Finding Freelance Workers for any IT type related ...

If you are looking for a freelance web designer or programmer and you are looking to keep your cost down then a service like oDesk is the perfect solution (there are many other benefits as well but I’m not going to be covering them here).

I recently had experience with the oDesk web platform and found it very easy for hiring a web professional.  Overall, the odesk.com interface is intuitive and streamlined and you will not have a  problem navigating its swiftly written desktop like web interface.

The rest of this post covers what a job post process looks like. In this particular instance I’m looking for  freelance graphic designer to create a header for a Wordpress site.

First, I’ll go to oDesk.com and setup an account.  Once I’m logged in I go to My Jobs –> Post a Job.

1. I’ll name the Job Title “Graphic Design”, then select Public Visibility since in this case I want a freelancer or in oDesk terms a “provider” to approach me for the job.

NOTE:  Try to be as specific as possible on your job title.

Then I set  Category to Design & Multimedia and Subcategory specifically to Graphic Design.

2. Under Skills and Description I’m simply looking for a header for my friend’s site that runs on Wordpress (I’ll show you the before and after on a later post once the job is completed) so I’ll get to the point and put in just that in a few words or less.

3. This is a one time job so I’m going to set the Job type to Fixed Price for a budget of $20.00 and set the estimated end date to this Friday.

4. Once everything looks good for my ready to hire web graphics designer I’m going to click “Post this Job Opening”.

As soon as the job is posted you’ll start to receive applications within minutes and to prove that I’m showing you right here. Keep in mind this is a very low budget project but look how I already have 5 candidates in as little as 16 minutes.

Next, I’m going to click on the number of candidates (see image above) then sort by “number of feedbacks” once all the applicants are displayed. I like the feedback attribute as I think that’s the best way to get a feel for someone’s quality of work as well as experience.  After looking at feedback I like to look at hours worked and finally make sure my pricing has been met.

This job is not that complex so I’m going to make my pick fairly quick. However, I usually mark my top 5-10 applicants as favorites and go on then next step, looking at each candidates’ profile.

This next step allows me to look at the portfolio of the  freelance or freelances that have applied for my posted job. I can click on each of the profiles and look at an overview of their scope of work, their Résumé, Work History & Feedback (Very Important), Test (yes, oDesk contains test for anyone posting as a provider) and last Portfolio.

I like this provider so much that I’m going to pull the trigger and hire her for my web design job. All I need I need to do is click on HIRE at the top of the profile window and my newly hired web designer will get in touch with me.

The best is yet to come, on my next post I’ll show you how you can see screenshots of what a provider is actually working on when he/she is clocked in under your dollar. oDesk is one of the only sites with this type of feature and really sets the standard on these sorts of sites.

How to enable Remote Desktop "remotely"...

There are many times when you go down to the datacenter to drop off a server and you forget to enable the “REMOTE DESKTOP” option.

Here is a handy little tool that will save you either a trip back to the datacenter or a remote hands ticket if you don’t have KVM access to a server.

Find out more about this life saving tool here:

Installing FrontPage Server Extensions on IIS7...

You read the title right.  The good old FP Extensions are not dead yet.  If you are like me then you probably have a love and hate relationship with this long time friend. This post will show you how to install FrontPage server extensions on IIS7.

I also recommend purchasing the following books if you wish to master IIS7.

Although not technically supported by Microsoft anymore they will play a key role in IIS7 as many legacy users will want to utilize them as the preferred publishing method.

Here is how you can install FrontPage Server Extension in IIS7.

1. You will need to download the component here: http://www.iis.net/downloads/default.aspx?tabid=34&g=6&i=1577
   1. The FPSE must be installed by an administrator.
   2. The FPSE support 32 and 64-bit environments.
2. The Setup Wizard will prompt you for the Indexing Service (assuming you already have ASP, CGI and Basic Authentication installed).Note: it is not recommended you install the Indexing Service in servers running a large number of domains since this can hinder overall performance.
3. Once the installer has finished you will be notified with the default FPSE installation method as well as recommended IIS authentication settings (remember that basic authentication is not secure unless used with SSL).
4. It’s important to know this process will take your web service down for the time it takes to install (this should not be longer than a few minutes and does not require a reboot).
5. Once the installing is complete you will see  the Microsoft Sharepoint Administration Site in IIS Manager (Look Familiar?).
6. The FrontPage Server Administrator site is accessible by going to http://hostname:7993/

How to install PHP on IIS7...

This post is broken up into 3 different Categories for a better reading experience.

I. How to install IIS7 and CGI on Windows 2008.

II. How to install and configure PHP on IIS7.

III. How to configure IIS7 to accept PHP requests.

I also recommend you purchase the following books if you wish to master IIS7 administration.

I. Install IIS7 and CGI.

1. Install IIS7 In Windows 2008  and be sure to add the CGI role.

2. If you’ve already installed IIS7 then you’ll need to go into  Server Manager -> Roles -> Add Role Services.

This will enable both the CGI and FastCGI services.

3. If you are a windows Windows Vista SP1 or higher user.

Add the CGI feature by going to Control Panel -> Programs and Features -> Turn Windows features on or off. This enables both the CGI and FastCGI services.

WARNING! AHTUNG! BHEMANIE! ADVERTENCIA! ALERTE!

BE SURE TO INSTALL THE UPDATE FOR FASTCGI MODULE!

The update for IIS 7.0 FastCGI module fixes several known compatibility issues with popular PHP applications. Install the update from one of the following locations:

• Update for Windows Server 2008
• Update for Windows Server 2008 x64 Edition
• Update for Windows Server 2008 for Itanium-based Systems
• Update for Windows Vista SP1
• Update for Windows Vista SP1 for x64 based Systems

II. Install and Configure PHP

Use a non-thread safe build of PHP with IIS 7.0 FastCGI since a non-thread safe build of PHP provides better performance gains over the standard build.

It achieves this by not doing any thread-safety checks, which are not necessary, since FastCGI ensures a single threaded execution environment.

1. Download the latest non-thread safe zip package with binaries of PHP from http://www.php.net/downloads.php.
2. Unpack the files to a directory of your choice (e.g. C:\PHP5) and rename thephp.ini-recommended to php.ini.
3. Open the php.ini file, then uncomment and modify settings as follows:
   • Set fastcgi.impersonate = 1. FastCGI under IIS supports the ability to impersonate security tokens of the calling client. This allows IIS to define the security context that the request runs under.
   • Set cgi.fix_pathinfo=1. cgi.fix_pathinfo provides *real* PATH_INFO/PATH_TRANSLATED support for CGI. PHP’s previous behavior was to set PATH_TRANSLATED to SCRIPT_FILENAME, and to not care what PATH_INFO is. For more information on PATH_INFO, see the cgi specs. Setting this to 1 will cause PHP CGI to fix its paths to conform to the spec
   • Set cgi.force_redirect = 0.
   • Set open_basedir to point to a folder or network path where the content of the web site(s) is located.
   • Set extension_dir to point to a location where PHP extensions reside. Typically, for PHP 5.2.X that would be set as extension_dir = “./ext”
   • Enable the required PHP extension by un-commenting corresponding lines, for example:extension=php_mssql.dll

     extension=php_mysql.dll

4. To test if the PHP installation is successful, run the following from the command line prompt:

C:\PHP>php –info

If PHP was installed correctly and all its dependencies are available on the machine, then this command will output the current PHP configuration information.

III. Configure IIS 7.0 to Handle PHP Requests

In order for IIS 7.0 to host PHP applications, it is necessary to add a handler mapping that tells IIS to pass all PHP specific requests to the PHP application framework via FastCGI protocol.

Using IIS Manager

1. Open IIS Manager and then select and open “Handler Mappings” at the server level:

2. Select the “Add Module Mapping” action

3. specify the configurations settings as listed on the below:

• Request path: *.php
• Module: FastCgiModule
• Executable: “C:\[Path to your PHP installation]\php-cgi.exe”
• Name: PHP via FastCGI

4. Click OK. A dialog box appears asking if you want to create a FastCGI application for this executable. Click Yes.

5. Test that the handler mapping works correctly by creating a phpinfo.php file in the C:\inetpub\wwwroot folder that contains the following code:

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

6. Open a browser and navigate to http://localhost/phpinfo.php.

If everything was setup correctly, then you will see the standard PHP information page:

How to Install IIS7 in Windows 2008...

In Windows 2008 Server IIS 7 is now a server role

1. Fire up the Server Manager under Start –> All Programs -> Administrative Tools -> Server Manager

2.Right-click on Role from the left panel and select Add Roles from the contextual menu.

3. From the Add Roles Wizard, check the Web Server (IIS ) checkbox then click next.

4. Select the required role services for your application or for the action you are trying to perform.

If you have any questions as to what any of these role services do simply highlight  any of them by clicking directly over the name as that will force the right pane will update with the corresponding service description.

A few notes:

• The ASP.NET role does not install ASP.net V 1. For information on installing ASP.net V 1 go here.
• FTP Publishing Service install the FTP service that runs on Windows 2003.

5. Click on Next and then Install. 
6. Once  the installation is completed, you can now access your new IIS 7 web server by browsing http://localhost

Writing and reading in multiple Languages with Mic...

If you happen to use use Microsoft Office on a daily basis and write in more than one language this is the the Microsoft Office tip that will make your use of these applications much easier.

Yes, Microsoft Office 2007 will support editing in multiple languages.

This means you can write on any of the Office applications such as Word and Outlook and take advantage of the built in dictionary tools based on the language you need to write on.

Here’s how you go about enabling the feature.

From Outlook-

1. Click on TOOLS –> OPTIONS  -> Spelling Tab –> Spelling and AutoCorrection…

2. Select POPULAR on the left Pane and then Language Settings… on the right one.

3. Add the languages you commonly use then click OK.

note: you may also select your primary language.

Final Notes:

• You don’t have to modify any settings as Microsoft Office will automatically detect the language you are currently writing on.
• To perform this function from Word or Excel click the Office Button –> Options then follow from step 2.
• I’m only aware of this feature on Office 2007 and not previous versions.
• For more information about this topic please click here.