Woohoo!!
I got PHP running on my laptop!!
The problem turned out to be really simple, I had merely neglected to start Apache, but I learned quite a few things about my Mac as I worked my way toward that discovery.
The other day at work we were discussing Microsoft products and I realized that, much to my surprise, I know very little about Windows. Until I started working in IS, I had pretty much always been a personal Mac user and a professional Windows users and I felt that my knowledge of each was pretty comparable (and, at the time, I felt that my knowledge was fairly extensive, at least significantly more extensive than the typical end user).
These days I know a lot more about computers than I ever used to, but while my knowledge of the Mac OS, linux and UNIX have grown exponentially, my Windows knowledge has pretty much stagnated. When I first realized that I felt a little funny about it, but really, I guess that’s how I’d prefer it. I think that open source is the way of the future and while Microsoft might disagree with my assessment, Windows already feels like a dinosaur to me. Even OS X is only something I’m using because I already happen to have it and because it’s already ingrained into my life (and because my UNIX knowledge is directly applicable). I’m pretty sure that my son will require a computer relatively soon after he starts school and there’s no question that it will be running linux (and that I’ll probably build it!).
I used to think that I knew quite a lot about computers (and indeed, as I mentioned, compared to the average user I did), but now I know so, so, so much more (and am all the more aware of what I don’t know). It feels really quite amazing.
Last night I was going through some old files and I came across a little perl script that a guy I was dating showed me how to write. Way back then I had a million questions and never did understand exactly why it was written the way it was. Last night as I looked over it I was completely shocked to realize that I did understand it, that my daily exposure to PHP made the structure and syntax quite clear. With no small amount of relief I realized that I’m learning more than I realized and that there may be hope for me yet.