We want to give back! We have learned much of what we use everyday by others that have taken the time to post that information to the web. Here is where we will post the things that we hope will in turn be useful to others as we explore the technologies in web development and any other topics we find interesting. You are free to use any of the code snips or techniques that we have posted here for any purpose, personal or commercial. However if we credit another individual or group please visit their website for information about their usage terms. copyright © 2011 Blue Valley Technologies, LLC http://www.bluevalleytech.com/techtalk Mon, 24 January 2011 10:39:00 Mon, 24 January 2011 10:39:00 Mark http://www.bluevalleytech.com/techtalk/techtalk/blog/conversion-of-f250-powerstroke-73l-diesel-to-waste-vegetable-oil/ This post has been moved to http://www.modernsurvivalists.com/skills/alternative-energy/converting-a-73l-diesel-engine-to-vegetable-oil/ http://www.bluevalleytech.com/techtalk/techtalk/blog/conversion-of-f250-powerstroke-73l-diesel-to-waste-vegetable-oil/ http://www.bluevalleytech.com/techtalk/techtalk/blog/conversion-of-f250-powerstroke-73l-diesel-to-waste-vegetable-oil/ Mon, 24 January 2011 10:39:00 Mark http://www.bluevalleytech.com/techtalk/techtalk/blog/do-html-embedded-css-styles-have-a-place/ I have long subscribed to the argument that the design (CSS) should be separate from the content (HTML). The theory makes a lot of sense. It allows for the design of the site to be changed and tweaked without needing to go into every single page and adjust the code like was common years ago. Websites like csszengarden.com illustrate this theory very well. The one nagging problem however, is that most sites invariably end up needing some customized CSS styles applied to just one specific piece of content in order to meet the requirements of the client. You know, the pesky splash text that only appears on the home page for example. Or perhaps it is just one customer testimonial that was just a bit too long so you apply a tiny bit of negative letter spacing to make it fit. You end up with CSS style definitions like: #homepageBannerText or #smith.customer Testimonial . Are we really still separating content from style at this point? I would say no. It gets really bad when you start creating sections for each page within the main stylesheet. I have seen sites that have ended up with over 20,000 lines in the main style.css as a result of this. I know everyone has different opinions on how to organize, but personally, a 20,000 line css file drives me nuts! One of my recent projects entailed a website where the design was already done and we were responsible for taking the Photoshop comps and producing a website to match. The website featured a scrap-booking theme. This also meant lots of variation from one page to the next. It would require lots of z-index layering and special positioning of transparent images to get the desired overlaps and effects. What it boiled down to was nearly every page would need per-page CSS definitions, and lots of them. I decided I would look for a new approach. Many would suggest a main style.css for all the site-wide css attributes and then one additional css file for each page that needed custom style definitions. While the organization of this appeals to me, I wasn't happy about the fact that this would also require another http connection increasing the load-time for each page. Especially on this particular site which was already very graphics intensive with lots of big images on each page. I finally settled on the approach of a very similar method. Except that instead of putting the page specific css in a separate file, I just defined it in a style block at the top of that page. Much of the advice online says that this should be avoided, citing the separation of the content and style as the reason. My experience with this site showed that this technique actually worked out very well. Any style that applied to the entire website or at least to multiple pages was still placed in the main style.css as usual. It was neat, organized, fairly trim, and it was then cached by the browser for each consecutive page load. I still can alter any of the site-wide styles with ease if I ever need to. Every single page is no longer forced to download the CSS styles for every other page on the website, something that has always bugged me about the single CSS file method. After all, we don't have the browser download the content and images for every other page do we? But because the per-page definitions were embedded at the top of the HTML, I also have not created an additional HTTP request. What I was surprised to learn was that this technique also made the CSS and HTML both much cleaner. I no longer needed to have site-unique ID's on everything that needed custom styling. I could simply override the global values on a specific element, say .stickyNote at the top of my page in my per-page css block. My custom values would apply to only that page just like I needed, without affecting any of the other global rules for other pages. As far as separation of content and style goes, I feel I have not lost anything. The only rules that are in the HTML page are inherently tied to the content anyway. Even if they had been defined in the main style.css, they would need tweaking anytime the content changes. By putting them in the top of the page it actually makes this easier, while keeping my main stylesheet clean from all this clutter. http://www.bluevalleytech.com/techtalk/techtalk/blog/do-html-embedded-css-styles-have-a-place/ http://www.bluevalleytech.com/techtalk/techtalk/blog/do-html-embedded-css-styles-have-a-place/ Mon, 20 June 2011 11:45:00 Mark http://www.bluevalleytech.com/techtalk/techtalk/blog/vegistroke-v3-kit-installation-to-f250-powerstroke-psd-73l-diesel/ This post has been moved to  http://www.modernsurvivalists.com/gear/vegistroke-v3-wvo-kit/ . http://www.bluevalleytech.com/techtalk/techtalk/blog/vegistroke-v3-kit-installation-to-f250-powerstroke-psd-73l-diesel/ http://www.bluevalleytech.com/techtalk/techtalk/blog/vegistroke-v3-kit-installation-to-f250-powerstroke-psd-73l-diesel/ Tue, 25 January 2011 16:47:00 Mark http://www.bluevalleytech.com/techtalk/techtalk/blog/conventional-or-70v-commercial-speaker-systems-which-is-the-right-choice/ Many small venues such as bars, restaurants, schools, and churches use a commercial speaker wiring format known as 70V. This wiring format has a higher signal voltage that allows for many advantages. Let's take a look at the differences, how it works, and how to decide which format is best for your application. A conventional speaker system has one or more speakers that typically have an impedance of 8 Ohms, but 4, and 16 Ohm speakers are common as well. The impedance is similar to resistance, and can be used to determine how much load a speaker will put on an amplifier. A quality amplifier will list what the allowed range of load impedance is and what the maximum output will be at various loads. For example, an amplifier may list that it can handle speaker configurations between 4 and 16 Ohms. Hooking up any speaker configuration that places a load that is outside this range can cause damage to the amplifier. The amplifier in our example states that its maximum output will be 200 Watts at an 8-Ohm load and 600 Watts at a 4-Ohm load. As you can see, by increasing the load from 8 Ohms to 4 Ohms (a smaller Ohms value equates to a higher load, as it indicates less resistance) the amplifier max output went from 200W to 600W. This illustrates how a load even just slightly higher than the specified range can work the amplifier much harder then intended. Speakers can be wired in series, parallel, or mixtures of both to allow for many different combinations that will result in the desired load impedance. The more speakers that you want to incorporate into your system, the more complex you wiring configuration may become. Also, if a speaker were to become disconnected or shorted accidently, the amplifier may become overloaded and damaged. A 70V speaker configuration simplifies this problem significantly. The 70V system works by using a transformer after the amplifier to step up the signal voltage. Another transformer is used at each speaker to step the voltage back down to conventional speaker levels. The higher voltage system is much less sensitive to small changes in impedance. The transformers at each speaker typically have multiple lugs that are labeled at the wattage they will draw from the amplifier. Any number and combination of speakers can be added to the circuit, so long as the total wattage draw from the amplifier does not exceed the stated max 70V wattage load. If a speaker is connected or disconnected, it will not throw of the impedance balance of the reset of the network, like can happen with conventional speaker voltages. Another great advantage to the 70V speaker system is that it allows for longer wiring runs and the use of smaller gauge speaker wire. This is because the higher voltage from the step-up transformer also translates to less current and as a result less power loss over longer lengths of wire. This is similar to why the electric power utilities use step-up transformers and run the power long distances over high tension power lines and then uses step-down transformers at the power poles right before they enter a consumer's home. One more advantage to a 70V system is in cases where you want to have separate volume controls at each speaker, in a multi-room setup for example. You can purchase 70V volume controls that are placed directly before a speaker's step-down transformer. These volumes controls are much more reliable and safer for your amplifier then their conventional speaker level counterparts. So how do you decide which setup is best for you? The more speakers you want to use on a single amplifier channel, the stronger the argument for a 70V system. Other factors, such as very long runs of speaker wire also will support the case for a 70V system. Generally any single channel that needs 5 or more speakers, or has speaker runs over 75 feet may be better served with a 70V system. System's with only one or two speakers per channel, such as in a typical home theater setup, a 70V system offers few advantages and would add cost and complexity. bvtBlogContentAd http://www.bluevalleytech.com/techtalk/techtalk/blog/conventional-or-70v-commercial-speaker-systems-which-is-the-right-choice/ http://www.bluevalleytech.com/techtalk/techtalk/blog/conventional-or-70v-commercial-speaker-systems-which-is-the-right-choice/ Tue, 25 January 2011 21:02:00 Mark http://www.bluevalleytech.com/techtalk/techtalk/blog/hdtv-antenna-comparison-winegard-squareshooter-vs-channel-master-3010-stealth-vs-rca-ant-806/ Selecting the best antenna for receiving off-air HDTV broadcasts for your location can include several factors. One of those factors is how well do some of the various models pick up the signals in your location. Some locations may easily receive all the signals you are interested in with almost any antenna, while others may need a very high quality antenna with an amplifier. This article takes a look at three widely available antenna's, and compares how they stacked up at my location. The three Indoor / Outdoor antennas reviewed here were provided by Advanced Satellite Communications located in Columbus, Ohio. HDTV Antenna's usually include VHF and UHF elements. VHF elements are important for receiving channels between 2 and 13, whereas UHF elements receive channel frequency 14 and higher. Though it is important to note that in digital tv, the "virtual" channel number (e.g. 6.1) can actually be broadcast on a different frequency, often times in the UHF band (e.g. 38). To help sort this out, I recommend you look up the local broadcast information for your area using antennaweb.org . They will list the virtual channel as well as the actual frequency for the local stations in your area. All the models reviewed here were individually placed in the same location in a window on a second story home. The were pointed so that they received the best overall signal reception and that not moved or adjusted for each individual channel. I have also included the local reception using a Terk Indoor only amplified HDTV Antenna in the same position. This is to establish a baseline and demonstrate how much better reception an indoor/outdoor antenna can be. The Antenna I used is regarded as a good quality indoor antenna, but as you will see did not work nearly as well for my location as the larger indoor/outdoor models. The signal strength readings were taken with a Samsung SlimFit HDTV. The Channel Master 3010 StealthTenna is marketed as a short range antenna that can receive analog and digital UHF, VHF and FM broadcasts. Although it s the least expensive model reviewed here (found online at several vendors for $39.99), it was the best performer in the un-amplified mode of any reviewed here. It did not include an amplifier with this model, and was only beat in reception by the WineGard Squareshooter in the amplified mode. This antenna was impressive that it actually outperformed the amplified RCA model. This is also the only model reviewed here that has external metal fins as part of the elements. While they certainly look more modern then the old metal elements that used to be prevalent on rooftops, they still may not meet the cosmetic requirements of some homeowners. The mid-priced model reviewed here was the RCA Indoor Outdoor Ant 806 which can be found online from $50 - $89.99. This model includes an amplifier that can be connected to the output. I measured the reception in both modes, and found the amplifier did slightly increase the reception on some stations, but it actually seemed to reduce the signal strength on others. This antenna really didn't seem to perfomr any better then then indoor only Terk. Where this model shines is in the mounting options and cosmetic appearance. Although it is nearly 4 feet wide, the unit can be mounted underneath eaves, on railings, or even to the wall above your tv and not look too bad. The Winegard SquareShooter SS-2000 is the most expensive model reviewed here, available online from a few vendors for $98. It also had the best reception, and had the highest quality feel and build-quality. The unit included a mini-dish style foot mount, and also had hardware for mounting to a pole. The unit included an optional amplifier as well. The amplifier was the nicest of any reviewed here. The AC adapter to power the amplifier is connected using a length of RG-6 coax cable. The advantage to this is that if you wanted to place the amplifier where there is not an available power outlet, such as in an attic, all you had to to is run a longer coax cable to an outlet anywhere else in the home. The Winegard also has a modern look that is likely to satisfy most homeowners and neighborhood associations. bvtBlogContentAd http://www.bluevalleytech.com/techtalk/techtalk/blog/hdtv-antenna-comparison-winegard-squareshooter-vs-channel-master-3010-stealth-vs-rca-ant-806/ http://www.bluevalleytech.com/techtalk/techtalk/blog/hdtv-antenna-comparison-winegard-squareshooter-vs-channel-master-3010-stealth-vs-rca-ant-806/ Tue, 25 January 2011 21:04:00 Mark http://www.bluevalleytech.com/techtalk/techtalk/blog/my-budget-why-should-i-tell-you!/ Asking clients for their project budgets is a topic that I often see on design & developer forums. The consultants post that they would like a project budget when working on an estimate but are frustrated when clients are reluctant to provide it. The consultants usually post that they do not understand why this is. Before I became a consultant I was the IT Manager for several years at a non-profit organization. From that experience I can definitely understand a client's reluctance. In fact, I didn't understand why I should disclose my budget with a contractor until I became one myself. From the client's perspective, there are usually two reasons that they may not want to divulge their budget. The most common reason is the desire to get the best price that they can. They fear that if they lay out how much they are willing to spend, then that is what the project will cost, and often they are right. Instead they are hoping that the contractor will just provide an estimate that is ideally less then what they were willing to spend. This is a basic concept and from the client's perspective it makes perfect sense. The other reason a client may not want to discuss their budget is because they may not know what a suitable budget for their project really is. The fear is if they show what might be perceived as ignorance on the topic, then the contractor will take advantage of that, again resulting in them being overcharged. So far I haven't made much of a case for discussing a budget! However, that's because I think it is just as important for contractors to understand their clients' concerns as it is for the client to understand ours. From the contractor's perspective, my goal is to provide a service or product to my client that both meets their needs and is priced at a point that is within their budget. The fact is that some projects can be performed at different levels of budget. However, this does not mean that the final result is the same. The difference is how much time and effort can be invested in producing and polishing that result. The budget is a key component in determining this. Another element that is often overlooked is that this is negotiable. I am more than happy to discuss options that may increase or decrease the cost. The budget just helps me to establish the initial project and what I can include at that cost point. My aim is then to produce the nicest product that I can within that budget. Without a budget I can only guess where to start, and that often results in an estimate that does not meet the needs of the client. The budget always seems the most difficult to discuss when there is a new client / contractor relationship. Trust has not been established yet for the client, so this is only natural. Once trust has been established it is usually smooth sailing. The vast majority of my work is repeat customers or new clients that have been referred to me by my existing clients. If I were to take advantage of clients budgets, and provide results that were not a value to the client I could hardly expect them to hire me for more projects in the future, let alone expect referrals from that client. A smart contractor realizes that trust and integrity are key to future work and ultimately a successful firm. Don't be afraid to provide your budget requirements to a firm when asking for an estimate. But at the same time, don't be afraid to ask for options that could reduce the cost. Make sure that you understand what those options are and whether they provide the value you expect at that price point. Then you can decide for yourself that the project features and polish are at a price that is a value to you and your organization. http://www.bluevalleytech.com/techtalk/techtalk/blog/my-budget-why-should-i-tell-you!/ http://www.bluevalleytech.com/techtalk/techtalk/blog/my-budget-why-should-i-tell-you!/ Tue, 25 January 2011 21:30:00 Mark http://www.bluevalleytech.com/techtalk/techtalk/blog/assigning-ntfs-folder-permission-to-iis7-application-pools/ Microsoft IIS Server 7.0 and up offers a lot of new features in regards to application security. One of the new features is the ability to assign each of your ASP.NET applications their own isolated Application Pool. This adds a lot of additional security because now we can also assign NTFS permissions for folders on a per application basis. This is a good thing because now when you need to give your ASP.NET application permission to read or write data to a particular folder, you don't have to automatically allow every other ASP.NET app on the same server to do so as well. When developers that are new to IIS 7 first try to run an app they may get the error: Access to the path 'C:\inetpub\MyWebSite\App_Data\MySiteData.xml' is denied. This used to be fixed by simply adding the NetworkService account to the folder permissions . While it is still possible to configure your application to use the NetworkService account, it should be avoided. This older method does not allow you to assign folder permissions for ASP.NET on a per application basis. When you create a new ASP.NET application in IIS it now will by default automatically create a new IIS App Pool with the same name and then assign it to that application. If this application will require ASP.NET code to be able to create or modify files on the server you will need to give it permission. The App_Data is one folder that often that often needs create & modify access. NOTE: The instructions below are intended for Windows Server 2008 R2. If you need help with Windows Server 2008 go here , and here for Windows Server 2003 . You cannot currently browse for your new IIS App Pool account in the GUI, however you can still assign the folder permissions by typing IIS APPPOOL\YourAppPoolName in the Select User or Groups dialog box which is accesible by clicking Add... Once the account is listed, assign the permissions just as would do before with the NetworkService account. http://www.bluevalleytech.com/techtalk/techtalk/blog/assigning-ntfs-folder-permission-to-iis7-application-pools/ http://www.bluevalleytech.com/techtalk/techtalk/blog/assigning-ntfs-folder-permission-to-iis7-application-pools/ Tue, 25 January 2011 21:34:00 Mark http://www.bluevalleytech.com/techtalk/techtalk/blog/energystat-our-next-generation-thermostat/ The EnergyStat™ was initially created as our entry into Microsoft's Dare to Dream Different Challenge. The challange was sponsered by Microsoft's .NET Micro Famework team and was open to contestants internationally. The prizes ranged from hardware development kits to business consulting and startup cash to implement for the finalists. The competition has now concluded and our entry was selected as a semi-finalist (among the top 50)! We would like to congratulate all of the teams that submited an entry. We saw a lot of great ideas from the competitors. Our invention for the competition was a thermostat that offered a combination of thermal energy learning for the invironment it is installed in, as well as presenting info to the user that allows them to make more energy efiicient decissions when adjusting their climate control settings. The device is internet enabled so that it is aware of upcoming weather changes, diplay weather alerts, and can even allow the user to change their settings from anywhere they have internet access. The combination of all these features would untap additional energy savings out of the existing heating and cooling system in any home. The goal of the EnergyStat is to be the World's most energy efficient thermostat. Although the competition has ended we intend to continue developing this product to produce a version that is commercially viable. Please check this page for future updates on the EnergyStat™. http://www.bluevalleytech.com/techtalk/techtalk/blog/energystat-our-next-generation-thermostat/ http://www.bluevalleytech.com/techtalk/techtalk/blog/energystat-our-next-generation-thermostat/ Mon, 15 February 2010 21:53:00 Mark http://www.bluevalleytech.com/techtalk/techtalk/blog/introduction-to-aspnet-master-pages/ ASP.NET has a built in website template system called Master Pages. The system offers a very flexible and easy to use solution for managing the portion of a website that will be re-used on more than one page of the site. Most websites will use the same header, navigation and footer on almost every page of the site. Master Pages provide a simple to use, and simple to manage answer for this common problem. Master pages are not the only option for this problem. Some developers have taken the time to build their own templating system (usually when using another development language that does not already have one built-in like ASP.NET), and some web design software suites include a template system. For example, Dreamweaver includes a system called "Dreamweaver templates". ASP.NET Master pages work similar to the Editable Regions in Dreamweaver templates, but they offer a number of advantages. The master pages are integrated into the content pages at the time of the user request. This means that unlike client side based templates, you do not need to re-apply it to every content page each time you change the master page. The ASP.NET Master Pages are much more flexible than most other template systems. Among many other features, they allow for an unlimited number of nested template levels and allow for default content at each content region. While nesting is beyond the scope of this article, it is actually quite simple to implement. I will discuss how to specify default content below. The template files in ASP.NET end with .master and are very similar to a standard .aspx page in that they can contain the same kind of page markup. The .master file will contain the code that you want to reuse on multiple pages. In the example below you will see the Site.master default markup for a new Visual Studio Web Site. By default there are two Content Place Holders defined with the <asp:ContentPlaceHolder /> tags. The first one is titled HeadContent and contains a single line of default content. The second Content Place Holder is titled MainContent and uses the shorter close tag notation since we did not specify any default content for this region. Because the templates are actually merged by the web server at the time of the request, we need to include the runat="server" parameter as well. In the sample Content Page below we tell the server that we want to use our Master Page by adding the MasterPageFile="~/Site.Master" parameter in the Page tag at the top. The Master Pages content will now automatically be used on this page of the website and all we need to do is optionally provide some custom content for our Content Place Holders. We do this by using a <asp:Content /> tag. The page below has supplied content for both of our Content Place Holders. Notice how the tags are matched to their proper corresponding Master Page tag by the ContenPlaceHolderId parameter. If we request the page from the web server, below is the resulting HTML that is sent to the browser. The custom content was automatically merged with the template content contained in the Master Page, and then the ASP.Net Placeholder tags were stripped out and finally the server would process any other server side elements before sending the results to the client. Notice also that setting the Title parameter in our content page was still applied even though the title tag is actually outside of any of our Content Place Holders. Any code behind files (.cs or .vb) that are associated with the pages will get processed just fine. Another nice feature is that you can even specify a code behind file for your mast page that so that it can be used to insert server code that you want to get processed on every page. Now if we decided we did not need to change the default content that we have for the header in our HeadContent Place holder, we would just omit specifying a corresponding asp:Content tag in our content page. If you omit a placeholder region in your page the server will then just use the default content from the master page instead, like below. This is especially nice if you decide to adfd a new Content Region to a template after the site has already been published. You do not have to go back and add that region to every page the uses your template. Instead you would only need to update the pages where you want to specify custom content in your new content placeholder. This article really just scratches the surface with what can be done with master pages. However many sites do not need any more complexity then this. Nested master page will come in handy when you want to build a section of subpages, say recipes for example, that will all have a very similar look, but still inherit from the Main Master Page to inherit the site's header, footer, etc. http://www.bluevalleytech.com/techtalk/techtalk/blog/introduction-to-aspnet-master-pages/ http://www.bluevalleytech.com/techtalk/techtalk/blog/introduction-to-aspnet-master-pages/ Wed, 09 February 2011 14:25:00 Mark http://www.bluevalleytech.com/techtalk/techtalk/blog/webkit-font-face-problem-with-ie9/ I just ran into this with a new site we are launching. We were using a webkit font that was generated by fontsquirrel.com (great resource by the way) and I noticed the font was displaying great in pretty much everything except IE9. After a bit of searching it turns out that for some web kit fonts you will need to add a new mime-type to the site in IIS.   Here are the steps: Open the site in IIS. In the Features View, with the site node selected, click MIME Types. Click Add from the Actions area. Add ".woff" for the Extension and "application/x-font-woff " for the mimeType and click ok. These steps cleared the issue up for us. : ) http://www.bluevalleytech.com/techtalk/techtalk/blog/webkit-font-face-problem-with-ie9/ http://www.bluevalleytech.com/techtalk/techtalk/blog/webkit-font-face-problem-with-ie9/ Thu, 07 April 2011 12:50:00 Mark http://www.bluevalleytech.com/techtalk/techtalk/blog/creating-a-rackspace-ubuntu-cloud-server/ Rackspace Cloud servers are ultra-reliable and robust cloud based servers that can be configured with a variety base OS images. This walkthrough will take you step by step through creating and setting a base install of the popular Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx). Later walkthroughs will pick up where this walkthrough leaves off with setting up common webserver platforms and frameworks. We begin by logging into our Rackspace Cloud Server control panel. Add new server instance. Select Linux tab, then Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid) . Type a unique name to identify the new server. Select the desired hardware. I started with the least expensive; it is easy to scale up later if needed. The Rackspace panel will give you a pre-generated password. Save this for later reference. While the server is building you will want to install an SSH Client. If you are on Windows we recommend Bitvise Tunnelier (free for individual use). Once the server build is complete, you will get an email with the public IP address and the root/admin password for your new Linux server. Open your SSH Client and connect to the new server with the public IP address as the Host, Default Port 22 , root for the username, and the auto-generated password from earlier for the password.  On successful connection you should get a console command window. The first thing we should do is changed the root password. Since the auto-generated one was sent unencrypted via email it can no longer be considered safe. At the console prompt, type the command: passwd and hit enter. You will be prompted for the new password twice. Be sure to use an unique password that is fairly long, contains a mix of letters, numbers and at least one punctuation character. Save the new password in a secure location. At this point you will have a working base install of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid) running on a Rackspace Cloud Server. The next walk through will help take you step by step for Installing the LAMP Frawework stack . bvtBlogContentAd http://www.bluevalleytech.com/techtalk/techtalk/blog/creating-a-rackspace-ubuntu-cloud-server/ http://www.bluevalleytech.com/techtalk/techtalk/blog/creating-a-rackspace-ubuntu-cloud-server/ Sun, 18 December 2011 13:27:00 Mark http://www.bluevalleytech.com/techtalk/techtalk/blog/setting-up-lamp-server-on-ubuntu-1004-(lucid-lynx)/ LAMP is an acronym for the Linux Apache MySQL PHP stack, which is a very popular web development framework. This walkthrough will guide you step by step the process of installing a base LAMP stack on a clean Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) server. If you do not already have an Ubuntu server, our previous walkthrough Creating a Rackspace Ubuntu Cloud Server will take you up to the point that this walkthrough picks up. SSH into your Ubuntu server (see our Ubuntu setup walkthrough if you need help with this step) Update the installer source repositories by typing the following command: sudo apt-get update (hit enter) Install Apache: sudo apt-get install apache2 (hit enter) Type Y to confirm. Once the Apache install is finished, you can confirm it works by opening a new browser window and browsing to either the local or public IP ( http://ip-address ) of your Ubuntu server. You should see a page that says " It Works! " if all went well. Install MySQL Server: sudo apt-get install mysql-server-5.1 (hit enter) Type Y to confirm. Enter a new password for the root MySQL user. Be sure to use a unique password that is fairly long, contains a mix of letters, numbers and at least one punctuation character. Save the password in a secure location. Install PHP 5: sudo apt-get install php5 (hit enter) Type Y to confirm. Install the GD library for PHP: sudo apt-get install php5-gd (hit enter) Restart Apache: /etc/init.d/apache2 restart (hit enter) Finally we now install the MySQL module for PHP: sudo apt-get install php5-mysql (hit enter) Now we have a clean base install of a LAMP server running on Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx). If you are using a Hyper V server or the Rackspace Cloud, now would be a great time to make a snapshot backup of your server. We will pick up from here on the next walkthrough with installing and configuring Drupal. bvtBlogContentAd http://www.bluevalleytech.com/techtalk/techtalk/blog/setting-up-lamp-server-on-ubuntu-1004-(lucid-lynx)/ http://www.bluevalleytech.com/techtalk/techtalk/blog/setting-up-lamp-server-on-ubuntu-1004-(lucid-lynx)/ Sun, 18 December 2011 13:27:00