Last week, I got “The Knack.” It seems to bite any computer guy that comes into contact with Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) hardware. It all started when a fellow programmer friend of mine sent me a link to a DEC Easy WebServer. This is a relabeled DEC Alpha Multia that shipped with Windows NT 4.0 Server. It included some sort of Netscape software for setting up a webserver easily. Well, I figured I would go ahead and add it to my watch list, since it was only $20 + shipping. I continued browsing and around and found a DEC VAXstation 3100 for $18 + shipping. I have been wanting a VAX for a while, so I bought it. 2 days later, I bought the DEC Easy WebServer.

So in total, I spent over $100 in a week on computer hardware that is older than me.(almost as old as me in the Multia’s case) The VAXstation came and it ended up missing the whole SCSI controller board, so I’m still looking for one of those. The Multia came today and works great, but it seems to operate in “Space heater emulation mode” all the time, I’d hate to see it under a full CPU load.

I tried installing OpenBSD/Alpha on the Multia tonight, with little luck. The installer boots and then says it can find no drives, but the hardware compatibility list clearly says the Multia is supported. So, I tried to find Debian net boot floppy images and failed. I’m currently installing FreeBSD/Alpha as I’m writing this, hopefully it works better.

Here are a few pictures of my new machines, more pictures of the Multia can be found here; more pictures of the VAXstation can be found here.

School has been crazy lately. I’ve been loaded down with homework most of the time, and on top of that I’ve been drafted by a few of the teachers at school to participate in the FBLA competitions. I’ll be competing in the single person test on computer networking. The test is a 100 question test given at a local university. I’m competing in the area my school does really bad in, so I hope I can change the tradition…

As I said above, school has been crazy lately. This has had it’s negative effects on Threadbound. When I do have time to code, I’m working on my client’s website, which I got sometime after my last post, or I’m doing coding for thunder-it.com. Today, I’ve been hit with a new block of inspiration and ideas for threadbound, so hopefully I can make some time to work on it. The stuff I came up with today is definitely new for the area I plan to implement it in.

For those of you still not quite sure about this whole Web 2.0 thing, check out the video below. It’s the best one I’ve ever seen that describes how I feel about it.

In other news, I would like to leak a bit of news on one of my new projects that I am co-developing with a network operator for theWyldRyde.org IRC network, DamnSmallBSD. It is a take off of the very first linux distribution I ever used, Damn Small Linux. Our goals are similar, but we are based on a completely different operating system, FreeBSD. We also have some cool ideas to keep it modular for people looking to remaster it. Keep your eyes open, the cd is bootable, we just haven’t done much work on the userland yet.

Over the past day, I also broke back into some PHP. ThreadBound officially moved a step closer to it’s main goal. Here is a little hint of a very early page:

ThreadBound – preview Hosted on Zooomr

I have also been contacted to do some more work for ThunderIT.com, so I’m very happy about that. The project I’ll be working on is very cool. Hopefully some of the cash I get from this job will help me get a new laptop.

After reading many articles on “Web 2.0″ designs and browsing the sites, I have my own take on the style. Luckily, I’ve had the ability to please almost everybody I’ve shown the design to.

This new project also gives me a huge opportunity that a lot of my other haven’t. I am getting to play and learn new technologies that I have never used before. I have grown attached to the whole Script.aculo.us Javascript effect library and the web 2.0 developers best friend, Prototype. These JS libraries are just amazing! They simplify many effects and actions that would take many many lines of javascript to do. Some of the simple features in Prototype include the $() and $F() functions. $() is a simpler way to use document.getElementById, while $F() allows you to grab the value of a form object, painlessly.

Script.aculo.us is in a whole different ball park. The effects it provides are amazing and simple to use. I am going to make a prediction right now. I believe that over the next year, we will be seeing a lot more sites using this library. Back on topic, Script.aculo.us is built on top of the Prototype library, but is directed at the effects area. You can do fade in/fade out, open/close, shrink/grow, and many more effects with it. Is it is? Heck yes! Performing an effect on an element is as easy as a new Effect.Appear($(’element id’));.

One thing I have noticed that runs common through out all Web 2.0 sites is the ease of use. Forms are stripped down to the bear minimum in most cases and the use can go back to add filler information later, like profiles. This allows a user to quickly perform a task and see results. Add AJAX on top of this and you have an amazing ability to please users to your site, since you can do these tasks quickly. So I have definately taking this into consideration on my new site.

The latest problem I have had with working on my new project is figuring out how to stay COPPA compliant. This is not proving to be an easy task because there is no way I am going to be taking snail mail letters and faxes just to allow people to register on the site. I just do not have the time to go through and read each letter, then go activate the kid’s account.

Off on a limb, I decided to go around the internet and find some of the Web 2.0 site lists and see what they did to comply with COPPA. My findings are kind of disturbing in a way. Of the sites I checked, only a few even mentioned anything of being 13 or older. This means that any data they have on people under 13, that may have accounts on these sites, is illegal. This could cause major issues if/when the government goes to enforce this law. I highly recommend you guys make sure your web sites follow the bill.

My solution to the problem was kind of based on what Yahoo! does. Instead of processing faxes and letters, I will require the minor to be registured under a “family” account. When the kid goes to register and says he is under the age of 13, I set a cookie that tells me he can only register a family account on this computer within the next 2 weeks. The kid is then notified of the actions he needs to take. This may be cheap and easy to get around if you know how to edit cookies, but it does make the site COPPA compliant and still keeps me from processing papers.

I also have some good news to plug for myself. It seems I may be getting a Macbook Pro 17″ soon. I am going to wait until this issue is fixed though. When you are seeing temperature drops that large, you know there is a problem. Why don’t I just do the fix myself? I would rather not void my warranty in case I break something else.

On top of this, I have enrolled at Northern Kentucky University for a summer Java class. My friend that is also taking the class says that it counts as a credit for him, and since his high school is one of the better schools in the area (private), I am going to pray that it counts as a credit at mine. If it does, I will be enjoying four elective classes my senior year of high school.