Recent blog entries for robocoder

CAPTCHAs as a usability improvement? As a defense against automated attempts to harvest our MLS database (e.g., screen scraping), our MLS now uses reCAPTCHA So instead of being booted off the system (and redo'ing whatever it was you were in the middle of), you'll be prompted to enter the two words shown.

In the upgrade to Ubuntu Hardy, users began complaining when Nautilus no longer preserved a file's timestamp when copied.

After protracted debate about "the right way" and rationalizing "that's how cp works" -- whether right or wrong -- Nautilus developers listened to the users and pushed out a fix.

A new File Management Preference (under the "Behaviors" tab) would have been my preference, but that's just me...

Ran into a weird bug (applies to Apache httpd 1.3.39 and 2.0.40 -- not sure about later 1.x and 2.0.x releases -- but certainly doesn't apply to 2.2.8, where it appears to work correctly) where mod_rewrite exposes the absolute path in the redirect (which then fails).

In a subdirectory off my web root (and root of a virtual host), I have a .htaccess file:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} .
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^anthonpang\.com [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) http://anthonpang.com/$1 [R,L]

The URL (yes, I left off the trailing slash):

http://example.com/anthonpangcom

Mysteriously becomes:

http://example.com//home/robocoder/public_html/anthonpang

I say mysterious, because the behaviour depends on the domain I use in RewriteRule. For example, anthonpang.ca does get rewritten correctly.

That said, it's probably "minor" as I don't expect to publish or link to the subdirectory-based URL when this goes "live".

Thanks sneakums. My bad. DomainKeys != DKIM. I'm amending my previous blog comment as follows:

DomainKeys is dead. Long live DKIM (Domain Keys Identified Mail).

Oh goody...it looks like cpanel does have support for setting up DKIM. I'll have to ask my hosting provider if it's available on shared hosting accounts.

Taking a page from the domain cybersquatter playbook, I registered typos of my name, Anthon -- because the 'h' is silent. But rather than a simple redirect or creating a CNAME, I threw up some single page web sites, ala Wikipedia dab pages: Anton Pang.com and Anton Pang.ca. I also embedded a little analytics tracking code, so I could gauge the utility (or futility, as the case may be) of this exercise. (The self-deprecating reference to typo-squatting is in jest.)

I can't say this was a welcome/needed distraction, given everything else on my plate, but this was "low hanging fruit", so to speak, and I needed to feel like I accomplished something today.

Just shortly after I put our family tree online, I discover the 4.1.4 update of PhpGedView still packages an outdated (and vulnerable) version of PunBB. (A slightly newer version of PunBB is in the PhpGedView repository head.) Granted this is a contributed module, but this is a nuisance.

In this case, it's easier to apply the changes between 1.2.12 and 1.2.17, to the version of 1.2.12 included with PGV. (The patchfile is 66K in size. In contrast, the diff file between vanilla 1.2.12 and the hacked version included with PGV was over 1M in size, and touched nearly twice as many files.)

RSS/Atom kept it simple (and for the most part, kept it small). But Holy Hijack! News feeds (like the Big-G's) are pushing the limits by embedding oodles of HTML (table, divs, images, links, ...) ... blurring the boundary between RSS reader and browser. As an example, the Sci/Tech news is 150+K, while the RSS feed is a little over 90K ... for little more than the teaser text on just 10 stories? WTF?!

Obligatory AppEngine blurb: on the first day, the Big-G received registrations from its requisite 10,000 beta developers; other applicants are now being on put on a wait list.

Argh! I hate DNS update propagation delays! I hate browser incompatibilities! I...I...I give up!

I need a distraction. Perhaps I'll look at the Prado and CakePHP frameworks...

*yawn* Couldn't sleep, so I whipped up a vanity web site (Robocoder Web Design). As such, there are absolutely no assurances that it's HTML/XHTML compliant. =P

On the topic of web sites, we keep pushing off the launch of ici.ca because we haven't reached consensus on how to monetize it. Two of the leading & competing ideas are an Industrial, Commercial and Investment Real Estate web site vs a domain auction with proceeds going to the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

I'm back from Hong Kong -- my family and I were there for CNY, our anniversary, and Valentine's day. A few days more, and we'd celebrate our daughter's birthday there too.

Anyway, back to the grindstone. I hope to finish a number of things that I started before I went on vacation. On the technical side, I've pushed out the initial makings of a web hosting site (on hostgator, and in turn, theplanet) which will host our internal projects. The migration from self-hosting will take some time, but it'll be more reliable and cost effective (for example, we'll be able to eliminate the dedicated line to host our own web servers).

On the non-technical side, I've made a contribution to CarbonFund (i.e., offsetting our business' carbon footprint), filed a tax return (just one of many more to come), requested quotes for E&O insurance (unfortunately, there aren't many insurers, and IT firms are considered high risk), and looked into local computer/office equipment recycling (and hard drive destruction).

Now that some sense of order has returned to my desk, I can start prioritizing the TODO list for the week ahead.