Simple Setup of SSL on Apache with mod_ssl and OpenSSL

This is a very simple way of setting up Apache with SSL from a trusted Certificate Authority(CA), just follow these steps and you will have it running in no time. I am assuming you have all the prerequisites installed, Apache with mod_ssl enabled and OpenSSL. I add the following to the server configuration (either httpd.conf or apache2.conf) so it knows to listen on port 443, you can do this in the virtual host file if you wish:

<IfModule mod_ssl.c>
NameVirtualHost *:443
</IfModule>

The next thing you will want to do is create an RSA key for your server. There are 2 ways to do this you can do it so that Apache will require a password at startup/restart, or you can do it without this added encryption. If you choose not to use encryption, you should make sure you protect this key as much as possible! Rename domainname with your actual domain name you want to secure.
Read the rest of this entry »

Setting Up Ubuntu for Rails Development

These are a the procedures we use to setup a PC or VM for development of a ruby on rails application.

First things first, get your install software ready.  These instructions are based on the Hardy Heron version of Ubuntu (8.04).

Install the base OS and then fire up the terminal so you can copy and paste the following commands. 

So once you have the base installed, make sure your distribution is up to date:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Read the rest of this entry »

Easy Way to Change Ubuntu Usernames

If you want to change your Ubuntu user name, a very fast way to do so is via the command line.

Just type the following:

sudo usermod -l newname currentname

For more options, just type man usermod

Read the rest of this entry »

Rails and Microsoft Sql Server

So you want to connect your rails application to Microsoft SQL Server. The following instructions will take you through setting this up quite simply. This setup is on a a Ubuntu 8.04 server connecting to SQL Server 2000 (we will use the Northwind sample database). The first thing you need to do is install the following gems:

$ gem install dbi --version 0.4.0
$ gem install dbd-odbc --version 0.2.4
$ gem install rails-sqlserver-2000-2005-adapter -s http://gems.github.com

More info can be found on the sqlserver adapter gem development page. This is just the first step. Read the rest of this entry »

Adjust What the History Command Shows

By default on OS X, the history command (accessed via the terminal) shows the last 500 commands including multiple entries that are the exact same. Just to find an old useful command, you may have to sort through 100′s of ls and cd commands. Wouldn’t it be nice to show only unique commands, and remove the duplicates, or store a larger history? Well you can and it is very simple to set the variables to control what the history command shows on the MAC terminal.

Launch a terminal, by default you should be put into your home directory. To make sure you are in your HOME, just type: Read the rest of this entry »