UtterlyBoring.com

Really. I’m serious. At least in this case, it was fun, because I know now that it’s done, my life will be a lot easier.

My work site is powered by PHP. The off-the-shelf script I used to power the home manager is called Free Realty. I’m using an older version of it where the code isn’t as clean (and even the new version isn’t as clean as it probably could be, but it’s fairly plug and play). But the version I have used a TON of echo statements to create its various pages. Now, echo statements are fine if you’re processing variables inside those echoes, but there were just large echo statements full of HTML, and it was just annoying to look at, especially so since HomeSite doesn’t color code the HTML inside PHP tags — meaning it’s really hard to read. So today I got rid of a bunch of echo tags, did a lot more in-line PHP if/else stuff, replaced the longer echo blocks with short-tag versions of echo in-line with the HTML, reduced the amount of overall if/else statements and the code is a lot cleaner and easier on the eyes. It will make a future project I’m working on a hell of a lot easier, too (as I plan on reusing a lot of this same code).

I’m starting to pretend pretty well that I know what I’m doing with this stuff 😉 Prior to this job, I didn’t know a damn thing about PHP, other than knowing a coworker or two were studs at it. But working here was the first real shot I’ve had at it, and it’s a blast. Beats working on the piece of crap ASP server I have upstairs any day of the week.

I’ve never had to resort to it, but I had to file a complaint against a company today for being complete jackasses and not working with me at all. I mentioned earlier that I was having trouble with an auction on eBay. After several months, getting a circle jerk like you wouldn’t believe, I have filed a complaint with the Houston Better Business Bureau. It’s not a lot of money (all told, items and shipping charges back and forth ran about $60), but it’s the principle of the thing: You can’t treat customers like dirt and expect to get away with it. Regardless, my full complaint is in the extended entry of this post.

Meanwhile, I’m looking for (and selling) some computer parts again, because I had my original guy that I was buying ECC RAM from decide to bail on me. I’m also selling some parts as well (a few hubs, some PIIIs, and a few DLT tapes). Since I don’t really want to maintain the list in two places, check out my Anandtech forum post and let me know if you can help me out.

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