So these are two startups. Vultri.org is my new design studio. From now on I am officially creating websites of different complexity and content. Hope it does bring some return :) “Pile of Shots” is another website, which will be free image hosting and possibly something like Flickr (not as cool of course, nothing can be cooler). Depending on the amount of time and visitors I have, I will try to provide the top quality service for anything I start. I also have a couple of more ideas about potential projects.

Seems like the optimal option for me. There is only one BUT. No domain names from them :) I need to actually OWN mine ;)

Time to play with this baby :) Awwwwwwwhhh yeeaaahhh!!!

The plan is to create a very light, performance oriented expandable system. Top priority! :)

I have decided on buying a Yamaha YPT310. It has everything a beginner needs, and is affordable at the same time. 61 Touch Sensitive keys, 32 voices, a lot of instruments and styles, MIDI capabilities. So I will be able to learn how to play, and at the same time will be able to connect it to my laptop through a built-in MIDI in/out interface. So the keyboard + MIDI-to-USB adapter and I am good to go :) Okay rest of me, time to earn some money!

I have had a little project at work. The task is to convert a .pdf file into plain text, and then cut some parts out of the text to use them in my database. Well, the hardest part of it all was that I had to use PHP to do it. I had been looking for a conversion tool, but never really found anything. FPDI did not do what I needed, so I came across xpdf. I had to use “exec()” function of PHP to perform the conversion, but the output turned out to be very messy. So after some manipulations with the text I managed to convert almost all breaks. How much time I am going to spend on trying to “preg_match” the whole text for the stuff I need, I don’t know. I am sure it is not going to be easy, since it is not even HTML with all its tags and stuff. The thing is the conversion output format strictly depends on how the document was formatted in pdf. Well, according to my .pdf file, the creator was way far from publishing. Oh yeah, the tool is called pdftotext and is a Windows executable. However the package is distributed under many operating systems, so everybody can find a suitable package.

This 3w thing has always made me mad. I can understand when DNS servers have “www” as an alias of every domain, but when you go for http://domain.com, but cannot access it unless you put it with “www” before, that just gets me. Whether they do it on purpose, or server administrators are just lame, I don’t know. So I decided to put a no-www.org button on my page when I get to have my own domain and hosting. Be smart people, learn how to adjust your BIND settings!

I have wanted to buy a keyboard for myself for more than a year, but never got a chance and money to. Now as I might have the money by the fall, I have started to search for the best one for a beginner. I was kind of looking at Yamaha YPT310 or even 210, but still unsure because I know there are a lot of different manufacturers out there, which I do not even know about. Just have no idea what to choose. I just want it to be with MIDI support so I could hook it up to my laptop and use along with FruityLoops or Propellerhead Reason

Had to find a way to get webpages through proxy, and cURL for PHP was very helpful. Soon I am going to post a script with a possibility to use a proxy or not. Such a learning tip from me for people that might look for the same thing. I also decided to use Smarty and MDB2 with its MySQL driver for my new website automated monitoring system primarily because the script itself was too small to show to anybody :D Even though everything works well, I did not even realize that I would need a normal design for it, which I have no idea where to get. Anyways, cURL proxy usage example soon.

Almost a month ago I got a job at a Xerox premium partner, funnily the position is stated to be a Sales Manager, but I am definitely not doing what I am supposed to do. Well, I guess it is because I got it only for the summer, since I need to go back to Toronto to continue studying. So I stick to my PHP and programming skills, while improving their clients’ website monitoring system. Well, there was no system at all when I came, but I decided that the process of getting new tenders has to be automated. It is another thing I will be developing aside from my shady project :) So I got all these materials and manuals as to learn my new job, which I will not be doing, though I think it will be useful in life. All the production and managerial books and catalogues I decided to read. Just to know the theory of selling with Xerox. If only people were buying our products instead of HP or Canon :)