Here’s a great little tool that we’ve been using for a few weeks now and it’s made such a difference.  The Web Server on a stick is just that … a complete Apache webserver with PHP & MySQL running off a USB memory stick.  I’ve found it so useful that I rarely go anywhere without it now.  I run the server locally from harddisk and then synchronize it to my key (using Second Copy.  I carry a lot of USB keys so this program is especially handy as it identifies the USB key that I’m using and only copies to that key and no other.)

When I’m away from my desk it means that I can carry with me the installations that I need WordPress, Gallery, VBulletin.  (Haven’t got Movable Type to run yet … but I’ll crack the darn thing yet!)  I don’t have to test out changes on live websites and I don’t have to rely on the remote servers and test sites.  It has really increased my productivity and I’ve got to say it’s a product that I’d happily pay for … but WOS Portable is free!

Update: Got an uncharacteristic attack of conscience after writing and decided I really did want to pay for it so much so that I upgraded WOS to the WOS-X version, not so much because I wanted the higher version, but because wanted to give the developer something for such great software.  Now I wish I’d hit ‘Donate now’ instead as the upgrade didn’t work and it took out my previous WOS installation along with it.  Probably my fault as some of the dialog boxes are in German (and don’t ya know I only took French in school).  Luckily I still have a backup of WOS as I have it installed on my hard disk as well as my USB key.  Not sure if I’ll be installing WOS-X again as I don’t really need the additional functionality and WOS on its own runs just fine!

Update II:  Here’s a great link on how to install WordPress onto WOS.

I’ve just installed the widgets plug-in for WordPress and so far I’m very pleased with what I see.  It certainly makes it easy to customize the website sidebar and there’s pleasant additions like Recent Posts (which before now I’ve always added manually (with <?php get_archives(‘postbypost’, ’10′, ‘other’, ‘<li class=”prev_posts”>’, ‘ </li>’, false); ?>).  I’m looking forward to seeing how it works out in template development …

Just installed Spam Karma on a couple of my WordPress sites. It’s nothing new, on version 2 now, just that I’ve never tried it before myself.  It works really well and had trapped a good 30 over on my partner in crime Adi’s site (PC Doc) this morning before I took the plunge and installed it on mine.  Very quick and easy to install and no configuration, just away you go.  And it reports back on any new comment or trackback spam that you find so you’re helping to catch the spammers too! 

Another good spam eater is Askimet but I’ve never quite understood the process for getting the WordPress API Key to use it.  It’s a little confusing as in order to get the key you’re also applying for a WordPress blog on their site, and indeed that’s what you get (not quite sure what I’ll be doing with that … perhaps I can put in a redirect? Or there is an option to delete the blog that’s create – I wonder if that would delete my API key too??) 

It’s never easy to write a first post.  What do I say?  Who am I talking to?

So I’ll just say that my web development related blog is started and I’ll begin properly on Monday.