kieranbarnes do you know where your towel is?

Setting up awstats

Posted on August 17, 2007

I recently setup awstats on two Intranet servers for a client. Local web server log analysis software seems to be going the way of the Big-eared Hopping Mouse.

  • Analog hasn't been updated in forever.
  • Webalizer hasn't been updated in forever.
  • Firestats is fantastic, I use this on Internet based sites with Google Analytics
    * It's AJAX just doesn't like mod_auth_ntlm or the other way round.

PHP Geo-IP Location in 4 lines

Posted on August 16, 2007

Want to look up IP addresses to a geographical location? Firstly, download maxmind_geoip.php and GeoIP binary database from MaxMind. I copied them to a universal location on a server so I can use it across applications.

Filed under: PHP Continue reading

SpamAssassin site wide spam learning

Posted on August 13, 2007

SpamAssassin is great. I wouldn't run a mail server without it. Obviously it isn't 100% from day one, thats where Bayes learning comes in. Yes, it auto-learns, but some times we want to convince it a little more.

Filed under: Linux Continue reading

140 Named Colo(u)rs

Posted on August 13, 2007

The ColorSchemer guys have done a great job at listing all the browser-supported colo(u)rs by their name, rather than their Hex or RGB value.
If you are a coder, like me, it is a great reference for quickly picking colours when mocking up a web application.

Anonymous apache & PHP

Posted on August 9, 2007

Like to be conspicuous? Like me.

Then use the  ServerTokens and expose_php options. On a production web server I generally set these two options, pretty much stops and zero day hack attempts and other such nonsense

Cheat Sheet – Seconds to real time

Posted on August 4, 2007

Caching stuff? Expiring stuff? Crap at math(s)? Too lazy to boot up a calculator?
Here's a cheat sheet of seconds to a more readable time!

Filed under: Geeky Continue reading

ADOdb’s GetMenu() function moreAttr bug

Posted on August 2, 2007

I'm sure there is a bug with ADOdb's GetMenu() function

The documentation suggests 'use $moreAttr to add additional attributes such as javascript or styles.'

Yahoo Term Extractor

Posted on August 1, 2007

A recent project I was working on cause me to stumble over the Yahoo Term Extractor. Something I had previously never heard of - it is a very underrated tool.

The Term Extraction Web Service provides a list of significant words or phrases extracted from a larger content.

Thunderbird Scam Whitelists

Posted on August 1, 2007

I get daily emails from a supplier which Thunderbird kindly slaps a "“Thunderbird thinks this message might be an email scam.” message on the top - of every one.
Whilst not a problem it's annoying and takes up valuable TV real estate.

My best Wordpress plugins

Posted on July 30, 2007

Here are a few of my Wordpress plugins that I can't do without. It is by no means conclusive, just my personal preference.