Updated 03-Aug-2025 By rogue I mean those processes which are not beneficial (at least for my configuration). To start with there are those processes which actual communicate over the network. View Processes on OSX with nettop nettop Nettop is a built in process communication display utility, useful, especially with seeing what network interfaces are being ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 What is Montessori? I am a great fan of Maria Montessori and her ideas about education. That said, she is long-dead and the Montessori we have is not her ideas (though we do have her books) but rather a set of institutions, schools, and teachers. We must look closer to see clearly. Because ... Read more
Updated 12-Nov-2025 Note 11-11-2025: just use sudo apt install inkscape -t trixie-backports all the crap below with AppImage no longer applies. Current issues The latest version of Inkscape has to be downloaded as an AppImage from the website. An earlier version is available via apt. There is also a PPA but that is not recommended. ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 A big part of speed is managing the browser cache. This usually means setting compression (gzip/deflate) and expirations of cached content. Compression takes place at the web server (generally after minification). Minification usually also combines files together, so that that there are fewer requests. Compression provides enormous advantages (much more than minification), however, ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 MySQL is good for large multi-user databases. However, when dealing with few changes to the database, and many reads, it is far from a great solution (in fact, is a terrible solution). SQLite is far superior in that situation, and for serial/sequential edits. MySQL 5.6 vs. 5.7 For those with minimal database needs, ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 Note: This page is a document of the next generation of webdev/devops from what is currently in place (granted, much out-of-date). What follows is a personal technology stack learning task list rather than a comment on the state of web development. Note: As of May 2025, this generally holds true, with the exception ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 Two words time-based automation: cron and crontabs (and other apps such as anacron) are needed for so many things on a server. Here is how to use cron and crontabs on Amazon Linux AMI. Install crontabs This will in addition install several dependencies, including cron. yum -y install crontabs chkconfig crond on service ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 There are several sites which sell unlimited access to a large number of WooCommerce and other themes and plugins. These sites are taking advantage of the GPL which allows for free distribution, though it is unclear if they are violating use agreements (or trademarks). In any case, each of these sites has a ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 This is a collection of stuff that can help out when things go wrong. Extract Fingerprint and Public Key from a Private Key Extract Public Key from Private Key: ssh-keygen -y Generate a Fingerprint of a Private Key to verify in the AWS EC2 Console: openssl pkcs8 -in path_to_private_key -inform PEM -outform DER ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 Tokyo still top choice for Asia HQ Datacenter Even with multiple options coming online in Singapore, Tokyo is still the best option for a single, Asia-based datacenter. Even when serving locations such as Thailand and Vietnam, Tokyo is a strong competitor to Singapore. Linode is my unmanaged VPS of choice. They have a ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 This assumes a current configuration of: - Amazon Linux (6.x RHEL series) - Apache 2.4 - PHP 5.6 + Opcache - Oracle MySQL 5.7 Installation up to this point is encompassed by: - OpenVPN on Amazon Linux EC2, basic configuration and securing an EC2 instance - Amazon Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP, installing ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 Block Kitchen Knife Steel Strop Knife steels are crap, have to hold proper angle, also leather strop The why of it all Therefore the angle kit is likely the best approach
Updated 03-Aug-2025 Technology has advanced to the point where 95% of the work in 360 images and video is now done by consumer-grade hardware. For a 360 walkthrough or tour of an event or architectural location, all that is needed is a tripod, monopod, or head-mounted camera, and remote shutter or automatic capturing (every 8 ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 PATH can be a pain, but there are some basics: Syntax $PATH before or after (before) Is EXPORT needed, or not (not) Where is PATH set All apps+shells /etc/environment All shells ~/.profile or /etc/profile for all users (or a separate file under /etc/profile.d/ if using pacman) Bash shell ~/.bashrc (or ~/.bash_profile or ~/.bash_login) ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 Note: Amazon Linux AMI is essentially CentOS 6.x. Everything below works on CentOS as well. Preparation for Amazon LAMP The OpenVPN on Amazon Linux AMI is a good place to start in preping the L for the AMP part of the lamp stack. Lots of good stuff there. A followup is WordPress Multisite ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 OpenVPN is great, and the OpenVPN command line client and the Viscosity GUI are also nice. However, all configurations need to be checked to ensure there is no information leakage. Secondly, the basic OpenVPN connection needs another layer of encryption and/or obfuscation, in order to interoperate with Internet firewalls and services that use ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 Amazon Lightsail is a VPS services offered by Amazon that competes with the likes of Rackspace, DigitalOcean, Linode, etc. Note: As of mid 2018 AWS effectively halved its prices on Lightsail. This means there is a $3.50 USD/mo. option and the $40 option listed below (4gb ram/2 cpu/60gb ssd/4tb xfer) is actually only ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 ufw is known as a Debian (and Ubuntu) firewall, which is disabled by default but easy to use. There are some GUI front-ends which make it popular for Linux on the desktop. Coming from a CentOS background (RHEL/Amazon Linux AMI), ufw is not as common (as, say firewalld, or simply iptables, to which ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 See also Kodi, which I've started using nowadays to replace Chromecast / Android TV as of May 2025. I've gotten fed up with the nonsense that is Chromecast (slow, limited), Apple TV (slow, limited), and Fire TV Stick (slow, limited). I ran across the Vero 4K, which was announced in February, 2017. Besides ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 What I learned in migrating from CentOS on Linode to Amazon AMI Linux on EC2. Note: Amazon Lightsail is probably a better comparison, but it is not available in the region we need it in, so EC2 is required for now. Update: Lightsail is now available in more regions. VPS Hosting and Operating ... Read more