This is a classic case of constantly learning something new about computers. In fact for those that know more, if you see any mistakes in what I have to say here…feel free to comment and correct me!

A few days ago I mentioned that we optimized the Virtual Private Server that Like that Idea runs on with Zend Optimizer. We didn’t see many improvements, but I think that I made the mistake in assuming what the optimizer did and didn’t do. From my online readings it appears that the Zend Optimizer works best for those applications encoded on a Zend platform (something we do not have). So I went looking elsewhere and found the open source application, eAccelerator.

eAccelerator is a free open-source PHP accelerator, optimizer, encoder and dynamic content cache. It increases the performance of PHP scripts by caching them in their compiled state, so that the overhead of compiling is almost completely eliminated. It also optimizes scripts to speed up their execution. eAccelerator typically reduces server load and increases the speed of your PHP code by 1-10 times.

I installed eAccelerator from the source on the Apache server. Although not as easy as installing the Zend Optimizer, any Web administrator or computer geek worth his or her grain of salt shouldn’t run into any problems installing eAccelerator. Wow, what a difference! Since the install, the server has been running very well and I think everyone should notice the improvements this time around. The VPS contains a variety of Wordpress, Drupal, and SMF sites…and they all are performing well. If I have a need in the future I’ll bring back the Zend Optimizer since eAccelerator is suppose to be compatible with Zend Optimizer.

Why are we seeing eAccelerator perform so much better than the Zend Optimizer? As the product’s name says, Zend Optimizer is an optimizer for your Web Server.? The eAccelerator package on the other hand is not only an optimizer, but also an accelerator, encoder, and caches the dynamic content (like the pages you see here at this site). So we’re not only seeing the CPU work less because of the code being optimized, but we are also seeing less hits to the database on the server because of the caching. In essence, the server is providing pages faster to our readers but having to work less in providing those pages.

Documentation and support for eAccelerator is rather weak, so I can see why those needing more dependable support may want to purchase the Zend products.? However, so far for this little ‘ol VPS from Dakota Hosting is keeping us happy. If we run into problems with eAccelerator or the VPS I’ll let everyone know. Otherwise, this is the last computer geek article for awhile and we return to normal programming. It’s been awhile since we’ve seen a book review or product recommendation for the family…one of the original purposes of this site.

After countless years in grade school working hard on science fair projects and not receiving a ribbon, I finally gave up and wrote a “non-experimental” paper on computers in the eighth grade. Despite the paper being weak, I finally won a ribbon (third or fourth place) in the school science fair. Remember, this was the early 1980s and everyone was still fascinated with the then new concept of computers entering “everday” life. Why am I going down memory lane? Well I came across an article on the 60th anniversary of Eniac, the “first” computer built which of course was mentioned in that paper of mine some 25 years ago.

Though, only to find out after reading the article, ENIAC wasn’t the first computer and really didn’t do a whole lot. They just had a good public relations department that explained well to the American audience what role the computer would play in the future. If you read the article you’ll find (not included in my excerpt) that the PR people went so far to include the placing of flashing light bulbs on the computer console so that people had something to look at besides vacume tubes and switches. Still, you have to admit it was an amazing engineering achievement.

Compared with other computers that performed such practical functions, ENIAC was an odd bird in technical terms. It relied on a 10-digit decimal system, rather than the binary systems of ones and zeros used by virtually all subsequent computers, even those developed by Eckert and Mauchly. Programs could not be stored on ENIAC. It didn’t really employ conditional branching–the if/then statements that form the cornerstone of modern programming.

And only one ENIAC, in fact, was ever built.

“It was a monstrosity. It was rapidly overtaken by general purpose machines,” thundered Jay Forrester, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor and one of the leading computer architects of the last century. “There wasn’t anything in it that survived into modern machines, except maybe electricity.”

But supporters respond with an indisputable fact: It worked. Until it was immobilized by lightning in 1955, ENIAC performed computational problems relating to the development of the hydrogen bomb and other military projects. Penn professor Irving Brainerd once even speculated that during the 80,223 hours ENIAC operated, it crunched more calculations than had been performed by all humanity since time began.

We are aware that our site, Like that Idea, has been loading up rather slowly after our upgrade to Wordpress 2.0. We believe the problem may be due to some needed updates to our software and hope to resolve the situation this weekend. Our thanks to those readers of our site who have continued to view our pages these past weeks.

Bryan and Karen

Updated: We’re making some change this weekend so hopefully you’ll be seeing some improvements. So far we’ve updated the theme and made fixed some of our own XHTML coding. We’ve also updated as many of the plug-ins as we could. The only update we have yet to find is for Customizable Post Listings by Scott Reilly. His site appears down, so if anyone knows if there is a version later than 1.1…please let us know.

How many people remember the Commodore Vic-20 and 64? I do. The Commodore Vic-20 was my first computer. CNET posted an article about Commodore with the headline, “Is Commodore poised for a comeback?“. Before you get too excited, there have been plenty of articles such as this posted over the years with no Commodore comeback to follow. However, it’s nice to dream…

Yeahronimo Media Ventures, which has offices in Los Angeles and Baarn, the Netherlands, acquired the rights to the Commodore name late last year in a deal worth just over $32.7 million. Earlier this year, it took on Commodore as its own corporate moniker. The rebranded company already has some products available on its Web site, but hopes to make a bigger splash at the Computer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January.