Tools · Dominic Foster

How To Set Up Subversion On Dreamhost

March 2, 2007 on 7:51 am | In Free Tools, Software, Tools | 1 Comment

If you want to set up a great the great open source version control software, Subversion, on your favourite webhosting company, DreamHost, then this post is for you.

I have been wanting to set up an online version control system for everything that I am working on for some time but had always shied away thinking that it was too hard to sort out (read: I’m lazy).

I thought that my hosting company DreamHost had a ‘One Click Install’ of this, but whenever I checked the install page I could never see it, so continued to trawl the net for a tutorial that would make setting it up manually seem easier than it would ever be.

Subversion picture However, yesterday, I noticed that Subversion has a page all to itself in the DreamHost ‘Goodies’ menu!

So I clicked on the link and there is a page which makes it look easy as to install it and get it working.

So here is what I did:

Created a new subdomain on the domain where I wanted to install Subversion. I’m not sure if it would work by installing it into a directory in a domain that is also a website. Maybe it would and maybe it would take a whole load more configuring and maybe it would stuff up your website an corrupt your repository … so when you don’t need to pay anything extra for as many subdomains (or domains) as you want, then you may as well create a dedicated subdomain and save yourself the grief.
Wait for the subdomain to propagate. If you install when the subdomain is created but not properly propagated then you run the risk of creating a dodgy repository. It took about 4 hours for the subdomain to propagate.
Install Subversion:
1. Go to the Subversion page in the Goodies tab (pictured).
2. Choose a Project Name - e.g. “My Subversion Project”.
3. Choose a Project ID. This must be alpha-numeric (no spaces etc..). Just use something descriptive that will identify the project - e.g. “mysubversionproject”.
4. Select the URL you want to install it into from the drop-down list. The URL will be the subdomain that you created. You will notice that the text box next to the drop-down list is filled with the same text as your project ID. Change it if you must, but I wouldn’t bother.
5. Add you usernames and passwords in the format - 1 user per line:
  username password
  username password
  username password
6. Select to make it private or public.
7. Click the “Create my new project repository now” button.
You’re good to go!

Now, if like me, you are planning on developing on you workstation and you hate using SSH to administer website stuff, then you will want to use Tortoise SVN. This gives you a Windows GUI application to work with your subversion repository. It will embed itself into windows explorer and give you ‘right click’ functionality for your working folders and files.

Each time you perform an action with Tortoise, you will need to supply you username and password that you gave for your Subversion install. You can select for this to be saved by Tortoise so that you don’t have to keep typing it in.

Now I can develop on my workstation and pull the code down to my laptop when I’m working in Starbucks! Also, all my client work can be rolled back easily when the client decides that they don’t actually want the feature that they screamed and shouted for anymore. No more unpicking code of reverting to backup up copies.

AdSenseLog - Desktop AdSense Account Application

July 17, 2006 on 10:13 am | In AdSense, Entrepreneur, Software, Tools | 1 Comment

In my last post, Michael Cheneys AdSense Videos (Update), you can see a graph of how my AdSense earnings have improved over the last couple of months.

I forgot to mention that I made this graph really easily using a piece of software called AdSenseLog - a really neat piece of software that is produced by MetalGrass Software.

AdSenseLog runs on you Windows desktop (not sure if there is a Linux or Apple version), and is able to log into your AdSense account and get pretty much all the data you can get when you are logged into AdSense in your browser.

You then have the ability to dive into your data and do all sorts of analysis on it and have it spat out into neat graphical images.

I used to have to do this by exporting data into CSV format and then loading it up in Excel, and then making a graph from that.

Anyhow, AdSense log is available for a free 30 day trial download. If you earn less than $50 a month with AdSense then it is free to use. The basic version costs $20 and can be used with accounts that earn up to $250 a month. The pro version is $50 and can be used for unlimited earnings.

Another cool thing is that you can leave it running in your system tray and set it to check your account intermitently. If your earnings increase, then it will notify you with a sound.

Michael Cheneys AdSense Videos (Update)

July 13, 2006 on 3:08 pm | In AdSense, Entrepreneur, Michael Cheyney, Tools | 5 Comments

Back at the beginning of May, I bought Michael Cheyneys Adsense Videos and said that I would report back on the outcome of implementing his techniques. I actually said that I would report back after a month, but I’ve been tied up in a pretty intense consultancy project. Well that project is coming to an end and I have a bit of spare time, so here we go.

Rather than go into a long blog post about how my adsense income has almost doubled on a month-on-month basis, I decided to make a graph of my earnings:

Adsense Earnings

You should be able to see from the graph when I got the Adsense Videos

As you can see, there is a drop at the end where things have stabalised for this month. I think the reason for this is because I have not been marketing my websites due to consultancy restraints on my time. However, it’s now time to get back into it.

I will hopefuly report back with another earnings update soon.

Michael Cheneys AdSense Videos

May 8, 2006 on 8:41 pm | In AdSense, Entrepreneur, Tools | No Comments

I have not been one for buying E Books that promise riches and success, but on Friday I purchase Michael Cheneys Adsense Videos.

I was going to wait a couple of weeks until I had seen whether the changes I impliment make a difference to my earnings, but Michael Cheney is putting the price up in a few days.

Also there has already been an increase in earnings over the weekend - about a 500% increase in click on one site.

Michael Cheney is a British web marketer who runs a number of web sites and has spent the last year or so researching how to make serious money using AdSense.

He has now produced a set of 9 videos explaining and showing exactly how he sets up his AdSense strategy for his websites.

The videos include:

The basics of AdSense.
Laying the proper foundations for your AdSense strategy.
How to create pages that make money.
Powering up your AdSense income.
Testing your AdSense setup

There is also a ton of information on keyword research for creating niche articles.

As well as the above list, there are a few other bonus products that cover the following topics:

A couple of AdSense clinics where Michael takes a look at a handful of websites and analyses what is good and what is bad about their AdSense strategies.
A video about list building.
A two hour audio seminar about link building - which is actually very good.
A PDF ebook called The Worlds Most Powerful Internet Marketing Secret - which I have not had time to read yet.

And here are the reasons I bought Michael Cheneys Adsense Videos:

Most importantly it has a money back guarantee.
I found the sales copy convincing.
I had decided to take my online income more seriously and step up my money making strategy by investing in some education.

Click here if you fancy checking our Michael Cheneys AdSense Videos yourself.

I’ll be reporting back in a couple of weeks when I have more data on it’s success.

Open Office

March 7, 2006 on 8:24 pm | In Software, Tools | 1 Comment

So I got my new laptop last week, but I didn’t get a license for MS Office. That makes this laptop pretty much the first PC I’ve owned that doesn’t run Office. This laptop is currently running Open Office.

To buy a license for MS Office with my laptop was going to account for about 25% of the price, I don’t use MS Office enough to justify this. I don’t use Outlook or Powerpoint and rarely use Word. I generally only use Excel for building lists. In fact Access would be the only reason for me to buy MS Office and that’s only because I use it for fleshing out databases because I have found that it is great for this purpose. Also, part of my job for the last few years has been developing and supporting various Access applications. However, I’m now getting into using SQL Server Express for this.

The Open Office download was 93MB and the installation was really quick and easy and it all seems to work without any problems.

So will I ever buy a MS Office license? Probably not.

Technorati Tags: open+office, ms+office, sql+server

AmiBroker

January 24, 2006 on 10:09 am | In Software, Tools | No Comments

AmiBroker is a piece of software that I use for charting stocks and technical analysis.

I have been using it for about 3 years and came across it when I was trying to find some reasonably cheap charting software so that I would not have to use online charting services. AmiBroker fitted the bill because it only costs $149 for the standard edition - a fraction of the price of some of the more heavyweight products which had a lot of features that I didn’t need. The Professional Editions has capabilities for handling intraday price data, but I don’t need this as I trade with end of day data - i.e. I am not a daytrader.

What I really like about AmiBroker:

Ability to easily import free market data from Yahoo using AmiQuote

Easy to create stock scans using AmiBroker Formula Language (AFL)

Organise your stocks into Markets, Sectors and Groups

There is a useful and lively user group and several investing publications producing trading systems with AFL

If you are intrested in following the stock market or are looking for a great charting tool, then I recommend AmiBroker.

Leech FTP

January 16, 2006 on 2:41 pm | In Software, Tools | 1 Comment

I’ve used a few FTP applications during my career, but the one that I am using now is Leech FTP.

I started using Leech FTP a few years ago and then tried several others. However I came back to Leech mainly because it is free and does the job very well.

Any further development of Leech has been stopped and transferred to a product that will be called BitBeamer - allthough the website isn’t very encouraging!

If you are after a FTP application that ‘does the job’ and don’t want to part with any cash, then I would suggest you try Leech and see what you think.

Sharpreader

January 8, 2006 on 8:09 pm | In Software, Tools | No Comments

After trying several RSS readers, I settled on Sharpreader. It was the first one that I tried because it was the first one I found that was free. I then went on to try a few other free readers and some on-line aggregators, but I have finaly come back to Sharpreader.

The reason I like it so much? Probably because of it’s simplicity. It does exactly what it says on the box - i.e. reads RSS feeds.

It also minimizes to the system tray, which I really like. I wish all software would do this - such a simple feature.

If you are looking for a feed reader or are fed up with the one you are using, I would strongly recommend giving Sharpreader a try.