Posts by samaru

Actually, SQL Server is more powerful than you think. You're making it seem like it's Access. SQL Server is meant to handle millions of records, and uses a large array of features such as indexing. (MySQL comes no where near to SQL Server.) Also, one of the main reasons why companies use ASP is because they have a WindowsNT server running. They have that because it's easier to maintain and setup (the network) with Windows than it is with Linux/Unix. And since ASP comes free with WindowsNT/2K, then they go for ASP.

Sometimes just because it's a good product, doesn't mean it's efficient for the company. I think it will be a while before PHP really catches up in the community. It's certainly a hot product right now, PHP, but it doesn't come close to the number of sites running ASP.

I used to be a big ASP fan. Then I went to PHP. I loved it. Then I stepped aside and now I'm doing ColdFusion. I think ColdFusion is the most enjoyable to work with because you can do an entire application in 1/4 the time it would take with any other language.

I don't see why you would want this except for being a pain in the ass towards some host company. Either way, you'd find out somehow... so... the simplest way is to make an infinite while loop and throwing some junk in the middle, like multiple nested subqueries, and complex usage of multidimensional arrays... also try accessing 2^N recursive functions.

It would depend what data I had to store. In the applications that I've written myself, I've never used more than 8 tables. On forums, I usually use just 3 tables.

It all depends on the complexity of the application, and who organized it. The designer of the database can include all the information about the customer in one record if he/she wants. Whatever the situation may be, he has to worry about normalization (avoiding duplicate fields; making the database design efficient), etc. Thats why tables can relate, and it's why we have relational databases.

No no no! =) Having a table for each account would be like having a hard drive for each file on your computer. Very inefficient. Accounts, or information that's similar like it is stored in records - which is pretty much like a row in a table. So you can have a table called Customers, and in that table, you have a record for each customer.

I think each language has their strengths. Here are my feelings towards PHP, ASP.NET, Perl, ColdFusion:

PHP - Most growth potential out of all. Rapidly gaining more and more followers. The best choice for small to medium sized businesses due to its price and wealth of free resources. Highly compatible with many OSs.

ASP.NET - Currently a hot technology and medium to big business are questioning its potential. Because it's Microsoft branded, it's here to stay. Also, it's probably the highest in demand when it comes to web development jobs.

Perl - Good language to do administrative tasks on Unix/Linux operating systems. Low development cost compared to other languages. Highly compatible with many OSs. Contains good parsing and a huge amount of resources, like CPAN.org.

ColdFusion - Easiest and fastest way to do web applications. A lot of functionality comes right out of the box, rather than installing modules or components. Great error trapping/reporting. Can integrate with anything written in Java and therefore has most of Java's advantages because all CF pages get compiled by a Java engine and handled as Java Byte code.

Yeah, I used to be a QBASIC junkie. I remembered how thrilled I was when I found out about version 4.5 and it's "make executable" option. I remember making a few cheesy games back in the day with other friends and we needed a way to hide our code. This was a thrill. I stopped following QBASIC after 7.0. Sometimes I'm still amazed what you can do with such a restricted language.

Anyone remember the game Gorilla? Immortal Kombat? Nibbles? BalloonX? Those were damn good games. =)

Well, because Alpha brought up ASP and PHP, I decided to talk about server side technologies only. Knowing server side technologies is not enough to become a web developer. You have to have some web design experience too (basic techniques, tools). Also, some business knowledge helps.

Here's a list of tools/technologies that I list in my resume.

Programming
C++
Java/JSP
ASP
PHP
Perl
ColdFusion
SQL
JavaScript
Visual Basic
Assembly
Bash Unix Programming
Pascal
QBASIC
HTML/CSS/XML

Web Page Design
Macromedia Dreamweaver
Visual InterDev
ColdFusion Studio
NetObjects Fusion
Microsoft Frontpage
Adobe GoLive
Macromedia Homesite
Netscape Communicator
AOL Press

Graphics
Adobe Photoshop
Aldus PhotoStyler
Adobe LiveMotion
Caligari trueSpace
Ulead Cool3D
Macromedia Flash
Swish 2.0
Photoworks

Servers
Microsoft Internet Information Server
Microsoft SQL Server
Microsoft Personal Web Server
Apache HTTP Server for Windows
Apache Tomcat
Macromedia ColdFusion
MySQL Server
Oracle 8i
Xitami Web Server for Windows
WarFTP Server

IDEs (GUIs) for Programming
Visual C++
ColdFusion Studio
Homesite
Visual BASIC
Borland JBuilder
Borland Turbo Pascal 7.0 (DOS)
Borland Turbo C++ 3.0 (DOS)

Office Skills
Microsoft Word
Microsoft Access
Microsoft Excel
Adobe Acrobat
Windows 2000, 98, 95, NT
DOS

Music/Audio Editing
Sonic …

Why thank you. :shock:

I think if you're really considering being a web developer, you should at least be familiar with the basics of the "big five" : Perl, JSP, ColdFusion, ASP, and of course PHP. I suggest writing at least a simple shopping cart in each language. Shopping carts are good applications to practice with because it brings forth solutions that are used in general applications. That is session handling, database access including design and SQL, security, XML; the list goes on. I suggest being familiar with each so you know the ups and downs of each. It's not enough to just follow someone else's opinion... it's better to see it yourself; what's so bad or good about a particular language/method. When the time comes around to handle a problem upon request, you can then make an intelligent decision on what to go with (ColdFusion, PHP, etc.). Of course this comes after seeing what the budget is, who's working on it, who will be maintaining it after you leave, what tools (servers, IDEs) you will be giving, how easy it is to debug/extend/upgrade, and how much time you have.

Bored with ASP? Every language itself is boring, what makes it interesting is how you use it, not the language itself. Every language can pretty much do the same thing, just the syntax is different. If you feel "bored" try to extend whatever language you're using to other technologies. If you haven't looked into these, here are some topics to keep you occupied:

Looks pretty spiffy, but I don't think I'll be able to look at that any time soon. Next year I will be entering a Web Design contest at my university and maybe I can put some of these things to use. Thanks for the link.

I have a thing for wearing computer related T-shirts. Makes me feel like like I'm too much of a computer freak and need to get out more, which I probably do anyways... ;)

I think if there was more hype on it, it would become more popular. Maybe if Microsoft and AOL advertised it, and supported it, and made T-shirts, then I'm sure it would pick up. I would have to learn more of it of course, as I usually tend to get into what's hot in today's world... and maybe even buy a T-shirt...

I agree with you on being ahead of its time. The web has become such a place for business and quick information that there's hardly any room for something like VRML. Because Flash and Java are already a popular technology they tend to go with those instead.

Yeap, it's cool, although VRML is no longer supported by popular browsers by default. A shame the popularity is low considering what you can do with it.

It can be integrated with VRML. Check out these resources:

http://www.scs.leeds.ac.uk/vrmljava3d/
http://www.robotic.dlr.de/Joerg.Vogel/Vrml/Rotex/index.html

Check out this demo:
http://www.frontiernet.net/~imaging/games_with_java3d.html

Well, that programming that you learn at school, especially the first/second course you take is just to master the basics. It takes a while to master it. Some people think that because they know a couple of if statments and classes, they consider themselves as programmers. It goes far beyond that. I think if you really understand pointers/objects/classes/inheritence/data structures and how to use them, you're good to go.

What I recommend your friend to do is to just pick a good book on Java Server Pages if he wants to get started with back end programming. It won't be hard, it's just a matter of understanding what classes to use in your scripts. Best to your friends.

If I do help you (it would never be for a program like this), then you'd be one of them. Just let it go man. Half of these people are little pubeless 14 year olds who have nothing to do but stuff like this. Grow up, go outside, smoke some weed, just don't let it get to you. (Joking about the weed part.)
If you do however want useful information towards something with a little more taste, then I'll be here.

Nice! I still don't see how you could think VB is annoying. :roll:

Really? Then you would LOVE Perl. How about ColdFusion? or PHP. Those are "adorable" languages so you would like them. 8)

Most definitely. I always want to remember C++ and have it handy because it's such an awesome language. Power, speed... ooh. I'll get started after I finish my web dev tutorial. 8)

I like writing tutorials such as programming, but not big into writing graphics/music tutorials. I'm very involved in the graphics and music scene as well, and for those types of tutorials you have to have a lot of pictures and be more visual. Takes some fun from just happily typing along a tutorial.

Nope, haven't started. I was going to write it a few months ago, but classes and work got in the way. This summer I'll get around to it. It's always fun writing a tutorial... maybe I'm the only that thinks so... or maybe I'm just weird.

TechTalkGal wrote a good C++ tutorial. Maybe she'll put a link up for you guys to look at.

Hey guys. I was thinking about writing a C++ tutorial. What do you think are the hardest topics to cover in C++? I know a lot of people have a hard time with pointers, but I was wondering what you guys think.

Whoa, yeah, time does fly. Well, even if you still don't know C++, I'm sure you learned other stuff. I always try to keep myself active in something, even if I don't acomplish something else. For example, now I'm a better ColdFusion programmer and know more about SQL Server than I did a year ago, while I was originally planing on honing my skills more on PHP and MySQL.

I think if you already know one language (preferably that uses OOP), then you shouldn't have a problem with anything else. C++ took me about 2 semesters to learn the basics... to seriously learn it and not pretend like I do. By that I mean doing OOP, several ADTS, templates, and some advanced stuff like doing outcalls to assembly within C++ code. This is just the basics. But once you're comfortable with at least one language, learning anything else is a piece of cake. Just learn new syntax, some functions, and the rest will be easy to pickup. Concepts will be the same, syntax of course will be different.

If you wanted to know how long it took me to learn my first programming language, which was QBASIC, then that could easily depend. When I started QBASIC I was about 13 and didn't care for it. So I can't really say how much. Maybe a few months. My other friend who loved programming at the time learned it in a few weeks. He did it everyday. So it depends. Just practice a lot and look at sample code is all I can say.

IIS comes with an easy to use SMTP server that you can send out e-mails (you can even do attachments if you decide to do an application). What it does NOT come with is a POP3 server which is used to receive e-mail. Those you have to buy and configure according to what dns or current setup you have.

I don't know of any free ones right now. Just do a search a Google. If you find a good one, let me know. Thanks. :)

From my experience, I believe that Apache 1.x.x HTTP Server is used more for Non-Business development on Windows and 2.x is used for commercial use. The Apache 1.x.x HTTP Server is not meant for serious power, as the Apache Foundation claims it's not optimized to do so yet - only on Unix. The 2.x version, a version strictly for Windows NT claims to have overall more power than the 1.x.x version.

I've heard a lot of things about both servers. The decision of what server you should choose varies greatly. First of all I think the hype about "Apache being the Number One server that most sites use" can bring some confusion. It could make you think that most sites are using it. Now, if you're going into business, and consider this, you have to think what this means. Does "most" mean hobbyists, private sites, non-business organizations? Or does it mean strictly businesses? (Just think about HOW MANY non-business sites are out there.) What counts as most? Does "most" mean better?

IIS has gotten a bad rap from having too many security flaws, so people shun upon it. Many developers and admins agree that while Apache on Unix might be a better server (and I think it is), it is easier to develop using IIS than with Unix. (Of course this depends on what Application you're creating and target audience.) And also, a lot of corporations use NT, so they tend to go with IIS.

Overall I …

Try going to the Web Trends site. A lot of professional sites use this, and it's pretty popular.
http://www.netiq.com/webtrends/default.asp

Look for "web trends" under download.com to look for analyzers.

Never used SmartFTP. I'm getting tired of WS_FTPx, maybe I should. :?

A console based FTP client comes with Windows but is primitive and not as reliable as something like CuteFTP or WS_FTPx. I guess if you're running a very primitive system (or if your whole system is just console) you can use it, other than that, I wonder why you would. You can also connect through some browsers like IE but I don't recommend that either. :shock:

HAHA... yeah. I remember I made that document a long time ago for a friend who wrote me a tutorial for Photoshop with that same "wiseass" remarks throughout the document. It was damn funny. ;)

Here is a link to a document I wrote it a long time ago because so many people asked me the same question over and over again. It shows you how to set up an FTP Server and how to access them. Don't mind the language. :)

http://www.xeonstudio.com/files/FTPTutor.txt

Even though I don't play Diablo II LoD anymore, one thing I liked doing was scamming the scammers. Whenever an idiot would try to scam me, I'd play along with it until the last second, then I'd kill them and take their gold just to piss them off. Other than that, I don't really hate cheaters as much as scammers who trick you and take your stuff or send you trojans. These scammers should really be burned alive.

Cheating really pisses me off too. I still play Diablo2 LoD on Battlenet, and it's very irritating. A long time ago, the game was very vulnerable to hacks, so people wrote character editors, programs to duplicate items and hack items. Now, Battlenet has fixed these problems, but some of those items and characters still exist. It's a shame.

What I hate more is the people that try to scam you. There's a lot of trading going on so people are always out to really screw you up. It's a pity, but then again, it ads more challenge to the game.

It's awesome playing online I tell you!

It gets interesting when you play on Battlenet. Yeah, Hell is a pain in the ass, but it's fun playing it through when you have other players on your side.

Anyone here play Diablo II?

God damn, I love reading your posts. Even though I always disagree with you 200%, I still read it like it was the National Enquirer. Keep it up man, you're the greatest.

That's ok. You don't have to agree with me. Just keep in mind that when you get older, you thoughts about life change. I'm 21 right now. I'm telling you this because I felt the same way you did when I was your age. Exactly the same. Why the hell did I have to know Avogadro's Number? Why did I have to calculate the number of moles in a substance? I could care less. And to tell you the truth, I still don't give a damn. But I still have a feeling of satisfaction that I survived through all that stuff and now I'm smarter. In the real world, when you go for a job interview, you have to know a little bit of everything else besides what you're going into. If you just know about your field, and are a dud about everything else, I'm sorry, then some other know-it-all-pencil-pushing geek will take your job.

You remind me a lot of myself when I was your age, that's the why I'm replying.

Why must we go to school? Spend time with biology? There's a million reasons. One of the reasons why you take classes such as earth science, physics, biology, and chemistry is to train your brain to think logically, and scientifically. When you're this age, your brain is STILL NOT USED TO thinking this way. In no way shape or form, do they even try to make you a biologist... believe me.... high school biology is NOTHING like real biology used in all the biological fields. It's just the icing - the very basics - so you get a feel for what it is. If you think a year is too much... take the time to consider how BIG the field is. Do you think someone becomes a doctor by studying for a year? Two? Doctors never stop. They must always be up to date with the latest treatments, etc.

You say that if a person who knows what they want to do, should start studying it. I agree with you. But how can you start if you don't know what else is there? You don't know your options. That's like me saying I tried ASP, and I really liked it, and I then ignore all the other languages just because I "THINK" I like ASP. Yes, they should start studying it... in college.

All this is in an educational sense. …

Dude... get a life! :)

Good job so far. Just don't go crazy with the layouts.