überEllis.com

Today, April fool's day, a standard PHP info page renders a crudely hand-drawn version of the PHP logo:

To view a PHP info page, do the following on any webserver running PHP:

1. Create a new php file containing the following: <?php phpinfo(); ?>
2. Access the file from your browser

Some friends and I were having a good laugh at our "Pornstar names" recently. Taken from an email that made the rounds with instructions and the obligatory request to add yours on the list and send to all your friends. Here's how it works:

1. Take the name of your first pet as your pornstar first name.
2. Add your mother's maiden name as your porn last name.

Lol!

Only much later did it strike me; Is this really an innocent joke? Something about the questions seems very familiar. In fact, two of the most frequently used security questions on many websites are:

1. What is your first pets name?
2. What is your mother's maiden name?

What could be more convenient for the proficient phisher than list of email addresses tied to no less than two ways to retrieve a forgotten password..

Yep, I was there! :)

Picture used without permission. Originally spotted on Dries' blog

© Ana Calv

Due to an unsuitably angry childhood, I have an unhealthy amount of black and darkly coloured clothing. This remains true for most of the year, except during these colder months, where some undergarments provide the necessary protection from the cold.

It was another cold morning. The fateful morning of the laundry incident. I overslept (again - damn futon) and had limited time to complete my weekly laundry cycle.. to be in time for the ironing cycle of course.

Yes, it was this day I chose to test my faith in the possible urban legend "Seperate your whites from your coloured clothes before doing your laundry". This one, so obviously conceived during the old regime *koff*

It was a smallish load anyway.

Now I am the proud owner of one (I don't know how the others managed to not get affected) pair of purple thermals. Probably the only one in existence. So much for an inadvertent fashion statement. Take heed! Before it happens to your favourite sweater or similar.

When I coined the title phrase, my posse and I were sharing a table with Graham from Stormhoek winery at the monthly 27 dinner a couple of months ago.

Graham enjoys frequenting events like these to tell the marketing success story of Stormhoek wines and what major role blogging and bloggers had to play. At this particular event, he was sporting a Stormhoek t-shirt that got the crowd's attention. After many inquiries, he finally decided to announce that Stormhoek wines will send a shirt to each of the attendees who left their names and email addresses.

My shirt arrived today (H'ray!)

Thanks Graham - Here's your blog post (and you don't have to send me a bottle of wine). I've entertained the thought of blogging my disdain on undelivered promises, but then again - there's no such thing as bad press.

As of today, I too, am a "High Class Hoeker"

Drupal version: all
Module: n/a

Using user 1 as the admin user of a site during development seems convenient, but I've found myself overlooking and forgetting tiny things. Eventually, going back to a live site to set permissions, or change input formats, etc overrules the amount of time spent setting up a decent administrator role.

User 1 has permission to do absolutely anything on the site - so testing can have inaccurate results.

Some internet bad-guys can do some nasty things to the website, or even webserver, should they get their grubby paws on the identity of user 1, which is why I am a bit of a full-HTML-nazi. Also why I don't trust WYSIWYG editors as far as I can throw them. Best make sure there's no chance the user 1 username doesn't have a chance to be published anywhere, by forgetting a posted by, or allowing access to profiles for anonymous users.

Use your power for good and not for evil!

The cobbler's son might have no shoes, but the youngest can live on hand-me-downs. ÜberEllis.com presents a new theme (yet to be named, see below):

Yeah, I know - not exactly the best theme for a blog.. I've developed this theme for SWiTCH WebStart.

The theme utilizes the color.module, that comes with core of drupal 5 (Seen in the likes of "Garland" and "Minelli"). The aim is to speed up the design process for new clients. This way, implementation of functionality and "theming" can run concurrently for rapid deployment. :)

Here are screenshots of some of the presets in Unnamed.Theme:

The concept of Color.module is quite ingenius. It uses a simple php file to render some areas of solid colour and a gradient fill. Overlayed with a transparent .png file to make a composite, which is then sliced to create the images needed for the theme.

Despite a couple of limitations (I'm assured color.module 2 will eradicate these), it can be planned well, and certainly is a whole lot of fun to play with.

I've finally upgraded the ÜberEllis.com platform to Drupal 5. The jump from 4.7 does have some impact on some of the theme functions, and thus I'm running the new Garland theme that comes standard with Drupal 5 and up. When my career leaves me some free time again, I'll upgrade all the ÜberThemes to be compatible with 5, so apologies to all registered users who may have selected an older theme.

In the meantime, the cobbler's son will have to go barefoot ;)

I'm sitting at the Caltex on the N1 in Midrand, waiting for a friend to pick me up. As expected of mechanical things, parts fail and need occasional repair. The current misfortune, a burst water pipe. What can one do on a Saturday evening, but arrange for alternative transport with a shrug and a smile.

So here I am. Bonnet open, surrounded by steam and smoke. And were it not for the great assistance of the staff at Caltex, my state certainly would've suffered.

When was the last time you experienced good service? Thanks Caltex :)

The blogosphere (buzzword), especially the local blogosphere attempts meme (buzzword) after meme to get those precious rankings (buzzword) up. Spammers offer link exchanges daily to anyone who owns a domain. After all, who doesn't want to be seen on Google?

Cockeyed.com has blown my socks off again (I've blogged about them before). Cockeyed's A very well linked story is a short story with each of the words linked to url's submitted by his readers on a first come, first served basis. The three coollest words were up for grabs at eBay!

What an elegant method of value exhange without the ego stroking so common in blogs nowadays.

PS: The word back to ÜberEllis is seem. I was too late for lines :(