Three-Letter Acronyms & Four-Letter Words

It definitely doesn't make it taste bad. Given the fact that I have accepted that when it comes to milk (not necessarily cheese) I am lactose intolerant, I have taken to Soy milk for cereal as well as coffee.

I ordered a large Mocha made with soy milk instead of the whole milk they regularly use.

I also had a peanut butter cookie. The cookie was a little dry, but not crunchy. I think I should have gone with the chocolate chip, oh well.

Jeremy ordered up a small Mocha (with regular milk) and a gigantic rice krispy treat. Seriously as big as a small child's head, though not as round.

We are sitting here in the enclosed section, near the AC outlets.

I must say that when I get some time to do some writing, I will probably find my way back down here. I think you have to be around people (sometimes) when you want to write, something about the energy derived from being in an establishment with plenty of hustle and bustle full of people that seemingly known one another and yet are a stranger to you. Somewhere to go where nobody knows your name (unlike Cheers).

So, I would say that I usually have good hearing. Gina would say that my hearing is horrible, but she also tends to have the habit of talking in the opposite direction of me. One thing that Gina also says is that I need to get my hearing checked out, because when I am having a good hearing day, I can hear all sort of conversations around me, but have a hard time tuning them out.

The reason I bring this up, is that there is this set of girls sitting near Jeremy and me. Probably in their mid 20s. They were having a conversation when we got here, they both have books in front of them, novels of sorts, not necessarily text books. The one seems to be well, for the lack of a better word, lecturing the other. Going on about how she handles people and how she wouldn't care about how people think of her, etc.

Which is good, since she is having this conversation in a public space. I mean, sure we are in a place where there are lots of people. I mean she definitely has to not care what people think about her, to verbally describe herself as pretty much a {insert your favorite word here} in public.

Anyway, at one point her mastery of the English language stunned me. She used the word 'like' as every 3rd word for at least 10 sentences. "It's like" or "It's not like" or "You know like" or "what about like"

I mean, wtf, I thought the "Valley Girl" thing died out in the late 90s.

Regardless, Mozart's is definitely a good place to people watch, unavoidably ease drop and get a tasty mocha with soy.

I need to get back to working on the weasel site.

Laterz

I found this 1554 beer (or technically it might be an ale) while Gina and I were out at HEB today.

I have been working on a Website for John. www.stinkweasels.com

He has a splash page up there right now. I am working on the main layout right now, while drinking a 1554.

I had a Guinness earlier and one of the reasons that I picked up the 1554 is that it is a dark beer (ale), as is the Guinness that I had earlier. I have to say that I am liking this 1554.

I tend to like most dark beers (or ales) go figure.

Hopefully I can get the design done today, cuz while I am loving the challenge of doing a total CSS style design, I would like to move on to the easy bit of building the rest of the site.

Laterz

An investigation into a new (to me) programming language, H2O, led me to the need for the ability to create a MD5 hash via a web service.

I did some searches on Google, but didn't find anything useful.

So, in chatting about it with Jeremy, he threw out "hashserver.com".

I said, "Why, not."

So now, I am pleased to announce the launch of HashServer (www.hashserver.com)

Honestly, the whole project didn't take long at all. It took longer for me to tweak it and get the code cleaned up and make sure I was printing back some nice error messages, than it did to actually write the "engine".

From everything I have had the chance to research about for H2O, it is an interesting scripting language that has a syntax that is somewhere between HTML and PHP or ASP.

H2O has the ability to POST and GET data from other websites. However, I didn't see any sort of SOAP support. There is the ability to open, use and close sockets. But I have no interest in trying to write a SOAP or XML layer for H2O. I personally would like to just use PHP.

But with the H2O language's support to GET data from another website, that means it is compatible with the Jaduka API.

However, to use the Jaduka API, one must calculate a MD5 Hash. I looked high and low inside of the H2O manual and found no MD5 functions anywhere. Now, I do not claim to be an H2O expert in any capacity. But several searches for various combinations of "md5", "encryption", "h2o" yielded nothing (usable).

That is what led me to seriously think about and ultimately purchase the www.hashserver.com url.

I will go back into the code later and add in a few other encryption functions, but md5 was the only thing I was really worried about.

And because of the fact that it is working as a simple web service, meaning that an H2O application can GET a MD5 hash of data that it submits.

I have no idea if anyone other than H2O users will find this beneficial. But hey, it was a fun little project to do.

But now, I must retire and get some sleep.

Laterz

Been busy working on the new DevZone for Jaduka. We are debuting it at the ETel Conference in San Francisco at the end of the month. Which means, I will be in San Francisco at the end of the month.

I watched most of "An Evening with Kevin Smith 2" last night while making dinner. (Mostly because I rented the discs via Netflix and have had them for about 3 weeks. Luckily for me, NO LATE FEES with Netflix.)

Dinner consisted of Alaskan Cod, Long grain wild rice, steamed asparagus, and shrimp.

I watched the original "An Evening with Kevin Smith" and honestly don't remember much about it. Not sure if that is just my memory failing me or if I just wasn't paying attention. This one however, is great. Lot's of funny bits in it.

Particularly, I thought Kevin Smith's answers to a question along the likes of "Chuck Norris, Chewbacca, and Jesus all have beards. Don't you (kevin) think that they would all lose their greatness without their beards? And if or when you shave your beard off, don't you worry that you will lose your greatness too?"

Kevin particularly noted that not even on a game show would he be able to come up with those three names in reference to "Name three people who have beards."

But the really funny bit was the diatribe that Kevin rambles off into about what he looks like when he does occasionally shave off his beard. He said that he looks like a 16 year old fat kid vs a 34 year old fat man.

I look about 12 years old without the facial hair, arguably maybe I look 16. And I am a bit tubby.

So maybe it is something about having a rounded face with the lack of facial hair that makes one look younger?

It made me chuckle.

This weekend will be a programming weekend. Jeremy has asked for some assistance on his HikeBikePaddle project and I will be working on the DevZone. And not playing MOOII, much.

Back to the grind,
Laterz

I went to do a blog entry last night.

And I couldn't log into the ol' blog here.

Which freaked me out. First thought, Hackers! Damn Hackers always messing with folks.

Nope, not hackers. The server was fine and so was the database.

Trouble shooting time.

Suspect #1, What changed recently?

Answer: I had installed a user profiles plug-in, testing it here before using it on the Jaduka Blog. Well, I didn't like the results, so I un-installed it. That had to be what caused the problem. The user profile plug-in, fscked something up. Right?

I began by making a copy of my blog directory, in case I messed something up while trying to 'hack the gibson' here.

I then copied the 'include' directory from Gina's Blog over my 'include' directory. Hoping that would fix it.

Nope, didn't fix it.

Now, I had to roll up my sleeves and look at the files themselves.

I started by tracking down how exactly Serendipity handles login. I added some debug statements, and found that the SQL it was running was perfectly good. (Mind you I ran that exact SQL against the wrong database, so yeah, let me wipe the egg off my face.)

I decided that I needed to connect to the DB directly, so I commented out the serendipity_db_query function and wrote my own.

Nope, still the same thing. No login love.

Finally, I decide to just hack the login routine, and force the login of my user. Thinking that maybe if can at least login, I can make a new user. Uncomment the forced login, and see if that fixes it.

That worked. I was able to force the login and create a new user.

In doing so I looked at my old user. Hey, the username is wrong.

Apparently while I was dorking around with the userprofile plugin I modified my user record and had reversed the username and my real name that I use on this blog.

That is what made me notice that I was looking at the wrong database. (Wiping even more egg off my face.)

In the end, it was not the un-install, nor was it malicious hackers.

IT WAS USER ERROR.

I am human, I make mistakes (though not often).

At least I now have a slightly better understanding of the inner workings of Serendipity. Which will help when Buddha and I start coding plug-ins.

Laterz

If you know that almost infamously classic line, you probably are a lover of the movie Office Space.

It has to be one of my all time favorite movies.

Why have I started this post you may ask?

To try to explain to my family, friends and those that ask me questions like "What exactly is your job?" or "How do you make a living?"

My favorite answer and subsequently most common answer "I do stuff."

My official designation at NetworkIP is that of a "Senior Product Manager." Fancy huh? But doesn't exactly state what it is I do, unless of course you go with the smart-ass answer of "I manage products, duh."

Product Management is a fanscinating and what I would consider to be a better (yet sort of complex) form of corporate management. Shortly after accepting the promotion to Product Manager I figured I should buy a book. Which I would like to make a comment on this idea. When I first started with my previous company I thought the ideal of "Buy a book and read it vs training courses/classes." was just something that was promoted within the company because of it's obvious cost savings. However, after reading a number of books that about the time of the American revolution and Age of Enlightenment.

I have read about Generals in the American Continental Army that were made generals because they had read books on soldiering. There was one guy that ended up being in charge of the artillery not for his experience, but for his readings on the subject. Quite fascinating in today's world. I mean I could read about artillery and soldiering but honestly never feel like I should be a General in charges of troops.

Anyway, so having spent the first 5 years or so of my career. Yeah funny to think of it as a career vs a job. But my career with the idea in my head that if there was something I needed to learn that I should just buy a book, I bought a book on Product Management. I did learn quite a bit about what my role SHOULD be.

Obviously, a text book can only provide the "should" and "could" of how things work. Actual application of such knowledge is up to the individual and sometimes the group (ie the company). I believe that my current company has done an ok job trying to implement the concept of Product Management. However, "Rome was not built in a day." so the work continues.

Back to what it is that I do for a living. Typically a Product Manager is a multi-disciplined individual, someone who can cross over between the different departments that are required to support a product. Now, in the book(s) this is stated as a very hard individual to find. I would agree with that. As someone who has sat on the fence between technical & sales, I can state first hand that it is hard to do both well. And obviously stating only two categories is a understatement. Before moving on, let me just say this. That in a room full of sales, marketing, and business folk I am more often than not the most technically inclined in the room. In a room full of developers and support staff I am more often than not the most marketing and business inclined.

"Jack of all trades, master of none." I have since High School tried to know a little bit about everything. When I attended a journalism conference in Chicago my Senior year I decided this philosophy was best. The more you know and can do, the more valuable you are to a company.

So I do consider myself a multi-disciplined individual the more colorful saying is "Jack of All Trades", except I have become very technical in the last few years. I spent the first year of my career as a Technical Writer, it was my job to produce the software manual. I am more than willing to say that I did not produce a GREAT software manual. I produced a reference manual, a manual that told you the limitations and basic functionality of our software interface. This ultimately was not very glamorous. The software wasn't complete so writing a "How to.." manual is kind of hard. Not to mention that the overall interaction amongst the various parts of the platform weren't known by any one person, one could argue they aren't fully known to any one person 8 years later.

Because of the manuals relationship to customers that led me to helping out with the Sales department. Helping with the Sales dept. led to me helping with the Marketing department. Sales & Marketing go hand in hand. I spent about 6 months or so being sort of a liason between the Marketing department and the Development (R&D) group.

Then I got promoted to Sales Engineering, a newly formed department that was supposed to assist Sales on the technical aspects of software, in part to help ensure that the Development group wasn't constantly being interrupted by Sales folk. Which brings up another quote from Office Space "I deal with the goddamn customers so the engineers don't have to!".

I have met a few engineers in my day that have the capacity to interact with customers and quite a few that honestly should never be put in front of people you are trying to strike a deal with. There are various reasons, intense personality, lack of personality, personal hygiene, etc. Mind you I by no means consider myself a people person, but I have managed to get some compliments from customers.

A lot of those compliments came from the time I spent in the Professional Service Group, PSG department. My job was more of a consultant and account managment role. We were tasked with getting our customers to be happy with us, the ones that weren't particularly pleased that is, and getting the ones that liked us to like us even more (ie buy more software and services).

Ok, so back to Product Management, I was going over the history of what I have done. I have spent time writing documentation, time building sales proposals, crafting marketing campaigns/messages, training customers, pitching sales deals, project managing, writing technical specs for features/services, invoicing customers, custom development (programming), installing hardware and software, wiring T1s, design databases, attending tradeshows, competitive analysis, support (troubleshooting), and much more.

I by no means consider myself an expert in any of those areas.

Product Management needs not necessarily the ability to perform these actions as part of the job, but knowing what these tasks entails definitely is a requirement. The book(s) often talk about splitting the roles of Product Management into two functional roles. Product Marketing Manager and Technical Product Manager. Again, finding individuals who are GOOD in both Sales/Marketing & Technical stuff.

Now, I have rambled on for a bit. Have I really answered what it is I do for a living? Or did I just give more definition to what "stuff" is?

I am responsible for getting the product developed, tested, documentation written, sales staff trained, marketing message crafted, and support organized. Some of this I have to do myself. I have turned a personal interest in PHP programming into a very useful skill for work. I am not going to quit my day job to go and be a PHP programmer, but I do enjoy being able to say "I only play a programmer on TV."

I prefer to delegate work out, but I will admit I have a tendancy to want to just do it myself. However, learning to teach someone to do something may take more time upfront, but it pays for itself many times over in the end.

In the last two years I have worked on many product. None of them have been widly successful. But each one has yielded lessons for me and I would like to think that I have learned the lessons well.

I will get to prove that soon. NetworkIP is launching a new company soon. Soon enough that I figure it is ok to leak it here on my blog. I mean we have already sent out notice of a name change to our customers.

Our new company is Jaduka. I have a new title. Chief Technical Officer. My boss still introduces me as "Acting Chief Technical Officer" which is fine by me, because I have business cards. Take a look...






So in addition to my Senior Product Manager duties I get to wax poetic about technology and think about the bigger picture.

Ok, so hopefully that answers a little bit about what I do for a living.

If not, just remember "I do stuff." and sometimes I try to describe it as "I do computer stuff."

Not bad for a Journalism major though, huh?



Office Space Quotes
http://quotations.about.com/cs/moviequotes/a/bloffice_space1.htm

Where to start.

I was introduced to Mod_Rewrite by a pair of gentlemen who run a badass web development firm out of the Dallas Metroplex area, DeverGoodwin .

I sort of understood what was used for. But quite honestly, my initial understanding was about the same as what someone (non-developer/geek) would get from looking at the following picture from the Apache documentation website.



Yeah, that is what I am talking about. Looks powerful right? But what does it do exactly?

It is hard to explain in just one word or even one sentance. At least without first describing what I call a "Page Server".

Unfortunately I might be one of a few that use that name to describe it, if anyone out there knows a more common name for the following description, please post a comment about it.

But a "Page Server" is the idea that you write your web page application in a manner that you basically maintain a small number pages that people can access from the web. But these pages (or in some cases, you only have the index.php/asp/jsp) dynamically build their content based upon a "page code" or some other type of parameter.

This might leave you "non-propeller head" folks wondering what I am talking about.

Have you ever visted a website where the URL ends up looking like the following?

http://www.somedomain.com/index.php?pg=profile

This is what I typically a "Page Server". So the concept is that rather than have to write a page that is...
http://www.somedomain.com/profile.php
... you instead ....
http://www.somedomain.com/index.php?pg=profile

Of course the obvious question is. How exactly does that make things easier?

Well when one has to code web pages that look pretty and have a consistent feel you have to deal with making each page look exactly a like.

Say for instance in the header. Each page should have the same graphics across the top (or only slightly different) and they should have the same links (again or slightly different). When you are programming straight HTML, this means you have to copy and paste the code into each page.

When your coding in a scripting language like PHP or ASP you get the luxury of doing an include() type of function and just doing...
include(header.php);

In either the Copy&Paste or include(header.php) arena you will encounter a critical mass when it comes to the number of pages you are maintaining. This can be extremely evident when one needs to update a Copyright in the footer or change up the name of one of the links.

Well if you only have a few pages like 2 or 3, no big deal. Copy&Paste your heart out. But when you start having 10,20,30 pages in HTML you REALLY, REALLY should using a scripting language.

Of course once your using a scripting language the benefits to using a "Page Server" design are not entirely seen in the begining, it could even be more of a philosophical debate on why to build a Page Server rather than just make individual pages using the include(header.php) methodology.

I prefer the Page Server method. As it allows you to centralize your functionality, rather than having to update all sorts of pages with new path names or what not you can just update one file. If you work your switch() statement appropriately you can build new functionality into your web app quick and easily.

Of course a Page Server methodology means that you are bringing folks back to the index.php through links within your app. This means that if you are pushing folks to the central index.php. But someone decides to look for...

http://www.somedomain.com/about.php

They will likely get a 404 error. You could build a custom 404 to try to get around some of that. This is one of the first things that I saw about mod_rewrite, it allows you control someone's visit of your site completely.

If they search for a page you don't actually use it to simply force them back to your index page. Of course I am jumping a head a little bit.

As we now have a basic understanding of what I am calling a Page Server, let's start looking at how Mod_Rewrite can aid the functionality of a Page Server designed app.

Mod_Rewrite allows you to take the URL that is requested and break it up into variables that can be passed to the index.php page.

This means that to achieve the same thing you get with...

http://www.somedomain.com/index.php?pg=profile&user=fajita

using a URL like this...

http://www.somedomain.com/profile/fajita/

Yes, that is right. The "/profile/fajita/" is translated behind the scenes to the index.php as pg=profile&user=fajita.

This means that Mod_Rewrite allows for the creation of clean URLs rather than index.php?var=blah&var2=blah2. This means that your application will look better to users as well as search engines.

Now another thing that I love about mod_rewrite is that when I have done apps before using the include(module.php) I was always concerned about someone finding and browsing my module pages directly. Which meant I had to do security checks within the module to determine whether or not the person was logged in and then give a response like "unauthorized access" if they weren't and so on.

This meant that I was spending time writing or Copy&Pasting that logic into a module page that was really about the module but rather trying to prevent someone from accessing the page directly.

With Mod_Rewrite you have the capability to simply force everything back to the index.php page. You don't have to worry about the security checks. This overall makes it easier to code a modular web application without fear of someone browsing your module pages directly.

Here is an example of a few mod_rewrite rules...

Rule that allows for a one directory variable:
RewriteRule ^([A-Za-z0-9-]+)/?$ index.php?pg=$1 [NE,QSA]

The "^" opens the part of the rule that looks for what is in the URL. In this case I am looking for letters (upper or lowercase) and numbers. Whatever is found is submitted to the index.php page. The QSA appends the query string useful more so when dealing with a URL like...

http://www.subdomain.com/profile/fajita.php?view=pic1

However, I usually leave it on there.

Yes, the fajita.php, you can write a Mod_Rewrite rule that allows you to use non-existance file names, rather than just non-existant directories as variables as well.

Rule for 2 directories:
RewriteRule ^([A-Za-z0-9-]+)/([A-Za-z0-9-]+)/?$ index.php?pg=$1&search=$2 [NE,QSA]

Rule for 3 directories:
RewriteRule ^([A-Za-z0-9-]+)/([A-Za-z0-9-]+)/([A-Za-z0-9-]+)/?$ index.php?pg=$1&search=$2&type=$3 [NE,QSA]

Rule for one directory and a file name:
RewriteRule ^([A-Za-z0-9-]+)/([A-Za-z0-9-]+)\.php index.php?pg=$1&id=$2 [NE,QSA]

Rule for just a file name:
RewriteRule ^([A-Za-z0-9-]+).php$ index.php?pg=$1 [QSA]

To me Mod_Rewrite changes the way I think about web programming, I think of it more as programming an cohesive application that has different modules that are called using a centralized Page Server. Rather than just building individual HTML pages or scripted pages using the include() methodology.

It seems more like real programming.

I have read over the Apache tutorials and there are a TON of different things you can do with Mod_Rewrite. I will post some more on it later.

While seeing what DeverGoodwin could accomplish using Mod_Rewrite set me down this path. I would not have been able to finish my first project without the assistance from an interestingly named website. www.ilovejackdaniels.com, I found the mod_rewrite cheat sheet they provide to be very helpful.

Laterz

I just wanted to make a quick entry.

I recently wrapped up a project that has taken longer in the real-time world than I had wanted. The delay in completion came from interruptions and a couple of gotchas.

It was one of those things where the primary task is simple and easy (it really was, done in like 45 minutes). However, to properly support that primary task you need other interfaces, more logic on managing it, etc.

So it snowballed a little bit, but I tried to keep things within a small scope. I don't think I should talk too much about what the project was. But in short I put together a simplistic PHP middle-layer to accept HTTP_POST information from a client, so that they wouldn't have to send stuff directly to the SOAP based API.

To anyone that isn't from work, or Jeremy that was probably pretty confusing. Let's just say I built something that "Made it easier to do business."

I only play programmer when I have to for work, and typically for protoypes. Which is honestly fine with me. I like to dabble, my skillset however keeps me involved with multiple disciplines of business, programming is probably the smallest. My company has plenty of professional programmers, most of them good, some of them are new and still learning. However, there are time when you just need to get it done quickly, just to try something out, to "throw it against the wall and see if it sticks."

That is when I usually find myself sitting in front of the monitor doing some "coding", instead of doing some "writing".

Gina wrote a good entry last night.

Well it is 9:00 am, time to start work.

More at lunch.

(Warning overly broad generalization follows)

Web 2.0 = AJAX

I still need to locate the first article that I read that spoke about Web 2.0 and AJAX. At the end of the article I had come to the conclusion that Web 2.0 meant websites that used AJAX.

While I am sure that the Wikipedia entry is most informative and can explain AJAX to anyone reading this post. But let me make it real short and sweet. Google Maps uses AJAX, Gmail uses AJAX, Google Talk inside of Gmail uses AJAX. (also the google spreadsheets)

AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript And XML). AJAX allows web developers to break out of the layout restrictions of standard HTML. There are some other nice technical nuances that it eliminates.

Pros:
1. You can build applications that look and feel like desktop apps. You can have drag and drop elements.
2. You can update information on the screen without having to do a whole screen refresh.

Cons:
1. You have to know a lot about Javascript and probably how to build a webservice.

Now, I have played around briefly with Google's AJAX web toolkit. It was very cool. However, it was designed to allow you to write JAVA code and have it converted to AJAX. Yippeee, I don't know JAVA, and don't really have a desire to learn it.

Note: Google will soon finish their secret SkyNet project and take over the world, but until then there are plenty of other AJAX kit developers out there.

The one that I found out about today through my new best friend Digg , is MuseStorm. They offer a good looking tutorial on how to build an AJAX desktop. The thing I liked about it most is that it will let me create a desktop look and feel page that manages my RSS feeds. (Think of RSS feeds as a magazine subscription, but you get to pick the types of articles you want.) There are services out there that will aggreggate your RSS feeds for you, even firefox will do that for you, to a degree.

But this seems like the perfect project to cut my teeth on about AJAX and get some benefit, my own RSS feed manager. They have a nifty little demo.

Well back to the grind.

Yeah, blatant Futurama reference.

So I have decided overall that this is my personal blog. I am going to have to keep some blogs for work and side project, but this one is all me.

Moving on, I was enlisted by my buddy to help them convert from Access to MySql on their enterprise database. Now, don't get me wrong I loved Access, back in the day. Before MySql was around. Because that was the Poor man's database, now it is just the ignorant man's database.

MySql is fscking easy. I mean if you consider yourself a linux user you can probably install MySql. If your a windows users, it is so, so much easier. I honestly had the database engine installed in about 10 minuts.

Now there is a trick to converting between Access and MySql. However, a good chunk of the work can be done using their Migration tool. But as I have found out it doesn't flawlessly convert. Things like default values and autoincrement fields get lost in the shuffle. So if your converting, you will need to go through the access database and make a list, check it twice and make sure that the conversion is not naughty, but nice.

I am not going to place any blame on the coder who was enlisted to modify the code from Access to MySql, cuz well he isn't the guy that wrote it originally. The original coder, i mean honestly, I never met the man, but from what I have seen as the results and from hearsay he is a fscking moron.

But Asp.Net just sucks. I don't like it. Yes, Yes it is better than the old ASP VbScript. Which I was fairly familiar with.

I AM A LAMP SNOB!

I don't necessarily say "Fsck you Micro$oft" but I definitely can be considered that as of late. I dig LAMP (Linux Apache MySql PHP). I think the bang for your buck is with Linux.

I mean sure there is more TCO (total cost of ownership) in regards to your staff having ot be more skillful with computers, but isn't that a good thing? I mean to have a staff that is more competent vs one thta just gets by with simple point and click?

I mean i started out as the latter and worked my way up into the ranks of someone who can install windows or linux. I also learned to install and admin apache and mysql.

This endevour was my first attempt at a windows based MySql install. Like I said it was really, really easy. The tweaking of the conversion from Access to MySql is something I should have paid more attention to.

Anyway, I know there are a lot of big sites that run ASP.Net but overall I have not been impressed with it as a techology. Windows based platforms seem to need more horsepower than a LAMP based platform. And there seem to be a lot more creative (and cheaper) methods for building redundant clusters.

So the cheap bastard in me loves LAMP because there is no lincensing costs. The even cheaper bastard in me loves the fact that you can use a P3-600 with 1 GB of ram and have a half decent web server.