Computing & Web Technologies by Ray Heffer

As an VCP (VI3), MCSE and very passionate about technology, I spend most of my life working with computers, building servers, playing with gadgets, and so on... so I thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to share some of my idea's with you!



	I've been working with VMware technology now since 2002 with GSX server, and I first delved into desktop virtualisation in November 2006, when all it had to offer back then was a bunch of virtualised Windows XP desktops running on VMware ESX 2.5x. Granted, that Leostream, Dunes, Propero and even Citrix released their desktop brokers back then, but either they were too complicated, too expensive, or plain useless (erm.. Citrix). Now in 2008 there is good news from VMware, with their Virtual Desktop Manager (VDM 2.0) offering. Version 1 was only available in 2007 via VMware's professional services channel, but VDM version 2 is now integrated with technology from Propero. If you haven't had any experience with desktop virtualisation, then VDM is a great place to start. It is simple to use, reasonably priced, and from what I've seen it has excellent performance. You can now download a trial of VDM 2.0 from https://www.vmware.com/tryvmware/

Building a Secure Linux Web Server

This guide will take you through each step required to build a Linux web server from the ground up. Starting with a new installation of CentOS 4.x, using Yum for updates and package installation, the LAMP components (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP), other modules such as Perl, Webalizer and FTP using VSFTP.

By following this guide, you can get a web server up and running within an hour or two depending on whether you follow it step by step, or prefer to experiment first.

[Click here for the guide]

2008 Guide to VDM 2.0 - Coming soon!

My Honda Accord Type-R In-Car Computer

My TFT touch screen installed in my Honda Accord Type-R center console.

Most of you will agree that a tape player in a car is completely useless these days. Personally, I think a CD player is also out-dated in a car as the majority of the world get their music on MP3. Of course, I could have used my Pioneer CD player that also plays MP3's, but my MP3 collection is nearly 60GB and that would take around 80 CD's to fill!

So I decided to install an In-Car computer (or carputer) with a 200GB hard drive, in-dash touch screen TFT monitor, WiFi and DVD Player.

[Click here to read on]

.htpasswd Generator

If your website is hosted on a Linux Apache web server then you can probably make good use of .htaccess to password protect certain directories.

This handy little web tool will take a username and password and output a ciphered string that you can copy to your .htpasswd file.

[.htpasswd Generator]

Bandwidth Calculator

Need to work out those bits and bytes? This simple tool will take a given data size and display it in bits, kilobits, megabits, bytes, kilobytes, and megabytes!

It's sometimes useful to me, so maybe it will be of some use to you too!

[Bandwidth Calculator]

HTML Encryption Tool

This consists of two tools to convert HTML code into ASCII. For example, table width="768" would turn into:

%74 %61 %62 %6C %65 %20 %77 %69 %64 %74 %68 %3D %22 %37 %36 %38 %22.

This isn't MoD standard or anything, but it makes it difficult for others to view the source code of your website. However, your web browser will display the page as normal!

[HTML Encryption Tool]

Making a CAT5 Crossover Cable

Linux Commands & Tips

Configuring Apache MOD_SECURITY

Turning Off the Windows XP Restore Feature

Glossary of Computing Terms

E-Books

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