Posts Tagged ‘Technical’


Apache 2.x performance tweaking with mod_deflate and misc other tweaks

Jul 18

Roughly three weeks ago I updated JKOgden.net’s back-end and front-end; this is more of an intermediate’s guide to enabling mod_deflate and other tweaks and is partly intended for VPS servers as far as enabling mod_deflate.

First I’d like to talk a little about mod_deflate, first and foremost the module needs to be enabled in your Apache 2.x configuration so if it is not already you must recompile Apache and if you’re going to do that I would also suggest installing APC Accelerator which is a caching system for PHP. I have read some articles that you can add code to your .htaccess file to enable mod_deflate without having it enabled in your Apache configuration, however I have found that not to be true by looking into Apache log (/usr/local/apache/logs/error_log).

What is mod_deflate and why is it so important? When you request a file such as http://www.jkogden.net/index.php, your browser talks to a web server. The conversation looks a little like this:

  1. Browser: GET /index.php HTTP 1.1 Accept-encoding gzip,deflate
  2. Server: looks for index.php (/var/www/…/index.php)
  3. Server: HTTP/1.x 200 OK No encoding available 300KB <html></html>
  4. Browser: 300KB? Whoa, that’s a lot of data

As you can see, with all of the html tags, text, etc the text is quite large and is an inefficient usage of bandwidth.

What do you normally do when a file is too big to send? You use your favorite compression utility and zip it. If we could send a .zip file to the browser (index.php.zip) instead of plain old index.php, we’d save on bandwidth and download time. The browser could download the zipped file, extract it, and then present it to user.

Here’s an updated conversation when accessing a site configured with mod_deflate:

  1. Browser: GET /index.php HTTP 1.1 Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate
  2. Server: looks for index.php (/var/www/…/index.php)
  3. Server: HTTP/1.x 200 OK Content-Encoding: gzip 30KB
  4. Browser: 30KB? Nice, let me unzip it

(more…)

Tags: Technical 3 Comments »


Synchronization

Jul 14

I spend a lot of time on computers, the internet and working with documents. Naturally I find it necessary to access my internet bookmarks, documents and other miscellaneous data wherever I am. Up until a year ago this was mostly impossible unless I had a VPN to my home network which is not the most practical or efficient option. I mostly use Firefox for browsing the web due to a few add-ons that make it very beneficial for me, one of which gives me the ability to sync my bookmarks online and access them in any web browser via a website if the computer I’m using does not have Firefox installed. Xmarks has really helped me out in certain situations are work and at a clients house when I needed to access a particular website. Xmarks also syncs with Internet Explorer which is also helpful for me as well. Another handy add-on that I use a lot is Toodledo, it allows me to create and organize tasks via their website/add-on for Firefox.

Microsoft has recently been working on a new product called Office Live, it allows you to upload, share and manage documents online, there’s even a plugin that allows you to access and save documents within Office which makes syncing much easier. Skydrive is another product from Microsoft that allows you to store photos, files, etc one of which I use for certain storing .exe files and config files. My other favorite cloud computing tools is Live Mail or better known as Hotmail; it allows you to have up to 500GB of mailbox space for free, it has calendering system, contact system, Skydrive, Office Live and when you’re home and want to access that data via an application (which I prefer) you can use Microsoft’s Windows Live Mail client and Office plugins to access that very same data.

Synchronization is not where I’d like it to be, but the technology is progressing and in a few years I see the ability to sync everything such as web browser settings, bookmarks, profiles, documents, etc and have access to them wherever you go.

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Time for an upgrade!

Mar 31

As you can see JKOgden.net has been updated, it’s been a over two years since I have actually implemented a new theme. I worked long and relentlessly on not only this theme but making sure every page used the same template and that the PHP was optimized for performance.

The primary colors are blue and green; blue being my favorite color and green matches well with blue. I kept the essential dictionary / notepad look and layout as it re-enforces the focal point of the site which is blogging and writing about Christianity. One of my goals was the give the site a Web 2.0 look and I believe that I succeeded as far as what JKOgden.net offers for content and interaction. I have Robin to thank for picking out the logo from many that I created. If you’re using Internet Explorer 6 or less I suggest upgrading to Internet Explorer 7 or Firefox due to some of the CSS and PNG graphics utilized.

Here’s a quick overview of the changes since version 3.1.3:

  • New theme that has a fresh clean look with consistent colors
  • Inactive navigation tabs are transparent until hovered or select
  • Selected and or hovered navigation tab shows the relevant “dictionary like page information” explanation
  • Most images now use “shadowbox” when selected
  • Random content is pulled and loaded by AJAX / PHP in the Christianity section
  • Updated WordPress (blogging software) to the latest version
    • Guests can now post without registering although anyone can register locally or log in with OpenID so please feel free to comment, I love to hear from my readers

The majority of the images and coding here were designed by me with the following exceptions:

  • Most of the little icon graphics were designed by famfamfam
  • Lightbox script and the effect that changes the “page information” when the mouse hovers over a tab was found at Dynamic Drive

Tags: Technical 3 Comments »


MCD…Almost

Feb 15

This week as been a mix of weather ranging from warm temperatures of 45-50° to below freezing with snow and rain one after another. A little after a year I have finally started my exams to become a MCDST (Microsoft Certified Desktop Technician), not out of relentless studying but after finally getting myself motivated to take the tests. This morning I traveled to Waterville to take the first part of the MCDST certification, 70-271 which was very easy, I passed with a 916 out of 1,000. I plan to use the MCDST as a basis for other certifications such as possibly the MCSA, MCITP.

This weekend we are supposed to get more snow which I’m hoping is true as I will have a chance to get out and photograph snow-covered conifers which I have only had one other opportunity to which was on New Years day with Robin. I have not had many opportunities to use my newly purchased Canon 40d digital SLR camera.

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