Month: August 2006

blog server tech

Since I do these software and hardware tests to learn about them (and they are interesting and sometimes fun, too), I will shortly document here the technology used for this new blog site:

  • HP Proliant ML 110 server
  • Powerware UPS 5115-750i/6 uninterruptible power source
  • Fujitsu-Siemens Storagebird XL external 250 GB disk for backups
  • Linux Ubuntu Drapper Drake (6.06) operating system
  • Apache 2.0.55 web server software, with several extensions, including mod_php5, mod_rewrite, and mod_ssl (for several different features, including more secure system access)
  • PHP scripting language version 5.1.2
  • cURL, with libcurl version 7.15.1 (for enhanced URL manipulation)
  • phpMyAdmin, a set of MySQL administration scripts for web-based access
  • mySQL database server and client, versions 5.0.22, with various extensions for PHP, Python and other uses
  • Postfix mail transport agent (v. 2.2.10) with various antispam tools and safeguard implementations, necessary for the WordPress notifications such as registration password mails to go out

And on top of those, the actual blog:

  • WordPress, version 2.0.2-2, with numerous plug-ins for comment spam management, Flickr and email integration, Cron-jobs, and so on.

This is not the most recent version of WordPress, but I let Ubuntu to maintain my software packages through its Synaptic Package Management, to maintain compatibility and automated system upgrading. But in this case the latest stable release of WordPress (2.0.4) had implemented an important change by removing ‘Check Admin Referer’ security measure, which was exactly that feature which created most troubles in this installation. Admin Referer is a logic where WordPress tries to make sure that only the rightful admin has access to all admin pages by checking that the previous page accessed was also part of the admin console. In my case there was an error in the way the blog address (URI) was registered into the database, leading to a situation where every attempt to fix the error was stopped by the Admin Referer check, which did not think I was coming from correct admin pages (due to the previous faulty registration of the WPress install directory). A complete Catch-22 situation. In the end, I had to learn to edit the mySQL database manually in order to fix the wrong entry, and installing, comparing and learning all the tools needed for this took also more time. The more current WordPress versions use something called Nonce to pass a unique code from page to page during the administration processes. Good luck so that you never have to get stuck into this particular hole.

Read more:

http://comox.textdrive.com/pipermail/wp-hackers/2006-April/005666.html

http://asymptomatic.net/2006/06/01/2370/what-is-all-this-nonce-sense/

http://www.howtoforge.com/perfect_setup_ubuntu_6.06

welcome, wordpress

After some weeks of installation (this has not been exactly a simple process), I decided to replace my old Blogger blog today with this shiny, new WordPress one.

There were numerous curious (read: linux-esoteric) traps in the my WordPress installation, many of them related to the half-documented manner WordPress is currently integrated with the Ubuntu Linux distribution I am using. So, even if this has many advanced features and is very expandable with numerous different themes and plugins, I am still uncertain whether I can recommend WordPress for a more casual user. Certainly, having an account in www.wordpress.com should be straightforward enough, but if you consider setting up WordPress into your own server, with the associated Apache, PHP and MySQL configuration issues, I recommend you consider once again. (Many thanks for Nikke in sorting my troubles out!)

Outlines, August, late summer – pt. 3

Further on the road into impressionism — I decided that the pixel-sharp shapes and unprecisely captured colours really do not convey my experience of this hazy, hot summer (30-32C is what my thermometer is constantly saying these days). Heat is something oppressive, smelling of dying grass.

This Photoshop cutout conveys better some of that feeling.

Tohloppi moblog-watercolour-sunset, part 1

There is always a beautiful sunset, rare bird or butterfly flying by when you do NOT carry your best camera and lens with you. With the crappy cameraphone, you can not really get the tones, nor details of the scene. What to do? Well, how about stepping away from the pursuit of realism for a moment, and try aiming for something clearly impressionistic instead? Couple of experiments with a cameraphone and a Photoshop filter.

475 + 1 FONero

The UPS courier brought today my FON router (I think the price of shipping was actually more than double the price of the €5 router), and after some tweaking, this is now written wirelessly, as a proud member of the world-wide FONero community. Cheers! However, more fellow Linuses would clearly be required to make this genuinely useful, rather than just philosophical or ethical investment. 475 users in a country as large and sparsely populated as Finland is not much. But now there is 475 + 1. See: fon maps: Finland.