Stillnet Studios

A few months ago I decided to go on a book binge and acquired a stack of books about two feet tall. It includes classics such as The Pragmatic Progammer and Practices of an Agile Developer, as well as some on Java, Asterisk, Extreme Programming, Linux Firewalls, and a NASCAR book thrown in for good measure.

I’ve gotten through a couple, and will be posting reviews of a few of them. This week I finished Apache Security, from O’Reilly. I found this book while browsing the programming section of Borders (the programming section of my local Borders is amazing!), and I’ve found it to be a real gem.
Continue reading ‘Book Review – Apache Security’ »

Some people have encountered problems during the ColdFusion MX 7 install on Linux/Apache. When you first start the ColdFusion server, you may see something like this:

Configuring the web server connector (Launched on the first run of the ColdFusion MX 7 start script)
Running apache connector wizard...
=======================================
There was an error while running the connector wizard
Connector installation was not successful
Continue reading ‘Problems installing the ColdFusion connector on Linux/Apache’ »

Unless you’ve been living on a desert island for the last year, you’ve probably heard that you’ll need to upgrade ColdFusion’s JVM (java virtual machine) before March 11th 2007. Thats when daylight savings time takes effect this year. Since the dates have shifted in 2007, anything that is aware of daylight savings time will require an update. This includes your operating system (Windows, Linux, OSX, etc.), and Java since it has its own internal timezone tables.

And if you use NTP (network time protocol) to set the time on your servers from an internet time server, don’t think you’re immune. NTP simply syncs your internal UTC (universal time) clock with a UTC clock on the internet. Your timezone tables then determine your actual local time, based on your UTC offset, which changes during daylight savings time.

Updating ColdFusion’s JVM is very easy. The version of java that ColdFusion ships with is 1.4.2_09. You can see this if you login to your CF Administrator, then click on SYSTEM INFORMATION at the top of the page.

Continue reading ‘Upgrading the ColdFusion JVM – on Linux and Windows’ »

Usually to setup an SSL-enabled website (a website available via the secure, https protocol), you purchase a certificate from a trusted authority such as Verisign or Thawte. This costs anywhere from $150-400 per year. But this cost is not always necessary.
Continue reading ‘Self-signing your secure certificate – SSL for free’ »

I’ve been wanting a way to easily recover a file that is accidentally deleted from one of our websites, either by us or by a client. Also, it would be useful to be able to get back to the state your code was in X number of days ago. For example when the client changes his mind about the current direction you’ve been developing. Source control can offer a solution to some degree, but won’t help you if the client has access to the website and they’ve changed a file. And some shops just don’t use source control for all their projects.

Tape backups also offer a partial solution, I’ve had to pull a file off yesterday’s tape several times. But restoring from tape is a hassle, especially if its stored off site (which it should be!).

Enter rsnapshot. Continue reading ‘Snapshot backups’ »