Filed under: Developer, Linux, Blogging, Freeware
Want a portal? Just add Geeklog
by Victor Agreda, Jr. Jan 26th 2007
There's no shortage of CMS or "portal" building tools out there. Drupal is one I've come to trust and its feature set is hard to beat. But many require a certain amount of heavy lifting or at least tweaking to get running. Enter Geeklog-- a so-called "portal in a box," or to hear them say it, "The Ultimate Weblog System." I don't know about ultimate, but I will say the installation and configuration process is pretty darn simple. The most cumbersome aspect will be creating a SQL database (wish I had a nickel for every time I've said that). After you've got your database mojo, it's a straight shot to unpack and install and start working. Geeklog is no slouch in the added functions, as there are apparently a large number of plugins and add-ons. It's not all sunshine and roses, as there are limited templates and the usual quirks and gotchas. Linux.com has an excellent review, and brief guide to getting started. Geeklog might not be everything you've been looking for, but if you want something quick and dirty (and at some point, don't we all?), it might be a good fit. I should mention they're working to improve the tool by using bounties: a small sum paid to developers (courtesy of sponsor AOE media GmbH) for implementing user-requested features. So with any luck, Geeklog will flourish in the coming months.
[thank Dolores for sending this in!]
Since getting out of the database business a few years ago,
I haven't had to sully myself with things like foreign keys or even SQL for a while. But now that it looks like I'll be
building a site using MySQL and PHP, it's back to the db again. Luckily, developer Thomas Mango sent in a tip about his
Yeah, I know, there's a lot of you SQL types out there who just do it all in code. Unfortunately my brain doesn't work that way. Creating database connections from thin air was never my cup of tea, and don't get me started on inner joins. And the worst boss I ever had the pleasure of working with lived in SQLServer all day (maybe that was a personal problem)... But if you're needing a very simple connection and table retreiver front-end you might want to check out 
With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet.
They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...
