tripplez

That's why I've put <fake> in quotes ;) ... to emphasize that I believe (or hope) that these projects are perfectly real-world and relatively diverse in order to be able to start doing more similar real-world + real-money projects.

My question in regard was basically whether these "fake" personal projects can convince a prospective client that I'm for real. That is, if these personal projects are not on separate domains (like it will be if they were for real clients), wouldn't they look superficial, and yes, fake?

Is there a book about all the aspects of server administration and site deployment for web developers?

I've researched a bit about that but haven't found any.

I agree completely that the admin/deployment aspects are not covered in the books, and from my experience I extrapolate that it can be a big issue and time sink.

There is a similar thing called Nike Plus. It's a community web site with a database of the running data of runners/joggers using Nike+ sensors in their shoes (or Nike+ GPS App for iPhone).

And yes, I find it funny to be able to compare my running times, pace, total running distance, etc. to the people around the world, it's like a RPG game doing real things....

Of course, there are drawbacks. For instance, if the sensor isn't properly calibrated the results can be inaccurate. Not the case with the pure GPS tracking app, of course...