Installing MediaWiki: The Trials and Tribulations

Over the past couple of days, I have been trying to install and configure all the required programs for MediaWiki. That includes Apache server, PHP 5.x.x, and MySQL 4+. I got Apache 2.2.4 and PHP 5.2.1 installed and running; I made sure by copying some PHP files from one of my websites to Apache's htdocs directory and going to http://localhost/cada/, which if the server was working would display the files I had just copied. (I configured Apache to just show up as localhost, to the best of my knowledge.) The index.php file showed up just like it would over the Internet. First milestone.

I then (foolishly) tried to run MediaWiki 1.8.2, and the setup script (obviously) gave me an error, since MySQL was not yet present. I installed it and waded through its configuration wizard as best I could. Then I tried again with MediaWiki's setup script. It complained again, saying that PHP didn't have database drivers. I installed both the mysql and mysqli extensions, just to be safe. Then I tried the script once more. Success! It said, "Environment checked, you can install MediaWiki!" Yes!

I filled in all my info, including the root user for MySQL, and hit the install button. MediaWiki came back with a truncated result page. After a couple more failures I eventually decided to create a user for MediaWiki manually through phpMyAdmin, which I had stored along with MediaWiki (I don't remember if I also created the database manually). Once I did that, I went back to the setup script and entered the user info and left the root blank. I made it to the next stage: bad SQL files.

Somehow, the SQL files included with MediaWiki 1.8.2 had a plethora of errors, which I tried and failed to correct (I don't know SQL), clearing the tables from the database before each successive test to prevent errors. (MediaWiki can deal with an empty database and a pre-existing one, but I found that partial wikidbs can cause hiccups.) The first errors were pretty simple to fix -- they involved just removing "DEFAULT" statements -- but then I ran into a cryptic error, something involving "sub-strings," and couldn't continue fixing things (the MySQL engine would stop at the first error). I had to give up temporarily, but I vowed to get the newest MediaWiki version the next time I got Internet access.

It turned out I was several versions behind. MediaWiki 1.8.2 was long gone, replaced by version 1.9.3. I downloaded and unpacked the new version, then copied it to my htdocs folder (under a different subdirectory, so as not to overwrite my old version). I gave the setup script in the new version the same information, clicked the install button, and was quickly congratulated by MediaWiki, which gave me instructions to move the configuration file to the main directory. I did so and then clicked the link to "your wiki".

Eight Years of Loyalty is a Worthless Thing These Days

After being with StageCoach Theater Arts schools for nearly eight years, the principal of my school has hereby threatened to basically expel me from the program if I don't get to classes right on time. And we've (my family, that is) been taking classes there since the late '90s. I would think that would get us some tolerance. They were a lot friendlier before they got big. They started with schools in Minnesota, but they have expanded to California, Illinois, and New York. In true big-corporation fashion, they've become more and more impersonal as they've grown. Bah!

I Call It: Sucksimation:Master

The Animation:Master program from Hash is certainly a powerful animation suite. It has a good layout, OK modeling tools, and lots of shortcuts. What it doesn't have is decent undo functionality. Every little change like selecting or deselecting a point, changing views, and rotating the display all get entered into the history under that little left-pointing arrow; it makes for some pretty frustrating moments when you make a mistake. And the problem could be much lessened if they'd just put a menu in the button, like Microsoft Word's undo/redo or the back and forward buttons of just about every major browser in existence. Argh!

LCARS GUI on Windows!

I have discovered the program LCARS24 on SourceForge, which is a 32-bit DPMI interface for DOS-based laptops/PCs. It installs in the root drive of your computer and runs an LCARS interface like from Star Trek when called, containing over a dozen programs and many, many data displays. I've managed to get it to run nicely on Windows XP, though I hear your mileage may vary depending on your hardware. I like it, and the SFML markup used by the program to create LCARS data displays shows quite a bit of promise. It's reasonably intuitive, and the program supports screenshots, so you can make a display and post it on your website or whatever. I've been having some fun with the SFML, and as long as you don't try to write a long text file to display next to your image (if you have one on the page), the pages look great! I say not to try to write something long because I copied an article off of Memory Alpha and modified it for a data display on Data [ :-) ]. It was a real pain, mostly because I had to go thorough and insert hundreds of paragraph breaks to keep the image and text within the viewable area (I hope the author improves that). Wrapping everything at column 48 is very tedious. Anyway, I'm keeping an eye on this one!

Sessions, too?!

Man, the IT department at Augsburg College really doesn't want anything to happen on their servers. You can see in previous postings the functions they have disabled, but I just tried storing data in a PHP session, and unless I set the variable within the current program file the session had no permanence. They must have set session.gc_maxlifetime to '0' and session.gc_probability to '100', meaning sessions can't be saved. Either that, or they compiled PHP without sessions (using the --disable-session option). Harrumph. I really need to find a host that didn't cripple PHP when they installed it.

More Blocked/Unavailable PHP Functions

I just tried to use the crypt() function in PHP to secure some passwords for my website, with no luck. For some reason, that function is unavailable. Plus I can't use .htaccess files to control directories, or use PHP to modify/upload files. My current host is really restricitve. I wonder if, even after getting the PEAR DB module (which has been superseded by some other module I don't remember the name of), I'd be able to connect to a database on, say, my dad's server, or a friend's. Considering the security at my server's location, probably not.

Disney "Sponsors"

I've noticed lately that Disney Channel has begun displaying messages similar to commercials, for products (mostly sugar cereals and candy, etc.) that claim to "sponsor" Disney Channel, much like the sponsors of PBS. This raises some interesting questions, like what does Disney need with more money? It's already a multi-million dollar corporation." Or how about what these companies are trying to do (we know the answer to that one...). Disney's self-promotion is quite annoying enough, thank you (and the recent change from Mike's Super Short Show to Disney's Really Short Report is also annoying, though a side topic), and adding "real" commercials for junk-food products that nobody should be eating just adds insult to injury. Free-market economy, bah humbug...