Snortblog

To enable secure login and other administrative functions over SSL in WordPress, the latest version, 2.1, in conjunction with a plugin, provides a easy method of securing WordPress credentials. Here’s how I upgraded from Wordpress 2.0 to 2.1 on a server running Apache 1.3.x on Slackware 10.0.

1. Create two virtual hosts with identical names and DocumentRoots, one running under SSL and one running regular http (i.e. add SSL virtual host to /etc/apache/mod_ssl.conf and regular virtual host to /etc/apache/httpd.conf).
2. Follow WordPress upgrade procedures; install and activate plugin.
   1. Backup local wordpress files, e.g. tar cfjv packed_files.tbz2 /directoryToPack
   2. Backup database (using plugin or otherwise).
   3. Disable plugins.
   4. Get latest Wordpress; download, unzip, overwrite files.
   5. Test (if it doesn’t work, restore your files from backup and stop here)
   6. If it works, update plugins as needed.
   7. Reactivate plugins and test, one by one.
   8. Download, install and activate a copy of the WordPress Secure-Admin SSL Plugin from haris.tv. The version from wp-plugins.org contains a bug that was fixed on haris.tv. Thank you, Haris!

Pictures from a freakish ice storm:

My favorite picture from the beach, east of Playa del Carmen, México:

The next day we caught a colectivo from Playa del Carmen. They depart from Calle 2, roughly between Avenida 20 and Avenida 25. Colectivos were leaving about every 5 minutes, and cost $2.50 U.S. or less up to Tulum. We were dropped off just past Hidden Worlds cenote. Tours were at 9am, 11am, 1pm, 2pm, and 3pm, though I think if you show up with enough people, they’ll form an impromptu group. We signed up for the longest tour, cajoled our way into full suits (generally reserved for scuba divers), and soon were joined by some Canadians, an Argentinian and a German woman, who just so happened to live in Austin. We visited Tak Be Ha and Hilario’s Well. Hilario’s well had been opened to visitors since we’d been there previous and was more enclosed, and had a wide variety of speliotherms.

We entered Cancun, went through customs (tip: when going through the line in the airport in customs, look for lines with 2 customs officials working the line instead of just one) and exited the airport. We then walked to the end of the building to the parking lot on the right where you can find a first-class bus headed to Playa del Carmen or to the central bus station in Ciudad Cancun. We were hoping to catch a bus to Rio Lagartos from there, but couldn’t find any that went directly there. It may be better to go through Valladolid before catching a bus to Rio Lagartos. We decided to head into Playa del Carmen, caught another bus, and made it into town by afternoon. We didn’t have reservations and found a hotel by feel. Most places in our guidebook had doubled or tripled in price. We figured hotels farther away from the beach would be more economical, and we found a nice place with some character called the Hotel Colorado. It was about $30 a night, high season. The rooms included a kitchenette, fridge, cable tv, fans (no A/C) and a private bath.

We stayed on the third floor to catch some breeze and had access to a nice balcony to watch the city from.

The entertainment industry is completely out of control. In a misguided attempt to increase their profit margin, they ruin their own business. They’ve already destroyed the movie-going experience, wasting our time with advertisments for products I boycott on principle. The industry needs to get a clue and take a look at the popularity of Tivo, home theatre, internet video and other homegrown mediums that let consumers take control instead of letting the industry take control away. I don’t buy fewer CDs because I listen to music on the radio, I buy more as I get exposed to new music that I like. As if losing habeus corpus, the right to a free trial, freedom from torture at the hands of the state, and any privacy that once were my American birthright weren’t bad enough, now corporations that I choose to give money to are exercising their monopoly powers to take away what remains of the American freedoms of intellectual consumption, one by one.

I have a Creative Muvo TX FM MP3 player that I’ve been really happy with. It’s cheaper then most iPods (iKidYouNot), uses flash memory (for fewer moving parts), uses a non-proprietary battery (AAA) and has FM radio. I use it a lot to listen to the radio, podcasts, and occasionally even music. Recently, it’s been malfunctioning–turning off inexplicably and locking up when I try to navigate among the MP3s I have stored on it. Consequently, I wanted to upgrade the firmware in an attempt to fix the problem. However, upon visiting Creative’s dysfunctional website (it’s broken for Firefox users), I finally found the firmware upgrade. In reading the fine print, I discovered that they’ve removed the ability to record from FM. Presumably, this is yet another victory by the RIAA against consumers. This feature was prominently advertised. Retroactively removing it is a ripoff. Ultimately, I found an older version of the firmware, version 1.13.03, and was able to install it. It seems to be working better and I’ve just recorded my first FM program, just to make sure it still works. Ironically, I probably wouldn’t have ever used this function without the RIAA’s presumed attempts to take it away. This is old news, also see a post on engadget.com.