Archive for category Internet
geeks|programmers — How to convert from/to epoch dates
Posted by Roger Brown in computers, Internet, Mac on April 26, 2011
If you use a Unix system(BSD,Linux,etc.), sometimes you’ll have log files that don’t create the timestamp in regular format such as Apr. 25, 2011 1:10pm but instead it saves the date as the number of seconds since midnight of January 1, 1970 (the date chosen after the fact for the beginning of the Unix epoch).
How to convert from epoch seconds to regular date?
If you’re on any of the BSD systems (such as Mac OS X or FreeBSD), run “date -r SECONDS” from a Terminal:
$ date -r 1302972510
Sat Apr 16 10:48:30 MDT 2011
If you’re using Linux, run “date -d @SECONDS” from a terminal — here’s an example:
$ date -d @1302972510
Sat Apr 16 10:48:30 MDT 2011
Convert from regular date to seconds?
On Linux, here’s an example:
$ date -d “Apr 25, 2011 12:12:12″ +%s
1303755132
For the BSD’s/OS X, here’s an example:
$ date -j -f ‘%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S’ ’2011-04-25 12:12:12′ +%s
1303755132
(I’ve had to look this up enough times over the years that I thought i’d finally publish it! 
)
Why Facebook addicts need to get a life?! :)
Posted by Roger Brown in Fun Stuff, Internet on January 20, 2011
Click on this picture and look at it full size! LOL
So, what did you read today? 
And no, i’ve only spent 5 minutes on Facebook today… so far! j.k.
Good tutorial for those new to the web!
Posted by Roger Brown in computers, Internet on January 6, 2011
http://www.20thingsilearned.com/
awesomeness is all i can say!
Customers say the darndest things… :)
Posted by Roger Brown in computers, Internet, Uncategorized on December 31, 2010
A coworker just showed me this post:
http://notalwaysright.com/when-open-source-meets-closed-minds/3305
So yeah, NotAlwaysRight.com — lol, i now have to add it to my list of websites for a good laugh — add it next to Engrish.com
forget GoToMyPC, check out Mikogo!
Posted by Roger Brown in computers, Internet on December 24, 2010
Many are familiar with remote desktop viewers that cost money such as GoToMyPC or Team Viewer. But Mikogo is free, even for commercial use.
It rocks, check it out — http://www.mikogo.com/ — it works for both Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X.
Yes, you can go peer-to-peer with something like TightVNC but who wants to walk a newbie through configuring their router to port forward TCP port 5900? That’s no fun so that’s when I use Mikogo.
I’ve used it for a few years now and am very, very pleased with it. Only drawback is that it can be slow for someone that is on a little slower connection like the first levels of DSL access.
Other than that, it seriously rocks. One file to download and run; and from a Mac I can control somebody’s Windows computer and vice versa. Very smooth!
Download files via command line (curl or wget)
Posted by Roger Brown in Internet on December 14, 2010
Sometimes either as a programmer or a setup guy, you just need to download a install package via the command line of your BSD/Linux/Mac account.
Enter the “curl” and the “wget” utilities.
Some hosting providers like Jonesolutions.com prohibit you from running “wget” but they allow “curl” so here’s an example:
curl -O http://domainname/filename.zip
That will download filename.zip and put in in your current folder.
Cool, much faster than wasting time with a web browser!
There is no such thing as DNS “propagation”!!!
Posted by Roger Brown in Internet, Uncategorized on December 1, 2010
Technical people of the world — please, please, please — stop telling your customers that “you have to wait for DNS propagation” or “propagation time”!
I hear that all the time when someone changes the “name servers” for their domain to point to a new hosting company.
That is misleading — it’s just plain not true. Stop it! You only confuse people in the long run and create more work for yourselves!
Why?
Here’s the definition of the word “propagation”:
: the act or action of propagating: as
a : increase (as of a kind of organism) in numbers
b : the spreading of something (as a belief) abroad or into new regions
Do DNS changes get magically spread around the Internet from network to network to network?
No!
Therefore there is no such thing as “DNS propagation”. That’s a bogus term. It’s “pull” not “push” if you’re familiar with those client-server terms.
You need to take the time to explain what’s really happening. What really happens is so unlike the definition that we have to use different words. Because otherwise you’re confusing people. Words should mean what they mean and not something else that is remotely similar but misleading!
Use the phrase “DNS caching”. It’s only caching based on the record’s TTL! Call it a “cache time” if you wish.
Explain that some computer on their network previously requested that network’s name servers to lookup the DNS record before they made the change and then their network cached it for the TTL — X amount of seconds. Ask them when was the first time up to X amount of seconds ago that they might have looked at the website or sent an email to it.
Then count X number of seconds forward from that time in order to give them a good estimate of when it will expire from their network’s cache.
When it expires, then any lookups after that time will lookup the updated info. And then it will work from their network!
No more lazy guessing of 24 to 48 to 72 hours!
Capiche?
Good, thanks!
Faster tech support?! Do your part 1st! :)
Posted by Roger Brown in computers, Internet on October 30, 2010
Hi, i’ve been doing computer software | website technical consulting|training|tech support for over 13 years now and want to share a few tips.
When you call for help with your computer or with your website/email, here’s what you can do to make the experience smoother:
- Be ready — Login to your account(s) before calling! For example, if you’re having trouble with your website, then make sure that you are logged in to your hosting company’s control panel or dashboard before you call. The biggest time waster for me is frequently waiting 1 to 2 minutes or sometimes even more for a customer to search for the password that they wrote down and then lost. It’s rude to call and then make the tech support person wait (as well as other customers that are waiting in the call queue.) So be logged into your control panel or dashboard BEFORE you call — then your call is shorter AND the people waiting in line behind you will thank you! P.S. If you can’t find your password look for the “forgot password” link on their website. They always have one!
- Call the same day of the problem. If you’re getting an error message when you send email or on your website, then the tech support person needs to look at the logs for it. Most companies will archive their logs files after 24 hours. Searching through the current day’s log file(s) is much faster than having to go to the archives, then find the appropriate day, and then unzip the archive before you can search through it.
- Have the details ready — were there any error messages that you need to type down or write down first so you can email it? Sometimes it’s easier to have you email it to us instead of being read a really long error message.
- (stay tuned, this is a work in progress! let me know what you think, thanks!)
crazy jihadists hacking innocent sites on 9/11
Posted by Roger Brown in Civics, Internet on September 11, 2010
Wow, have you all seen any of these today?!
Some crazy jihadists have been going around hacking websites today — they’re probably a bunch of “script kiddies” — either way, click below to see what i mean:
Bogus! 
They probably think themselves pretty cool. That’s sad.
Besides people securing their websites, i guess all we can do, is reach out in love and reasoned dialogue to try to eventually convince them the merits of peace and love. Maybe it’s time for more of us to learn Arabic so we can build more bridges. Arabic and Chinese are definitely two languages I’d like to learn — after I finish learning Spanish first.
Anyway, here’s a little something to help stop the spread of the haters, and to bring a little inspiration to your day: http://lds.org/topic/finding-hope/ – i know these things have blessed my life.
And let us never forget — 9/11/2001 — may peace be with all those that lost loved ones that day. And may the hearts of the haters be softened so that they will come to eventually tolerate and then embrace freedom of religion.
Sincerely,
Roger L. Brown
keep track of security!!!
Posted by Roger Brown in computers, Internet on July 21, 2010
Besides running a good anti-virus and anti-spyware/malware program(s), it’s also good to keep up to date on the latest security vulnerabilities and recommended patches.
I highly recommend the vulnerabilities database at SecurityFocus — http://www.securityfocus.com/vulnerabilities
It’s become even more important to me lately as I’ve helped both clients and customers with hacks to their WordPress or Joomla sites.
I highly recommend BugTraq also — but either subscribe to the daily digest or you might want to archive it to a 3rd party email storage account such as Gmail — because it can easily be a hundred or more emails per day. BugTraq is the oldest security reports and discussion list on the net. Very cool!
-Roger
P.S. Many software packages have their own security announcements email list or RSS feed — you definitely need to subscribe if you’re using their software!!! For example, check out Joomla Security Announcements.