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Are you tired of carrying around Flash Drives?

As a Computer Technician, I often find myself carrying around a flash drive with multiple repair tools on it. This is very useful when I have it with me. See, I don’t always remember to grab my flash drive when I’m running out the door. In these circumstances, I’ve had to result in trying to remember what was on this drive and then re-download that program to whomever’s computer I am working on at that time. In this situation, I don’t always remember what the specific program name is called that I need to use. This is extremely frustrating.

Well, I have a solution…
There are many companies out there that offer cloud drive services. The one that’s been out the longest would be “Dropbox”. I have personally used them for years. Dropbox is a safe and secure way to get access to everything that you put into Dropbox from multiple computers and devices. Do you want to share files with some friends? This is something else that is simple to do within Dropbox. Do you want more storage that what you receive as a free service? There are multiple ways to do this. You can sign up to become a premium member and pay a small yearly fee to have a lot more storage, or you can refer a friend to have them give you more storage. Either way is simple.

Dropbox has allowed me to put everything that I used to have on my flash drive and store it in to Dropbox. Now I don’t have to think about grabbing my flash drive when I leave my office. All I have to do is log into Dropbox from a clients computer and download the program from there. Fast, Simple & Smart. There […]

Today in Technology

     Well, it has been a long time since I have written a blog post. I have been super busy getting my company up and running, but it is time that I get back to writing about technology. What do you think about when you hear the word “Technology” used in a sentence? Does it frighten you? Or do you hear an amazing hymn in your mind? I have to say that technology has always been something that I have been in to. I love it so much, that I have built my career on it. I know that technology is scary at times, but it has evolved in to something that is amazing. Our computers get smaller and smaller as the years go by thanks to technology. Our software gets faster and much more secure thanks to technology. These are just a few of the things that technology has improved over the years, but in reality, Technology has improved hundreds of thousands of things.

     Because technology has improved, it has made my job easier because it helps me solve issues faster than I was ever able to do 10 years ago. Tools have improved, and so has the software that I use. Almost everyone has switched to using a tablet along side of a laptop. This has made many things easier, for instance, reading books. Remember when we wanted to read a book and we would have to open this massive 2lb-5lb object to read? What if you wanted to go on a trip and one book wasn’t enough. You would have to lug around about 20lbs of books. And that is all you would bring because you didn’t want to hurt your back. I […]

My Most Useful Tools!

     Today I learned how to create a basic login / logout site. This was the main reason why I wanted to learn PHP, so that I could eventually start creating my own CMS platforms. I am still a long way away from being able to do so, but I do have the basics under my belt.
     I have been learning PHP on my own from several books that I currently own. So far, one of my favorites has been “PHP 6 AND MySQL 5″ by: Larry Ullman. This has been a wonderful book and I have learned quite a bit from it. Another book that I have been learning from has been “Build Your Own Database Driven Web Site Using PHP & MySQL” by: Kevin Yank. This book is published by sitepoint, which I find to be a great resource when wanting to find books to learn anything about Web Publishing. Another great resource that I have been using while learning PHP has been “The PHP Anthology: 101 Essential Tips, Tricks & Hacks” which is also a sitepoint book. I have and use several other books about PHP, however, these three I use the most.
     Another tool that I use the most when programing is “Coda”, which is a mac only client. I personally, only design and develop on a mac. I have found that the reliability is unbelievable when it comes to the mac, and Coda just makes my life much easier, not to mention that it is much cheaper than many other clients like Dreamweaver. It has all of the essential tools built directly in. You have your editor, preview, css editor, terminal and then you even have several books that help you if […]

Debugging is Key!

     Today I have learned quite a bit when it comes to PHP. I learned that debugging is key to making your PHP scripts run. The first script that I learned how to write in PHP was extremely simple. Here is that script now:

     All PHP scripts require an opening tag and a closing tag, just like in HTML. In PHP, those tags are: . These tags are required for any PHP script that you wish to write. Now, the biggest lesson that I have learned since I started learning PHP is that you must learn how to be a great debugger if you ever want your scripts to run. Here is the same script as before, only this time I am going to leave something out, so take your time and see if you can find it:

     Now you can see that the single quotation mark is missing before the semi-colon. Imagine if this were 100-200 lines of code and just one character out of all that code was missing. How fast do you think you could find it then? This is just one of the things that I am going through currently while I am still trying to teach myself how to write PHP.
     Writing PHP can be quite enduring, but it can also be quite rewarding. Knowing that all of the time and effort that you spent writing the application is successful, can make you feel awfully good about yourself, and that is the most important thing. I know that I have a long way to go before I can master PHP, but that isn’t going to stop me from working hard every day until I do. I learn a little more each day and […]

Learning PHP!

Hello everyone. I am going to start blogging about my positive and negative experiences while I start learning how to program in PHP. I plan to show snippets of code that I have learned and would love your feedback as I go. This blog is going to be my way of keeping track of my progress. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. I am excited to see how this all works out. So, please feel free to check back frequently as I plan to blog often.Thank you for taking the time to see what I have to say and I’ll talk with you all soon!