-Phenix

• Service
  • My current service is a 20MB down/5MB up residential connection through Comcast. I have 1 static public IP for now ( I have have hopes to upgrade to business class service which includes 13 status public IP’s.
• Software
  • DHCP and DNS services are currently hosted on  Mac OS X 10.5 Server running on an Apple Xserve G4. DHCP is setup into 2 subnets, 1 for my “admin” network that houses all of my server infrastructure, and a second subnet for public traffic such as wireless clients and multimedia streaming.
  • Port Forwarding is currently handled by a Netgear WNR3500 802.11 N wireless router. Since I have multiple services on multiple systems that need to be public facing, and only 1 public IP, Port Forwarding is essential to my setup.
• Hardware
  • Core router/Wireless AP: Netgear WNR3500 802.11 N wireless router (5 port Gigabit Switch)
    • As this device isn’t used for DHCP it acts as a Wireless AP and a 5 port Gigabit switch only.
  • Dev Switch: HP ProCurve 2523 (J4813A)
    • This is a 10/100MB switch with 2 Gigabit uplinks. I use this mainly for my dev systems that don’t really require a huge data throughput.

All of that out of the way, let me start by describing my issues with the current setup. As I previously stated, because of my current setup I depend greatly on Port Forwarding, which is currently handled by the Netgear router. The service, “as-is,” works alright, but has a good bit of limitation. First of all, I am unable to forward an external port to a different internal port (ie. forward TCP Port xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:5902 on the WAN to xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:5900 on the LAN. This limitation just adds more difficulty when configuring internal services on multiple systems that listen on the same ports. It’s not impossible, but it is definitely cumbersome. The second major limitation is that the Netgear router only supports a maximum of 20 port forwards. As I host multiple services on mutliple systems behind one public IP, this gets messy! Think about it this way:

Assume I have 4 systems behind my router with 1 public IP. Here are potential services that would need to be forwarded:

1. SSH/FTP (ports 21-23) for system 1
2. VNC (port 5900) for system 1
3. AFP (ports 548-549) for system 1
4. MySQL (port 3306) for system 1
5. HTTP (port 80) for system 1
6. HTTPS (port 443) for system 1
7. DNS (port 53) for system 1
8. VPN (port 1723 for PPTP) for system 1
9. VPN2 (port 1701 for L2TP) for system 1
10. POP (port 110) for system 1
11. SMTP (port 25) for system 1
12. IMAP (port 143) for system 1
13. iStat (port 5110) for system 1
14. Zimbra HTTP (port 81) for system 2
15. Zimbra HTTPS (port 89) for system 2
16. Zimbra Admin HHTP (port 7071) for system 2
17. Zimbra IMAP SSL (port 993) for system 2

Then if you need any of these ports/services available on another system, the number of needed port forwards multiplies. As you can see from this simple example, I very easily filled up the 20 available port forwards, and have been forced to switch port forwards on the fly as needed. In search of a solution I was looking for a product that wasn’t limited and offered a little more to meet my future needs. After much reading and deliberation I decided on the Netgear ProSafe FVS318G VPN Firewall (read more about it here). I’ve come to like Netgears SMB products over the years as I’ve used many of there switches, hubs, access point, and WiFi routers without any significant issues. Sadly I cant say the same for there regular home/consumer based products. In addition to being fairly inexpensive (always a plus!), it packs a few other nice features. Most notably:

• 1 x Gigabit WAN port
• 8 x Gigabit LAN ports
• NAT routing and Classic Routing
• 5 VPN tunnels for Secure Remote Access
• IPsec Secure Site-to-Site connectivity
• Denial-of-Service (DoS) protection
• Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI)
• Logging and Reporting
• Realtime Alerts

All of this, and more, packed into a sturdy little metal box that has a lifetime warranty!

I don’t expect that this product will solve all my network issues, but it will hopefully remedy some of my immediate needs. In the long run I know I need to move to a business class service and move away from only a single public IP setup. As this is more of a hobby than a necessity I can’t currently justify the added monthly expense of business class service, no matter how much I’d like to! I guess I could always save a ton of time/money by going back to a completely flat network setup with no servers and only a wireless router, but where’s the fun in that?! This raps up Part 1 of the 2 part series. In part 2 I will cover the unboxing of the Netgear FVS318G and talk a little about it’s installation, configuration, and the aftermath of it finding it’s home on my network.

-Phenix

• Hosting news
  • Server was successfully migrated from Valdosta to Atlanta
  • After a Hard Drive failure the server was successfully restored to new hardware (no data loss occurred)
    • New Hardware:
      • The WebRoot sites are  running on a single Apple Xserve G4 with plans to extend to 2 nodes once I procure another license for OS X Server 10.5 and a decent NAS for shared storage (2nd Xserve already on hand!).
  • The WebRoot mail services have been migrated off of OS X Mail Server and onto an Ubuntu Server running Zimbra. I will hopefully make a 3 part series on the implementation and migration, but for now just know that it’s running a lot smoother and is more easily managed!
• Site News
  • I am closer to being finished with the new custom theme ( a few set backs with some of my code and the release of WP 3.x)
  • I have decided to drop the WPMU setup in favor of a standard WP single player site.
  • I will permanently move the site to http://thephenixblue.com once the new theme is ready.
  • I am in the process of procuring additional writers so we have new posts all the time!
• Other News
  • I have decommissioned a few sites I used to have (vsumug.com and vsumug.org) due to lack of interest.
  • I have a new site planned (domain purchased), and I am in search of someone to do the graphics work for it. More details will come soon.

That’s about it for now! I will try to be better about churning out new content.

-Phenix

Anyways, the point of this is……I’ve seen a lot of movies! Through watching so many movies, I’ve become quite desensitized to violence, vulgarity, and outright debauchery. From rude and lude comedies, gory and gruesome horror flicks, and over the top violent action films, I’ve seen it all. I found myself in the last 4-5 years honing in on a specific niche of films that would make most folks vomit! I used the general terminology, “Fucked Up!” to describe such films. Most fall into the genre of Psychological Thrillers, but many also wiggle themselves into movies that cover other genres, sometimes feigning the appearance of a “NORMAL” movie! I’m not some ethically vacant, demoralized, sadistic, psychotic, heathen (I know that’s what you were thinking!), I enjoy these movies for one main reason. I believe the cinema of today has sold out.

Too many studios, directors, producers, etc. are trying to make movies that reach every audience form the cradle to the grave. The wider the audience, the more money can be made! Like most forms of art, when the all mighty dollar takes over, the true creativity ceases to exist. I tend to really appreciate the filmmakers that don’t care if anyone watches their movie, let alone actually enjoys it, but rather makes the movie because they want to. The people who don’t chisel away and rewrite to please “The Man” and his “little dog fluffy”! Very few of these people exist, and even fewer in America. These movies tend to affect the viewer more than a mainstream film, some even beyond the normal emotions of happiness or tears. Many of the movies I watch propose outlandish situations and inspire a realm of thought that most mortals will hopefully never have to experience. These movies penetrate one’s emotional core, their sense of being, and provoke the viewer to become completely enthralled within the surreal. Those movies that keep you up at night and inspire thoughts of the “Boogie Man!”

One filmmaker whom I’ve come to appreciate is Rob Zombie. He really pushes the limits on humanity. I really enjoy “The Devil’s Rejects.” Here’s a brief list of movies that I think fit into this category (off the top of my head, not meant to be my favorites, or anything like that):

• Tideland
• The Story of O
• Audition
• Kids
• Man Bites Dog
• Ma mére
• The Babysitters
• A Clockwork Orange

That’s a few to start your voyage into the truly “Fucked Up” cinema. Now, just when I thought there wasn’t a movie that could really get under my skin, I took the liberty of proving myself wrong today. I decided to come home from work and watch a movie I had recently added to my Netflix Instant Watch Queue. The name of said movie: The Girl Next Door. When I came across this film, I had the idea of a twisted Cinderella tale. Then I saw it was set in the 1950’s. This movie is far from “Leave it to Beaver!” I can honestly say, that for some reason, it was extremely hard for me to make it through this movie. Many of my friends have said the same about films they’ve sat in with me on, but they never fazed me one bit. I’m not sure exactly what it was that made me cringe. Maybe it was the fact that it’s based on true events, or the fact that it was children, or maybe even just the fact that people stood by and watched it as if it were a game. Anyway, I will watch this movie one more time, only with a few others (I’d love to see how you may react!). If you’ve seen this movie already, I welcome your thoughts and comments, as well as any you may have for any other movies you would add to the “Fucked Up” list.

-Phenix

The weekend also brought the opportunity to hang out with my Buddy CC and his lovely lady Jen! We had a great time at Taco Mac with Jarrett, and at the Darkhorse Tavern/10 High Club with Metalsome karaoke. I was also afforded the opportunity to spend some time with my family. It’s been a while since I’ve visited with them on their own turf. My cousins Hannah, Libby, and Abby are growing up so fast!!! Needless to say, the weekend was a much needed escape.

-Phenix

The Issue:

When the time allotted for a scheduled post to be published occurs, the post is not published, and a message within the Admin panel only says “Missed Schedule.”

After perusing around the WP forums for a bit, I came to realize that this is a hot topic for many 2.9 early adopters. After looking deeper into the forums, I found that this has been a potential issue with Wordpress versions since the release of 2.7. Some say the “Missed Schedule” mishap can be caused by a temporary “hiccup” with a site’s DNS. As I manage the DNS for the particular site I host, I knew this to not be the case. Further research did indeed provide me with a solution.

The Solution:

Apparently with all the new fancy upgrades to the WP core, a significant amount of time (in the web world this means milliseconds!) has been added to the time it takes to run the job that actually publishes a post. From what I can tell this is due to the number of hooks that data has to be run through to make it from the edit page as a draft, to the front page of your blog as a live post. The addition of running it through the scheduling cron job pushes it too far. Can’t we just extend the allowable time to publish a post you say? Here you go:

The time limit is set around line 230 in the /wp-includes/cron.php file. The default line will appear as such:

230

wp_remote_post( $cron_url, array('timeout' => 0.01, 'blocking' => false, 'sslverify' => apply_filters('https_local_ssl_verify', true)) );

As you can see, the limit is set to 0.01 seconds by default. I tried increasing the value in increments, and finally decided on 20 seconds. You may find that this can very from server to server, so play around with it for a bit to optimize it for your setup. So here’s the updates line:

230

wp_remote_post( $cron_url, array('timeout' => 20.0, 'blocking' => false, 'sslverify' => apply_filters('https_local_ssl_verify', true)) );

So there you go! If you’ve found yourself upgrading to a new version of WP and you are unable to successfully publish a scheduled post, try this out!

I try to keep a directory structure similar to this within my webroot:

WEBROOT/

/domain1.com

/domain2.com

/domain2.com/sub1.domain.com

/domain2.com/sub2.domain.com

/*********************DISCLAIMER***********************************/

PLEASE BACKUP YOUR DATABASE AND FILES BEFORE PERFORMING ANY OF THE FOLLOWING!!!

Step 1: Migrate files from old sub-domain to new domain directory

• Create new directory

#sudo mkdir /WEBROOT/zeblueprime.com

• Change to old directory

#cd /WEBROOT/phenixblue.com/evan.phenixblue.com/

• Copy files from old dir to new dir

#sudo cp -R  * ../../zeblueprime.com/

• Change to new directory, verify your files (including .htaccess) exist, and have proper permissions and ownership

#cd ../../zeblueprime.com/

#ls -la

Step 2: Update url information within the Database (all DB edits performed via phpMyAdmin)

• Update Site and Blog URL

Within the “wp_options” table, change the “option_values” for the following “option_name” rows

“siteurl” -  change to: http://zeblueprime.com/
“home” – change to: http://zeblueprime.com/

• Update file upload url

Within the “wp_options” table, change the following “option_value” where “option_name” is “upload_path” to

/WEBROOT/zeblue.com/wp/wp-content/uploads

• Update Post URL’s

Run the following SQL

UPDATE wp_posts SET guid = REPLACE (
guid,
'http://evan.phenixblue.com',
'http://zeblueprime.com');

• Update URL’s within your Post’s content

Run the following SQL

UPDATE wp_posts SET post_content = REPLACE (
post_content,
'http://evan.phenixblue.com',
'http://zeblueprime.com');

Step 3: Verify your site works

Navigate to your site in a web browser and verify your page. post, tag, category, etc. links work (I normally test a few, and then assume they all work!). Also log into the admin interface and navigate through a few menus.

This should conclude all of the required modifications to change the domain of your WP install. This is by no means the only way to do it, just the way I chose to. You can also check out the Wordpress Codex for other options.

P.S. I typed up all of this after the fact, so some of the commands may not be perfect, and there’s the slight chance I may have skipped a step, but most will be able read between the lines!

-Phenix

restrict.pac contents:

/Store info in variables for clean code
var ALLOWED = "DIRECT";
//set the proxy server you want to redirect to
var DISALLOWED = "PROXY services.valdosta.edu:80";
 
function FindProxyForURL(url, host)
{
//Add all exceptions for pages users need to hit here
 
//all VSU pages
if (shExpMatch(url,"*valdosta.edu/*")) {return ALLOWED;}
 
//1Card online card office
if (shExpMatch(url,"*blackboard.com/*")) {return ALLOWED;}
 
//Bookstore e-commerce stuff
if (shExpMatch(url,"*collegestoreonline.com/*")) {return ALLOWED;}
 
//Off campus housing forum
if (shExpMatch(url,"*freeforums.org/*")) {return ALLOWED;}
 
//ADP related links
if (shExpMatch(url,"*gafirst.esg.edu/*")) {return ALLOWED;}
if (shExpMatch(url,"*adp.com/*")) {return ALLOWED;}
 
//VSU Athletics
if (shExpMatch(url,"*vstateblazers.com/*")) {return ALLOWED;}
 
else
 
{
//redirect to proxy server for all other requests
return DISALLOWED;
}
 
} // end of function

browserProxy.bat contents:

::Store info used to create user.js in variables
set var1=# Mozilla User Preferences
set var2=user_pref("network.proxy.autoconfig_url", "http://services.valdosta.edu/restrict.pac");
set var3=user_pref("network.proxy.type", 2);
set var4=user_pref("pref.advanced.proxies.disable_button.reload", false);

::concat each variable to create the user.js
echo %var1%> c:\\apps\user.js
echo %var2%>> c:\\apps\user.js
echo %var3%>> c:\\apps\user.js
echo %var4%>> c:\\apps\user.js

:: determine current user's firefox profile and set it to "var5"
for /f %%a in ('FINDSTR /r ".\.default" "%AppData%\Mozilla\Firefox\profiles.ini"') do set var5=%%a
set var5=%var5:~14%
:: Copy "user.js" to Firefox profile directory
COPY "c:\\apps\user.js" "%AppData%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\%var5%\" >nul

:: create IE Proxy
Reg ADD "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings" /v "AutoConfigUrl" /d "http://services.valdosta.edu/restrict.pac" /f

<ul id="nav">
<li<?php if ( is_home() ) { echo 'class="current"'; } ?>><a href="#">Gallery</a></li>
<li<?php if ( is_page('about') ) { echo 'class="current"'; } ?>><a href="#">About</a></li>
<li<?php if ( is_page('submit') ) { echo 'class="current"'; } ?>><a href="#">Submit</a></li>
</ul>

Whereas this will do the trick for a finite menu where the names will never change, it’s not what I wanted for my client. With a little research in to some of the changes in the past couple versions of WP, I was able to get the desired results with a few lines of code:

<div id=”menu”>
<!–Main navigation menu–>
<ul>
<?php wp_page_menu(’show_home=1′); ?>
</ul>
</div><!– menu –>

You might ask “How does it know what the current page is?” I say…..”WordPress is awesome and takes care of it for you these days! When using the wp_page_menu() function, the “current_page_item” class is automatically added to the current selected page. The end result will be this:

<li class="current_page_item">

Rather than:

<li class="page_item page-item-2">

So the accompanying CSS would just apply the “current” styling to the “current_page_item” class, and you’re done!!!

The way I chose to do it makes for less code on the developer’s side, and also allows menu items to be updated dynamically when a user adds a new page, deletes and old one, updates a pages name, or changes the order. While I appreciate WP’s addition of the wp_page_menu() function, I wish they would add the options to specify what item the class is attached to (list item or link), as well as the option to specify your own class name in place of “current_page_item.” I hope someone else finds this to be useful. As always I encourage comments and discussion!

-Phenix

Over the last few years web-developers have written many articles about CSS and developed many useful techniques, which can save you a lot of time – of course, if you are able to find them in time. Below you’ll find a list of techniques we , as web-architects, really couldn’t live without. They are essential and they indeed make our life easier. Let’s take a look at 53 CSS-based techniques you should always have ready to hand if you develop web-sites. Links checked: June/11 2008.

You might want to take a look at the article Powerful CSS-Techniques For Effective Coding.

1. CSS Based Navigation

2. Navigation Matrix Reloaded

3. CSS Tabs

4. CSS Bar Graphs (CSS For Bar Graphs)

5. Collapsing Tables: An Example

6. Adam’s Radio & Checkbox Customisation Method

7. CSS Image Replacement

8. CSS Shadows (CSS Shadows Roundup)

9. CSS Rounded Corners Roundup (Nifty Corners)

10. Drop Cap – Capital Letters with CSS

11. Define Image Opacity with CSS

12. How to Create a Block Hover Effect for a List of Links

13. Pullquotes with CSS (Automatic Pullquotes with JavaScript and CSS

14. CSS Diagrams

15. CSS Curves

16. Footer Stick allows for the footer of a Web page to appear either at the bottom of the browser window or the bottom of the Web page content – whichever is visually lowest.

17. CSS Image Map

18. CSS Image Pop-Up

19. CSS Image Preloader

20. CSS Image Replacement for Buttons

21. Link Thumbnail

22. CSS Map Pop

23. PHP-based CSS Style Switcher

24. CSS Unordered List Calender (CSS Styled Calender)

25. CSS-Based Forms: Techniques

26. CSS-Based Tables: Techniques

27. Printing Web-Documents and CSS

28. Improved Links-Display for Print-Layouts with CSS

29. CSS-Submit Buttons

30. CSS Teaser Box

31. CSS Tricks for Custom Bullets

32. Ticked Off Links Reloaded

33. CSS Zooming

34. Creating a Star Rater using CSS

35. The ways to style visited Links

36. PDF, ZIP, DOC Links Labeling

37. Displaying Percentages with CSS

38. Image Floats without the Text Wrap

39. Let visitors decide, whether or not will they open link in a new window

40. Simple accessible external links

41. Zebra Table with JavaScript and CSS

42. Vertical Centering with CSS (Horizontal and Vertical Centering with CSS

43. Unobtrusive Sidenotes

44. Image Caption with CSS (Styled Images with Caption)

45. Dynamic Piechart with CSS

46. Format Footnotes with CSS

47. Hierarchical Sitemap with CSS

48. Snook’s Resizable Underlines

49. Switchy McLayout: An Adaptive Layout Technique

50. StyleMap: CSS+HTML Visual Sitemap

51. Custom Reading Width

52. CSS Alert Message

53. CSS Production Notes

Compliments of Smashing Magazine!