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If you heard of the “heartbleed” vulnerability and are interested in testing your servers, here are a few websites that may come in handy: Heartbleed test - Simple and works. LastPass Heartbleed checker - also simple but I found that it was giving me some false positives. Qualys SSL Labs SSL Server Test - this is serious shit, deep analysis of much more than just the heartbleed vulnerability. Good stuff! OpenSSL TLS Heartbeat Extension - Memory Disclosure - the actual exploit that you can use yourself to test if your servers are vulnerable. »

Recently I had to add a new MySQL slave server to an existing master -> slave setup, without causing any downtime. Having done that only a couple of times in the past and never having played the central role in the process, I wanted to make sure I was getting everything right, so I did a lot of research but couldn’t find all the best (or what I consider the best) bits and pieces in one single place, so I am documenting everything here for future reference and hopefully they will also help others. »

Mais uma da TMN. Já não é a primeira vez que a TMN quebra as suas próprias regras, por isso não me espanta. Nem vou perder muito tempo com isto, vou só deixar aqui o email que lhes enviei. E para quem sabe das minhas desventuras anteriores com eles, sim, infelizmente ainda sou cliente da TMN. Dependendo da resposta que obtiver a este email, pode ser que essa situação finalmente se altere. »

O que se segue é a tradução (e várias correcções e clarificações) para Português de um artigo do Bella Caledonia, publicado originalmente aqui no dia 25 de Agosto de 2011. Faço isto porque acho que não há gente suficiente a saber o que se passou e ainda se está a passar, e porque isto devia ser um exemplo para nós, Portugueses - e Espanhóis, e Gregos, e Italianos… Espero que consigam ver aqui a semelhança do que aconteceu com a Islândia e os levou à falência, com o que está a acontecer com Portugal. »

Today I came across Mark Litwintschik’s post titled Abandoning PHP for Python. What Mark says resonates with me in almost every paragraph but what led me to write this post was what I read in some of the comments there. It’s a shame that some PHP fans insist on not understanding that when these comparisons are made and people say “X is better than PHP” (X being some framework like Rails or Django), they’re not really comparing PHP (the language) to that framework. »

If you ever consider joining Empower Network, Lazy Millionaires League, MagNET system or some other similar pyramid or MLM scheme, forget it. It’s just not worth your time and money. I’ve always been very suspicious of these things and always thought they were scams - intricate and subtle ones, but scams nonetheless. I call them scams because they promise that you will earn a fortune when in reality only a very, very small percentage of the people who get involved in these schemes actually makes any money at all, and from those who do, the ones that actually make a significant amount are even less. »

On the 29th of July, 2013, I discovered a privacy breach in RunKeeper. I immediately contacted them but their response was very disappointing - they ignored me and did nothing regarding the problem I brought to their attention. Since this implicated the privacy of everyone using the service, I felt obligated to put it out there so people knew what to expect. This was the first support ticket I sent them: »

Update in May 2020: I don’t think I hate PHP this much nowadays. I have barely touched it for the past 6 or 7 years but it seems to have fixed a lot of its bigger problems. Good for you PHP! Despite that, I think I’ll still stick with other languages for the time being. The trauma is just too great… :) I hate PHP. Even though it’s the programming language I use the most to earn my keep, I can no longer keep this inside me. »

Actualização 3 e final, de 2 de Maio de 2013 Actualização 2, de 2 de Maio de 2013 Actualização 1, de 1 de Maio de 2013 Há já mais de um ano que ando em guerra com a TMN e nem sei como é que ainda tenho paciência para isto. O meu tarifário é um Moche sem mensalidade, as condições do qual podem ser vistas no fundo da página do serviço ou aqui (caso a página original desapareça ou seja alterada). »

You may have seen this picture a few times before: It’s been viral a few times now and this is the explanation given with it: In the resort town of Skagen you can watch an amazing natural phenomenon. This city is the northernmost point of Denmark, where the Baltic and North Seas meet. The two opposing tides in this place cannot merge because they have different densities. I’m sorry to ruin the fun of this but that’s a lie. »