercise above.

8. Get to use your PC two hours after hitting the format button

No need for an explanation here, point 8 says it all…

So that about covers a relatively efficient methodology for re-formatting a PC, perhaps it becomes a mainstream standard, or perhaps one little store adopts it, either way I hope it helped someone.

Best part is, if something goes wrong shortly after the re-install, you already have relatively recent copies of all the software and can reload quickly.   A much better method would be to create an image directly after, however this, as with backing up mail, is another topic for another time.

Enjoy your format!

Enter Evernote, the most fantastic little synchronized note taking system I’ve seen so far (special thanks to @jacogr for the recommendation)! I have recently acquired an iPad for the purpose of taking notes, which now means I am using yet another device to fulfill that purpose. Just to give you an idea on how my current note taking takes place, I have included a short description on a per device basis.

My PC – note taking on my PC consists of me launching Notepad++ and typing in whatever random text needs to be recorded. Whether I save or not depends on the importance of the note, and where I save the note depends on the direction of the wind and alignment of the planets. The end result of this method is a wide array of .txt files sprawled over my drive with no apparent pattern, in particular the pattern does not spell “efficient retrieval later”.

My Blackberry – my BB at least has a notes section, which synchronizes with my Exchange account at the office, and displays accordingly within Outlook on my Notebook. This is slightly more efficient than the PC…

My Notebook – as this is my work machine, I have Outlook installed and linked to an Exchange server, which allows for great little post-it notes throughout the machine. The great trouble with this is that each note takes the name of whatever the first line is. The next inconvenience is that Outlook archives my notes along with my emails on a bi-weekly basis. Now I know that this can be changed, but in all honesty I can’t be bothered to fiddle around on something as simple as my notes.

My iPad – the new addition to the gadget family which I am still learning. By default it comes with a note taking app installed, which while it looks really pretty, isn’t terribly functional and the only means I have bothered to find at the moment for getting this synchronized to the rest of my stuff is to send a plaintext email from it containing the note. While this is searchable via my mail, I know that in time I’m going to forget that I typed the note on here and will inevitably misplace the notes in the vortex that is my inbox.

Enter Evernote. This is a great little app that is available for all of my devices (and more) that uses a single account to synchronize everything. Any note that I type on my iPad is just about instantly readable on my notebook, PC and BB. I say “just about” as the note only syncs after saving, and is then subject to whatever Internet connection you have. As you can see from the below picture, I have the app installed on all three devices at home, all with their own intuitive interfaces native to the device, not just some generic badly displayed grid view resized for whatever device I’m on.

The downside that I’ve found so far is that notes that I have typed and viewed previously do not seem to be cached on the devices, so in order to view a note that you haven’t viewed in a while you are required to be connected. In all honesty though, this really isn’t a biggie in my world, considering that I’m pretty much always connected everywhere, and that this limitation is removed when you upgrade to the premium version for $44.99 a year (roughly R300).

Your notes can be viewed in various ways, from lists to thumbnails to previews. There are various ways to organise your notes as well, by specific notebook (you can have many), by date, by tags, by city and so on. With the free registration, you are entitled to 60MB of notes per month, according to the app this is around 30,000 notes per month. This may seem like a helluva lot of space to have available to you, but then you also need to consider that you have the ability to attach files to whatever note you are taking.

All in all, this app has become an integral part of my day within a week of using it. I would highly recommend it to anyone who regularly takes notes or has to write things down to remember them. 10 out of 10 on the usefulness scale! You can download Evernote from Evernote.com.

• First, run msconfig (hit the start button and type it in)
• Next, select boot.
• Then select ‘Advanced Options’
• Up the number of processors to the number of cores you have in your system, in my case this is 4.
• Hit OK
• Hit OK again on the System Configuration window.
• Reboot and see how quickly you boot!

And that’s it.   Told you it would be short and sweet!

Post Situation Analysis: Bye bye snapshots, bye bye VM configs. In other words quite bleak.

Rushed Solution: Mount the original VHD, create a blank snapshot, rename the snapshot files, and launch!

Rushed Solution == Bad Idea

If you have one base VHD with no snapshot, great! Mount it and off you go. If you have snapshots, you could be in for a rocky ride (you are already 25% stuffed transferring an RC hosted VM to RTM). True, it may work when mounting the last image as described in the rushed solution. What I found was that I got a BSOD on login, but after booting into safe mode and then rebooting again it was ok. The problem I encountered on VM’s with many snapshots (5+) was that at the point of booting up normally and logging in, the registry corrupted. Windows restored the registry, however this left the networking components and drivers for Windows in a completely unusable state (even legacy adapters), and the VM’s needed to be reloaded from scratch after copying data to new VHD’s, and mounting those in new VM’s.

Snapshots use a hierarchical structure (Each VHD/AVHD is basically appended onto the previous one) to keep track of changes without duplicating entire drives. The following info won’t get you to a state where you can flip between snapshots (it’s a sacrifice), but it will give you a working machine at the point that you needed it for data recovery purposes, with all data from all snapshot points.

This will merge the latest snapshot into the previous one. Repeat steps 2-7 for each snapshot level. Once you have merged all the snapshots and the parent disk is listed as the original VHD, you have everything ready to to complete the wizard for the last time. You now have the original VHD containing the complete snapshot tree. Finally set up a new machine with the VHD, and recover your data from the VM.

Note: Only Hyper-V in R2 recognises AVHD files in the Edit Disk wizard, if you are using 2008 R1, rename the AVHD extension to VHD.

Note #2: Thank you to all the various Hyper-V related sites that I trawled through to get to this information, unfortunately I cannot remember you all, by far the most informative in content and comments was on “Hyper-V notes from the field“, thanks Robert! Please visit this site too, as he has outlined a couple more ways in getting the VHD’s merged, I simply covered what I find to be the easiest method in my own terms for my own situation.

We arrived at the Bombardier depot off Allandale road just after 10am, and were led into the main depot by the friendly staff from the project. Coffee and snacks were served, and much mingling (and pokening) was done by all! After a while, we were addressed by the CEO of the Gautrain Management Agency, Jack van der Merwe and Bombela marketing manager, Errol Braithwaite, who took everyone’s questions regarding the train, safety, technology and various other aspects of it. After Errol’s speech, he introduced Sandy, who ‘owned and washed’ the Gautrains. We were then told (to our wide eyes) that if we scream “Ag please Sandy” really loud, we’d get to actually go on the train. Well, 200 people clearly made enough noise, and we were allowed our ride!

We started from the Allandale depot, heading out towards what we thought was the test track. What we didn’t realise, was that we were actually being taken to the Marlboro station. There was absolute shock when we realised that in what seemed like 3 odd minutes, we’d made it from Allandale to Marlboro, a trip that during peak hour would easily take 45 minutes. To be certain, we timed it on the way back, and sure enough from Marlboro to Allandale depot took 2:52.

The train itself is very neatly done up, with all upholstery in the train matching and branded to the Gautrain. The airconditioning keeps you nice and cool, and the air suspension and lack of bolted rails makes for a smooth glide along the tracks. Reaching 160km/h was also astonishingly fast, and felt like we were going only around 60km/h. The Gautrain uses 25,000 volts on running and accelerating, and so in the interest of the environment (and as someone put it, the “bunnyhuggers”), the trains are all equipped with a regenerative braking system which feeds power back into the circuit when the brakes are applied on the trains.

All in all this was an awesome experience, be sure to check out the Gautrain Facebook page and the Tweet Up On Rails topic for more feedback, pictures and information!

Why, in this day and age, do people want to make money / popularity / whatever by REQUIRING you to register? I have so many logins to remember as it stands… Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In (thank you TweetDeck, you ROCK!), Think Bike, MyADSL, and and and and and…. I don’t know about you, but I have ended up with quite a few passwords that I use in almost a rotation basis. Out of all of these, I have gained my “favourites”;

Think Bike, a niche forum, of which I’m involved in various subsections of it, including traffic marshalling and support services.
Facebook, is well, Facebook. Its the 21st century ID number and you pretty much have to have one. If you don’t, enjoy being left behind, particularly with recent patent awards…
Twitter, my little one-liner rant/share/cool/funky/link/share page which is nothing without Tweetdeck or Echofon…
Linked-In, something I’ve started getting into, the best spot to mingle with like-minded business people.
MyADSL, if you’re a South African and battle with your internet, this is your first stop.

I’ve digressed… I wanted to post and was required to register. Why? There is so much content being served on the Interwebz, why on earth would you want to capitalise on something, even if it is just gaining registrants, by restricting it! The best example of this and my thoughts towards it, would be something written by David Thorne (if you browse stuff or receive emails you should know the name) titled Simon’s pie charts…

Signing up for things is old, outdated and unnecessary. Getting back to the SSO side of things, I have recently (at work) been working on an SSO project relating to sign-ins. I wasn’t really aware of any of this SSO stuff before , but realised I myself was using it with Google’s various applications. It’s amazing how it sneaks up on you! Did you know that you are using the same login for the following things:

• GMail
• GTalk
• Google Analytics
• Google Webmaster Tools
• Blogger.com
• Google Docs
• YouTube

Yeah so I guess the Google prefix gives them away, apart from YouTube and Blogger.   This blog uses the MyScoop aggregator, which uses something fantastic, the ability to sign in with another account of yours via rpxnow.com!   This is a good idea, and as far as I’m aware from a newbie standpoint, a perfect example of SSO.   This allows you to sign in with your Google, Twitter, Facebook, Blogger (part of Google), Yahoo! or OpenID account instead of creating a new login (with new password, new spam and new username to remember).   There is the option to create a new username, which is a great option too, for whoever hasn’t got ANY of the other accounts…   This opens the door to any site without a ‘G’ in their prefix to use a single login!

The concept of SSO is just brilliant, imagine how much time you would save by not having to remember all your logins for all your sites?   Hmmm, come to think of it, when does one IM take over everything?   What are your thoughts on a unified login for everything?

So yes, today we bought some more Microsoft hardware to add to the collection. I also seem, for the most part hopefully, to have converted Bonita to the quality of the products (hence the ‘we’ in the previous sentence). As it stands, between the two of us we currently have the following:

• LifeCam VX-500
• LifeChat LX-3000
• Wireless Mouse 5000
• Comfort Curve Keyboard 2000 (at the office)
• Another Comfort Curve Keyboard 2000 (now at home)
• Wireless Keyboard 3000 v2.0 (part of Wireless Desktop 3000)
• Wireless Mouse 5000 (part of Wireless Desktop 3000)

LifeCam VX-500

It all started with me wanting a decent webcam, that isn’t going to cause XP to hang on startup (yes, they do this), isn’t going to require additional software (normally something out of the ark, written in a language from the creation), and isn’t going to cause a BSOD and kill my PC.   I figured I was running a MS operating system, so MS hardware is pretty guaranteed to work, and when I found the LifeCam with incorrect pricing on it I figured what the heck (sorry unnamed store!).   I opened up the box, sure enough no driver CD, but none was necessary, AND there was a basic Microsoft headset supplied.   The term headset is used loosely, it was an earphone with a mic attached lower down the cable, but better than nothing, and a great easter-egg if you are just getting started!

LifeChat LX-3000

A while after the webcam, I happened to step on my Altec Lansing headset, rendering it pretty useless; not even insulation tape could save it.   I decided that I would go for a Logitech, as that is what I have at the office, and it ROCKS.   Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with the Altec, it is a killer headset, but I figured that after 4 years, it had given decent service and I needed to try something in the USB line instead of 35mm jack.   Upon seeing the price of the Logitech, I realised it was a tiny bit out of budget, so when I saw the LifeChat at CNA for a tiny bit less but still out of budget, I reckoned I’d just slap it on the Edgars account and pay it off.   I have never looked back, this headset is the best thing of its kind.   It fits around your ears, instead of on them, so you can wear it for hour after hour; it also seals completely, so even at full tilt no one around you can hear it.   It comes with inline controls, as well as a Microsoft LiveChat button to launch MSN.   One thing that would be nice would be to be able to program this button to launch any service of your choice, but hey, for this kind of audio quality vs the price I paid for these, I’m really not complaining.

Wireless Mouse 5000

I used to have another brand of wireless mouse, which will go unmentioned here.   Suffice to say I had issues with it from about 2 months in, and eventually after putting up with it for 3 years it found itself on the wrong side of the bedroom, against the wall, with a fair deal of acceleration behind it (I was sick, and pretty grumpy).   Needing to purchase another mouse, and wireless at that, I was (and still am) of the opinion that if you want a wireless input device, you buy Microsoft or Logitech.   End of story.   So I trundled off to Centurion mall, and eventually found a Microsoft Wireless Mouse 5000.   What a killer little device!   It wasn’t the shape I was originally looking for, but it was nice and chunky (I like a chunky mouse).   It can easily be used in a left or right hand, and as with every other Microsoft device, it just works.   I have been using it now for probably around 6 months, and I have yet to replace the included batteries.   The 5 programmable buttons work like a charm as well!   The only thing that takes some getting used to, is that the 5-way scroll wheel does not have any sort of tactile response, it just rolls, but that is something that I absolutely love now!   It was due to this mouse that I recommended Bonita go for the Wireless Desktop 3000 as it was included in the package along with a great looking keyboard.

Comfort Curve 2000

At the office, I have been using a Comfort Curve 2000 keyboard on the off chance that it was lying around spare and my hand-me-down had shuffled off its mortal coil.   The curve took a good while to get used to, but yet again this is now something I cannot do without.   I despise typing on my laptop now as there is no curve, and I hit all sorts of random keys by mistake.   So, after getting fed up and finding the same keyboard at Game this morning, I bought it.   It has now inspired me to write this post, as I can’t stop raving about all the Microsoft hardware that is now sprawled out in front of me.   The Comfort Curve is Microsoft’s entry level keyboard, but still costs a fair packet more than its competitors for entry level, but you won’t get the, *ahem*, comfort with said competitors, nor will you get the programmable buttons at the top of the keyboard (you do need to download Intellitype Pro for reprogramming these, at around 15MB its worth it, and as mentioned before it won’t wipe out your machine).

Wireless Keyboard 3000 v2.0 (Wireless Desktop 3000)

The only piece of hardware at home now that I haven’t tried, is the Wireless Keyboard 3000 v2.0.   I think the main reason I haven’t tried it yet, is because Bonita is loving it so much and going on and on about it so much that I don’t think she would let me…   What I can say though, is that if Bonita raves about a keyboard, it MUST be good!   Again, all batteries were included!

So there you have it, our current arsenal of Microsoft products.   People complain that they have to pay exorbitant prices for the hardware, however it really is not that exorbitant.   Sure, their entry level stuff is more expensive than others, but you won’t find the build quality or support for the other stuff you can get, and their expensive stuff is leagues below the competition price wise.   People also complain regarding licenses, and I used to do so as well, however after using Windows 7 (and 2008 R2), I will gladly change my tune, however that is another post for another time…   If you have any Microsoft hardware, drop me a comment and let me know what you think of it.

1. Obtaining the Software

Everyone assumes that setting up Apache has to be a nightmare, and requires you to install Linux first, then customise it, then know how to use the command line interface to configure it and and and and…

The above used to be completely true, however quite a few places realised this and started offering all-in-one solutions that are incredibly quick and easy to configure.   My personal favourite has to be ClarkConnect Community Edition, which is now known as ClearOS Enterprise.   This is an open source system, based on Linux, which installs with a wizard, and offers such features as a caching web proxy, firewall, antivirus, antispam, file sharing (even for Windows!), printer sharing, bandwidth management and of course, MySQL and Apache (for a complete list, please check out ClearCenter’s website).

As with most things that are free, there is a catch, albeit not a very big one.   When you install the software, it will be completely active, however to receive software and security updates for your server, you will need to subscribe to ClearSDN, for the whopping price of nothing.   Only if you require corporate support do you pay, and for a home system, its pretty cut and dried that you don’t really need to have an immediate turnaround on support.   Also, if you are simply configuring a webserver, security updates are for the most part completely unnecessary.

So all you need to do, is visit the download page at ClearCenter and download the ISO file.   At 689MB, yes it’s big, but bear in mind its an ENTIRE operating system plus software.

2. Burning the CD

Next step is to burn the ISO to a CD, if you are on Windows 7 this can be done straight off the bat by inserting a blank CD into your drive.   It may be possible to do so in Vista as well, but I am proud to say I only used Vista for about 45 minutes when it came out and then I reformatted my machine and put XP back on.   Failing this, you will need to use something like Nero or Roxio to burn the ISO.

3. Obtaining the Hardware

This is always the expensive part of getting a server up and running (unless you are buying licenses).   If you take a look on Dell’s website, you will be greeted with price tags of over $1,000.   Don’t let this despair you!   ClearOS is really not that hungry, what with being Linux and all that, so you do not need a huge server.   If you don’t have a spare computer tucked away in a cupboard from a few years back, your best bet is to find a company that resells leased equipment that has reached end-of-life, I personally buy through RentWorks.   Here I picked up 2x Pentium 3 1Ghz rackmount servers (I gutted one to make the other more powerful) for the awesome price of R400, which is about $50 US, not bad huh?

An alternate to actually buying physical hardware, is to download VirtualBox, Sun Microsystem’s alternative to Virtual PC (and so much more flexible).   Install this, and you will be able to create multiple virtual PC’s within your own computer.   You can read more about it at VirtualBox.org.   For the record, this is how I will be doing my installation for the purposes of this post.

4. First Bootup

NOTE OF EXTREME WARNING (OR WARNING OF EXTREME NOTE)! INSTALLING ClearOS WILL WIPE OUT EVERY STORAGE DEVICE ON THE COMPUTER IT IS BEING INSTALLED ON (INCLUDING USB AND FIREWIRE)! MAKE SURE YOU ARE USING A SPARE COMPUTER THAT YOU ARE NOT GOING TO MISS ANY DATA ON!

Pop in the CD and boot off it.   The installer is very straight forward in a wizard type format, with every step explained.   You will get to a point where you are asked which mode ClearOS should operate in, Standalone or Gateway.

This is an important bit, if you have 2 network cards in your machine, you can select Gateway mode; what this does is allow you to use this server as a router/firewall/webserver/gateway onto the Internet, so you can actually use the ClearOS box to cache web content (and save you bandwidth!), filter out who sees what and provide you with network security for your home computers.   Should you just wish to host web content for internal testing, then Standalone should suffice.   For this example I am using Standalone.   In Gateway mode, it is worth noting that you can actually expose your server to the web and browse to it, which makes for a nice way of demoing sites to people for other opinions, however this takes a bit more knowledge of networking and IP address configuration.

If you already use a router to connect to the Internet, I would recommend setting your ClearOS machine to use DHCP to obtain its IP address automatically, but if you use a modem and this is the only network computer you have, set its IP address to 192.168.0.1, it will become a DHCP server in that case, and automatically configure your computer!

You will see that once you get to the software modules selection, that this system is quite complete and quite powerful!   With over 20 different modules ranging from VPN to mail to antivirus, you’re sure to be able to do quite a lot.   If you wish to play around, why not select every option?   Selecting all the options will only use around 1GB of hard drive space, so if you have that to play with, it really doesn’t hurt to install everything.   Just follow the on-screen instructions, and if you aren’t sure of something, just go with the defaults.   This system is quite robust, and is pretty difficult to break!

5. Finalising Install

Once the system is installed and you have rebooted, you will come to a red logon screen.   At this point, the system is ready to go.   Make sure you know the box’s IP address before you go back to your normal PC.   When you get back to your PC, open your web browser, and go to https://[your-servers-ip-address]:81/.   This will bring you to a login screen, enter the username ‘root’ and the password you selected in the install to log in.   You will now be guided through a 5-step wizard that will finish off your installation!

You may get a certificate warning when going to the management site, that is only because the certificate is self signed, there is nothing to worry about!

6. Web Management

Here is where the fun starts, you get to manage your server!   For the purposes of this post, I will only be briefly covering the Apache and MySQL portion of it, but as you can see there are MANY options to choose from.   Feel free to go through them and play around!

7. Enabling Apache

From the dashboard of your server, select the ‘Server’ option from the left, and select the ‘Web Server’ sub-option.

From the Web Server option, there are two buttons you now need to select, first select ‘To Auto’, this will start Apache automatically each time the system starts.   Next, select the ‘Start’ button to start the web server.   You will notice that the ‘On boot’ option changes to ‘Automatic’ and the ‘Status’ changes to ‘Running’.

Apache is now enabled!

8. Enabling MySQL

Next, select the MySQL sub-option from the menu on the left.

From the MySQL option, there are two buttons you now need to select, first select ‘To Auto’, this will start MySQL automatically each time the system starts.   Next, select the ‘Start’ button to start the MySQL server.   You will notice that the ‘On boot’ option changes to ‘Automatic’ and the ‘Status’ changes to ‘Running’, as per the web server options.

You will be prompted to enter a database password, do not lose this!

MySQL is now enabled!   (Are you sensing a pattern here as to how easy it is to enable the different services?)

9. Creating the Database

From the MySQL screen, you will see that there is a little notice stating that you can manage your MySQL database through another web interface

Select ‘Go’ to launch phpMyAdmin in a new window (your login username will be ‘root’).   From there you can create your new database from the ‘Create new database’ option.

10. Deploying WordPress

The easiest way of deploying anything to a Linux server from Windows is to use WinSCP, it is leaps and bounds ahead of FTP as far as security goes.   You can download WinSCP from here (incidentally, it handles FTP as well).   The following install is based on the Famous 5-minute Install.

Next, download the latest version of WordPress here and unzip it to a folder on your machine.  Navigate to the folder and rename the ‘wp-config-sample.php’ to ‘wp-config.php’.   Edit the wp-config.php file and enter your database details as follows:

• ‘putyourdbnamehere’ will be replaced with whatever you named your database in step 9
• ‘usernamehere’ will be replaced with ‘root’
• ‘yourpasswordhere’ will be replaced with whatever password you chose in step 8

Save the file and close it.

Next, launch WinSCP.   From the initial window, select ‘New’ from the right hand side, then enter your new server’s details and select login.

The first time you log in to your new server, you will get a warning that the server’s host key was not found in the cache, simply select ‘Yes’ to connect and place the host key in the cache.

You will now be greeted with a window similar to most FTP programs.   To get to the web folder, following the following steps in the right hand pane:

1. Double click the ‘..’ folder
2. Double click the ‘var’ folder
3. Double click the ‘www’ folder
4. Double click the ‘html’ folder
5. You are now in your website’s root folder (/var/www/html/)

In the left pane, navigate to the location where you unzipped WordPress, and drag it across to the right hand pane.   A popup will open, select ‘Copy’ to begin.

Now you can navigate to your server’s WordPress installation by going to http://[your-servers-ip-address]/wordpress/, there you can complete the standard WordPress installation!

Read the documentation on WordPress’ site to get a more comprehensive breakdown of installing to a subfolder or to the root.

Conclusion

So there you have it, you now have your own server AT HOME to run any form of staging or muckabout site!   I trust this post was informative and easy to use, I would appreciate any comments regarding it!

Windows XP

1. Click on Start
2. Click on Run
3. Type in “cmd” (without the quotes)
4. Press Enter
5. When the little black box opens, type in “ipconfig” (again without the quotes)
6. Your IP address will be displayed in the box

Windows Vista and Windows 7

1. Click on Start
2. Select the “Search Programs and Files” bar
3. Type in “cmd” (without the quotes)
4. Press Enter
5. When the little black box opens, type in “ipconfig” (again without the quotes)
6. Your IP address will be displayed in the box

Linux

1. Login to linux via the console (if you aren’t at the console, press ALT+F2, or F3, or F4 etc… until you get to the console!)
2. Type in “ifconfig” (without the quotes)
3. Your IP address will be displayed

should you need to scroll up in the Linux console, hold down SHIFT and press PG UP

That should about do it for now, hope this helps!   If you know Macs well, please pop us a comment on how to check there!

I’m still not entirely sure how the little thing works, but it does and its awesome!   What you do, is plug your Poken into your USB port, and it will send you to the Poken website where you register.   During registration you get asked to upload a picture and provide info for your various social networking accounts, ala Facebook, Twitter, Skype, MSN, LinkedIn etc.   Once your details are in, you get a pretty little graph showing any contacts you have met.   Meeting contacts is the interesting bit!

When you meet someone who has a Poken, what you do is press the little button on your Poken’s ‘hand’ and touch the two together.   When the light goes green, you have connected with that person.   Next time you log in to your Poken account with your Poken plugged in, you will have the person’s V-card added to your profile, from which you can link to whatever social services they have listed!

You get the cute little character ones (I have a ninja, too awesome!   battica has the bee), as well as a more professional looking one that allows for more contacts to be made and stored.   When I figure out exactly how it works in the long run I’ll let you know, but in the meantime, here is my public v-card from Poken:

I’m going to carry on playing around with my Poken (that sounds so wrong…) and I’ll let you know how it goes. What a killer little gift to get! In the meantime, if you want one for yourself, let me know and I can put you in touch with one of the local resellers.