Sites like bitbucket, github and Google Code let you maintain your code online with others editing it.

My preference is for Mercurial via TortoiseHg, which integrates well with Windows Explorer. (I use the command prompt, but people I collaborate with prefer this.)

Here’s a 2-minute video explaining how to install TortoiseHg and commit your code onto bitbucket.

You’ll first need to create a database, which you can do by visiting /phpmyadmin/ on your localhost, typing in the database name and pressing ‘Create’.

Now go to /wiki/ and fill out the form. Make sure you select “Use superuser account” since you haven’t really created a user for your database.

Click on the “Install Mediawiki” button, and you should have a wiki.

You’ll first need to create a database, which you can do by visiting the /phpmyadmin/ on your localhost, typing in the database name and pressing ‘Create’.

Now go to /wordpress/, click the buttons and fill out the form. Type in ‘root’ for the database username and leave the password blank. Select any password you want for the administrator account. You can now log in with this administrator password and log into the WordPress dashboard.

Here’s the first, on XAMPP, which is a starting point for most open source applications. It bundles Apache (web server), MySQL (database), Perl and PHP.

To install it, search and download “XAMPP for Windows”, and press enter for every question. Then install your application under C:\xampp\htdocs. That’s it.

If you’re a well-paid professional in an Indian IT services firm, your freedom is limited.
(This holds if you’re a student, too.)

• You clock-in and clock-out.
• You’re searched on your way in and out.
• You need your boss’s permission to leave.
• You work on what you’ve been told to work on.
• You cannot be trusted to freely access the Internet.

The last bit worries me the most. Perhaps because in all the other cases, there are humans I can put to shame or fight, face-to-face. Or because I am a Net addict. Don’t know why.

Anyway, here’s the result of my survey (after de-duplicating and eliminating results where the company or geography was not clear).

Some day, I will follow-this up with a post on “Surviving in Prison”, detailing out my experiences with the system, and beating it.