The Tlog - a technology blog » WordPress

What’s this site running?

Pedro Timóteo — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:52:54 +0000

As an intermission (there’s more to come in the SPF series), here’s what’s changed on my server since, oh, about a year and a half ago:

The OS is now Ubuntu Karmic Koala (9.10), and all the server’s running software comes from the standard Ubuntu packages, which means that whatever version is in Karmic¹, that’s what I’m running here.
I’ve switched, definitely, from Apache to nginx. It’s faster, more efficient, and ridiculously easier to configure (to put it in perspective, in terms of ease of configuration, it’s like OpenBSD’s amazing pf to the unholy abomination that is Linux’s iptables.) nginx works perfectly with the two pieces of software I use the most on my server, WordPress and MyBB, even while using a SEO plugin with the latter, which requires some non-trivial redirect rules.
As I don’t trust any ISP’s email server to distribute the mail my server sends (mostly confirmation emails from my forums), and since most ISPs and companies these days block mail sent from dynamic IP addresses, I keep a 256 MB Slicehost slice, with a static IP address and, most importantly, reverse DNS, which I use as a smart host for my home server. The slice doesn’t have a lot of power in terms of CPU (and it’s not meant to), but, as bandwidth is much cheaper in the US than in my poor country, the “small” limit the cheapest slice includes is a lot; I use it for serving static files, mostly for my forums (all images and Javascript files are served from there), and I still have bandwidth to spare.
I’ve stopped using a Squid proxy in my home network, and nowadays access the web directly… except for when I indulge in one of my newest weird habits: reading webcomics like this one or this one while having lunch or dinner. At such a time, moving instantly from comic to comic is a must… so I simply re-enable Squid (with more aggressive caching than I’d use for normal browsing; after all, existing comics typically aren’t going to change, are they?), do a nice little wget in my server to download and cache the entire comic, and then enjoy reading the whole of it (in as many meals as it takes) as if it was stored locally…
A few changes to my email server’s configuration, mostly related to spam filtering… but I’ve been writing about that, haven’t I? And there’s still more to come.

with updates, of course — people who are afraid of installing updates (“but… it might break something!”) are nothing more than mewling weaklings who are utterly incompetent as sysadmins; they should never be allowed within a mile of any server. Even one running Windows.

More updates: Ubuntu, WordPress

Pedro Timóteo — Fri, 02 May 2008 09:17:45 +0000

Just updated this server to Ubuntu 8.04 (why do they always have these odd version numbers?). As always, it was incredibly difficult: I had to type this entire command:

do-release-upgrade

and even remember to press Enter afterwards! This Linux stuff is really too tough for us mere users…

Also, WordPress 2.5.1 on this blog and a couple others. Incidentally, if you’ve just upgraded to 2.5.1 and suddenly your RSS feed is empty, you were probably hit by this bug. That link includes info for fixing it, too (basically, you have to replace two files with newer development versions).

20080415

Pedro Timóteo — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:22:01 +0000

Just updated this blog to WordPress 2.5 and the latest K2 nightly. Everything looks good so far. It’s annoying to update a lot of blogs, one at a time, though, when all of them require changes to a bunch of files in the theme… but I endure; this is the third of my blogs to be upgraded, and most of my wrinkles were ironed with the first.

Meanwhile, I don’t want to give details here, but I’m officially on my last week on yet another job. I may stay here for some days afterwards, as the boss has asked me that, since they don’t have a replacement yet, nor I have a place to go right now (though I’m contacting a couple of my contacts). Another attempt at working at home is also an option.

In this job, I had no problems with anyone, and the company isn’t actually “going downhill” like some others I’ve worked at (no, I didn’t cause that! ), but I really didn’t enjoy the work itself, which isn’t anyone’s fault. After 10 years as a sysadmin, I’ve gotten used to a couple of things, such as:

almost every repeating task can be automated
needs intelligence and creativity, not patience
free time, if you’re a fast, efficient worker.

None of these exist in a job like the one I have now. I realize that I may sound “spoiled” (though that’s not my intention), but the idea of having repeating, non-automatable hard work is alien to me (at least since my helpdesk days, last century), and I don’t cope with it very well. I may have been lucky in my past jobs, in fact. A sysadmin can automate almost everything, and any new work is an interesting challenge (no matter how hard), one where you stay at it until late night because, well, it’s a challenge, because “the mountain is there”. A programmer, for instance, has to create and invent. Even an artist (which I’ve never been, but I’ve worked with some) or a writer has to use his or her creativity most of the time, instead of just doing the same old (but tough) things over and over. But many jobs aren’t like this… most of them, in fact, if you don’t restrict yourself to IT. I sometimes wonder how my life would be if I had been born a century ago or so. Well, there would always be science…

Meanwhile, I’m thinking of buying my first laptop. I’ve “had” a couple (including the one I’m typing this in right now), but they were always company-owned ones, and indeed I’ll have to return this one soon. A €600 would be more than enough for “serious” stuff (web browsing, email, blogging, writing, listening to music, watching movies, etc.), but there’s always that little thing called games… so the one I have in mind will cost twice as much. Crazy, I know…

WordPress 2.2 upgrade

Pedro Timóteo — Thu, 17 May 2007 11:44:39 +0000

WordPress 2.2 is out, and all my blogs are already running it.

Since most of my blogs are using a customized version of K2, I also had to disable the new WP widgets so that the current version of K2 works. Hopefully, future versions of K2 won’t need this.

EDIT: more about the new features of WP 2.2.

WordPress 2.1

Pedro Timóteo — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 16:10:44 +0000

It’s out. It’s got some very interesting new features.

Upgrading my blogs was, again, a piece of cake. I just checked whether the plugins I use have been tested as working; luckily, all of them were. I also used this excuse to update a couple of them to the most recent version (which is almost always a good idea).

WordPress is really a great piece of software. I know it’s “unfashionable” to say that some software is good or bad, as it looks like you’re somehow biased, but I’ve used other alternatives before, and WP is nowadays really, really good. I’d choose Drupal for a more “serious” site, but, for a blog, WP simply can’t be beaten, nowadays.

WordPress 2.0.6 FeedBurner fix

Pedro Timóteo — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 20:47:43 +0000

WordPress 2.0.6, released a couple of days ago, has a bug that causes FeedBurner, from time to time, to be unable to download the feed correctly.

Mark Jaquith, one of the WP developers, has a fix. It’s a simple patch, though he also provides a fully updated functions.php file.