I setup Lighttpd 1.4.18 with FastCGI support for PHP on my development server last night just to see if it's gotten any better since I last tried it. So far so good, at least setup and install went much better this time. Ubuntu has had Lighttpd in the repos since Dapper (although only Gutsy and Hardy are up to date.) Setting up FastCGI was easy this time around, I didn't get any server errors at all, although it's possible I only owe this to better understanding of the documentation. Just for kicks, I also installed eAccelerator, which is a PHP op-code cache that I've been using on my primary server for a few months along with some other performance tweaks (mostly various types of caching.)

NOTE: This was originally posted on December 14th, 2007 on my (now defunct) Tumblr blog.

So just now I was having a discussion with my girlfriend about what I used to do before we met, before I gained something resembling a life and real social skills, and what have you… basically I was a forum whore. I posted on forums night and day. I was a member of a community, I felt like I belonged somewhere and things were always fine in one community for a little while, but then things started to go sour, every time.

Those that follow Linux news will certainly know that Ubuntu 8.04 "Hardy Heron" is coming at the end of April. This release is a major milestone for Ubuntu, because it's the second Long Term Support (LTS) release, after 6.06 "Dapper Drake". That means they'll be keeping it up to date for 18 months as normal, but will provide security updates for 3 years on desktop installations and 5 years for servers.

For those wondering, yes, I do host my website on my own server and it is running Dapper. Previously I had made up my mind that I was going to continue using Dapper for the duration of it's support cycle mostly because it is proven and stable but also because it's a major hassle to upgrade. I'm reconsidering this for a number of reasons, but the main one is simply because I enjoy being on the bleeding edge, and a lot of things on my Dapper server are very out of date and won't ever be updated unless I can find backports, or compile programs myself, neither of which I want to do.

I've been experimenting with Drupal on this site and one other for a few days now and overall, let me say I'm very impressed. With that said, there are a few things I think could be better and that's mostly to do with the URL alias system and specifically how it relates to search engine optimization.

Just a couple days ago I got an offer of admission from Mohawk College (which I promptly accepted on the admissions web page.) for the Pre-Technology program which will prepare me for the Network Engineering and Security Analyst program I want to take.

Also, today is quite obviously, VALENTINE'S DAY! This is my first V-day where I've been in a relationship, so that's pretty awesome. Hoping to see Lisa later today so we can celebrate. And, as of the 12th, we've been together for three months!

So, I've setup Drupal 6.0 on here, which I think is pretty slick. I'm very impressed with Drupal so far. Anyway, I promise better posts soon, for now this is all I've got.