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<metaname="twitter:image"content="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/images/default.jpg"><linkrel="icon"href="/images/icon.png"><linkrel="alternate"href="/atom.xml"type="application/atom+xml"title="TheBestJohn"></head><bodyitemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/WebPage"><navclass="menu"id="menu"><divclass="menu-inner"><divclass="menu__left-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link menu__item__link--brand"href="/"title="Home"rel="home"><imgclass="menu__item__link--brand__image"src="/images/icon.png"alt="TheBestJohn"><spanclass="menu__item__link--brand__label">TheBestJohn</span></a></div></div><divclass="menu__right-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/">Home</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/about">About</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/archives">Archives</a></div></div></div></nav><divclass="page-background"></div><divclass="content-container"><divclass="content-outer"><divclass="content-inner"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/Blog"><articleclass="article"id="article"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/BlogPosting"><h1class="article__title"itemprop="headline">About Me</h1><divclass="article__meta"><timeclass="article__meta__time"datetime="2018-04-26T13:54:48.000Z"itemprop="datePublished">April 26th 2018</time></div><hr><divclass="article__contents"><p>My name is John. I’m a Embedded Developer. Over the years I’ve dabbled in a lot of side projects. I have a deep interest in making IoT and smart home systems, setting up offline backups of information/Digital archiving, and alternative network technologies.</p>
<metaname="twitter:image"content="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/images/default.jpg"><linkrel="icon"href="/images/icon.png"><linkrel="alternate"href="/atom.xml"type="application/atom+xml"title="TheBestJohn"></head><bodyitemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/WebPage"><navclass="menu"id="menu"><divclass="menu-inner"><divclass="menu__left-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link menu__item__link--brand"href="/"title="Home"rel="home"><imgclass="menu__item__link--brand__image"src="/images/icon.png"alt="TheBestJohn"><spanclass="menu__item__link--brand__label">TheBestJohn</span></a></div></div><divclass="menu__right-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/">Home</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/about">About</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/archives">Archives</a></div></div></div></nav><divclass="page-background"></div><divclass="content-container"><divclass="content-outer"><divclass="content-inner"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/Blog"><articleclass="article"id="article"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/BlogPosting"><h1class="article__title"itemprop="headline">About Me</h1><divclass="article__meta"><timeclass="article__meta__time"datetime="2018-04-26T17:54:48.000Z"itemprop="datePublished">April 26th 2018</time></div><hr><divclass="article__contents"><p>My name is John. I’m a Embedded Developer. Over the years I’ve dabbled in a lot of side projects. I have a deep interest in making IoT and smart home systems, setting up offline backups of information/Digital archiving, and alternative network technologies.</p>
<p>Contained within is my attempt to chronicle my efforts, share idea and projects, and at the end of the day, teach. I’ve always thought at some point I would like to teach. Lately I realized that there is no barrier to teaching other than what we impose on ourselves. I have a platform, It’s the internet. Please join me and feel free to ask some questions. I’d love to try to answer them, or at least point you in the right direction.</p>
<p>–John</p>
</div><divclass="article__author"itemscopeitemprop="author"itemtype="https://schema.org/Person"><imgclass="article__author__image"src="/images/avatar.jpg"alt="TheBestJohn"><aclass="article__author__link"title="About TheBestJohn"rel="author">TheBestJohn</a><pclass="article__author__desc">Just a place to make stuff</p><divclass="article__author__socials"><aclass="article__author__socials__item"href="/atom.xml"title="rss"target="_blank"><iclass="fa fa-rss"></i></a></div><metaitemprop="name"content="TheBestJohn"></div><divclass="sharer"id="sharer"><divclass="sharer-inner"><divclass="sharer__right"><buttonclass="sharer__item"id="sharer-facebook"><iclass="fa fa-facebook-official"></i></button><buttonclass="sharer__item"id="sharer-twitter"><iclass="fa fa-twitter"></i></button><buttonclass="sharer__item"id="sharer-pinterest"><iclass="fa fa-pinterest"></i></button><buttonclass="sharer__item"id="sharer-pocket"><iclass="fa fa-get-pocket"></i></button></div></div></div><!-- Disqus Code--><divid="disqus_thread"></div><script>(function(){
</div><divclass="article__author"itemscopeitemprop="author"itemtype="https://schema.org/Person"><imgclass="article__author__image"src="/images/avatar.jpg"alt="John Warren"><aclass="article__author__link"title="About John Warren"rel="author">John Warren</a><pclass="article__author__desc">Just a place to make stuff</p><divclass="article__author__socials"><aclass="article__author__socials__item"href="/atom.xml"title="rss"target="_blank"><iclass="fa fa-rss"></i></a></div><metaitemprop="name"content="John Warren"></div><divclass="sharer"id="sharer"><divclass="sharer-inner"><divclass="sharer__right"><buttonclass="sharer__item"id="sharer-facebook"><iclass="fa fa-facebook-official"></i></button><buttonclass="sharer__item"id="sharer-twitter"><iclass="fa fa-twitter"></i></button><buttonclass="sharer__item"id="sharer-pinterest"><iclass="fa fa-pinterest"></i></button><buttonclass="sharer__item"id="sharer-pocket"><iclass="fa fa-get-pocket"></i></button></div></div></div><!-- Disqus Code--><divid="disqus_thread"></div><script>(function(){
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<metaname="twitter:image"content="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/images/default.jpg"><linkrel="icon"href="/images/icon.png"><linkrel="alternate"href="/atom.xml"type="application/atom+xml"title="TheBestJohn"></head><bodyitemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/WebPage"><navclass="menu"id="menu"><divclass="menu-inner"><divclass="menu__left-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link menu__item__link--brand"href="/"title="Home"rel="home"><imgclass="menu__item__link--brand__image"src="/images/icon.png"alt="TheBestJohn"><spanclass="menu__item__link--brand__label">TheBestJohn</span></a></div></div><divclass="menu__right-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/">Home</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/about">About</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/archives">Archives</a></div></div></div></nav><divclass="page-background"></div><divclass="content-container"><divclass="content-outer"><divclass="content-inner"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/Blog"><sectionclass="post-list"><header><h2>Archives: 8/2012</h2></header><hr><articleclass="post-list__item"><divclass="post-list__item__col-1"><aclass="post-list__item__link"href="/posts/table-based-design/"><divclass="post-list__item__link__background"style="background-image:url('/images/default.jpg');"></div></a></div><divclass="post-list__item__col-2"><divclass="post-list__item__meta"><aclass="post-list__item__meta__link"href="/categories/Web-Dev/">Web Dev</a></div><h3class="post-list__item__title"><ahref="/posts/table-based-design/"title="Table based design: Why I loathe it, and you should too!">Table based design: Why I loathe it, and you should too!</a></h3><pclass="post-list__item__description">If there is one thing that grinds my gears it’s table based design and the “web development” companies that continue to use it.
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<metaname="twitter:image"content="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/images/default.jpg"><linkrel="icon"href="/images/icon.png"><linkrel="alternate"href="/atom.xml"type="application/atom+xml"title="TheBestJohn"></head><bodyitemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/WebPage"><navclass="menu"id="menu"><divclass="menu-inner"><divclass="menu__left-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link menu__item__link--brand"href="/"title="Home"rel="home"><imgclass="menu__item__link--brand__image"src="/images/icon.png"alt="TheBestJohn"><spanclass="menu__item__link--brand__label">TheBestJohn</span></a></div></div><divclass="menu__right-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/">Home</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/about">About</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/archives">Archives</a></div></div></div></nav><divclass="page-background"></div><divclass="content-container"><divclass="content-outer"><divclass="content-inner"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/Blog"><sectionclass="post-list"><header><h2>Archives: 2012</h2></header><hr><articleclass="post-list__item"><divclass="post-list__item__col-1"><aclass="post-list__item__link"href="/posts/table-based-design/"><divclass="post-list__item__link__background"style="background-image:url('/images/default.jpg');"></div></a></div><divclass="post-list__item__col-2"><divclass="post-list__item__meta"><aclass="post-list__item__meta__link"href="/categories/Web-Dev/">Web Dev</a></div><h3class="post-list__item__title"><ahref="/posts/table-based-design/"title="Table based design: Why I loathe it, and you should too!">Table based design: Why I loathe it, and you should too!</a></h3><pclass="post-list__item__description">If there is one thing that grinds my gears it’s table based design and the “web development” companies that continue to use it.
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<metaname="twitter:image"content="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/images/default.jpg"><linkrel="icon"href="/images/icon.png"><linkrel="alternate"href="/atom.xml"type="application/atom+xml"title="TheBestJohn"></head><bodyitemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/WebPage"><navclass="menu"id="menu"><divclass="menu-inner"><divclass="menu__left-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link menu__item__link--brand"href="/"title="Home"rel="home"><imgclass="menu__item__link--brand__image"src="/images/icon.png"alt="TheBestJohn"><spanclass="menu__item__link--brand__label">TheBestJohn</span></a></div></div><divclass="menu__right-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/">Home</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/about">About</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/archives">Archives</a></div></div></div></nav><divclass="page-background"></div><divclass="content-container"><divclass="content-outer"><divclass="content-inner"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/Blog"><sectionclass="post-list"><header><h2>Archives</h2></header><hr><articleclass="post-list__item"><divclass="post-list__item__col-1"><aclass="post-list__item__link"href="/posts/static-site-what/"><divclass="post-list__item__link__background"style="background-image:url('/images/default.jpg');"></div></a></div><divclass="post-list__item__col-2"><divclass="post-list__item__meta"><aclass="post-list__item__meta__link"href="/categories/Web-Dev/">Web Dev</a></div><h3class="post-list__item__title"><ahref="/posts/static-site-what/"title="Static Site what?!">Static Site what?!</a></h3><pclass="post-list__item__description">Recently I’ve become disillusioned with most CMS options. They’re a pain to keep updated, plugins are constantly being abandoned, and they’re so...</p></div></article><articleclass="post-list__item"><divclass="post-list__item__col-1"><aclass="post-list__item__link"href="/posts/table-based-design/"><divclass="post-list__item__link__background"style="background-image:url('/images/default.jpg');"></div></a></div><divclass="post-list__item__col-2"><divclass="post-list__item__meta"><aclass="post-list__item__meta__link"href="/categories/Web-Dev/">Web Dev</a></div><h3class="post-list__item__title"><ahref="/posts/table-based-design/"title="Table based design: Why I loathe it, and you should too!">Table based design: Why I loathe it, and you should too!</a></h3><pclass="post-list__item__description">If there is one thing that grinds my gears it’s table based design and the “web development” companies that continue to use it.
Web development is...</p></div></article><articleclass="post-list__item"><divclass="post-list__item__col-1"><aclass="post-list__item__link"href="/posts/the-plasma-speaker-saga-pt-iii/"><divclass="post-list__item__link__background"style="background-image:url('/images/plasmaHead.jpg');"></div></a></div><divclass="post-list__item__col-2"><divclass="post-list__item__meta"><aclass="post-list__item__meta__link"href="/categories/Other-electronics/">Other electronics</a></div><h3class="post-list__item__title"><ahref="/posts/the-plasma-speaker-saga-pt-iii/"title="The Plasma Speaker Saga pt.III">The Plasma Speaker Saga pt.III</a></h3><pclass="post-list__item__description">
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<metaname="twitter:image"content="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/images/default.jpg"><linkrel="icon"href="/images/icon.png"><linkrel="alternate"href="/atom.xml"type="application/atom+xml"title="TheBestJohn"></head><bodyitemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/WebPage"><navclass="menu"id="menu"><divclass="menu-inner"><divclass="menu__left-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link menu__item__link--brand"href="/"title="Home"rel="home"><imgclass="menu__item__link--brand__image"src="/images/icon.png"alt="TheBestJohn"><spanclass="menu__item__link--brand__label">TheBestJohn</span></a></div></div><divclass="menu__right-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/">Home</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/about">About</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/archives">Archives</a></div></div></div></nav><divclass="page-background"></div><divclass="content-container"><divclass="content-outer"><divclass="content-inner"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/Blog"><sectionclass="post-list"><header><h2>Category: Web Dev</h2></header><hr><articleclass="post-list__item"><divclass="post-list__item__col-1"><aclass="post-list__item__link"href="/posts/static-site-what/"><divclass="post-list__item__link__background"style="background-image:url('/images/default.jpg');"></div></a></div><divclass="post-list__item__col-2"><divclass="post-list__item__meta"><aclass="post-list__item__meta__link"href="/categories/Web-Dev/">Web Dev</a></div><h3class="post-list__item__title"><ahref="/posts/static-site-what/"title="Static Site what?!">Static Site what?!</a></h3><pclass="post-list__item__description">Recently I’ve become disillusioned with most CMS options. They’re a pain to keep updated, plugins are constantly being abandoned, and they’re so...</p></div></article><articleclass="post-list__item"><divclass="post-list__item__col-1"><aclass="post-list__item__link"href="/posts/table-based-design/"><divclass="post-list__item__link__background"style="background-image:url('/images/default.jpg');"></div></a></div><divclass="post-list__item__col-2"><divclass="post-list__item__meta"><aclass="post-list__item__meta__link"href="/categories/Web-Dev/">Web Dev</a></div><h3class="post-list__item__title"><ahref="/posts/table-based-design/"title="Table based design: Why I loathe it, and you should too!">Table based design: Why I loathe it, and you should too!</a></h3><pclass="post-list__item__description">If there is one thing that grinds my gears it’s table based design and the “web development” companies that continue to use it.
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<metaname="twitter:image"content="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/images/default.jpg"><linkrel="icon"href="/images/icon.png"><linkrel="alternate"href="/atom.xml"type="application/atom+xml"title="TheBestJohn"></head><bodyitemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/WebPage"><navclass="menu"id="menu"><divclass="menu-inner"><divclass="menu__left-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link menu__item__link--brand"href="/"title="Home"rel="home"><imgclass="menu__item__link--brand__image"src="/images/icon.png"alt="TheBestJohn"><spanclass="menu__item__link--brand__label">TheBestJohn</span></a></div></div><divclass="menu__right-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/">Home</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/about">About</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/archives">Archives</a></div></div></div></nav><divclass="page-background"></div><divclass="content-container"><divclass="content-outer"><divclass="content-inner"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/Blog"><sectionclass="post-list"><articleclass="post-list__item"><divclass="post-list__item__col-1"><aclass="post-list__item__link"href="/posts/static-site-what/"><divclass="post-list__item__link__background"style="background-image:url('/images/default.jpg');"></div></a></div><divclass="post-list__item__col-2"><divclass="post-list__item__meta"><aclass="post-list__item__meta__link"href="/categories/Web-Dev/">Web Dev</a></div><h3class="post-list__item__title"><ahref="/posts/static-site-what/"title="Static Site what?!">Static Site what?!</a></h3><pclass="post-list__item__description">Recently I’ve become disillusioned with most CMS options. They’re a pain to keep updated, plugins are constantly being abandoned, and they’re so...</p></div></article><articleclass="post-list__item"><divclass="post-list__item__col-1"><aclass="post-list__item__link"href="/posts/table-based-design/"><divclass="post-list__item__link__background"style="background-image:url('/images/default.jpg');"></div></a></div><divclass="post-list__item__col-2"><divclass="post-list__item__meta"><aclass="post-list__item__meta__link"href="/categories/Web-Dev/">Web Dev</a></div><h3class="post-list__item__title"><ahref="/posts/table-based-design/"title="Table based design: Why I loathe it, and you should too!">Table based design: Why I loathe it, and you should too!</a></h3><pclass="post-list__item__description">If there is one thing that grinds my gears it’s table based design and the “web development” companies that continue to use it.
Web development is...</p></div></article><articleclass="post-list__item"><divclass="post-list__item__col-1"><aclass="post-list__item__link"href="/posts/the-plasma-speaker-saga-pt-iii/"><divclass="post-list__item__link__background"style="background-image:url('/images/plasmaHead.jpg');"></div></a></div><divclass="post-list__item__col-2"><divclass="post-list__item__meta"><aclass="post-list__item__meta__link"href="/categories/Other-electronics/">Other electronics</a></div><h3class="post-list__item__title"><ahref="/posts/the-plasma-speaker-saga-pt-iii/"title="The Plasma Speaker Saga pt.III">The Plasma Speaker Saga pt.III</a></h3><pclass="post-list__item__description">
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<metaname="twitter:image"content="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/images/default.jpg"><metaproperty="article:author"content="TheBestJohn"><metaproperty="twitter:label1"content="Published at"><metaproperty="twitter:data1"content="2018-04-27 17:40:00"><metaproperty="twitter:label2"content="Written by"><metaproperty="twitter:data2"content="TheBestJohn"><linkrel="icon"href="/images/icon.png"><linkrel="alternate"href="/atom.xml"type="application/atom+xml"title="TheBestJohn"></head><bodyitemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/WebPage"><navclass="menu"id="menu"><divclass="menu-inner"><divclass="menu__left-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link menu__item__link--brand"href="/"title="Home"rel="home"><imgclass="menu__item__link--brand__image"src="/images/icon.png"alt="TheBestJohn"><spanclass="menu__item__link--brand__label">TheBestJohn</span></a></div></div><divclass="menu__right-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/">Home</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/about">About</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/archives">Archives</a></div></div></div></nav><divclass="page-background"></div><divclass="content-container"><divclass="content-outer"><divclass="content-inner"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/Blog"><articleclass="article"id="article"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/BlogPosting"><h1class="article__title"itemprop="headline">Static Site what?!</h1><divclass="article__meta"><timeclass="article__meta__time"datetime="2018-04-27T17:40:00.000Z"itemprop="datePublished">April 27th 2018</time><divclass="article__meta__categories"><aclass="article__meta__categories__item"href="/categories/Web-Dev/">Web Dev</a></div></div><hr><divclass="article__contents"><p>Recently I’ve become disillusioned with most CMS options. They’re a pain to keep updated, plugins are constantly being abandoned, and they’re so prevalent in sites that they make a very attractive target for exploitation. In fact the first time I lost control of my server it was because of a bug in a themes use of timthumb.php. Basically, the attacker sent it an “image” file from a hosting website that had a php eval script hidden in it’s data. When accessed normally it showed an image but if they accessed the cached file that timthumb made, then the server treated it as a php file. From there they were able to install a remote shell, and own my server.</p>
<metaname="twitter:image"content="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/images/default.jpg"><metaproperty="article:author"content="John Warren"><metaproperty="twitter:label1"content="Published at"><metaproperty="twitter:data1"content="April 27th 2018 17:40:00"><metaproperty="twitter:label2"content="Written by"><metaproperty="twitter:data2"content="John Warren"><linkrel="icon"href="/images/icon.png"><linkrel="alternate"href="/atom.xml"type="application/atom+xml"title="TheBestJohn"></head><bodyitemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/WebPage"><navclass="menu"id="menu"><divclass="menu-inner"><divclass="menu__left-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link menu__item__link--brand"href="/"title="Home"rel="home"><imgclass="menu__item__link--brand__image"src="/images/icon.png"alt="TheBestJohn"><spanclass="menu__item__link--brand__label">TheBestJohn</span></a></div></div><divclass="menu__right-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/">Home</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/about">About</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/archives">Archives</a></div></div></div></nav><divclass="page-background"></div><divclass="content-container"><divclass="content-outer"><divclass="content-inner"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/Blog"><articleclass="article"id="article"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/BlogPosting"><h1class="article__title"itemprop="headline">Static Site what?!</h1><divclass="article__meta"><timeclass="article__meta__time"datetime="2018-04-27T21:40:00.000Z"itemprop="datePublished">April 27th 2018</time><divclass="article__meta__categories"><aclass="article__meta__categories__item"href="/categories/Web-Dev/">Web Dev</a></div></div><hr><divclass="article__contents"><p>Recently I’ve become disillusioned with most CMS options. They’re a pain to keep updated, plugins are constantly being abandoned, and they’re so prevalent in sites that they make a very attractive target for exploitation. In fact the first time I lost control of my server it was because of a bug in a themes use of timthumb.php. Basically, the attacker sent it an “image” file from a hosting website that had a php eval script hidden in it’s data. When accessed normally it showed an image but if they accessed the cached file that timthumb made, then the server treated it as a php file. From there they were able to install a remote shell, and own my server.</p>
<h3id="Static-site-generators"><ahref="#Static-site-generators"class="headerlink"title="Static site generators"></a>Static site generators</h3><p>While the timthumb exploit was a pain in the ass, it was very interesting to me and made me seriously consider how I secure my systems. To that end I started reading into static site generators. Static site generators take your posts, usually formatted in some sort of markup, put them through a templating engine that outputs <code>.html</code> files, which you can then serve via the usual methods.</p>
<h3id="Why-tho"><ahref="#Why-tho"class="headerlink"title="Why tho?"></a>Why tho?</h3><p>The idea is that <em>most</em> sites don’t actually need to use dynamic code. Their content is, for the most, part static. Users aren’t interacting with the content (other than the comments sections and forms but we’ll talk about that later). They are, instead, just reading it. The only person who seems to be interacting with it is the person that owns the site. Even then, the owner isn’t actively interacting. They are writing a post, or updating a page. After that, everything stays the same.</p>
<p>All this is a “face-value” reason to move over to a static site. I have an even deeper reason for wanting to use a static site, portability. Static sites allow you to use a generic format for your posts. I write all my posts in markdown, a very common and widely used format. With this I can move from generator to generator without much change. If I were to make my blog in something like Wordpress, my post information would be locked into a <em>very</em> specific database format. If I, for some reason or another, decided I no longer wanted to use wordpress it would be a lot of work modifying all my posts to be compatible with the new platform.</p>
<p>All this is a “face-value” reason to move over to a static site. I have an even deeper reason for wanting to use a static site, portability. Static sites allow you to use a generic format for your posts. I write all my posts in markdown, a very common and widely used format. With this I can move from generator to generator without much change. If I were to make my blog in something like Wordpress, my post information would be locked into a <em>very</em> specific database format. If I, for some reason or another, decided I no longer wanted to use Wordpress it would be a lot of work modifying all my posts to be compatible with the new platform.</p>
<h3id="Enter-Hexo"><ahref="#Enter-Hexo"class="headerlink"title="Enter, Hexo"></a>Enter, <ahref="https://hexo.io/"target="_blank"rel="noopener">Hexo</a></h3><p>Hexo is a neat little package. </p>
<p>Originally I thought I would install it, set up an apache virtual reverse proxy via an <code>.htaccess</code> file and let node serve static files. Some people do this. It’s a valid way to serve a site. The problem that I have with this, is that it’s just another vulnerable layer of code that I don’t have the inclination to audit. It could potentially have glaring security holes and I wouldn’t know. Again, I want to clarify that I don’t know much of anything about security. I’m not a cryptographer, nor an expert on cyber security. However, I can easily read the html that comes out the other end of the site generator and verify that there are no well-known issues with the javascript or html.</p>
<p>If this is the way you wanted to do it, you would need, at the very least, this sort of <code>.htaccess</code> configuration in your root<br><figureclass="highlight plain"><table><tr><tdclass="gutter"><pre><spanclass="line">1</span><br><spanclass="line">2</span><br><spanclass="line">3</span><br><spanclass="line">4</span><br><spanclass="line">5</span><br><spanclass="line">6</span><br></pre></td><tdclass="code"><pre><spanclass="line">RewriteEngine On</span><br><spanclass="line">DirectoryIndex index.html </span><br><spanclass="line">RewriteRule ^$ http://127.0.0.1:4000 [P,L]</span><br><spanclass="line">RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f</span><br><spanclass="line">RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d</span><br><spanclass="line">RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://127.0.0.1:4000/$1 [P,L]</span><br></pre></td></tr></table></figure></p>
<p>So what to do? Well, the output is a fully static html/css/js site. No need for node, no need for a reverse proxy. This will just work when popped into a public directory of a webserver.</p>
<ahref="/posts/setting-up-hexo-auto-deploy-from-gitlab/"title="getting that set up">getting that set up</a></div><divclass="article__author"itemscopeitemprop="author"itemtype="https://schema.org/Person"><imgclass="article__author__image"src="/images/avatar.jpg"alt="TheBestJohn"><aclass="article__author__link"title="About TheBestJohn"rel="author">TheBestJohn</a><pclass="article__author__desc">Just a place to make stuff</p><divclass="article__author__socials"><aclass="article__author__socials__item"href="/atom.xml"title="rss"target="_blank"><iclass="fa fa-rss"></i></a></div><metaitemprop="name"content="TheBestJohn"></div><divclass="sharer"id="sharer"><divclass="sharer-inner"><divclass="sharer__right"><buttonclass="sharer__item"id="sharer-facebook"><iclass="fa fa-facebook-official"></i></button><buttonclass="sharer__item"id="sharer-twitter"><iclass="fa fa-twitter"></i></button><buttonclass="sharer__item"id="sharer-pinterest"><iclass="fa fa-pinterest"></i></button><buttonclass="sharer__item"id="sharer-pocket"><iclass="fa fa-get-pocket"></i></button></div></div></div><!-- Disqus Code--><divid="disqus_thread"></div><script>(function(){
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<metaname="twitter:title"content="Table based design: Why I loathe it, and you should too!">
<metaname="twitter:description"content="If there is one thing that grinds my gears it’s table based design and the “web development” companies that continue to use it. Web…">
<metaname="twitter:image"content="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/images/default.jpg"><metaproperty="article:author"content="TheBestJohn"><metaproperty="twitter:label1"content="Published at"><metaproperty="twitter:data1"content="2012-08-09 00:00:00"><metaproperty="twitter:label2"content="Written by"><metaproperty="twitter:data2"content="TheBestJohn"><linkrel="icon"href="/images/icon.png"><linkrel="alternate"href="/atom.xml"type="application/atom+xml"title="TheBestJohn"></head><bodyitemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/WebPage"><navclass="menu"id="menu"><divclass="menu-inner"><divclass="menu__left-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link menu__item__link--brand"href="/"title="Home"rel="home"><imgclass="menu__item__link--brand__image"src="/images/icon.png"alt="TheBestJohn"><spanclass="menu__item__link--brand__label">TheBestJohn</span></a></div></div><divclass="menu__right-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/">Home</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/about">About</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/archives">Archives</a></div></div></div></nav><divclass="page-background"></div><divclass="content-container"><divclass="content-outer"><divclass="content-inner"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/Blog"><articleclass="article"id="article"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/BlogPosting"><h1class="article__title"itemprop="headline">Table based design: Why I loathe it, and you should too!</h1><divclass="article__meta"><timeclass="article__meta__time"datetime="2012-08-09T00:00:00.000Z"itemprop="datePublished">August 9th 2012</time><divclass="article__meta__categories"><aclass="article__meta__categories__item"href="/categories/Web-Dev/">Web Dev</a></div></div><hr><divclass="article__contents"><p>If there is one thing that grinds my gears it’s table based design and the “web development” companies that continue to use it.</p>
<metaname="twitter:image"content="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/images/default.jpg"><metaproperty="article:author"content="John Warren"><metaproperty="twitter:label1"content="Published at"><metaproperty="twitter:data1"content="August 9th 2012 00:00:00"><metaproperty="twitter:label2"content="Written by"><metaproperty="twitter:data2"content="John Warren"><linkrel="icon"href="/images/icon.png"><linkrel="alternate"href="/atom.xml"type="application/atom+xml"title="TheBestJohn"></head><bodyitemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/WebPage"><navclass="menu"id="menu"><divclass="menu-inner"><divclass="menu__left-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link menu__item__link--brand"href="/"title="Home"rel="home"><imgclass="menu__item__link--brand__image"src="/images/icon.png"alt="TheBestJohn"><spanclass="menu__item__link--brand__label">TheBestJohn</span></a></div></div><divclass="menu__right-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/">Home</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/about">About</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/archives">Archives</a></div></div></div></nav><divclass="page-background"></div><divclass="content-container"><divclass="content-outer"><divclass="content-inner"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/Blog"><articleclass="article"id="article"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/BlogPosting"><h1class="article__title"itemprop="headline">Table based design: Why I loathe it, and you should too!</h1><divclass="article__meta"><timeclass="article__meta__time"datetime="2012-08-09T04:00:00.000Z"itemprop="datePublished">August 9th 2012</time><divclass="article__meta__categories"><aclass="article__meta__categories__item"href="/categories/Web-Dev/">Web Dev</a></div></div><hr><divclass="article__contents"><p>If there is one thing that grinds my gears it’s table based design and the “web development” companies that continue to use it.</p>
<p>Web development is one heck of an industry. It changes, transforms, and adapts. I feel that in order for you to call yourself a web developer, or your company a web development company you need to develop with the web.</p>
<p>Development as defined by dictionary.com is: the act or process of developing; growth; progress: child development; economic development.</p>
<p>Growth, progress! Our job as web developers is to promote growth and progress of the web. We must adapt as the web adapts. When a “web development” agency provides it’s clients with old, outdated, un-accessible, table-based, web development they are not only stifling the growth of the internet they are literally taking money out of business’ pockets.</p>
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@@ -19,10 +19,10 @@
<p>In fact it seems that almost all your vision impaired customers are leaving, as well as a lot of your other customers. What is happening?! Well my friend you have just been SEO‘d out… Google does not like websites based on tables and your website is no longer on the front page when you search for bagels in your respective city on Google. But why does Google not like your site? It looks amazing! Well Google doesn’t like your site because it is not accessible. Being accessible means that it is very easy for programs to read your site aloud for those who are visually impaired. Believe it or not even though someone is visually impaired they still can and do use the internet. When a page reader encounters a table based website it reads out a lot of information, most of which makes little to no sense to the person listening. So now that you’ve lost your spot on the top hits list on Google and all your visually impaired customers have defected to the new “We got Bagels” stores popping up everywhere you are effectively loosing money because a certain “web development” firm provided you with a state-of-the-art 90′s website for approximately the same price as a properly developed div based website.</p>
<p>Lets just pretend now for a moment that a few months later “WMOTBWFY Web Development Firm” goes out of business. they aren’t getting many customers and business was too slow to pay for all those “in-the-know” developers. Now you need to find a new developer to work on your site. So you come to hire me and say “Hey John! Bagels R’ Us is in trouble! We have lost our spot on the Google front page and a large amount of our customer base has already defected to that smarmy new shop!”. I now have to tell you that your website needs a complete redesign and guess what. It’s going to cost about $900-$1000 now, unless you want new graphics. Why is it so much more than the original site though? Well Not only is the old site’s code useless the new web developer would need to piece the graphics that were cut apart by the table based design back together. At the end of the day “WMOTBWFY Web Development Firm” not only took your money once (by making it necessary to re-develop your site) they took who knows how much of your money a second way (defected customers).</p>
<p>Table based design is dead. If any developers are out there reading this please, for the love of God, start learning how to properly make div based websites styled with CSS. For you business out there please ask any possible web development firms, freelancers, or friends if they use table based development before you make something that stifles the development of the internet and costs you money.</p>
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<metaname="twitter:description"content="Well today’s the day! On the eve of Canada day I have made a giant step towards a good version of the plasma speaker! After letting the…">
<p>Well today’s the day! On the eve of Canada day I have made a giant step towards a good version of the plasma speaker! After letting the magic smoke out of countless ICs and Diodes I have finally put together a working model of the plasma speaker. The first thing I did to guide me on my path was to find a TL494 IC in a dip format. I figured that it was going to be another month until I could make this post as I would have had to special order a TL494 chip online which would cost me shipping and a whole crap more money than the chip was worth. When out of the blue two days ago my father asked me what chip I needed for the Plasma speaker. Having studied the schematic for hours I could quote almost every component off by heart at this point, so I told him “TL494″ he looked at me, let out a little chuckle and a smirk, and pointed over to the other side of the kitchen. I walked over and saw several power tools and construction materials (we’re in the middle of a kitchen reno) and an old pc power supply. I picked it up and said “is this it?”. “Yes” he answered “I pulled it out of the pc that that my work threw out. The power supply was the only thing that was bad in it.”. So earlier on today (yesterday?) I open her up and lo and behold there is a TL494 DIP IC staring me in the face (Nestled right beside a LM339N I might add) as well as several other things I may need in the future of this speaker (toroids, heatsinks, etc…).</p>
<p>After about 20 minutes of trying to get this chip out with a solder sucker and solder braid, I finally succeed. I pop it into my breadboard (which had the starting of my time fountain, but who cares PLASMA SPEAKER!) and begin wiring up the schematic. Everything looks wired up properly and I have a speaker in place of the flyback transformer (another steal from the discarded television that I got the flyback from). I attach a 9V battery and…. nothing happens…. shit ok well time to pull out the big guns… the 12V motorcycle battery. I attach the battery and…. it kinda works… except the speaker is just puffed out all the way…. it’s not making any noise at all! What should be happening is the speaker should be oscillating at some high frequency but it’s not, it’s just sitting there all puffed out…. At around this time my father gets home from work. I have a question for him. The TL494 chip has a black dot on it (which usually denotes where pin 1 is) as well as a notch in it (Another common way to denote pin 1) on the opposite side. Theres your problem. the chip is in backwards! I reverse the chip and TA-DA a squealing speaker!</p>
<p>Now it was time to attach the flyback transformer and get to the sparky sparky, singy singy. I put it all together and PFFFFFTTTT! all the magic smoke flys out of my diode. At this point I have let the magic smoke out of so many ICs and Diodes my nickname should be John the wizard. I go back to the drawing board and my dad points out to me that diodes (unlike capacitors) have a white line marking their cathode (whereas on capacitors it denotes an anode). Well shit! I must have blown this diode 20 times because that stupid quirk of electronics. I put my last diode in, turn on the power and….. LIGHTING! It verks! for the next 20 minutes I walk around the house with a big shit eating grin on my face looking for some sort of CD, Cassette, or shitty MP3 player to plug into this potential device killer to make me some audio. I finally find an old Mp3 player that I found on the bus in grade 6 and hook it up (the MP3 player needed a non-standard usb cable so I had to settle with what was on it…. Dr.Dre lol) after about 20 sec0nds of it working…. PFFFTTT! magic smoke billows from the IRF540 MOSFET. So I take a look at it… the heatsink isn’t hot!? I put some heatsink compound on the back whats the deal!? Well it turns out there was a sheet of mylar between the heatsink and the original component and it wasn’t very efficient. So I pop off the mylar sheet, clean everything up, add some new heatsink compound and a new MOSFET and there we go… it works for a longer period of time and I am able to bring you the following video.</p>
<p>It has been brought to my attention that I neglected to cite the source of this schematic. I built this setup by following <ahref="http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-A-Plasma-Speaker/"target="_blank"rel="noopener">plasmana’s instructable</a>. I will be making another, more powerful plasma speaker based off another design.</p>
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