Random ramblings and ravings of Richy B
Antgrad’s done it, Scott’s done it now it’s time for an educated flea to do it… Let’s do it – let’s find out which movie I belong in… Hang on – that’s not how the Cole Port ![[Order from Amazon.co.uk]](https://blog.rac.me.uk/photos/amazonbutton.jpg){kind=small}
song goes!
Anyway – according to the quiz, I should be in the movie Say Anything… amazoncom:B00003CXCI . One of the few movies I haven’t seen or heard about before….
Well, the redesign to Richy’s Random Ramblings is now up and active! What do you think?
Apart from the CSS and HTML changes (including making the content come before the HTML and getting the CSS and HTML to validate), I’ve also made a number of back end changes so the system should “slide” onto the new server without problems (there’s a change of directory structure from “Richy’s Personal Preference” to “Cpanel’s enforced Preference”: and it’s a lot easier for me to work around Cpanel then vice versa).
I’ve only updated the index template and the individual entry templates so far: all the category/archive ones are currently corrupted until I get around to them – but let me know if you spot any problems so I can address them now (leaving details of which browser you are using is helpful as well!).
Well, to coincide with the move to the new server, I’ve decided to give Richy’s Random Ramblings a whole new look: on the left you’ll find a clickable image which will load the full 70Kb screenshot I’ve taken of the new look site?
Do you like it? Any comments would be appreciated as I’m not really much of a designer? If it’s all ok – I’ll try and make it go live next weekend (along with all the other sites!). The design is very very loosely based on Neil’s templates and Glist’s 3 column CSS, but with my own brand of code 😉
Just reading Slashdot about technical support (and some of the calls I have come through – kak!), and this comment with the remark: Although I think the funniest, in terms of "what was this guy smoking?" was this one kid who, during a reboot, felt the burning need to ask: "So, know any good warez sites?"
Reminded me of a telephone call the other week with one of our hosting customers (as well as internet web hosting, the company I work for is also one of the UK leaders in search engine optimization). We had this customer ask “Do you know any good sites about search engine optimization?” – now, if most of you time is spent finding good sites, forums etc etc about your main sector of business would you respond with anything else then “Yes”?
Obviously, they asked “Well, can you tell me a few?”, my response (knowing roughly how much this customer was spending on hosting: he’s in the top 5 spenders btw) was “Unfortunately not – but if you use a search engine you’ll be able to find them”. Bad customer support? Well, the tech support team supports our webservers and that’s it so it was a “correct response” plus the fact that a few days later he signed up with us for a mid range search engine optimization package so 😉
If you have a new box you want to use for web hosting etc, then here are just a few of the things you can do to help make the box secure. This list is not comprehensive, nor do I take any responsibility for any harm that may come to your server if you use any of these commands. These are mainly “quick reference” commands in case I need them in a rush (for example: we’ve put a box online and need it at least “semi-secured” – we’ll spend a bit more time securing a box then just these commands, but they’re a good starting point)
Run commands as root/su:
Disable telnet
Modify /etc/xinetd.d/telnet (could also be /etc/xinetd.d/telnet and change disable=no to disable=yes
Disable code compilation
Add compiler group: /usr/sbin/groupadd compiler
Move to correct directory: cd /usr/bin
Make most common compilers part of the compiler group chgrp compiler *cc*
chgrp compiler *++*
chgrp compiler ld
chgrp compiler as
Set access on mysqlaccess chgrp root mysqlaccess
Set permissions chmod 750 *cc*
chmod 750 *++*
chmod 750 ld
chmod 750 as
chmod 755 mysqlaccess
To add users to the group, modify /etc/group and change compiler:x:123: to compiler:x:123:username1,username2 (‘123’ will be different on your installation)