The Geek is Back
Well i’ve scrapped the notion of a paid hosted virtual server and now my blog is hosted in-house, the way it should be – on a glorified PC plugged into a fat internet connection.
Along the way I’ve discovered some pretty cool things I didn’t realise (yet) for example, all the new Microsoft Web Platform stuff. I’ve been using Control Panel based software for the past couple of years, so the last time I setup a server from scratch I had to manually install PHP, MySQL, etc and link it all together.
With Web Platform, I just ticked to install IIS on my windows install then installed my desired apps from the Web Platform. It felt a bit like installing Apps from the App Store on my Mac, iPad or iPhone. It wasn’t quite a slick though.
The App Store feel goes away once it’s setup and you have to start getting your hands dirty with editing the php.ini file, hardening your security, importing your databases, etc. I administer IIS on a day-to-day basis so it’s no biggie but you it certainly isn’t as click-n-go as if Apple offered something similar (which they may do on xserve but I haven’t got to play with one)
So the media server is hopped up and the next project is home automation… Next year though
On a side note, My Steve Jobs book makes me want to go and solder some circuit boards in the garage, however two factors stopping me are:
a) It’s too cold in the garage now
b) I have many pre-soldered and very much working gadgets to play with in the house
Filed under: Uncategorised - @ 18 November 2011 22:14