[Mishmash] PHP and MySQL Course

[Fred Atkinson]

Well, folks,

    I'm taking an online course in PHP and MySQL at Kennesaw State
University.  One week of six weeks is done.  I've completed all my work
for this week.  I get my next assignment on Wednesday.

    Next week, we learn to configure MySQL databases.  I'm really
looking forward to that.  I wish they'd go ahead and turn the assignment
on.

    The days of static pages are over.  To get people to come back, you
have to show them something different each time they come.  That's where
dynamic languages like PHP and ASP come in handy.

    HTML is a static Web page code.  PHP is a dynamic Web page code.
With PHP, you can write scripts that bring up all kinds of different
things.  If you go to my ham radio Web site (with a browser that
supports the <embed> tag) at http://www.wb4aej.com, you will hear a
Morse code audio file.  There are three files.  The PHP brings up one of
the three each time the page is loaded.  Each sound file starts
differently but ends the same.  One says, CQ de WB4AEJ K.  One says 73
de WB4AEJ K.  The last one says QRZ de WB4AEJ K.  But if you don't know
Morse code, you probably won't be able to tell the difference.  I wrote
the PHP script that does it.

    Take a look at http://www.ed2go.com .  A lot of universities
(including Kennesaw) give online courses through this Web site.  If you
want to look at the PHP and MySQL course, the URL is:
http://www.ed2go.com/cgi-bin/ed2go/newcrsdes.cgi?course=iph&title=Introduction^to^PHP^and^MySQL&departmentnum=WP .
There are no geographical limits.  Anyone on the Internet can sign up
for courses on www.ed2go.com.  And as classes go, they are not *too*
expensive.

    When I get something together that looks really good, I'll share the
URL with you.  I'm putting my assignments on one of my Web sites
[besides running them on WAMP, which is a free utility to run Web pages,
PHP, and MySQL on your PC for development purposes].

    Regards,



Fred