Archive for the ‘Life’ Category

If you want to change your SSH port to something a little less obvious, it’s easy to do. It’s debatable how much security it actually gives you, but it will certainly make you feel safer, and that is probably the most important thing.

pico /etc/ssh/sshd_config

I’m using pico in this example, but vim will work just as well. You should find a line which is commented out, specifying that the port is 22. This doesn’t need to be uncommented normally, as it defaults to port 22.

#Port 22

Just uncomment this and put a new port number in.

Port 8473

Now save the file and exit. Finally, restart SSH for it to take affect.

/etc/rc.d/init.d/sshd restart

Don’t forget, next time you SSH in you will need to use the new port number!

ssh -p 8473 hostname

After I had finished explaining all this, he looked at me and said “that may be the case sir. But that’s still no excuse for doing 37 in a 30 zone.”

Worth a try, anyway.

If you’re using MySQL’s MEMORY table storage engine for anything intensive, you may run into the following error.

Table is full

This means what it says – memory tables have a fixed size they are allowed to me, 16mb by default, and once they reach this size, MySQL will prevent you from inserting any more data, to prevent the table from using too much memory.

If you run into this error, you can either increase the size in MySQL’s configuration, or you can switch to a disk based table engine such as Archive or InnoDB.

In February, I went to Paris.

However, despite having paid for reserved seating on my flight out there, we ended up getting moved to a different part of the plane to balance out the weight. It didn’t exactly fill me with confidence that a jet airliner could be so fragility held in the sky that someone sitting in the wrong place could bring it down, but I went with it.

That said, I was rather aggrieved that I had paid for reserved seating and not been given it. So, on my return I wrote a letter of complaint to Jet2 as they don’t seem to have email and I would need to take a personal loan out to fund phoning their premium rate customer service line. So I went old school and wrote a letter.

I’m pleased to say that a month later I have received a letter back from them saying that they will be refunding the money I paid for allocated seating, within the next two weeks.

Need to locate a specific file somewhere on your system? Luckily, there is an appropriated named search tool which you can use to do that. It’s called locate and it’s very similar to file search in Windows file manager.

Not all Linux installs come with locate, so you may need to install it.

yum install locate

Also, the first time you run it, it will need to build the database, so that will take a little longer. But once it is up and running, it is pretty fast. Simply use the command followed by a file name, or even just part of a file name, to get a list of all the files on your system that match.

locate httpd.conf

There are quite a few different VNC clients available for Mac, and most of them are, in my experience, pretty disappointing. And totally unnecessary, because OS X actually comes with a build in VNC viewing client which works fine. For some reason though, Apple have kept it pretty well hidden.

Never fear though, because once you know the location, it’s easy to find and use.

/System/Library/CoreServices/Screen Sharing.app

It’s pretty simple, but then I’ve never found the need for all the extra crap a lot of the viewing clients come with – I just want to be able to control a remote computer!

From time to time, Firefox might try to update itself and get itself stuck an a loop where every time you try and open it, it tries to upgrade itself, fails, closes and then you have to try and open it again and the same thing happens.

95% of the time, this problem is caused by Logitech webcam software.

I don’t know why, I don’t know how, but the problem has hit my system several times and every time after some googling, the suggestion to try and close my Logitech camera software comes up and as soon as I do, Firefox is able to upgrade itself and open fine.

You know, except for the fact that I don’t have a dubiously serviceable spaceship named Serenity (I don’t have a perfectly serviceable one for that matter either). Nor do I have a crew, rugged good looks or such a free-spirited approach to whether to follow the law or not.

Look at him there, what a man.

Pioneers, out there, working for themselves. Well, that is what I will be doing. I recently handed in my notice at Buzz Sports. It has been an amazing three years, but the time has come to move on and establish my own technical consultancy, which will be opening its doors in April.

So if you need help with your software project, get in touch. With expert knowledge of scalable web application architecture and a reassuringly expensive price tag, you’re in safe hands.

Hey, anyone else remember the Sun? You know, the big glowing thing in the sky.

It’s back and we’ve been cashing in. I spent Saturday with Norm, George, Oli and Raby on Millenium Square, soaking in the rays (and in everyone else’s case, soaking in equal amounts of beer). That has been followed up with a lunch in The Box’s beer garden and two lunches in The Oak’s beer garden this week. It’s a hard life.

Last week, I finally made it down to the Leeds PHP User Group.

The meeting consisted of a talk by Lorna Mitchell on Git, Github and Open Source. It didn’t tell me anything that I didn’t already know, but it was interesting none the less. They also provide free food at their meetings, so I then regretted eating before I went 😀 .

By a perhaps unfortunate coincidence, the next day one of my friends sent me a contact they recommend I speak to about my career. The name rang a bell – turns out the recruitment agency had in fact been sponsoring the event and she was there – if only I had known 24 hours earlier I could have introduced myself in person! Still, there is always next month.