Marc

wow, could only dream of those kinds of speeds LOL

Quite stable these days in comparison to the first time I ever tried it, although that was about a year ago. Only moved back to ubuntu as my audiophile card I could not get to work in kubuntu no matter what I did.

OK .. time to upgrade my system LMAO

Not every database is on a webpage

Ubuntu or kubuntu for me depending on my mood LOL.

Easy answer to this is you have to eventually force yourself to learn. Get a server and as and when you want to do something, do it. If you dont know how google it and find out. If you break something, do not ask someone to fix it, instead either ask how to fix it of someone or again google it. IMO it really is the only way to learn it properly. If however you want to give yourself a little bit of a kick start before you decide to get a server for yourself, I would suggest moving over to a linux dist like ubuntu,kubuntu etc. Force yourself to use this and only this for a month at minimum and as you come across problems try to find out how to do it rather than reverting to windows. Set yourself up a LAMP stack (apache, php, mysql) but instead of using easy to use installers, install apache, then download php and read instructions on how to install it and configure it ready for use in apache. Check by creating yourself a php info file. Do the same with mysql and also install and configure phpmyadmin. Once you have done that start downloading and installing web apps on your local server. Things like phpbb, free galleries you can find around, joomla, wordpress etc. You will find as you are doing this that you will be missing things in your php config, or settings that need changing in your apache configuration. Again google them and find out how to fix them up yourself. You do all the above you will start becoming comfortable enough to know that any problem you have you are likely to be able to fix yourself given enough time. This is how I got myself started with my server. I now run ubuntu and have a dedicated centos server with plesk panel installed, all my php caching set up for vbulletin (although still learning more about this), my apache configuration has been optimised by myself as has mysql.

2008R2 but close

Well kinda .... I wasnt sure whether I was back of if I was in some kinda third dimension where an worldwide evil corporation called Digitized had taked over all forums in an attempt to take over the worlds information resources.

Needs to be a little more contrast on main page as it looks almost like its faded out and inactive links

Wife would lead you to believe I'm never around.. But aye Im here.... To be honest I wondered where these emails were coming from LOL

Well I originally posted my topic on 27 June and I have completed my month of testing and beyond. The reason I have gone beyond it is simply as I have begun to like ubuntu much more than I like windows, and therefore have stuck to it. So in conclusion, as someone who has tried linux before and not really got on with it, I can honestly say that if you want to try it then try it for a reasonable amount of time before you make your mind up. Current situation: I have had to keep a windows installation due to work stuff which is .net and sql server based, however I have completely reformatted my drives. Windows now resides on a secondary drive, dual booted with ubuntu which is on my primary raid configuration. Ubuntu is now certainly my main day to day operating system and I will only be using windows as and when I need to do so.

Cake php is a framework for php, best place to learn it is actually their own site http://book.cakephp.org/2.0/en/index.html

The 2 are incomparible as they do fundimentally different things. The reason I actually wrote the membermap in the first place was because that one didnt suit my needs (or indeed that or many other). What Digital points does: Geocodes each user that is online using a php geocoding database and plots those online users on the map. So you can see approximatly where the users who are online now, unless they are using a proxy, a vpn etc. What mine does: Each member can, if they wish, plot their location on the map. Therefore you can see every user who has plotted there location and this is accurate (as they plotted it) and also is not something which changes. Purpose of this being for example, if I wanted to plan a meet in the NW of the UK I can go to the map and get an idea of where the most members are. With the one above this is not possible. I can also go to see where about x member is. On the one above this is only possible if that member happens to be online and it has geocoded to the correct place. EDIT: Shortest analogy I can give is one is an approximate location of the whos online list, and the other is a pinpoint location of the memberlist

Indeed, its a descriptive markup language

Completely false. Sorry LOL