Slow SSH login in SuSE Linux
on Nov 3, 2009 in Commands and Shells Networking Starting with SuSE 10 and including both openSuSE and SLES an annoying SSH problem appeared. When you SSH to the server (via PuTTY and such) you get the “login” prompts right away, but the “password” prompt takes up to 30 seco...

How to Interview a Unix SysAdmin
on Oct 31, 2009 in Featured SysAdmin how to interview interview Linux questionnaire questions system administrator unix “You see,” he explained, “I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so...

WordPress Backup Script
on Oct 23, 2009 in Scripts WordPress Whenever a new WordPress version comes out, I get an itch to upgrade as quickly as possible. Generally, this is not a good idea, unless you enjoy working out new software bugs and dealing with broken plugins. Still, sooner or later you still have to...

Shell Scripting for HPC Clusters, Part 2
on Oct 23, 2009 in Commands and Shells Featured Scripts This is the second installment of a multipart guide for beginner Unix sysadmins supporting HPC clusters. You can view the first part of the guide here. Searching, Replacing, Comparing Try to work with a large cluster and you will soon discover that m...

Shell Scripting for HPC Clusters, Part 1
on Oct 10, 2009 in Commands and Shells Featured Scripts This is the first installment of a multipart guide for beginner Unix sysadmins supporting HPC clusters. “For” and “While” Loop Constructs The main challenge of supporting a Linux cluster is ensuring a homogeneous environment.

Web Hosting Providers and php.ini
on Oct 9, 2009 in Commands and Shells Web Design WordPress configuration file home directory ini php files unix shell web hosting provider web server The php.ini is the primary configuration file for the PHP – a popular scripting language used for Web development. Most Web hosting providers offer preinstalled PHP on their servers. However, not many hosting providers explain where to find and...

iPhone Photography: Making Photos Better
on Sep 17, 2009 in Cameras Cell Phones Featured aperture control auto exposure camera application color balance focal point hue saturation iphone photo camera taking photos The is the first installment of the three-part review of the better photo apps for iPhone. In the follow-up reviews we will look at artistic photo filters and panorama applications. If you don’t want to miss the updates, subscribe to our RSS fe...

Great iPhone Apps
on Sep 3, 2009 in Cell Phones Featured iphone iphone apps mobilenavigator redlaser reviews urbanspoon After spending hundreds of dollars at the iPhone app store and writing many negative reviews, I believe I finally stumbled upon a few applications warranting a positive reaction. Back in June Apple was bragging that the number of iPhone applications...

More Bad iPhone Apps
on Aug 13, 2009 in Applications Cell Phones apps bad iphone reviews useless This is the second part of my review of iPhone apps unworthy of your ninety nine cents. You can read the first part here. Certain applications are well-written and might have been quite useful, if only they weren’t designed to rip you off. Tak...

Automatically Validate HTTP Proxies
on Aug 5, 2009 in Commands and Shells Networking bash proxies proxy lists proxylist script web proxy servers Let’s say you downloaded a long list of Web proxy servers. Now you are stuck with the task of weeding out the proxies that are dead, slow, fake, or otherwise unusable. There are some applications out there that claim to validate proxy servers.