Need some advice for a personal project

I'm a first-time poster and reader - my apologies if I put this in the wrong forum.

I'm planning on turning my laptop, which has a broken hinge, into a tablet. the intention is to either keep XP or upgrade to 7/8 (If it's out early enough!) before returning to school.

The project would make it simple to set up, take notes, schedule assignments, etc. In addition, I'm replacing the Windows shell with a Web browser (Chrome), and making most of my apps - media playback, not taking, blogging, etc - through there, in a simplified interface designed to my needs.

The reason why I can't consider any linux-based alternatives such as Chrome OS and JoliOS is the possibility of neccesity for Windows-Specific applications such as Word and Photoshop for classes specific to those programs - And as much as I'd like to dual-boot, as old as the machine is, it wouldn't be worth the hassle. (It's another reason why I'm making it into a tablet, besides the desire for a challenge.)

My question, I hope, is relatively simple. In order to accomplish some of the tasks, such as syncing with my home desktop and keeping track of dates and assignments, as well as sorting notes, a database is required. I've not played much with MySQL, but I would like to save a little time. Will I need to set up my laptop/tablet as a server? If so, what would be the best technology route? I need to consider how much time I can save and how much of a B.S. hassle I have to deal with - I need to be ready by Mid-August, completely built and set-up.

Any advice is appreciated, including ideas on how to access the file system on here to load applications. Thanks. :thumbsup:

You can specify the width of the iframe using the height and width artibutes. I always put it inside a div that is excatly the same size, because it allows better positioning.

I'm not entirely sure what you're talking about (I think you may have responded to the wrong post or something - I do recognize the HTML), though I do recognize the misspelling. Please clarify.

This is addendum, to clarify what I mean. Windows XP uses a database called a registry to control the attributes of XP, which is locally stored. The code used to run this forum, on the other hand, is on the server. Some of the stuff I will have it do - getting weather and news feeds, streaming video - will require internet access, and won't need many local resources to deal with there. (Maybe graphics, in some cases, but not all.) Other things, such organizing notes, converting them to HTML and other documents, etc., don't need to be done online, but because they need tools written in languages like PHP and Ruby, might need to be done in a server setup or setting, in spite of the fact that the server is the machine you're operating on. I'm basically asking if I will need to turn my laptop into a server to do this.

The other thing I asked directly involves being able to avoid the shell, aka Windows Explorer. One of the reasons for this is to eliminate the number of processes needed - If I don't have to sit and wait for Word to open to take notes in class, my notes will be better. It's unfortunate that some courses will require some form of Windows underneath, due to the program necessary for the course. That said, it'd simplify things greatly to eliminate Explorer and just work mainly from the browser, including app launching. I know it was one of the things Microsoft was sued for (which, in hindsight, doesn't work in my favor), but that was years ago.

Hope that clarifies things.

I'm not entirely understanding your question, and the last post btw was a spammer.

What I do know is you can easliy set up a local server yourself with WAMP(windows) to run php, mysql, and apache servers.

As for your other questions, it may have been better to post this in the COmputer/PC forum or something similiar.

Well, that explains a lot - wonder if I shouldn't do something about the offending quote now. Thanks for the response to the first question. As far as the setup, are there any languages that won't work? I ask because, as part of the project will require the learning of new languages to do modify what does not fit into my needs as well as add new content, I want to avoid any time waste on researching and studying what does not currently fit. (It's not that it wouldn't fit later, it's that it eats away at time needed to do what needs to be done now.)

Thanks for moving this to the correct forum - I'll have more time to explore the site this weekend, I'm doing most of my work on this right now during times where I can't do physical work on it, for example software coding or hardware manipulation (IE converting the laptop to a tablet.) I'm getting what I can to computer as soon as I get access, and those ideas, researching, and catchup - suck up the rest of that time. Thankfully, the bulk of time right now is on the research time.