Pier 1 Imports is having a promotion on Facebook that gives you a $10 off $10 coupon, good 1 per person per store.

We have been trying to stretch our allowances as much as possible, so this was a great opportunity to get some shopping in without having to spend any money. We have three Pier 1 locations nearby, so we printed 6 coupons and headed out. We ended up getting $60 in stuff without even paying sales tax. $0 out of pocket.

The goodies:

• A basket
• An udderly cool cow mug
• A kitchen timer
• 4 large ramekins
• 8 small ramekins
• 5 flower bowls
• 4 tea light holders

Yay for free stuff!

Just got the very good news that Zen Studio ($299) is now free for Zend Certified Engineers. Neat! I’ve been wanting to try it out for a while, but wasn’t willing to spend $299 for it.

Zend Studio is built on Eclipse (which is free for everybody), so it has a very small learning curve for those already familiar with Eclipse. My initial impression is that it is just an easier to use version of Eclipse, with more robust PHP tools than the free Eclipse PDT gives you.

I ran into a few quirks while using it that took a moment to figure out:

1. By default, Zend Studio assumes you are using PHP 5.1/5.2. With the massive speed improvements and new functionality added in 5.3, I don’t know of anyone that chooses to use 5.1/5.2. Seems like a weird default option to set, and it caused my code to show a whole pile of errors that didn’t really exist.
2. By default, Zend Studio uses PHP 5.2.14 to debug. Again, a really weird default.

Anyways, I’ll be playing around with it on my next website-of-the-month. Any tips from those already using it would be greatly appreciated!

I got home from a business trip yesterday and found an awesome Firefox 4 Beta Team t-shirt waiting for me. Very cool!

You may recall that I wrote a search engine add-on a few months ago. Well Mozilla offered free t-shirts to developers that got their add-ons ready for Firefox 4 by January 7, and since my add-on is just a search engine add-on it was already compatible. I filled out the form saying my add-on was compatible but didn’t really expect to get the t-shirt. Luckily whoever processed the t-shirt requests wasn’t very picky so I qualified for the shirt.

Anyways, I’m holding the t-shirt instead of wearing it because it still has nasty new unwashed t-shirt smell. Also, this is a picture of the back of the shirt. The front has a stylized Firefox logo on it. Also, I was super tired when this picture was taken, so I may look a little out of it.

I recently got invited to try out CloudFlare, a new free service in closed beta. I checked out the homepage and was greeted with a “Wouldn’t it be cool if your website were protected by ninjas?” header. Why, yes, that would be cool.

So, not really understanding exactly what it was, I signed up and configured it for the Fake Name Generator.

After some poking around and letting it do its thing for a few days, this is what I’ve discovered it does for me:

• Provides a free DNS management. This is included for free with many registrars, but it just so happened that the domain I’m trying this out on didn’t come with DNS management so I’ve been paying $10 a year for it. This alone makes CloudFlare worth using for me.
• Serves my content on a CDN-like intrastructure. This makes my site faster to some users, which is always a good thing.
• Caches my static content (like images and JavaScript). This dramatically reduces my server load, and makes my site faster. My LAMP server with only 1GB of RAM is currently serving about 100,000 pageviews per day and running millions of queries in offline processes. With CloudFlare, my load average rarely goes above 0.10.
• Blocks bad guys. This is a huge deal for me. Everyone and their mom thinks it is okay to scrape my site for data. Bots love to hit my site to try to find exploits. CloudFlare does a great job at identifying these people and blocking them for me, or providing a way for them to enter a captcha to prove they aren’t a bot.
• Provides geolocation data on all visitors. I haven’t started using this yet, but CloudFlare adds a request header with the visitor’s geographic location. This makes it easier to target content to visitors from certain parts of the world.
• Makes me more profitable. All around, CloudFlare has made my business more profitable. My site requires less server resources, which means I can keep my site running on my relatively cheap tiny server. Fewer bots are loading my ads, which means my click thru rates are higher, which means I get paid more. My pages respond faster, which means I’m ranked higher in the search engines, which means I get more visitors.

One problem I ran into, however, is occasionally a screen scraper gets through their blocks and starts hitting my site. In the past I would use iptables to block them, but the way CloudFlare works makes that impossible (at least with my limited knowledge of iptables). CloudFlare provides a way to block a specific IP, but it can take several minutes to go into effect.

The solution I came up with is to use Apache to give visitor’s from the offending IP a 403 error:

<VirtualHost *>

 SetEnvIf CF-Connecting-IP 98.17.241.185 GoAway=1

 <Directory "/path/to/your/website">
 Order allow,deny
 Allow from all
 Deny from env=GoAway
 </Directory>

</VirtualHost>

This snippet, properly placed in the Apache config file, will cause Apache to look at a header set by CloudFlare, and if it matches the offending IP (in this case 98.17.241.185), it denies access to the site. You can add a nearly unlimited number of SetEnvIf statements to block any number of IPs.

Anyways, if you get an invite to CloudFlare, check it out! It is definitely worth it!

Yesterday I noticed my server’s load average was a bit higher than usual. Normally when this happens it mean someone is screen scraping the Fake Name Generator, so I went and started reviewing the logs trying to figure out who it was so I could block them.

Disappointingly, I couldn’t find anybody that was scraping my site, which means I had to dig deeper. The next step was to use top to figure out what processes are stealing all my resources. To my surprise (and exceedingly great alarm) I saw that there were about a dozen sshd processes running. For those that are not Linux server savvy, there should not be about a dozen sshd processes running.

SSH is the protocol that Linux server admins use to connect to their servers. When connecting, an sshd process will run. When a dozen are showing up, that means a dozen people are connected or trying to connect, which is very very disturbing for a server like mine where I’m the only one that should ever be on it.

I quickly turned to the logs and found thousands of failed login attempts. Someone was trying to hack my box. Yikes!

I quickly used iptables to block the most flagrantly offending IP, but I knew that wouldn’t hold back a committed attacker. Enter my hero: DenyHosts!

DenyHosts is a free chunk of code written in Python that periodically scans your log files, determines if someone looks like they are trying to break in, and blocks them. If you are really paranoid then you can even have it talk to other servers to find out who is trying to hack them, so you can preemptively block the bad guys.

Installation and configuration literally took about 3 minutes, and is even easier to setup if you are using Ubuntu or Linux Mint because it is in the repos. As soon as I started it all the bad guys were blocked and my load averages started to drop. I highly recommend it for anyone that administers Linux servers.

I’ve recently discovered Open Atrium. I love it!

Built on Drupal, this “intranet in a box” is the perfect solution for my company.

These are the things I love about it:

1. Works without a lot of configuration, but is still highly configurable in case you need it to do something special.
2. Allows you to define groups and limit access to each group. This means I can have a “The Awkward Turtle” group and only allow myself and my wife (we’re the only ones working on it) to even know the group exists, and I can also have a “Creative Barcodes” group and allow myself, my wife, and our graphic designer Anthony to see it.
3. Gives you a dashboard with all of the pertinent information from all of the groups that you are a member of. You also have a group dashboard that only shows you the important information for that specific group.
4. You can, on a group-by-group basis, enable several awesome included features:
   1. A blog
   2. A notebook (sort of like a wiki)
   3. A calendar (even supports iCal)
   4. A case tracker (for keeping track of feature requests and bugs)
   5. A shoutbox (good for microblogging)
5. It looks great and is very easy for an end-user (or an admin) to figure it out.

There are, however, a few things I’m not terribly excited about:

1. Documentation is a bit lacking, but that isn’t unexpected for beta software.
2. Doesn’t work on PHP 5.3. I had to setup Apache to run both 5.3 and 5.2 to get it working. This wasn’t really surprising though, as a lot of Drupal stuff has problems with PHP 5.3.

Is it perfect? Not yet, but I think someday soon it will be.

For an example Open Atrium site, check out their own community pages.

Curtis, an Oracle employee, contacted me a week or two ago to ask for permission to use data from the Fake Name Generator at Oracle. I freely license the data under both a Creative Commons license and the GPLv3. While these licenses are wonderful licenses for people working on open projects, they leave a bit to be desired for closed-source commercial projects.

Because I like Oracle and I know they aren’t going to do anything nefarious with my data, I promptly gave Curtis and Oracle permission to use the data from the Fake Name Generator under the CC license without the “Share Alike” condition. This basically gives them permission to use it however they want as long as they give me credit.

As a “thank you”, Curtis sent me a couple fun goodies: an Oracle pen, hat, t-shirt, and coffee hot cocoa mug. I’m looking forward to the next casual Friday at work!

Just one more reason I love Oracle. :)

I have recently become a huge fan of Songbird, a free multi-platform media player based on Mozilla’s XULRunner.

If you are anything like me, you may be asking yourself what makes Songbird special or worth your time. Why not just keep using iTunes, VLC, or Windows Media Player? Here are my reasons for choosing Songbird over the competition:

• It runs on my Windows 7 and Ubuntu 9.10 computers with the exact same interface and feature set.
• Highly configurable playlists. For example, I can make a dynamic playlist that only shows songs that: have been rated 3 or more stars, haven’t been skipped more than 5 times, are at least 3.5 minutes long, and were produced between 1990 and 2000.
• With a minor tweak, Songbird will save my song ratings in the MP3 file itself. This means I can put a song in my Dropbox, rate it at work, and by the time I get home the rating will be there, too.
• Speaking of tweaks, Songbird is as tweakable and configurable as Firefox. You can get extensions, themes, adjust internal settings that most people don’t care about, change how the title bar works.
• Has an internal web browser that knows when you’re on a page with music. This means you can quickly and easily download free music from places like Last.fm and have your new songs instantly imported into your music library.
• Also because it has an internal web browser, I can open Slacker or Pandora in Songbird and save myself having an extra tab in Firefox. (Bonus: If Flash starts acting up in Ubuntu, I just have to restart Songbird and not my whole browser)

Okay, so now you are all stoked about Songbird. You want to load it up in Ubuntu 9.10 and get grooving to your awesome Vanilla Ice collection. “Oh no,” you say to yourself, “Songbird isn’t in the Ubuntu repository!” That is where GetDeb comes in.

GetDeb is a third-party, unofficial repository of Ubuntu packages. It allows you to get updated software for Ubuntu sooner than waiting for it to make it through the official channels, and saves you hours of trying to get random software to compile from source. I love it so much that Corban Works has become a €5/month supporter.

Installation of GetDeb is easy and well-documented. If you aren’t a current GetDeb user, please follow the installation instructions.

Once GetDeb is installed, pull up the terminal and type:

sudo apt-get install songbird

That’s it! You now have Songbird!

Unless you are using Windows. Or a Mac. Or Fedora. Or some other OS. If you are one of those people, you’ll have to go to Songbird’s site and download it straight from them.

I recommend a few addons to make your experience better (these work on any OS!):

• Adblock Plus: Blocks ads while using the browser part of Songbird.
• Amazon Fetcher: Automatically downloads album art from Amazon.
• Birdtitle: Lets you configure what shows up in Songbird’s title bar (so you can, for example, have the artist and song title instead of “Songbird”).
• ubuntu-notifyOSD: Ties in with Ubuntu’s notifyOSD library so you can see little bubbles in the corner of your screen whenever you change songs.
• MMKeys (32-bit) / MMKeys (64-bit): Makes the multimedia keys on your keyboard work. If you didn’t explicitly download the 64-bit version of Ubuntu, then you are probably using the 32-bit version. But don’t worry: if you install the wrong one it won’t break anything, it just won’t work.

If you want Songbird to save your ratings in your MP3 files, then you need to make one more tweak:

1. Open a browser tab in Songbird, then go to about:config
2. Click the I’ll be careful, I promise! button
3. In the filter box, enter songbird.metadata.ratings.enableWriting
4. Double-click false to change it to true
5. Close the tab

Oh, almost forgot! If you want Flash to work in Songbird on Ubuntu 9.10, you can run this command in terminal:

sudo cp /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/* /usr/share/Songbird/plugins/

Do you have a Songbird tip I missed? Please leave it in the comments!

Just got an email letting me know that I’m officially part of the Be The Match Registry (formally known as the National Marrow Donor Program).

I signed up a few weeks back when there was an offer to waive the normal registration costs (the offer may still be valid). After a week or so of waiting, a test kit arrived containing 3 swab sticks. I rubbed them in my mouth as instructed, attached the included bio-hazard label, and dropped it in the mail. A few days later I received an email letting me know that they received my swabs.

Then nothing for a few weeks.

Finally, today I received an email letting me know that I’m officially in the registry and am eligible to donate if called upon.

My wife was is a little concerned. However, the website has a myths about donating section that clears up some of the misconceptions that many people (including myself) have about donating bone marrow.

For example, the actual procedure is painless due to anesthetics. No bone is removed, just the marrow. Full recovery from donating is about 3 weeks, but the worst experienced by most donators is over after a day or two. The procedure is completely free for the person donating (except for the time commitment).

Anyways, I’m pretty comfortable with the situation and I’m not forced to donate even if I am found to be a match, so my wife and I can cross that bridge when and if we ever come to it.

I was driving home the other day when my cell phone rang. I didn’t recognize the number, but I always answer my phone. It was some lady from Colonial Crossings of Williamsburg calling to let me know I won a 2 day/1 night vacation in Williamsburg. I was like, uh, lady, I live in Williamsburg.

No you don’t, you live in Suffolk, she replied. I was like, no, I’m pretty sure I know where I live. I live in Williamsburg. She was like, oh, well we’ll give you $50, too. And a 3 day/2 night vacation you can use somewhere else. I was like, oh really? What do I have to do? She said I just have to listen to a 90 minute presentation about Colonial Crossings of Williamsburg.

Ah hah! A timeshare! Becca and I are saving for a house, so I had no fear of getting talked into purchasing, so after talking it over with her, we decided to go for it.

Then the “gotchas” started showing up. They required a $10 reservation fee. And $5 hotel tax (which actually ended up being $7.50, and almost $15 if we didn’t catch the billing error). The additional vacation was just another timeshare. And although we were led to believe that we’d be staying at the resort, we actually were put up in one of the shiftiest hotels in town. The carpets had dirt clumps on them, we found a child’s toy next to the bed, and the towel rack literally fell off of the wall. Shifty.

I later discovered (thanks to Google) that this is a sales technique. Once at the presentation, the salesperson can say somehing like, “Now, wouldn’t you rather spend your vacation here instead of a hotel?” at which point you think “wow, my hotel room really did suck” and you plop down $35,000.

Oh I didn’t get to the $35,000 part yet? Well, that is how much your fancy 1-week at the resort will cost. Plus quarterly maintenance fees that can go up in price without notice. Plus a yearly fee if you want the book that lets you trade your week at different resorts. Plus a few hundred dollars if you do want to trade your week at another resort. And that is just for the place you sleep. What about food? Souveniers? Admission to attractions? Trust me, it is not cheaper to buy a resort (at least not at the retail price).

But yes, we got our $50, so we came out ahead. I had to sign for my money, and was able to see what others got. Some were being paid as much as $120 to come listen to the presentation. I guess I should have held out for more money.