[update]

Download Queue v0.2 Available!

See this blog post for details: Download Queue (DQ) v0.2
[/update]

I've been spending more and more time at the Linux command line lately and have been looking at ways of improving the experience, customizing and personalizing it. At the same time, I've been using it as an opportunity to learn new languages, one of those being bash.

I've used bash in a very simplistic way ever since I first got Linux, simple one-off commands here and there, aliases, .bashrc, etc., but I only recently decided to take a serious, in-depth look at it. I've been reading tutorials here and there, studied up a bit on common useful commands, but in order to really get to know a language you have to use it, so that's what I'm doing.

Download Queue (DQ) v0.1b

Lots of new features added today:

Search

I have a basic search system set up, which recognizes phrases in quotes and space separated key words.

Tags

Each blog can have tags associated with it. Users can click on a tag to see all blogs that use that tag.

Archives

A basic archive setup that lists blogs by month and year.

Credit goes to poeticcode for the formula I used for my tag cloud sizing.

I've completed a blog entry form, and included features for editing and deleting blogs, so it'll be much easier to update. Now that it's easy to post blogs, I can let you know a bit more about who I am and what kind of functions I intend this site to serve.

First, I am a 22 year old web developer named Jason Hutchinson. I live in Southwest Missouri, USA, and I greatly enjoy programming. For several years I've been particularly interested in web development and design, and ASP, HTML, Javascript, and CSS have been my languages of choice. This site marks my first real foray into PHP and MySQL, and at the rate things are going they'll very likely supplant ASP and Access as my preferred web development technologies.

PHP's syntactical similarity with Javascript has made it relatively easy for me to pick up, and development on this site's going much faster than I had expected. Next I'll be adding the usual blog features like tags, archives, trackbacks, and search, as well as a few useful tools for me to use behind the scenes.

I spent a lot of time cleaning up and tweaking the comments system, though most of the changes won't be immediately noticeable. As an administrator I now have the ability to edit and delete comments, which will come in handy if any spam bots find me.

I've decided against using a captcha system, since I did a little research and found that most spammers use just the bots to find a site, then post manually. I'm thinking of working up a blacklist system similar to MT Blacklist, which will search the comment for links to known spammer sites and disallow any comments that do. Another option is a whitelist setup, where I approve a user's email address before their posts can go straight onto the site, but that can discourage comment conversation with new posters. If anyone has any suggestions for a spambot prevention system I'd appreciate it.

It's up and running, is tied to a MySQL database, and now has a comments system built in. Hopefully I won't get slammed by spam bots before I work up a simple captcha.

• September 2007 (3)
• April 2007 (4)