[thelist] Newbie throwing herself on your mercy

Burhan burhankhalid at members.evolt.org
Thu Sep 12 20:04:08 CDT 2002


Hello Kimberly,

Let me add my 2 bits to the pot ...

KE> If this is not the right place for this, please let me know and I apologize if
KE> that's the case.  But someone suggested I sign up for this list and ask my
KE> question here.

This list if for all things web-related...so you are in the company of
friends :)

KE> I would love to be more web-savvy.  Most of the people I know think that
KE> signing up for a hotmail account is a great accomplishment :) I've managed to
KE> make my own website with Microsoft Frontpage, tweak some of the HTML, buy a
KE> domain name, a place to host it, etc.  I'm not a complete web-idiot.

The first place to learn about being anything-savvy is to hang out
with people that are in the field that you want to get into. Pick up
on the terminology, read the industry publications, sign up for
mailing lists (which you have already done).  The biggest thing to get
over is the terminology, which can get you confused without even
getting into what you wanted to learn.

KE> However, I'd really love to be able to run Horde/Imp on my computer.  But...I
KE> have no idea how to do this.

KE> I know I have to have Apache, and PHP, but I'm not sure...what I need to do to
KE> get them, and when I have them, what I do with them.  I've downloaded things
KE> that say 'Download this' and I think they were tar.gz files or something like
KE> that (I'd look them up, but I'm not on my home computer...my apologies), but
KE> then it asks me what application would I like to use to open them, and I don't
KE> know what I'm supposed to use, or if I have the correct application to open
KE> them.  And do I need Unix/Linux?  And would that clash with Windows ME?

If you computer is asking you what application should it use to open
tar.gz files (which is a unix file compression type) -- hop on over
to www.winzip.com and download their program (I think the latest
version is 8.x).  There is an evaluation version that you can download
and try out.  Once the packages (tar.gz files) have been unzipped,
usually you will find a file called readme.txt (or README [no
extension]). These file will generally get you started on how to setup
the particular program on your computer.  They are plain text files
that you can open up in any text editor (like notepad).

As long as I'm on this topic, let me put in a few good word for
StuffIt Expander (another unzipping program). There is a free version
that you can download...it comes with the added benefit of being
compatible with apple/mac (.sit) files. Hop on over to
www.stuffit.com/expander for more info on that.

Another thing that I don't think was mentioned is that try and look
for binary files. These files are (mostly) executables that someone
has already created for your platform (which would be Windows ME).
This means that someone download the source of the program (say
Apache), compiled it on Windows ME, and then uploaded the .exe file.
In addition, try and look for installers for your platform (platform
means operating system).

KE> I'm a bit lost here, and I don't really know anyone that can help me...the
KE> people I know that *do* know how to do these things just say, "Oh, well that's
KE> simple" and leave me feeling foolish, and I still don't get answers.

Feel free to ask here, or you can email me directly (my address is in
my signature).  People on this list are very good about answering
questions and not making the other person feel like a complete fool.

Let me know if you have any questions regarding IMP/Horde or PHP or
Apache. If I don't know the answer, I can probably point to you to a
resource that might be of more help.



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| Burhan Khalid |
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