Finished the Custom Server Rack…
So I finished my homemade custom server rack. Previously I had posted about how I designed it and what it would look like. So now I am totally finished. I have made a YouTube video about my server rack as well as what i have placed in it. You can view that video below. Enjoy!
I needed a server rack…So I made one…
So my server that I got from work has been sitting running on the bench in my garage. I had gotten a 42u server rack from work one time. I put it in my garage and found out that it was Waaaaaay to tall. I ended up getting rid of it. So now I am faced with a decision. Do I purchase one or make one...I though that making one would be more fun. Plus the price to buy one is way out of budget at the moment. So I set off to make my own server rack.
I didn't want to spend much money. Being so, I had to design on a budget. I thought maybe using 2x4's would work. Sure enough it worked just fine. I designed the entire project in Google Sketch-up. I could have used Blender 3D but I wanted to make sure I had the measurements right. I started with a basic idea of the maximum dimensions of the area that the server rack would occupy. It needed to be moveable and be very sturdy. The final dimensions of the server rack is 30" x 24" x 72". It stands tall, but not too tall.
I had a lot of fun designing this project. I got to add a program to my long list of things I have learned. The server project is not completely built yet. I will be waiting till this weekend to finish. Stay tuned for a possible video tour or assembly video in the future.
Below are the plans for my server rack. It is made entirely out of 2x4 studs. If you have any questions, please ask. Enjoy!
The MissionDuke.com forums are gone…
So I decided to remove the missionduke.com forums. It was getting lonely there and the only users were spam bots. So I killed it off in an instant. Maybe in the future I will bring it back. As always if you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask!
Keep a close eye on your car…
So just a reminder to check under your hood if you park your car outside. Small animals like mice, rats, squirels, and chipmonks like to make their bedding on the top of your nice and warm and cozzy engine. See the pictures below for proof. I opened my hood on my car a few weeks ago to find that a small animal had made itself at home on top of my engine. Pesky rodents. This is a good reason to not place bird and squirel feeders near where you park. Enjoy!
Writing from my mobile device…
Hello fellow follwers. I have decided to start posting to my blog more often. In doing so I have installed an app on my iPhone that allows me to write and edit blog postings from my device. I thought it would be appropriate to talk about this cool application on my blog since my blog is technology oriented. I was thinking today of how cool it would be if I could blog from my phone while I am on the go. I thought "hmmmm...I wonder if they have an app on the App store at Apple that would allow me to blog on the go". So I set out in search of an app. I found an app that allowed me to do just that. It is the WordPress app. I installed version 2.0. So far I am enjoying it. It seems as if I can type faster on the iPhone. I enjoy how my spelling issues can be auto corrected on the fly.
Some things I am taking on right now…
So I have some experience in PHP and even more in HTML. I have a small background in Visual Basic, AppleScript, and a few other languages. Recently I have added some Objective-C and have been playing around with Xcode. While that is all fun and everything, I see more of a future for myself in web programming. For some reason I enjoy doing stuff for the web.
I have created several small applications that help me at work. To name a few of them:
- AI CS3 to CS2 converter
- UPC check digit calculator
- Droplets for processing images based on resolution and color space
- Basic image calculators
- Several automation projects
- Converting my Applescript UPC check digit calculator to Objective-C language
- And my best piece of code yet...My FontFinder system for work
See at my work we deal with thousands of fonts everyday. When a client sends a job without a font we substitute one of our fonts. So we have a huge server full of tons of fonts. When we need a font we can usually find it because most of the fonts are in folders alphabetically. Now the problem is there are two sets of alphabetic folders and even more folders inside those. The problem with just looking for a font is you can't spend all day doing it. We need to find it quickly. You could use the search function of your machine but that would slow the server down and it takes forever. So I saw a problem and my gears started turning. I ended up coming up with a decent solution.
My solution was to make a searchable database with the paths to every single file on the font server. I used HTML, PHP, and a MYSQL database. This started as a basic "search a database" type of system. Eventually I added logging so I could see how much the service was used. I added security. Made searches somewhat hacker proof. I later cleaned up the interface and made some visual improvements.
I started to loose interest in the project. I needed some more things to do to the system. I asked around and got no answers to what I should do next. Eventually I added a feature to save or highlight a font path for future ease of finding. Later on that feature was removed because nobody used it.
I decided to go through and clean up my PHP code and go through and comment everything. Now I was happy with what I had created. Getting back to the interface...I had been learning some CSS and thought I could make a new interface. I started in Photoshop, and finished in Dreamweaver CS4. I added some flare and a logo. I made the page "not so boring". I also added a piece of code at the top of the results page to allow for searching again. Now the PHP code calls itself and loads itself so no more going back to the search page to start a new search.
Now after I completed that I wanted more...I started learning about Dashboard Widgets on the Mac. I put my all in and had to learn a little bit about JavaScript. I ended up with two things. A new web language to get into, and a really cool "Widget" version of my FontFinder web application. Now I can roll in style with my cool Widget. I can finally rally "WOW" my co-workers.
Hmmmm! Maybe I should do an iPhone version next...What do you think?
Below is a few images of the final product of my FontFinder web application.
