A look back at: March 08

Well this posts a little later than planned. I’ve been wanting to update the site, however wanted to get the new release of wordpress up and running first. Well, its now up and I’m loving it.

I thought there would be some big compatibility problems what with all the changes made in 2.5 however it worked flawlessly! Why the new skin you ask? Why Not! I answer :)

Ok, so last month. I had a lot going on with college, meaning I didn’t have much time to work on anything. Despite this I managed to get the front-end of the webhostbutler.com script completed, and as for the backend I’ve decided to keep it simple and have a very basic backend.

I’ve also started work on the other project (home server). I’ve got big plans for this one.

Finally, I finished building/configuring my home server, its now running Fedora Linux ( core 8 ) and has a bunch of SATA drives slotted in everywhere I could fit them :p The only thing I’m disappointed about is the RAM. Its the hottest part of the entire system, and actually hurts to touch. Because of this its causing the entire room to become a sauna!

Theres not much I can do to fix this other than buy RAM fans (Which are very noisy due to their small form factor). I may try taking 2 of the 4 1gb sticks out to see if that helps. The CPU (Intel c2d 2.66Ghz) is pretty cold and is running on a stock Intel fan (I found this to be quieter and more effective than an Alaska fan purchased from eBuyer). The hard drives are warm to touch, but don’t give off huge amounts of heat like the RAM. The only other warm(ish) component is what looks to be a northbridge with a bronze heatsink built into the motherboard.

So far I’ve got Apache, PHP, MySQL setup for web development, plus SAMBA so I can access the server as if it was a folder on my own computer, I’m using this to have my itunes library stored on the server, which will free up a good 10GB of space on both my laptop and desktop computers. Its also acting as a media storage for any films / tv programs I’ve got.

I also purchased a usb freeview card and it can record TV directly to the server, which can then be watched from any computer/device connected to our home network! I think an upgrade to a 802.11n router will be needed soon. Our netgear 54g is on its way out at the moment. We get through routers like a fat man gets through mars bars! This time I may spend a bit extra and get a faster router and gradually upgrade the network. Especially if Virgin is going to be getting their customers broadband speeds upto 100mbps by years end! No point paying for 100mbps if your internal network is 54mbps :P

Anyway, this month I hope to get webhostbutler online, and continue work on the home server site. I dont expect to have this ready to launch for a good 2-3 months yet as I want this to be a well thought out project.

Thats about it for now I think!

Oh No’s where’s the site gone!

Well as of today, RickyMills.com is no longer a place to show my skills and portfolio. Over the last year or so, I’ve become increasingly interested in becoming an entrepreneur. More specifically, a web entrepreneur. Now I hear you cry “But theres no such thing as a web entrepreneur”, and your right, officially there is no place for this job title. However its more of a generic term used to describe what one does. Let me explain.

A web entrepreneur is involved in creating, buying and investing in websites. These websites draw profit from various methods such as advertisements and user subscriptions. What many people dont understand is that there is more money in websites than in most “regular” jobs. I’ve decided that by the end of 2008 I want to be earning enough money to live off. I’ll explain my plans in my next post which outlines my 2008 goals.

So, RickyMills.com is now where I will be blogging about how I’m getting along as a self-employed entrepreneur. Myself and my business partner, Mike Barlow recently opened RikeMedia, which is our brand name which we operate our sites under. All our sites are listed on the RikeMedia website so be sure to take a look!