Having used PHP as the logical choice for web development, I've always been a little mystified by cgi-bin scripts and never bothered to learn how they work. But no longer.

CGI scripts are nothing but scripts or executable programs. Apache simply executes them and renders the results. Of course, because every CGI program is an external application and requires the web server to start a new process, it makes the whole thing very processor intensive. The modern method of embedding scripts in web pages (most popularly PHP/ASP) which can be directly interpreted by Apache is a far more efficient method and I suppose more logical from a web designer's point of view.

However, there are still a few advantages to CGI scripts: you can use whatever language you wish to (plain shell scripting, Perl, Python and even compiled C executables). This offers many more options to the developer. Also in many cases CGI scripts are not limited to server "modules" and can directly use the underlying Operating System's functionality.

Rather than reinvent the wheel however, I'll point you to Apache's CGI tutorial which is a must read for any webmaster, web developer or server administrator.

Yes, CGI can be intimidating and complex CGI scripts can be a headache to maintain, but it's nevertheless useful to have an idea about how they work since so many websites still utilize this method of delivering dynamic content.

Through a series of links, I found an interesting blog recently:

Blogging Ultima

This blogger has been playing every game in the classic RPG series of Ultima games right from the oldest version and documenting the progress. It's quite an interesting read with screenshots and game stories. These games have a definite historical flavour since it goes back well in time in the 1980s (with truly primitive black and white graphics) and through the 90s.

It is interesting to see how the RPG genre has developed over the years and particularly if you are a fan of Fantasy RPGs. Ultima is considered one of the pioneers of RPG in gaming history and no wonder. The depth of gameplay these games used to provide is simply fascinating when you consider the technology limitations of the MS DOS era and compare it with the modern First Person shooters with really sophisticated 3d graphics where you shoot, hide, shoot, die, shoot, kill, shoot... well, you get the idea.

I am going to start a new series called "obscure web discoveries." If this works out and I find interesting, but very obscure websites hidden away in the deep archives of search engines, I will try to highlight them here. I also request my blogging friends to help me with this. I am not going to point out to obvious websites or well-known domains, but if you can find some deeply buried story/article in a well-known website where the URL is non-obvious, I will post a link here.

You can send me links either through e-mail or by commenting on this post and I will include them in the next edition if I find it compelling or unique enough to warrant comment.

So, on to the first edition. I've been interested in German history, particularly the period during and immediately after World War II. This led me to research quite deeply into certain interesting, but historically insignificant events (in the larger context) of the time. One such is the German resistance movement to Adolf Hitler and the Nazi rule culminating in the fateful assassination attempt of July 20th 1944. Had Hitler been killed at the time, it is conceivable that the War might have been brought to an earlier and less barbaric end. However, as we wonder at what might have been, I found this site by accident, searching for an image of Ludwig Beck (the chief opponent and leader of the resistance movement).

The story of the German resistance to Hitler

Yes, I know the website is hosted on Geocities and is extremely old-school but it is quite well written and comprehensive. The language is a bit informal and unusual in places (as written by one who's first language is probably not English), but for the most part, it is accurate. Hope you find it interesting as well!

For a long time, I've been looking for tools to create comic strips, mainly because I find that GIMP is not exactly suited for the job even though it's an excellent image manipulation tool. Even though I couldn't find a single Linux-based comics creation program (or even a decent, free Windows-based program), I did come across an interesting website when I searched for one: Stripgenerator.com. I personally wouldn't use it, but for those who have no skill in drawing but have a lot of creative ideas for cartoons, this seems to be a good idea.

Pre-built graphics aren't really my thing and in my opinion you miss the creative satisfaction of drawing your own characters, but at least these tools will keep you playing with your ideas for a while. I did look at some of the strips on display there and while most of them aren't too clever, there are a few which I enjoyed. Even so there is an element of repetitiveness in them, mainly because of the shared graphical elements.

It's been a long time since I've made a post here. It's been a busy month for me due to a variety of reasons and I've also been down with a cold in the last few days, but I just found a new mail in my inbox which attracted me. I'm glad to see that the script which powers harishankar.org which I shared a long time ago has actually been used by a few people. Here's a website which uses my script. I thank the website owner who brought it to my notice along with his appreciation. It feels good to be of some use.

I've made a lot of enhancements to the script since the time when I first released it. I will probably share the newest version of that script (which also features a changelog with Atom 1.0 feeds).