What is the LAMP stack?

LAMP stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP (or Perl or Python). Used together, they represent the most popular and most powerful form of web servers and website hosting.

All of our websites are hosted on LAMP servers, even Adobe Coldfusion based websites (where normally Coldfusion Server is best set for a Windows Server environment).

Why should your website be LAMP powered (or at least hosted on Linux)? Read on »
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Thanks to my liberal arts education, I am a well rounded person. I’ve read some rather random books like those by Douglas Adams and Chuck Klosterman. This all leads to my tendency to be a collection bank for odd or useless facts. This week however, I came across one that is a little more interesting and a little less useless. Actually I found it to be down right alarming given the time I spend at my desk in a day. Also in consideration is time I spent recently out sick with the flu like so many other Americans on the East Coast.

Contrary to most germophobe’s beliefs and according to the New York Times Best Seller “Why Do Men Have Nipples? Hundreds of Questions You’d Only Ask a Doctor After Your Third Martini“: “…Yes, Occasionally you can catch something from a toilet seat but this isn’t all that common…[according to one] microbiologist at the University of Arizona.” While I find that striking there’s some quite more impressive: “…the typical office desk harbors around four hundred times more disease-causing bacteria than the average toilet seat.”

Yes, that’s right! Your keyboard is so dirty that it’s filthier than a toilet seat. Gee, what a comforting thought in these cold winter months. So don’t touch my keyboard; it contains 511 germs per square centimeter. Please, I wouldn’t touch the mouse either with a lovely 260 germs per square centimeter. Oh and by the way that chic telephone on your desk has 3,894 germs per square centimeter! This confirms that you would be ill advised lick the conference room keyboard. Do you concur Doctor?

As the internet and technology zips along every hour of every day, literally hundreds of new threats arise in the form of spyware, malware, adware, worms, virii, you name it. For you, the user, it is imperative that you be proactive in protection of your machine, instead of reactive (waiting until something happens to take action). The more proactive you are in applying security, the more you can stop spreading junk that comes through your inbox or browser, and more importantly, protect your identity.

There are lots of retail software suites that can accomplish the basic protection you need for your computer. But lets take a look at some free offerings that you can find on the internet that can do just as good of a job and be used in conjunction with Norton type packages, adding an additional 60-80% more protection.

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