Category Archives: Geek

Google Easter Egg: The Shire to Mordor

Geek, ,

shiretomordormap Google Easter Egg: The Shire to Mordor

If you go to Google Maps, click “Get Directions,” select walking, and search for directions from The Shire to Mordor, you get a Lord of the Rings warning in the form of an easter egg that “One does not simply walk into Mordor.”

Google must be putting these out to celebrate Google I/O eve 2013.

WordPress Users on Dreamhost: Upgrade PHP

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For the past few days, I’ve noticed that my sites were running EXTREMELY slow. I hadn’t made any changes so I checked the server’s side. I noticed that all my domains were still running on PHP 5.2.x, which was not recommended. Not sure if this was the reason why my sites were slowed to a crawl, but everything seems to be running ok now.

Here’s how I “upgraded”:

  1. Go to Manage Domains in the control panel: https://panel.dreamhost.com/index.cgi?tree=domain.manage&
  2. Click on Edit for that domain.
  3. Under PHP mode, pick PHP 5.3 or PHP 5.4, both work with WordPress.
  4. Then hit ‘Change settings’
  5. Wait ten minutes and everything should be golden.

Forget Google Reader, it’s Star Wars Reader!

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Since Google announced it’s killing off Google Reader in July, I’ve been using feedly. But forget that for now…

Check out StarRSS. It’s a Star Wars themed/based RSS feed reader.  It just looks like the opening credits of every Star Wars movie. The posts fly past you in space, complete with the theme music by John Williams. Click on the links and it’ll take you to the post. Check out what my feed looks like here.

How to change your WordPress admin username

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So after my post on why you should change your WordPress admin username, my friend Brad asked me how to go about changing it. So here’s a brief run down.

  1. Log in to your WordPress admin area.
  2. In the Users menu, click on “add new”.
  3. Fill in the info for the new user account. 
    • You’ll need to use a different email address than what you used for the “admin” username.
    • Make sure you change the role to “Administrator”.
    • Choose a new user name that is different than the name you publicly display on your blog. For example, I wouldn’t use “jen” as my username – because that would be too easy for someone to guess.
    • Choose a strong password.
  4. Click on the ”Add User” button.
  5. Log out of WordPress.
  6. Log in to your WordPress again, using your new username.
  7. Click on “Users” in the “Users” menu.
  8. Move your mouse over the “admin” row. You’ll see links for “Edit” and “Delete”. Click on “Delete”.
  9. Select “Attribute all posts to” and then select your new username from the drop-down list. Make sure you select this option — so all your posts don’t get deleted!
  10. Click on the ”Confirm Deletion” button.

Now that you’ve changed your admin username — all your blog posts that were created using the “admin” username will be reassigned to your new username.

WordPress Security: change admin username

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In 2012, my site was exploited, along with many other wordpress sites using outdated versions of TimThumb, a popular PHP-based image resizer. Apparently, their main goal was to use our sites as launch pads to go after major U.S. banks. After clearing out all the junk, I tried using a WordPress plugin called BulletProof Security, and everything seemed to work well.

Recently, I switched over to Better WP Security. I checked the logs and looky what I found:

Better WP Security View Logs ‹ Somegirlwitha.com — WordPress WordPress Security: change admin username

Several reports say that there was a huge botnet attack on WordPress sites To steal admin passwords and gain server access. Looks like it was a brute-force dictionary-based attack that aim to find the password for the ‘admin’ account that every WordPress site sets up by default. Good thing one of the first things I do on any WordPress installation is change the “admin” username.

Protect your WordPress installation:

  1. If your username is currently set as “admin”, change it to something custom.
  2. Change/strengthen your password.
  3. Make sure you’ve deactivated and deleted all old or unused themes and plugins.
  4. Install a plugin to limit login requests.  I just installed the appropriately titled Limit Login Attempts WordPress plugin.

Note to self: stay vigilant with WordPress security.
Next, read “how to change your WordPress admin username.”

Borrow Kindle books, from the library!

Entertainment, Geek, Materialism, , , ,

I’ve had a kindle for quite a while now. I read a lot when I first got it, but then the reading the slowed down. That is, until I loaned the kindle to some friends. Then I realized how I read much more on a kindle.

I rarely buy books now, mostly because I have no room for any more. And I never buy eBooks or books on Kindle either. I borrow them from the library. Yes, I borrow eBooks from the library. Most of my friends are surprised when I tell them about that. If you’re paying taxes, might as well get your money’s worth, right? Plus, I never liked borrowing actual books from the library because they’re pretty nasty. By borrowing and reading on my kindle, I can read in bed and not be grossed out.

How to borrow from the library

It’s pretty awesome. You have 24/7 access to a digital library catalog of thousands of titles or books. It’s like going to the library in the middle of the night, but not really. You can search for the nearest library at www.overdrive.com. I go through the San Francisco Public Library’s site at http://sfpl.lib.overdrive.com/. From there, you can search for Audiobooks  eBooks, Music, and even Video. And you don’t even need a kindle. Any eBook reader will do or you can use their app that works on most devices or just read in your browser using overdrive read.

If the title you’re looking for is available, you can start reading immediately. I’ve found there’s usually a long wait list for popular books. I guess the library has limited “copies” of each title. You can place a hold on the books that you want, but sometimes it takes weeks before you actually get to start reading.

Limited lending period

Apparently, the lending period is determined by your library and can be for a period of 7, 14, or 21 days. At the end of the lending period, titles will automatically “expire” and return to the collection. At least you don’t have to worry about paying fees for overdue books. Sadly though, titles cannot be renewed, but you can check them out again if they are available. Which means, you have to place another hold and wait a few more weeks before reading the book again. And that’s a problem for me because I feel like I’m a slow reader. Of course, some books I finish faster than others, but I guess it depends on the book. I have several books on my goodreads that’s been in my “currently reading” list for a looong time because it was automatically returned and I had no patience to get on the wait list again.

Hack for longer lending period

BUUUUUT!!!! I think I’ve found a loop hole, or hack, if you will, that will allow you to keep your borrowed titles for longer than the maximum loan period of 3 weeks. When you “borrow” a book, it’s downloaded to your device. Technically, your device knows that your book is “overdue” when and IF it has access to the internet, right? So here’s how I tested my theory. Before my book’s “due date” last week, I put my kindle on airplane mode (no data connection) and I’ve been reading the book all this week! It’s a loooong book, so it’ll take me a while to finish. I wonder if anyone else has done this. Is this bad? I just need more time!