Well we all love Mysql and a lot of times it is the first things we install on a server. I recently installed it on my FreeBSD 7.0 server and it went pretty smooth. You can install mysql from the FreeBSD Ports Collection. Read more »

The PS1 is the text that you see to the left on the command prompt. Often times it will read something like, mark@debian~/$. This text reveals a lot of relevent information. The first part, ‘mark’ tells us the username. The ‘@debian‘ tells us that the machine’s name is ‘debian‘. The ‘~/‘ is the current working directory and the ‘$‘ means that we are using a non-root user. Read more »

Improperly validating user input has become a common scenario in security exploits these days. Recently there was a flaw in the way digg sanitized user input allowing the hacker to have his articles auto dugg. Although it took digg awhile to fix the issue, it is now resolved. The problem is that these types of attacks are becoming more common. Websites these days are rapidly evolving and changing. Programmers are pressured into producing working code in the shortest amount of time leaving room for security flaws to be left un checked. Read more »

Vim is a powerful text editor that pretty much rivals anything out there. Once you get used to the commands and hotkeys you can wiz through config files. Vim is also very popular for programming, not only for its productivity reasons but also because it incorporates syntax highlighting, aliases, code folding, line numbers, and more. Read more »

Recover Lost Passwords with Free Tools - An interesting set of tools allowing inexperienced users the ability to crack passwords. It’s tools like this that make me a parinoid computer user.

Google command line - Use google like you would a Unix command line. Read more »

Dreamhost just anounced in their monthly newsletter that they now offer one click domain linking with Google Apps. All you have to do is: Read more »

I am not quite sure why it is but there are always people that want to do things faster and more efficient, even if the current system is working fine. I have to admit I love to tweak things to no end. For whatever reason I am attracted to this type of perfection. I want to optimize code, automate, and increase my productivity as a user. Just as there are more efficient text editors and operating systems, we also have more efficient email programs. Mutt is one of them. Since Gmail offers IMAP we can retrieve our emails with an email program such as mutt. Read more »

I can’t tell you how excited I am that I found out about this. Vim has a built in plugin to connect to FTP sites. What this means is that you can modify your web documents from vim without having to save the file and then FTP the file up to the server. With this plugin all you have to do is save your work and it is reflected on the server. Read more »