ZAZZYBOB.COM NEWSLETTER                         January 2005
=======================                         ============


Contents
--------

* Preamble
* Recent Updates
* The Sessions Saga
* A Slight Move
* shutdown -h now


Preamble
--------

This e-mail has been designed with plain text e-mail clients in mind, 
and looks best when viewed using a monospaced font. 

You are receiving this mailing because you asked for it when you signed 
up to the Zazzybob.com Members Area. If you want  to stop receiving 
this newsletter, sign into the Members Area, at 
http://www.zazzybob.com/members/login.html and select 
"Change Mailing Details" from the list of tools on the main members 
page.


Recent Updates
--------------

A lot has been going on this month at Zazzybob.com

Firstly, I have added a few scripts to the Script Repository, namely

  * syncusb - I use this to sync my website to a USB drive as a backup
  * psplit.pl - A Perl file splitter
  * pgrp - A simple primary group reporting tool

I have also added a couple of my own tips to the Tips and Tricks Database,
as well as plenty of user submissions. Head over to 
http://www.zazzybob.com/tips.php to see the ever-growing selection of useful
tips contained therein. If you have a tip you'd like to submit, please use the
form at http://www.zazzybob.com/tips.php?type=submit and be a part of it!

The site had a good review over at Newsforge.com - and I've had a lot of
positive feedback since. Yeah, maybe the members area needs an overhaul
(thats at the top of my list after I move - see "A Slight Move" below)
but overall the tone of the article was very favourable indeed. Thanks!
The members area was only ever intended as a playground for my Perl coding
skills, but is starting to prove quite popular so maybe I should do some
more work on it!


The Sessions Saga
-----------------

Regular zazzybob.com-ers will have noticed a new link on /sbin -
http://www.zazzybob.com/game_1.html - appeared yesterday. This is 
a simple rendition of Naughts and Crosses (Tic Tac Toe) using Perl
and Cookies, to show just how easy it is to write simple CGI games.

This started its life as a PHP script using sessions. Everything worked
fine on my test systems, using a mix of Apache versions, and PHP versions.
Not one test system, but *five* test systems. All different OS's too 
(including one Windoze box for good measure....). Everything was fine. Apache 1
or Apache 2, PHP 4 or PHP 5, it all worked.

As soon as I uploaded to my hosting provider, the thing broke. I spend five days
waiting for a reply from their support department to tell me why sessions were
broke on their server, but alas, nothing. So I just re-wrote in Perl to use
cookies instead!


A Slight Move
-------------

There may be a lack of site updates between 26/01/05 and 07/01/05 - 
the reason for this? Myself and my family are relocating to Australia,
and it'll take a week or so before I get access to an internet connection
again in order to continue uploading. In the meantime, keep sending in your
tips, code and comments to the usual address and I'll pick them up on the 
7th Feb!


shutdown -h now
---------------

Until next time.....

Cheers,

Kevin Waldron         
kevin@zazzybob.com    
http://www.zazzybob.com