i recently updated this site to drupal 6.

it was a fairly delicate task.

i had to follow a few steps to make sure that the update worked ok. the first is to put the site on maintenance mode and to backup all my database, settings of the old drupal 5 site. then i created a duplicate "staging" site to test the new site with the new drupal 6 code. then i had to test each version 6 module and themes to make sure that it worked on the new site. once, i got that working, then i ported over to the "production" site. standard upgrade procedures i guess.

still, doing all this at night was not the best. the mind often doesn't work that well at night. lol.

Today was a bit of a busy day.

started with some discussions on some home design with ju, hijaz and kahar. they shared their websites as follows:

http://www.blogger.com/profile/16807998016910934448
http://bahahouse.blogspot.com/
http://bungalowdesign.blogspot.com/
http://sabrihouse.blogspot.com/
http://zainihouse.blogspot.com/
http://hizalsbungalow.blogspot.com/
http://binarumah.ambok.net/

unfortunately, our ambitions are not for big houses. :)

source site - What Is Google App Engine? - Google App Engine - Google Code

Google App Engine lets you run your web applications on Google's infrastructure. App Engine applications are easy to build, easy to maintain, and easy to scale as your traffic and data storage needs grow. With App Engine, there are no servers to maintain: You just upload your application, and it's ready to serve your users.

Over the years, I have been doodling with website designing, both from the coding (HTML, perl, PHP etc) as well as design (CSS, photoshop etc). In all instances i am pretty much a complete amateur despite the years of doodling.

Perhaps this is because i am rubbish at such things, or don't have a creative bone in my body, or perhaps simply i have not practiced enough in depth... because i am too superficial.

I post this on the drupal website at http://drupal.org/node/91684

I have posted a couple of requests for support on the following threads:

http://drupal.org/node/62255
http://drupal.org/node/62255#comment-126256

http://drupal.org/node/64591#comment-122097

...but can't seem to get any answers. perhaps my requests are buried deep in the thread. so i decide to create a new thread to seek help.

what i am trying to achieve

i would like to setup more than one drupal site using a single code base. each site would have different settings / databases. i do not want to have subdomains (although this could be a later requirement) or parked domains (as suggested by fidelis on http://drupal.org/node/62255#comment-126409). my response: i intend to set up various community interest sites with a single domain as being the traffic aggregator, so the additional domains is not an option.

I've been working on configuring my drupal code to support multi-sites including this one.

however, I've been having problems with the setup. I must emphasise that I have RTFM and still I cannot find what I am doing wrong. Differential diagnosis.. people - Doctor House would say.

I finding it almost impossible to diagnose. Support forums on the drupal website is not so helpful. lots of jargon and assumption that one must have linux knowledge to fix the problems.

Anyway, will keep plugging on.

Meanwhile check out Shakira shakira.

A colleague of mine recently asked me the question why I go about building the various websites that I do. What I expect, and have any of my expectations materialised?

A good question.

My view is simple: I have a number of interests, objectives and thoughts on various subjects. Sadly, I have very little time to further expand on those interests, objectives and thoughts (as an individual). However, I fully believe that as a community each individuals has the ability to "help each other" on these matters. The gain I seek for many of these are not monetary but of information, personal learning and development.

You may be wondering what is all the odd and disjointed components on this website are all about. Certainly it is not intentional the way it currently looks right now. I am experimenting with some techniques on improving the navigation on this website.

One of the techniques is javascript + CSS pulldown menus that you see on the left hand side NavMenu bar. I am taking a few tips from suckerfish and a from css.maxdesign. I'm also visiting the CSS creator forums for discussions and tips. I would like to create a menu which opens up as you hover over selected items. I hope this will improve the usability of the site.

For now, the CSS is all screwed up. So bear with me. I would also suggest that you use Firefox for the best & standards compliant experience.