Articles in the software category

  1. MySQL Gotcha: Remote Root Access

    Posted on in software

    By default, MySQL only allows access by the 'root' account from the host running the database server ('localhost'). Often times that's perfectly adequate. There are occasions when you need remote access as the 'root' account, however. In these cases, it's helpful to be aware of one little gotcha when creating …

  2. Alexa Sparky: Making Firefox and Alexa Play Nice

    Posted on in Software

    If you've spent any time managing a web site, you are undoubtedly familiar with the dreaded Alexa rankings. It's common knowledge that these numbers are fairly useless since they depend on the end user having the Alexa toolbar installed. Obviously, not everyone has this. To make matters worse, Alexa only …

  3. You Too Can SSH Without A Password

    Posted on in Software

    I wrote recently about using Subversion over SSH. A minor annoyance with that setup is the need to enter your system password at least once, and sometimes multiple times depending on the action you are taking. There are also times when a remote system needs to access another system via …

  4. Quick and Dirty Subversion Repository with SSH

    Posted on in Software

    If you've ever needed to set up a Subversion repository, you know how long it can take to get WebDAV working with Apache before you even get to the repository set up. Although WebDAV is the best overall protocol for Subversion repositories (it doesn't require real users on the system …

  5. The Unjoy of Hanging MySQL Locks

    Posted on in Software

    Currently, I use mysqldump to backup several large MySQL databases amounting to millions of rows of data. During the dump process, tables get locked for reading. 99% of the time, this system works just fine.

    Ever so often (perhaps every 50-100 dumps), a read lock will hang on a table …

  6. Hey Slap: How Do I Define My Own MySQL Prompt?

    Posted on in Software

    Someone looked over my shoulder the other day and was blown away by my MySQL client prompt.

    (slap@localhost) [slaptijack]>
    

    The boring default client just acknowledges that you are using MySQL and nothing more. This prompt indicates your username, the server you are working on, and the database you are …

  7. How To Hide Your BIND Version

    Posted on in Software

    By default, a BIND DNS server will report which version it is running to anyone that's interested. All it takes is a simple lookup of the version.bind text record in the chaos class of your server. Check this out:

    Skadi:~ slap$ dig version.bind txt chaos @localhost
    
    ; <<>> DiG 9 …
  8. Slaptijack Site Shake-Up

    Posted on in Software

    It's recently come to my attention that a large percentage of the Slaptijack site has ended up in the dreaded "Google Supplemental Index". This means that key pages are not being served during normal searches. You can see which pages are in the Supplemental Index by running the following search …

  9. Gmail Has Ads?

    Posted on in Software

    This is just a little humorous anecdote along the lines of frantically searching the house for the glasses you happen to be wearing. After yesterday's somewhat "heavy" post, I thought the mood needed a little lightening.

    I've only recently (in the last month or so) begun using Gmail as my …

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