splee.blog

Tonight I’m off to my local picture house to see Star Wars EpisodeIII. Hey, I know I’m late but I’m a busy boy, ok!? I’m still feeling crappy, but I just got paid and the added excitement of seeing a decent film will perk me up for the bank holiday weekend I think.

For once I’m going to do as litte work as possible for the whole (long) weekend. The weather has just turned nice so I’ll be outside playing basketball or just sitting in a chair soaking up the sun, depending on my degree of lazyness.

Here’s to a nice, relaxing weekend. :)

Pure genius.

Dammit I feel rough. It’s not quite a cold, not quite a stomach bug and not quite a migrane but a heady concoction of all three - and it’s kicking my arse.

I’m certain that it has something to do with where I’m working. If you met me before I worked here you’d get the same mantra proudly fired back at you if you asked about illness: “I don’t get ill. Ill is for other people”. And it was true. Other than runny noses I think the last time I was actually ill was when I was 11 and I had the flu. I’ve completely discounted alcohol related sickness as that is completely self-inflicted.

Since my first day here, however, I’ve been ill a rediculous amount. Colds, flu, stomach bugs… you name it, I’ve had it. I can’t work out why either. I think my suspicions point mainly to the fact that I’m working in an environment with a lot more people and, therefore, a lot more exposure to nasty bugs. Many of these people have children too, and we all know that they’re little plague carriers, what with lice and colds and all.

Nevertheless, it’s time to stock up on extra fruit and veg to see if I can kill this thing off with a barrage of vitamins.

Yours sniffley,

Splee

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PEAR is installed by default by most webhosts. Also, if you want to know how to use it with a real example, check out this article.

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As many of you know, in addition to being a programmer, I’m responsible for the technical support for the company I work at so I have to deal with people’s problems on a day by day basis. Due to my background in support and a good knowledge of linux and all the flavours of Windows, I tend to get involved in helping people in whatever communities I’m a part of, be that my web host’s forums or the WordPress IRC channel.

As a result I tend to get frustrated at people who scream for help as if they’re owed it, as if they are the most important person on the boards and have the most pressing problem. You can spot these people a mile away, especially on forums. They post a title with ALL CAPS, excessive punctuation(!!!?!!?!?!) and general nonsense.

The post that goes with that title is not normally helpful either. Comments such as “I CANT MAKE DATABASE WORK IN MYSQL PLEASE HELP NO USER SET UP HOW TO DO IT?!!!!?/?1!!” are commonplace. I’ve decided that these posters must have one of the rare (or not so rare it seems) keyboards which have only exclamation marks and question marks for punctuation along with a sticky shift key because it can’t really be that hard to type a proper sentence .

Presentation and grammar aside, the content is lamentable too. The person above simply wishes to be spoonfed their information. If they had half a brain they would seek out the documentation first. I happen to know that the MySQL documentation is frighteningly easy to search and the examples for creating a user are clear and concise. Failing that, simply googleing (or [insert search engine here]ing) for the same information yeilds hundreds of results, almost all of which contain examples of creating a user in MySQL.

Another prime example of people just being plain ignorant is prevailent on the forums for my web host. My web host offers a Virtual Server running a choice of linux distros. You have root access and you can install whatever you want. The FAQ clearly states that you should have some techinical understanding of server administration. You can even get a free 7 day trial to see exactly what you are dealing with. On the forums there are literally dozens of posts with people posting comments like the following:

I have searched the forums and cant find any info on setting up postfix. Im in a rush to set this thing up as my current ISP have gone bankrupt - so frustrating as I just want the thing to work and not have to spend all week pissing around with command lines.

Well, sorry pal, you’re using the wrong service. It’s like buying a bus and then complaining to the manufacturer that you don’t know how to drive it and you only needed a small car, and they should fix it now. Either ditch the bus and buy a car or damn well learn to drive the bus.

What I’m saying is this: If you’re going to ask a question about a service, piece of software or piece of hardware, follow a few fundamental rules:

1. Have a look for the solution(s) yourself first. You’ll not learn anything if you just demand the solutions from someone else.
2. Type legible sentences with helpful information, i.e. what you’re trying to achive, how you know it’s not working and any errors or relevant information
3. Be patient. You are not the center of the universe. You may just have to wait for an answer.

For me, that’s all you really need to do. I’d be happy if people did those three simple things.

This post was inspired by the Lycos VDS Forums and Ryan.

Further Reading: OMG!!11one!! I need teh help! - Flash with sound. Mute if you’re at work ;) How To Ask Questions The Smart Way