September 23, 2003
For the last few weeks or so I've been planning and working on a database system for the Beemer Volunteer fire Dept. My dad, the fire chief, got a pamphlet in the mail for a database system but it cost a horrid $800!! He asked me if I could find something better. So that's what I'm doing. At first I thought the MS Works database that we already have would be adequate. However, it's not. Right now what I will be doing is using mySQL and PHP to create a browser based database system. For all this to work I'll also need a web server. I had originally planned to use Apache, but since it's such a pain to make PHP work on apache2.0 for windows I just went with IIS. IIS is included with XP pro so as far as we're concerned it's just as free. IIS is a bit different than what I'm used to, but I think it will work for my purposes. I'm thankfully that WinXP has a firewall included with it. Even though I'm on a dialup connection here I can keep everything away from the outside world while the webserver is running. I have tested my PHP installation with a 'Hello World' script and all is well (yay!).
In order to complete this project, I'll need to teach myself PHP and mySQL. Merc recommended two wonderful books. I've been reading them and have them here with me as I type this. Thanks again Merc!!
If you're wondering the books are ISBN 0-321-18648-6 and ISBN 0-9579218-1-0
While I was working on this machine today a guy stopped by. He was a delivery guy with some insulation. He showed me the invoice he had and it was odd. The company name was "Maguire Iron Inc." and the zip code for Beemer was wrong. There was no phone number and the address was that of the Fire station. Up until 2 weeks ago the office I'm in now was the City office. I figured that would explain why the 2nd line of the address said "Village of Beemer" and why the invoice had this particular number on main street. Anyway, after a couple of phone calls we didn't have any answers and before I sent the guy some where else I went back online and did a search on google. Turns out Maguire Iron Inc is a company that makes water towers. Well that solved the mystery. Beemer is currently building a new water tower at the end of 3rd street. So the moral of the story : If you don't know something, Google will most likely have an answer for you.
In order to complete this project, I'll need to teach myself PHP and mySQL. Merc recommended two wonderful books. I've been reading them and have them here with me as I type this. Thanks again Merc!!
If you're wondering the books are ISBN 0-321-18648-6 and ISBN 0-9579218-1-0
While I was working on this machine today a guy stopped by. He was a delivery guy with some insulation. He showed me the invoice he had and it was odd. The company name was "Maguire Iron Inc." and the zip code for Beemer was wrong. There was no phone number and the address was that of the Fire station. Up until 2 weeks ago the office I'm in now was the City office. I figured that would explain why the 2nd line of the address said "Village of Beemer" and why the invoice had this particular number on main street. Anyway, after a couple of phone calls we didn't have any answers and before I sent the guy some where else I went back online and did a search on google. Turns out Maguire Iron Inc is a company that makes water towers. Well that solved the mystery. Beemer is currently building a new water tower at the end of 3rd street. So the moral of the story : If you don't know something, Google will most likely have an answer for you.
September 22, 2003
I'm posting to my blog from the public library. OOOOH. The novelty of it all. The Beemer public library is pretty neat. Very small, has a unique book smell to it... and is only open 3 days a week. Right now I'm using an e-machine P4. Not sure what OS it's running. Looks like win2k scratch that.. it IS win2k. They have it pretty stripped down unfortunately. They're not running deep freeze but they are running an antivirus program. Good for them. These machines were paid for by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. That in itself is pretty cool. In the past the librarian has been using a P2P program to download pirated music. Shame on her! The computer I acquired from them had some mp3s on it. I have no idea what happened to the system. Some one else recovered any vital data that was on the hard drive. As far as I can tell there's nothing wrong with it. Except for the fact that it's a 400Mhz Celeron in need of more ram.
Why am I in the public library? Well we only have dialup at home and here there's DSL. I should have thought of this before.. I could have been using high speed internet on a faster computer all last week. Of course playing Dr Mario was nice too.
I had a good weekend I think. I went fishing Saturday morning. Went out to Dead Timber for about an hour. Took my youngest brother with me. He had more fun catching frogs than fishing. I can understand why, we didn't have any luck. The next day (Sunday) We went back out in the afternoon. Dad went with us. The weather was nice, there was a slight breeze, but the fish weren't biting. After just over an hour of absolutely no results I was about ready to head back. We tried a few more spots and we were gone just over two hours total. Again my brother had a better time catching frogs. This time we caught two moderately sized bull frogs. I will definitely bring my camera out the next time we go. I also learned that if you whack a wood frog in the head with the small end of your fishing pole, he will look dead for about 15 min but spring back to consciousness. That's my dad's preferred way to catch frogs apparently.
Why am I in the public library? Well we only have dialup at home and here there's DSL. I should have thought of this before.. I could have been using high speed internet on a faster computer all last week. Of course playing Dr Mario was nice too.
I had a good weekend I think. I went fishing Saturday morning. Went out to Dead Timber for about an hour. Took my youngest brother with me. He had more fun catching frogs than fishing. I can understand why, we didn't have any luck. The next day (Sunday) We went back out in the afternoon. Dad went with us. The weather was nice, there was a slight breeze, but the fish weren't biting. After just over an hour of absolutely no results I was about ready to head back. We tried a few more spots and we were gone just over two hours total. Again my brother had a better time catching frogs. This time we caught two moderately sized bull frogs. I will definitely bring my camera out the next time we go. I also learned that if you whack a wood frog in the head with the small end of your fishing pole, he will look dead for about 15 min but spring back to consciousness. That's my dad's preferred way to catch frogs apparently.
September 17, 2003
About my City Village
Zip code: 68716
Population: approximately 672 (the sign at the edge of town says 736)
Size (area): 1.042 sq. kilometers
Latitude: 41.909399
Longitude: 96.816403
Housing units: What is a housing unit anyway? Well I was able to determine Beemer has 270 homes, and two apt. complex type things. (32 rooms combinged) Beemer also has one condo just outside city limits. It has 6 Apts.
Home price: You can build a new one for about $75,000. If there's a condemned house on the lot, no problem, the fire dept will be happy to practice on it (seriously!)
Businesses: I counted at least 40. (Most of them are people operating their own business)
(other info wasn't available for Beemer, but only the county as a whole... So I'm not going to include it. )
September 12, 2003
I just can't ignore my blog any more.... here goes.
Just so all of you know my mental status is functional (not optimal) The reason I haven't posted here is because I'm living with my parents .. they have dialup internet.. when I finally get online I don't feel like blogging. When I do start putting out a post well then any number of things can go wrong with the Internet access... usually it involves phone usage. SO.. I've composed a longer more .... um refined post that I'll probably put it up as some special edition FJ update. so.. stay tuned, it's long already.
I applied for two jobs yesterday. I heard from one place this morning already. I'm going in for an interview on Wednesday. I plan to apply to a few more places before then.
Yesterday was the 2nd anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the WTC. Hmm. I don't feel terribly sentimental about it.
In other news an Omaha police officer was shot and is currently in intensive care in the hospital. He was shot in the head I don't think he'll live. Interestingly this all comes together in a weird way. My next door neighbor's b-day was yesterday. His daughter came home from college and brought one of her friends with her (from Omaha) They were cooking something and needed some cheese. They called over and borrowed some from us. They sent the daughter's friend so that she could live out the novelty of the situation.
Just so all of you know my mental status is functional (not optimal) The reason I haven't posted here is because I'm living with my parents .. they have dialup internet.. when I finally get online I don't feel like blogging. When I do start putting out a post well then any number of things can go wrong with the Internet access... usually it involves phone usage. SO.. I've composed a longer more .... um refined post that I'll probably put it up as some special edition FJ update. so.. stay tuned, it's long already.
I applied for two jobs yesterday. I heard from one place this morning already. I'm going in for an interview on Wednesday. I plan to apply to a few more places before then.
Yesterday was the 2nd anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the WTC. Hmm. I don't feel terribly sentimental about it.
In other news an Omaha police officer was shot and is currently in intensive care in the hospital. He was shot in the head I don't think he'll live. Interestingly this all comes together in a weird way. My next door neighbor's b-day was yesterday. His daughter came home from college and brought one of her friends with her (from Omaha) They were cooking something and needed some cheese. They called over and borrowed some from us. They sent the daughter's friend so that she could live out the novelty of the situation.
