Microbits

Now that I’m correctly loading the extension (zend_extension_ts), eAccelerator is running smoothly.

I found something interesting in the event log yesterday:

PHP Warning:  [eAccelerator] This build of "eAccelerator" was compiled for PHP version 5.2.9. Rebuild it for your PHP version (5.2.9-2) or download precompiled binaries.

Now that error message makes perfect sense. The reason I didn’t see it the first time around is that PHP logged two messages separately at the same time. If I was reading a flat file log, I would’ve noticed it immediately.

UPDATED

After a few seg-faults, I realized that eAccelerator isn’t thread safe (I was running it under a thread safe server)… It is thread safe… I just wasn’t loading it in thread safe mode (see the manual for details). Whoops.

After getting somewhat annoyed with the slowness of my blog, and having nothing better to do, I decided to setup eAccelerator. I’m pretty sure I tried setting it up a long time ago, but for some reason, didn’t finish.

Following the path of logic, I went to the eAccelerator website in search of the appropriate files. Their Windows section directed me to SiteBuddy, which had a nice collection of binaries for various PHP versions. After determining my PHP version (5.2.9-2), I tried the closest match (5.2.9), and was greeted by the following error in the Windows event log:

Unable to start eAccelerator module in Unknown on line 0.

My initial reaction to the error: what the ****… (UPDATE: See this post for more details) After a quick Google search, I found that PHP modules must be built for the EXACT PHP version you plan to use them on.

Since I have just about every Microsoft C++ compiler, I figured compiling a new eAccellerator module for my version of PHP would be simple. I downloaded the archived PHP files I needed (now I understand why they keep archives), switched to the release configuration, and pressed build.
Read more…

After playing around with the client and server, here are my thoughts.

Server

Setup is pretty simple for any Linux admin. May pose problems for inexperienced admins.

The latest update (beta2), required a manual SQL diff and subsequent manual insert to enable the new permissions. I’m guessing they’ll fix this in future releases.

Client

The client UI has been completely redesigned. The default sound notifications are kind of annoying. I switched to the TTS sound pack and turned 90% of them off.

General

It seems like the  “clan server” option has been removed in favor of “subscribing” to channels. Basically, users aren’t visible unless you are subscribed to the channel they are in, or are in the channel. There’s a button and several menu options to subscribe to all channels.

The permission system is one of the most powerful I’ve seen; however, the documentation isn’t as complete as I’d like.

As 2009 starts to wrap up, here’s my list of the best open source software that I’ve used:

Amusingly, I didn’t use an ad blocker until a few months ago. Now, I enjoy viewing sites without half a million ads cluttering up my screen.

Ad blockers like ABP (Ad Block Plus) scan web pages for ads, and remove them. As simple as they are, ad blockers are incredible.

I installed ABP when I was trying to print an article from a coding website. There were so many ads on their main and print views of the article that printing it would have barely been worth the effort. I remembered that a friend of mine had talked about ABP, so I looked it up and installed it. After enabling it and returning to the website, the ads were gone, and I could actually print the article.

ABP also lets you block new ads that it doesn’t already detect with a few simple clicks. Some websites use JavaScript to display ads, and if ABP can’t block them, NoScript can.

Web masters should realize that intrusive ads will just cause more and more people to start using ad blockers, and start being reasonable.

I’ve been busy with the usual, tedious, real life work I so enjoy (I hope I don’t need /sarcasm here).

I just spent the last 20 minutes updating various web apps, when all I really wanted to do was write a quick post

As usual, web master first, user second. Hopefully I’ll have some interesting posts up sometime tomorrow.