I am one. I am many. We are Legion. Expect us.

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Tux Molecule Wallpaper

I have put together a nice Linux-themed wallpaper based on images I found on the Internet. I hope you like it. You may click the thumbnail to the left to view a higher resolution (1024×768) version.

Slashdot comment from article on Perl 5/6

(I was a Perl guy for 15 years, used to love it, now Perl and Ruby both look like line noise that’s been encrypted — compared to my new girlfriend, Python.)

I’ve been a fan of Perl ever since the 3.x era. A couple years ago I got a job at a place where the scripting language of choice is Python. My take on it is that Python is that cute, quirky goth chick you met at the bar. She’s fun for a while, but once you get to know her you realize that she’s got some pretty deep emotional issues that drive you absolutely nuts. And she’s really, really obsessive about her appearance.

No, I’m more than happy to stick with Perl. She may be a little older and not quite as attractive, but she has a wonderful personality. Plus, there’s more than one way to do her.

— Chelloveck (14643)

Design by Nez

So Just What is Bashrc

You’re most likely using it without even knowing, but .bashrc is a script in your home directory that gets executed every time you start a shell. You’ve most likely updated this file if you have ever wanted an alias to be created (like to enable colors when running ls), or an environment variable to be altered (for example, appending something to PATH) for each instance of bash you start.

Included in most Linux distributions are both .bash_profile and .bashrc. The difference between the two is that .bash_profile is executed for “login shells” (when you login at a TTY or RSH/SSH/Telnet session), while .bashrc is executed for interactive non-login shell (ie. starting a shell from within another program or by /bin/bash). There is also a related file that executed on logout called .bash_logout.

Typically, most people will probably never remember the difference between the two files, and normally it does not matter because they are generally set up so that one will call the other. If not, you can prepend the following lines to your .bash_profile:

if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then
source ~/.bashrc
fi

This should finally clears up for everyone! And don’t forget to check your man pages for more information.

Secure Our Server: Firewalls

Introduction

This post is all about firewalls. The most important thing to know about a VPS/Dedicated server is that out of the box, they are facing the Internet with no protection at all. It is very important that the first thing you do is go into Webmin (or do it on the CLI – it doesn’t matter), and turn off access to all the services you don’t explicitly need. Think of it this way: every additional service you have exposed to the Internet is another possible exploit point for crackers and script kiddies that you need to lock down.

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