Undiscovered Subdomains

After signing up with Cloudflare, it scans your site for its content and subdomains. It'll find the usual subdomains, but if you have unusual ones you have to add them on the control panel.

Otherwise there will be problems with the nameserver settings, and even though your subdomains will still be showing at their IP Address, you'll see errors when using the URL.

Note: You just need to add the subdomain here, like blog or demo, and not the full URL. Chances are your subdomain is on the same IP Address as your website, but if not, check your hosting account.

Changing Nameservers

Once you've Cloudflare configured, change your Nameserver settings with your domain provider. I use Godaddy, but whatever you use you'll need to change your settings to point to the ones Cloudflare uses, which in my case are the following:

gabe.ns.cloudflare.com
uma.ns.cloudflare.com

Redirecting http to https

The final step is to always serve your pages using https. I found that the simplest way is to use Nginx with the http_x_forwarded_proto option. You'll need to configure this in all your virtual host files.

server {
    listen      80;
    server_name     example.con www.example.com;

    if ($http_x_forwarded_proto = "http") {
         return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
       }

        location / {
        root /path/to/files;
        index index.html index.html; 
        }   
    }

Git and Mercurial Problems

One problem I have yet to solve is that of a subdomain hosting git and mercurial repositories. For git repositories I am now getting the following error on the command line:

$ git pull
fatal: unable to access 'https://git.repo.url':
gnutls_handshake() failed: Handshake failed

For Mercurial repositories it is something similar:

$ hg pull
abort: error: _ssl.c:510: error:14094438:SSL routines:SSL3_READ_BYTES:tlsv1 alert internal error

The workaround currently is to replace the URL in the request with the IP Address, but as I'm not happy with that, it's a problem I'll look into over the weekend.

There are quite a few additional dependencies, and no big issues, but I should begin with the disclaimer.

Issues

Before you do the same, here are my issues with it, nothing major:

1. If using the readthedocs theme, then it is currently not supporting 1.3.1, issue 1214. It seems the way Sphinx is now generating its HTML is different, so until this is fixed I'm rolling back to 1.2.2 Here is what command line output now looks like. Red text is usually for big errors!

2. During installation the Babel library is not picking up the pytz library, so I had to disable the checks.

Default.nix

Anyway, here you go, a default.nix for Sphinx 1.3.1. It's also in a Github gist if you prefer.

{ system ? builtins.currentSystem
}:

let

  pkgs = import <nixpkgs> { inherit system; };

  inherit (pkgs) fetchurl fetchgit;

  buildPythonPackage = pkgs.python27Packages.buildPythonPackage;
  python = pkgs.python27Packages.python;

  Jinja2 = buildPythonPackage rec {
    name = "Jinja2-2.7.3";
    src = fetchurl {
      url = "http://pypi.python.org/packages/source/J/Jinja2/${name}.tar.gz";
  md5 = "b9dffd2f3b43d673802fe857c8445b1a";
};
propagatedBuildInputs = [ MarkupSafe ];
};

MarkupSafe = buildPythonPackage rec {
  name = "MarkupSafe-0.23";
  src = fetchurl {
    url = "https://pypi.python.org/packages/source/M/MarkupSafe/${name}.tar.gz";
    md5 = "f5ab3deee4c37cd6a922fb81e730da6e";
};
};

Pygments = buildPythonPackage rec {
  name = "Pygments-2.0.2";
  src = fetchurl {
    url = "https://pypi.python.org/packages/source/P/Pygments/${name}.tar.gz";
    md5 = "238587a1370d62405edabd0794b3ec4a";
};
};

alabaster = buildPythonPackage rec {
  name = "alabaster-0.7.3";
  src = fetchurl {
    url = "https://pypi.python.org/packages/source/a/alabaster/${name}.tar.gz";
    md5 = "67428d1383fd833f1282fed5deba0898";
};
};

six = buildPythonPackage rec {
  name = "six-1.9.0";
  src = fetchurl {
    url = "https://pypi.python.org/packages/source/s/six/${name}.tar.gz";
    md5 = "476881ef4012262dfc8adc645ee786c4";
};
};

snowballstemmer = buildPythonPackage rec {
  name = "snowballstemmer-1.2.0";
  src = fetchurl {
    url = "https://pypi.python.org/packages/source/s/snowballstemmer/${name}.tar.gz";
    md5 = "51f2ef829db8129dd0f2354f0b209970";
};
};

pytz = buildPythonPackage rec {
  name = "pytz-2015.2";
  src = fetchurl {
    url = "https://pypi.python.org/packages/source/p/pytz/${name}.tar.gz";
    md5 = "08440d994cfbbf13d3343362cc3173f7";
};
};

babel = buildPythonPackage rec {
  name = "Babel-1.3";
  src = fetchurl {
    url = "https://pypi.python.org/packages/source/B/Babel/${name}.tar.gz";
    md5 = "5264ceb02717843cbc9ffce8e6e06bdb";
};
# TODO: tests breaking due to not finding pytz, even though it is in
doCheck = false;
};

Sphinx = buildPythonPackage (rec {
  name = "Sphinx-1.3.1";
  src = fetchurl {
    url = "https://pypi.python.org/packages/source/S/Sphinx/${name}.tar.gz";
    md5 = "8786a194acf9673464c5455b11fd4332";
  };
propagatedBuildInputs = [
  docutils
  Jinja2
  Pygments
  alabaster
  six
  snowballstemmer
  pytz
  babel

  # TODO: Had to include it here so that can be imported
  sphinx_rtd_theme
];
});

docutils = buildPythonPackage rec {
  name = "docutils-0.12";
  src = fetchurl {
    url = "https://pypi.python.org/packages/source/d/docutils/${name}.tar.gz";
    md5 = "4622263b62c5c771c03502afa3157768";
  };
};

sphinx_rtd_theme = buildPythonPackage rec {
  name = "sphinx_rtd_theme-0.1.7";
  src = fetchurl {
    url = "https://pypi.python.org/packages/source/s/sphinx_rtd_theme/${name}.tar.gz";
    md5 = "3ffe014445195705968d899c38b305fd";
  };

# TODO: Tests would require sphinx and this creates recursion issues
doCheck = false;
};

in python.buildEnv.override {
  inherit python;
  extraLibs = [
    Sphinx
    sphinx_rtd_theme
 ];
}

Running a build

Once it is done, run nix-build and you'll be able to generate your docs:

$ nix-build
/nix/store/8h6iysvp583rycl1ll6w75n1z1h1psmx-python-2.7.9-env

$ make html
../result/bin/sphinx-build -b html -d _build/doctrees   . _build/html
Running Sphinx v1.3.1
making output directory...
loading pickled environment... not yet created
loading intersphinx inventory from http://docs.python.org/objects.inv...
building [mo]: targets for 0 po files that are out of date 
building [html]: targets for 3 source files that are out of date updating environment: 3 added, 0 changed, 0 removed 
reading sources... [100%] index                                                 
looking for now-outdated files... none found
pickling environment... done
checking consistency... done
preparing documents... done
writing output... [100%] index                                                  
generating indices... genindex
writing additional pages... search
copying static files... WARNING: html_static_path entry u'/Users/brian/personal-vcs/cahoots/app-design/_static' does not exist
done
copying extra files... done
dumping search index in English (code: en) ... done
dumping object inventory... done
build succeeded, 1 warning.

Build finished. The HTML pages are in _build/html.

There's an app for that!

The thing is, if you are doing more that just posting pictures of your dog online, making a todo list, or checking your bank account balance, there probably isn't an app for that.

I think that software development is currently going through a bloated phase of UX/UI design input that it stiffling the forward momentum of many projects.

So many now have their own mini wannabe Steve Jobs looking to add a responsive user interface to a product that is ultimately not going to be used in a manner that a design team can envision. Mostly because not everyone wants to click around in PhotoShop all day, and eventually delete .psd files and call them failed experiments.

Design is Rarely for Users

UI/UX designers have one purpose in mind, and that is to see their design become the abstraction that sits on top of a platform to act as the user interface. They add this to their creative portfolio, and if they are happy with it they will be proud to have designed something that people use everyday. At the very least they should have something that recommends them to the next client.

Along the way, the user is hopefully considered in this process and their experience is actually improved and not hindered. Unfortunately a clean user interface usually means hiding half the functions, and keeping it that way results in endless support emails complaining about it.

Can we downgrade?

Focus

Additionaly, very often a designer is asked to pour efforts and resources into a one off task, or a low visibility function, just for the sake of it and this consumes both design and development time on something of low value. Nothing says job satisfaction like that!

Get Out of My Way

Finally, I want to play with a product and to see how it runs, so deploy your design resources where they matter; close to the clicky stuff!

And create elegant and powerful command line tools with good documentation to let advanced users zip through providing the services to those users who don't want to look behind the curtain.

While the Prada debacle was an honest mistake that I quickly recovered from, this Interstellar one I really didn't see coming. I voluntarily walked into the cinema, bought a ticket, a few beers, and some popcorn. All set for take off, or so I thought.

Time and Space

Looking back at the movie, I wonder did it ever really take off. The most interesting thing about Interstellar is how it deals with a somewhat dystopian future where crop failures have ravaged mankind's ability to speak clearly, serve hotdogs at a baseball game, or close the windows during a dust storm.

Once the opening scene of 7 hours was over, there was suddenly a secret NASA space research centre hidden behind one of the corn fields. Where else would it be?!

This obviously had old robots doing most of the work, such as opening the gate, and making jokes. The robot with sarcasm setting 100% was my favourite, until of course it was reduced to 75%. Presumably to keep the speed of time so slow, that mere minutes watching the movie felt like hours in real life!

Bad Casting

The biggest gap in the movie was the absence of Bruce Willis. Someone needed to shoot that wormhole, or Will Smith to fly some converted crop spraying bi-plane out of the solar system with a box of fireworks taped to the back of it as thruster boosters.

I'm skipping over the whole gravity binary signal thing because you really don't want to see it, nor read about it.

Some stuff happened then during the 7 year period where they pitched the badly spoken, hat wearing, ex-spaceship pilot, widower farmer Matthew McSleepy as the only potential saviour of this planet. He eventually got in his spaceship, before which there was a dramatic wrist-watch scene, and then some more time-space things happened.

Somewhere along the way they surfed a wave on one planet that took 23 years, and suddenly Matt Damon woke up on a different planet far far away. Even though the planet was extremely cold there were no killer polar bears, which was disappointing. At that point I'd have taken anything to speed up the film! When Matt Damon did wake up I thought

"No Matt, no, go back to sleep!"

I was very emotional at this point as you can tell!

But Matt didn't listen, and when he started crying into the other Matt's arms, I cried too. I knew that after 48 years in the cinema, and with no more popcorn or beer, my time in that world was coming to an end.

Beer Drought

Somewhat ironically, the lack of beer, presumably caused by a sudden wheat crop failure in this world, had me running very low on mind numbing enhancers and I was fading fast.

Then the dramatic death scene happened. Of course it was all a lie!

The underlying assumptions about time had been wrong and suddenly McSleepy's now 743 year old daughter was about to save the world with some trick maths equation. Presumably this saw her save the whole thing and meet her father who was now younger than her, but they eventually reconciled and love conquered all, or some rubbish like that.

Anyway, I say presumably because at this point I was prompted by a fellow time-space travelling physicist that the exit sign was hurtling towards us, from our future, at a much faster rate than anticipated, into our present. I wandered back out onto the street, older, but I don't know by how much!

Give this a few days!

The smoother experience is due to Nix using binaries when installing software. This eliminates the need to compile from source.
Increased stability is supported through a generation system. Each new package installation creates a new generation of your environment which can be easily rolled back should an error occur.

Nix also supports creating isolated development environments. These isolated development environments also have their own generation roll back system. This allows you to completely compartmentalize your system into many stable custom environments.

Nix Package Manager Features

The following are some of the differences compared to Homebrew and how they can make the user experience a lot more pleasant.

• Nix channels contain previously compiled binary versions of a package from where downloads are sourced. This means that you do not need to download and compile a package, its dependencies, and pray, but instead you download and untar a working tarball from a channel. Use the following command to view your download channels:
  
  brian@rhodecode:~# nix-channel --list nixpkgs http://nixos.org/channels/nixpkgs-unstable

• Nix --rollback and --switch-generation functions provide the additional stability. Each package installation creates a new generation of your Nix environment. This means that if a download breaks a build you simply rollback to the last previous working generation.

• The nix-shell is used to provide isolated environments.

Making the Switch to Nix

To switch package handling from Homebrew to Nix, use the following steps:

1. Find out which packages you currently manage with homebrew:

     $ brew list
     openssl python treadline sqlite
   

2. Remove these packages from your system.
   brew remove package-name

3. Remove Homebrew using the following steps:

   cd brew --prefix
   rm -rf Cellar brew 
   prune rm git ls-files
   rm -r Library/Homebrew Library/Aliases Library/Formula Library/Contributions
   rm -rf .git
   rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/Homebrew` 
   

4. Install Nix on your operating system with the following command:

   $ bash <(curl https://nixos.org/nix/install)
   

   • For more information, see Getting Nix

   Note: the installer sources a Nix profile in the ~/.profile or ~./bash_profile file by adding the following line:

   if [ -e /Users/brian/.nix-profile/etc/profile.d/nix.sh ]; 
   then . /Users/brian/.nix-profile/etc/profile.d/nix.sh; fi 
   # added by Nix installer
   

   If during installation this is not created, you should add it manually to the appropriate file.

5. Once Nix is downloaded. Reinstall the packages you require with the Nix install command:

   # download package-name
   nix-env --install package-name  
   # see all available packages
   nix-env --query --available
   

For more information, see Nix Installing Packages

Note: Package names in Homebrew and Nix may not be the exact same, but should be similar. You can view all package names using this command:

brian$ nix-env -qaP

Installing with Nix

Once you have reconfigured your package manager to Nix, you can see where the default packages are using the which command, and rollback nix-env --rollback or switch generation nix-env --switch-generation generation-number.

brian@rhodecode:~# which python/usr/bin/python 
brian@rhodecode:~# nix-env -i python
installing `python-2.7.8'
building path(s) /nix/store/iqm4bnb1assfdwka4xmmky96yrnhj91w-user-environment'
created 263 symlinks in user environment
brian@rhodecode:~# which python
/root/.nix-profile/bin/python

When Installs Go Bad

This is where Nix comes into a league of its own. If an install wrecks your development environment, you can simply rollback to the previous working one.

Additionally, the Nix Garbage collection function allows you to quickly clean up your environment once you have carried out a number of changes:

nix-collect-garbage -d

See the following example for an explanation of these functions:

[nix-shell:~]$ nix-env -i python3 # Install Python 3
replacing old `python3-3.4.1'\n
installing `python3-3.4.1'\n
[nix-shell:~]$ which python3 # based on latest gen\n/root/.nix-profile/bin/python3\n
[nix-shell:~]$ nix-env --list-generations\n   
1   2014-07-27 10:18:50    
2   2014-07-27 10:31:27      
3   2014-07-27 14:06:42      
4   2014-07-27 14:09:27      
5   2014-07-27 14:16:44      
6   2014-07-27 14:16:53      
7   2014-07-28 08:13:07      
8   2014-07-28 08:20:00      
9   2014-07-28 08:21:42     
10   2014-07-28 08:22:31  (current)
[nix-shell:~]$ nix-env --switch-generation 4 
switching from generation 10 to 4
[nix-shell:~]$ which python3 # based on gen 4
/usr/bin/python3
[nix-shell:~]$ nix-env --switch-generation 10
switching from generation 4 to 10
[nix-shell:~]$ nix-collect-garbage -d 
removing old generations of profile /nix/var/nix/profiles/default
removing generation 1
.
.
removing generation 9
removing old generations of profile /nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/root/channels\nfinding garbage collector roots...
deleting garbage...
875 store paths deleted, 552.07 MiB freed
[nix-shell:~]$ nix-env --list-generations  
10   2014-07-28 08:22:31   (current)
[nix-shell:~]$ exit
brian@rhodecode:~/nix-project#

Uninstalling with Nix

To remove a package with Nix, use the -e flag. For example:

nix-env -e package-name

Nix will gracefully handle the uninstall and also remove any symlinks created to support the package:

brian@rhodecode:~# nix-env -e git
uninstalling `git-2.0.2'\nbuilding path(s) `/nix/store/vz37m6k23r7j5mnvmij92bnym6j16cbl-user-environment'
created 6 symlinks in user environment

Setting Up an Isolated Environment

The default.nix file is used to define an environment. Each system can have multiple default.nix files which create independant work areas. This enables multiple different package versions to be installed and run on the same machine without introducing dependency conflicts.

Additionally, this allows very easy environment sharing because you can share your default.nix file, and colleagues will have an exact copy of your setup.

Configuring default.nix

Configuring a default.nix file requires declaring your setup within the file. This is why it is called a declarative setup.

Every time you run nix-shell, Nix will ensure that you get a consistent set of binaries corresponding to your specification.

For specific projects you should install the packages you need in a project folder that also contains a default.nix file. This way project specific packages do not confllict with system packages.

To create a project specific work area use the following steps:

1. Create a new folder mkdir new-project

2. Navigate to that folder and create a default.nix file. Within this file you must specify the particular packages for that work environment. Use the following examples to create your own default.nix file. This example default.nix file specifies the required packages in the buildInputs section.

3. In this example, the rhodecode-docs project requires:

   { system ? builtins.currentSystem
   }:
   let
   pkgs = import <nixpkgs> { inherit system; };
   inherit (pkgs) fetchurl fetchgit;
   buildPythonPackage = pkgs.python27Packages.buildPythonPackage;
   python = pkgs.python27Packages.python;
   
   
   Jinja2 = buildPythonPackage rec {
     name = "Jinja2-2.7.3";
     src = fetchurl {
     url = "http://pypi.python.org/packages/source/J/Jinja2/${name}.tar.gz";
     md5 = "b9dffd2f3b43d673802fe857c8445b1a";
     };    
     propagatedBuildInputs = [ MarkupSafe ];  
   };
   
   
   MarkupSafe = buildPythonPackage rec {
     name = "MarkupSafe-0.19";
     src = fetchurl {      
     url = "https://pypi.python.org/packages/source/M/MarkupSafe/${name}.tar.gz";
     md5 = "ccb3f746c807c5500850987006854a6d";
     };  
   };
   
   
   Pygments = buildPythonPackage rec {
     name = "Pygments-1.6";
     src = fetchurl {      
     url = "https://pypi.python.org/packages/source/P/Pygments/${name}.tar.gz";      
     md5 = "a18feedf6ffd0b0cc8c8b0fbdb2027b1";
     };
    };
   
   
   Sphinx = buildPythonPackage (rec {    
     name = "Sphinx-1.2.2";   
     src = fetchurl {      
     url = "http://pypi.python.org/packages/source/S/Sphinx/${name}.tar.gz";      
     md5 = "3dc73ccaa8d0bfb2d62fb671b1f7e8a4";    
     };
   propagatedBuildInputs = [ docutils Jinja2 Pygments ];
   });
   
   
   docutils = buildPythonPackage rec {   
     name = "docutils-0.8.1";    
     src = fetchurl {      
     url = "https://pypi.python.org/packages/source/d/docutils/${name}.tar.gz";
     md5 = "2ecf8ba3ece1be1ed666150a80c838c8";
     };  
   };
   
   
   in python.buildEnv.override {
   inherit python;  
   extraLibs = [ Sphinx ];
   }
   

Using nix-shell Functionality

Once your environment is declared in the default.nix file you can use the nix-shell functionality to create your isolated development environments. Both of the following examples carry out the same function of creating a new Sphinx installation.

• To issue a single command from the nix-shell you can issue it like this:

  brian$ nix-shell --command=sphinx-quickstart
  

• To develop within the nix-shell, switch into it and execute the specific environment commands from within.

  brian@rhodecode:~/nix-project# vi default.nix
  brian@rhodecode:~/nix-project# nix-shell
  these paths will be fetched (2.59 MiB download, 14.76 MiB unpacked):
  /nix/store/0nh2bmaf0d3h0m16mggw2ipji2symb9n-python2.7-markupsafe-0.15
  Downloading `http://cache.nixos.org/nar/0xhnlcz9f1wak7dhhrnznbgbjxqimkk0wip7q9w38xnllw7dmhgn.nar.xz’ to ‘/nix/store/q486ypcjr6kgkw8c62574dqp97sgh9d0-python2.7-Sphinx-1.2’...
  [nix-shell:~/nix-project]$ sphinx-quickstart
  Welcome to the Sphinx 1.2 quickstart utility
  .
  .
  .
  [nix-shell:~/nix-project]$ exit
  brian@rhodecode:~/nix-project# 
  

• Note: You need to navigate to where you have the default.nix file stored.

Conclusion

Once you have carried out these steps you will be able to manage your environments much more easily.

Plan Ahead

Unlike moving to Argentina, Spain, or even Austria, moving to Germany isn't really a make it up as you go along thing. The information contained in this article should help you do that.

Happening Neighbourhoods

If you want to have a good time, lots of interesting pubs, cool clubs, great restaurants, frequent and varied meet ups, and a constant stream of level 7 hipsters with some questionably placed facial tatoos walking by, then you should try these neighbourhoods.

• Kreuzberg
• Mitte
• Friedrichshain
• Prenzlauer Berg

Finding an apartment

Apartment hunting is a nightmare at the moment, because Berlin is the capital city of the only country in Europe that is currently not trying to water cannon young people off the streets to make way for, ironically enough, water meters!

• Tip 1. Don't Use Craigslist Here is an example of the "Nigerian Price " style scams going on

  I will want you to go to the nearest store near you and make the payment via western union to me.When you get there you tell them you want to send money via western union and they would give you a form to fill and then you fill my information below...I will be heading to DHL Office to arrange for the shipment of a package to you next day delivery. i will be sending to you(KEYS AND DOCUMENTS)

• Tip 2. schufa
  It is basically proof that you have an income that can support your rent. This means without a schufa you pay a premium on your rent as you are not "schufa'd ". Of course, only a German income counts, so it'll be a while before you have a schufa rating. Catch 22 stuff.

• Tip 3. Start looking here, and if you are lucky you may get a place without too much trouble. Stay strong, and expect many to not even reply to your inquiry.

• Coming Home
• Berlin99
• WG-Gersucht
• Dreamflat

Get Registered with the Bürgeramt ASAP

Once you have found a place the fun only gets better. First things first, you have to register with the Bürgeramt so that you are on the system as living in your new apartment. Once on the system you are almost a good German.

Each area or suburb has it's own Bürgeramt and you must register at your local one. They normally open from 08:00-13:00, and the queues are ridiculous. Get there early, I went there for 7:45am and was still the 50th or so in the queue.

Note: If need be you can register your address at a hostel or some other temporary abode.

Get Health Insurance ASAP

By German law everyone must have health insurance and your employers need some proof of it for your monthly tax deductions. Health insurance must be from a German health insurance company, or from a foreign one that passes a certain standard. You have 3 options:

1. Private health insurance.
2. Public health insurance.
3. Foreign health insurance.

To make a very long and uninteresting story short. Unless you really really really like jumping through hoops to save a few euros. Call a public health insurance company and you will be sorted in a few days. Then you will be a more improved German.

Get Your Tax ID

When you register at the Bürgeramt you also get a tax ID. Your employer will need this. Of course, giving it to you then and there would save you time and be efficient. So, just to make sure there is none of that nonsense you are again faced with choices:

• You can wait approximately 6 weeks for it to arrive in the post, during which time you will be taxed at the maximum non-refundable rate.
• You can go and queue at the Finanzamt and get it.

Luckily for you the queues are not so big at the finanzamt, as it appears people are not as into registering to pay tax as they are into registering where their bills should arrive.

Once you take care that, you should be on the system. It's an enjoyable adventure and you'll also find that those working in that system are very happy, with big smiley faces, and lots of motivation to do a good job. You never feel like just another number in a giant pointless game of paper pushing pedantry!

You will now be registered, paying taxes, and insured. A proper German. You'll also probably be heavily drinking bier from glass bottle as you walk around town.

I'll continue updating this post as I go through all these processes.

Happy queuing!

Pick a number [i.e. €500] and invest it under the assumption you will lose it. But while losing it you will use the process to learn.

• You will learn what trading is really all about.
• You will learn about bitcoin properly
• You will learn about other crypto-currencies
• You will learn about researching stocks on a bitcoin stock exchange
• You will learn how to avoid frauds, scams and ponzi schemes
• You will learn about pump and dumps
• You will learn how to hedge and speculate and take your profits at the right time
• You will learn how little you really need a bank to be financially secure
• You will learn how there is no such thing as security outside of being responsible for yourself in all matters
• You will learn how you don't need a financial advisor or a ratings agency to carry out this research for yourself and that it is not a complicated field. It is simply buying, selling and speculating in ideas!
• You will only learn these things by making every poor, ill thought out, novice, dreamer, get rich quick hope, idiot mistake with up that €500.

In the end perhaps you will learn that you would rather someone else take on the stress of doing that job for you, but you will at least know enough so that that person cannot blind you with bullshit in the future.

You would pay a whole pile more to do some night school college course into all of those things, and yet none of them will ever teach you like you will learn when you are losing your own money. None of them ever give you the chance to make more in return either!

Nothing sharpens the mind like having skin in the game, and for a 500€ experiment you will gain a lot of education, fun, ups, downs, exposure to a whole new field, and a rollercoaster of emotions along the way.

Some days you will feel wise yet surrounded by fools, other days you'll be the biggest idiot alive who hasn't a clue about what is going on and wonder how you made such a stupid mistake!

Simply sitting in a classroom listening to half assed theories from people who never tried any of them can never teach you like doing it yourself.

By Christmas if the €500 is gone, so be it, you'll be a lot wiser. If it is worth €5,000 then enjoy it, buy a nice suit and good shoes, and start on a whole new learning curve next year. That curve will be built on all the lessons of this year. It will surely take you higher and you will be a few more degrees freer, but maybe not richer!

The below steps will get a muut comments section up and running on your site, but before you do that you might need to set up a muut account.

Once you have your muut details, to embed them into ghost simply do the following.

• Configure the default.hbs file to pick up the muut stylesheet and the comments section plug in:

  1. Open the ~/ghost/content/themes/casper/default.hbs file.
  2. Insert the following CSS stylesheet link into the {{! Styles'n'Scripts }} section of the file: <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="//cdn.muut.com/latest/moot.css">
  3. Insert the following muut JavaScript link into {{! The main JavaScript file for Casper }} section of the file. <script src="//cdn.muut.com/1/moot.min.js"></script>
  4. Save and exit. Here are screenshots of my configuration.

• Configure the post.hbs file to insert the comments section at the bottom of each article you write.
  Note: Before you continue here, make sure you have your muut information. You should be able to get it, using this link as an example
  https://muut.com/YOUR_FORUM_NAME#embed. Once you have that, use the following steps:

  1. Open the ~/ghost/content/themes/casper/post.hbs file.
  2. Add your muut forum code under the footer section of the file.
  3. Save and exit.

  Here is a screenshot of my configuration.

  

Finally, restart ghost to pick up the changes:
service ghost restart

Or, if like me you are using the forever command.

• Stop the running ghost instance and start it again

  cd ~/var/www/ghost/
  forever stop index.js
  NODE_ENV=production forever start index.js

Note: Using the forever restart option does not pick up file changes for me, perhaps it's a bug with ghost, or forever, or me! That is why I have to stop/start it. And, below is the comments section that prove this works!

This post aims to suggest a complete overhaul of two aspects of Irish society for the possible benefit of anyone who needs a body, which is currently everyone except a few people working on the Calico project at Google.

The general idea is to propose the creation of a virtuous circle that creates a positive feedback loop for all participants within the system.

First the economics of health care.

When people are young and healthy they are cheap to insure, do not need hospital care and pay far more every year through insurance premiums, and added health taxes, than they need. This surplus washes through the system and allows health executives and quangos lead an enjoyable life. Nurses and doctors do get some benefits, like pay and timetables, and some patients benefit, occassionally.

When people are sick or old, they are expensive to insure, so nobody wants to insure them. What would be the point of insuring someone if you actually had to pay out? When these higher risk people become patients, they generally spend a load of time sleeping on a trolley in a waiting room, and they burn through quite a bit of the money collected in their name, mostly through taxes or idiots wearing hats and selling stickers at Christmas.

This leaves a lot less surplus to top up those executive pension funds, think tank conflabs, international conference travel expense accounts, and advertising campaigns. Nurses and doctors do get some benefit from this, mostly pens from pharmaceutical companies, presentations from investment firms about topping up their their AVCs, and the occasional clipboard from an equipment supplier. Some patients do benefit, but accidently.

So the economics of medicine are that; it is expensive for healthy people with no return, more expensive for sick people with little return, and fabulous if you have a cushy number on a health board.

Note: If you don't understand insurance, or hold the common and completely wrong view that paying more insurance when younger is necessary because you will use more when older, go and learn what insurance is before continuing.

How to fix this?

Firstly, the economics of health cannot be changed. There is no magic wand. So, what needs to be creatively thought about is a funding process that gives back more than a trolley in a waiting room, minimises corruption, and becomes a virtuous circle that positively benefits all those within the system, thus giving them reason to partake in it.
Note: The creation of any virtuous circle requires burning out all malignancies!
Bear this in mind when the inner voice starts telling you "It's not possible". That inner voice is a reflection of your conditioning!

The proposed system

Many people consider the GAA a crown jewel within Irish society, so why not polish it up, and use it for something more than a load of round-robin, back-door, Pat Spillane bashed, play-off games in mid-summer, that result in 1000s of lads sitting around doing nothing for weeks on end because 15 players on a county team need to be wrapped in cotton wool.

I might add that in my opinion the intercounty championship is dull and boring, and the real action is at club level.

So, I suggest the adoption of a system somewhat like this:

1. All county boards and newly created 'county health boards' come together with the local GAA, soccer, rugby and whatever else people pay money to go and watch, and create a viable business model that sends a percentage of the revenue generated into the county health budget.
2. Each of these sports, or events, would be properly
   calendared so that a year round series of high quality events was available for the county to get out, enjoy and to keep revenue pouring into the particular sport, and the county health fund. Once again, don't listen to that inner voice of conditioned helplessness saying it could never happen
3. Each county would have to become self-sufficient in providing it's own health care. Of course counties may merge and other counties may form co-operatives to purchase equipment in bulk. The minor details of this people can add to in a million and seven different ways. That is the purpose of making it as local and decentralised as possible.
4. Create lasting value in the provision of these local events by making sure leagues, championships or whatever else, are run in a professional and competent manner that gets big crowds in the gates or watching on TV.
5. It is imperitive that the county health boards cede from the centralised bureacracy that a body like the HSE has become. This requires rejecting outside interference in local management, and complete rejection of an overlord authority. Particularly anything calling itself a Minister for Health!
   The application of 26 different counties, using 26 different methodologies, in an attempt to solve their own diverse health care issues would lead to some outstanding innovation and allow a much wider range of possible solutions to be tried. It would not take long for the successful ideas to win out and gain acceptance in other counties, except Cork. Everyone knows Cork really wants to be Texas!
6. The main focus of the monies collected through a system like this would be to cover the costs of capital expenditure in the form of hospitals, care centres, rehab centres, medical equipment, the people outside the insurance sweetspot, the handicapped, and in general the worst off within society.
7. The creation of a competitive insurance market for those in the "insurance sweetspot" would keep premiums down on those who generally do not need it.

This insurance market would cover the cost of paying the salaries of those working in the healthcare business; doctors, nurses, phyios, etc. as it would pay them for services rendered.

The separation of funding for facility costs from service costs would allow the competitive pricing of one without the drag of the other, and the reduction of costs to the average person in turn frees up more capital to be put towards useful purposes within society.

1. In short, I propose that those who can get insurance, buy insurance on the free market, thus covering their own bills. This system is all based around the goal of providing quality health care.
   The public health / private health care issue is a false dilemma caused by government interference. The private individual pays for all that, and it costs everyone money.

2. In this system it is up to the county health board to decide how to use the money generated by the system, and utilise that as a public health issue. Each county would then have to come up with innovative ways of dealing with the \"Medical card\" issue. Essentially those who can't or won't insure themselves and rely on charity. The medical card is charity, no matter how it is dressed up

Just as aside about 'rights', particularly regarding anything that prepends 'free' to it.
If you think anything is your right; 'free' health care, 'free' education, freedom, 'free' speech you are automatically making it the responsibility of someone else to provide you with that right. Should you wish to sit back and enjoy your 'rights', you will lose them if you don't take personal responsibilty for them!

The creation of health care market exchanges

Markets are vitally important, and facilitate the provision of everything you have in life. Even a \"meat market\" disco-bar probably provided the world with you, after a deal was done after a whiskey too many.

But one of the most important market functions is price signal! Without a competitive marketplace on healthcare provision, the price of healthcare cannot be known.

This means that the county health boards need to compete for patients. Meaning all procedures, medicines, consultations and surgeries would have to be priced and traded on an exchange, in much the same way as the building and equipment costs are priced on a market. Not only would this allow patients to choose the best option for them, because premium vs lower end care will always exist, but it would also expedite their decision making process when care is needed, as patients and insurance companies would be able budget appropriately with what funds they have available.

To illustrate the point, imagine the following decision making chart for a Coronary Artery Bypass:

• Clinic A built and funded by the Limerick County Board.
  Heart surgery team Clinic A | Experienced team with 300 surgeries | outstanding reputaton | good follow up care unit | cost €75,000
• Clinic B built and funded by the Cork County Board.
  Heart surgery team Clinic B | Young team 11 successful surgeries | limited repuation | good follow up care unit | cost €23,000

This competition would also translate into certain boards specialising, thus paying more for certain doctors and nurses, making sure the best in a particular field ended up gravitating towards working with each other. This is good. If you think it is not, then imagine being treated by the medical equivalent of Real Madrid, or being treated by the equivalent of your average club hurling team who happen to have one outstanding player. No matter how good he or she is, someone not so good on that team will probably drop a sponge in you during surgery!

This ying and yang of competition and co-operation requires a little bit of thinking about, but everyone understands it almost instinctively. It comes pretty close to the internal conflict of being a human within all societies; to look after #1, or think of some greater good!

Minimising corruption: The Blockchain

Let me introduce you to the potential star in an endevour like this. A health care crypto-currency. The minimisation of corruption can only be brought about by complete openness, and a crypto-currency allows for complete openness while still allowing privacy to those interacting with it.

By making "SportHealthCoin" [someone else think of a better name] the payment mechanism for everything within this system it would create a demand for that coin.

• Insurance companies would need to hold, hedge and trade it to pay for bills.
• People would need it to interact with their local events
• Those working in the health system could be paid in it.
• Heathcare exchanges would be priced in it.
• The health county boards would pay for equipment in it.

So long as the whole system used it to settle accounts, and the flow of value through it was large enough, and it was easily tradeable against other cryptocurrencies, FIAT currencies, commodities and had a futures and options market, the price of the crypto-currency would stabilise. That is one of the functions of capital markets.

One of the additional benefits of a crypto-currency backing the health system is that mining pools could be formed. Everyone within the system would be able to partake in the generation of the coin that the system needs. Boards, clubs, individuals, hospitals, players, patients and anyone else would be able to use the process of mining and validating transactions on the system to generate their own income.

The creation of public wallets, such as the fund for cancer equipment, the fund for down syndrome care, the fund for whatever, would allow the money sent to those wallets to be accounted for in a completely transparent fashion.

Bonus usage

Now imagine the added demand and price stability brought to this cryptocurrency if energy costs were also priced in it; petrol, electricity, gas, water!

This would mean that the power needed to run the network would be backing the currency, as well as the health care system, and a large chunk of the sports entertaiment available.

People understand the general idea of a currency backed by something tangible. The gold standard or the petrodollar, both of which generally result in certain oil or gas rich countries needing to be liberated.

Why is this this backing important?
Because power, and health are always necessary. You can't live without either for too long, so by backing a currency with tangible assets that cannot be \"invaded or confiscated\" you sow the seeds of a virtuous circle, and reduce the governments ability to expropriate these assets for their \"favours and handouts for votes\" system.

The final piece of the jigsaw would be a completely open and tradeable energy unit exchange, allowing everyone to upload and download power onto the national grid as needed, and by backing this with the cryptocurrency would allow power generators to essentially make their own money. That should also open up the flood gates of creativity and see 1000s of new and individual ideas attempted at cracking the power dilemma which may be looming in the future, if you believe in peak oil and or limited resources. This of course would need a whole separate post of it's own and does not fall within the scope of this article.

Conclusion

This is a general outline for a system that aims to generate revenue in as many imaginative and useful ways as possible, to eliminate as much corruption as possible, and to allow as wide a range of possible solutions to health care provision problems.

There is always enough money, it is simply a question of creating flows of value. The idea is to create a system generating value so great that it can support the underlying costs.

After that, it is up to the actors in the game to start upping their skills!

The likelihood of something like this ever happening

Maybe when the health situation reaches two patients per trolley!

Further reading

The idea is to enable swarm intelligence and decentralise decision making to overcome the problems facing society, and to enable maximum personal freedom and particpation, while guaranteeing the creation of "public good" infrastructure. If you cannot get your head around those ideas I recommend these three articles:

• Swarmwise-what is swarm
• Assurance contracts for the creation of 'public good' infrastructure
• The "Impossible" But Inevitable Solution: Decentralization
• Why the split between facility costs and service costs makes a big difference

The following list of tasks is a general outline of what needs to be done to get WordPress up and running on your VPS:

• Set up an Ubuntu 12.04 VPS (virtual private server)
• Install and configure Nginx as your web server
• Install and configure PHP5-FPM as PHP5 support
• Install and configure MySQL as a database to store your WordPress content
• Install and configure WordPress as your blogging platform

Set up an Ubuntu 12.04 VPS

1. Go to Digital Ocean and sign up for a new VPS.

2. Select an Ubuntu 12.04 droplet.Digital Ocean will email you the IP address and password to your new VPS. When you receive those, sign into your new server using the following command:
   ssh root@ip-address with the password provided.Once you access the server, you need to configure a number of settings.

3. Change the root password.
   To set a new password for the root user, enter the passwd command and follow the instructions on screen.

4. Create a new user with sudo permissions.
   You need to create a user with sudo permissions because running all services as root is a security risk, and bad practice. To create a new user with sudo permissions and a home directory, use the following example: * Create a new user with a home directory and bash shell:

useradd -m -s /bin/bash -d /home/user -U username

• Give the user sudo permissions:
  sudo usermod -a -G sudo username * Set the new user password:
  passwd username

Updating your VPS and installing WordPress, Nginx, MySQL, and PHP

Now that you have set up a VPS with a new user, you need to run the following commands to begin setting up your system for a WordPress installation.

• Download the latest version of system packages and install them on your VPS:
  sudo apt-get update&&sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

• Install Nginx:
  sudo apt-get install nginx* Install WordPress: - Change to the home directory of the new user:
  cd /home/user - Install and extract the latest WordPress release:
  sudo wget http://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz && sudo tar -xzvf latest.tar.gz* Install PHP5-FPM:
  sudo apt-get install php5-common php5-mysqlnd php5-xmlrpc php5-curl php5-gd php5-cli php5-fpm php-pear php5-dev php5-imap php5-mcrypt* Install MySQL:
  sudo apt-get install mysql-server php5-mysql * You will be asked to set the root password. Don't forget it, you will need it soon. Now that you have all the necessary packages installed, you need to configure them so that you can get WordPress running. #### Configure PHP5-FPM##### Increase the security of PHP5-FPM.To prevent PHP-FHM from serving close matches when requested files cannot be found, set the value of the cgi.fixpathinfo parameter to 1. This parameter is set in the following file: /etc/php5/fpm/php.ini ##### Tip: php.ini is a big file. To help find this parameter, use the following command to show the line of the file on which it is set:
  cat /etc/php5/fpm/php.ini | grep -nie cgi.fix_pathinfo -n: shows line number | -i: make search case insensitive | -e: search for following stringTo change the value of the cgi.fixpathinfo property, use the following steps:1. Open the php.ini file and change the value of cgi.fix_pathinfo=0 to cgi.fix_pathinfo=1:
  sudo nano -c /etc/php5/fpm/php.ini2. Save and exit.##### Configure PHP5-FHM to use UNIX sockets instead of TCP sockets.UNIX domain sockets should be faster than communication by loopback localhost connections because you have less TCP overhead.To set PHP5-FPM to use UNIX sockets, use the following steps:1. Open the www.conf file:
  sudo nano /etc/php5/fpm/pool.d/www.conf2. Change the listen parameter line: * From : listen = 127.0.0.1:9000 * To : listen = /var/run/php5-fpm.sock3. Save and exit.#### Configure a MySQL databaseTo create and configure a database to store your WordPress content, use the following steps:1. Activate the MySQL install:
  sudo mysql_install_db2. Secure and optimize your MySQL database.
  To do this, use the following command:
  sudo /usr/bin/mysql_secure_installation * After answering the password prompts, you can enter "yes" to all the options. This secures your MySQL installation against some vulnerabilities such as anonymous users and someone guessing your root login.Now that you have activated your MySQL installation you need to set up a MySQL database. To do this, use the following steps:1. Login to the MySQL shell:
  mysql -u root -pNote: All SQL commands end with a semi-colon ;2. Create a database for your WordPress installation:
  CREATE DATABASE wordpress; * where wordpress is the name of the database created.3. Create the database user:
  CREATE USER wpuser@localhost; * Where wpuser can be any user name you wish.4. Set a password for the new user:
  SET PASSWORD FOR 'wpuser'@'localhost'= PASSWORD("user_password");5. Grant all privileges to the new user:
  GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON wordpress.* TO wpuser@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'user_password';6. Refresh MySQL:
  FLUSH PRIVILEGES;7. Exit MySQL
  EXIT#### Configure WordPress To configure WordPress, change to the WordPress install directory.* su username : switches to the new user * cd ~/wordpress
  In this directory you will see a file called wp-config-sample.php. You can use this file to create the wp-config.php file that WordPress needs to run. Once you create the wp-config.php file, you must configure it to access the MySQL database you just created. To do this, use the following commands:1. Copy the sample file to create the configuration file:
  sudo cp wp-config-sample.php wp-config.php2. Open the wp-config.php file:
  sudo nano wp-config.php3. Within this file set the following parameters: * Set the database_name_here variable to the name of the MySQL database you created. * Set the username_here variable to your database user name. * Set the password_here variable to your user database password4. Reduce the size of your WordPress database.
  WordPress autosaves posts while writing, which remain even after the post is saved in the wordpress database. To disable this function add the following line to the wp-config.php file:
  define('WP_POST_REVISIONS', false );5. Save and exitNow that you have configured WordPress, you need to allow Nginx access the files. Nginx runs on the VPS with the user name www-data, therefore to allow Nginx to serve files to the internet you must change the ownership of those files to www-data. To change your WordPress file owner settings, use the following steps: 1. Change directory to one level above your WordPress installation:
  cd ~2. Use the following command to change the ownership of all files and subdirectories in the wordpress directory:
  sudo chown -R www-data:www-data wordpress#### Configure NginxConfiguring Nginx is two separate stages.* Configuring Nginx to be more efficient * Configuring Nginx to serve your WordPress content##### Configuring Nginx to be more effecientTo configure Nginx to work optimally with your VPS, you need to make changes to the nginx.conf file located in /etc/nginx.Open the nginx.conf file with the following command:
  sudo nano /etc/nginx/nginx.confOnce opened, change or enable the parameter settings within the file as outlined in the following steps. Some of these settings are already in the file but are commented out. To enable these parameters, remove the '#' preceeding the parameter.1. Adjust the number of worker_processes to match the number of CPUs that you have available. This allows Nginx to use all available CPUs. Check the number of CPUs available with the following command: * cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep processor
  Using a server with 16 CPUs as an example:
  worker_processes 16;2. Increase the number of worker_connections if your site has high traffic. Theoretically, Nginx can handle
  max clients = worker_processes * worker_connections * worker_connections 10240;3. Change the default keepalive_timeout setting so that inactive connections are closed. * keepalive_timeout 30 15;
  These settings are in seconds. The first parameter closes connections after 30 seconds of inactivity. The optional second parameter assigns the time value in the header Keep-Alive: timeout=time of the response. This header can convince some browsers to close the connection, so that the server does not have to. 4. Enable compression using gzip on;, this is a filter that compresses responses using the gzip method. To enable compression, uncomment or configure the following parameters:gzip on;
gzip_disable "msie6";
gzip_comp_level 2;
gzip_buffers 4 8k;
gzip_http_version 1.1;``gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/x-javascript text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript;5. Disable server_tokens. This prevents nginx from displaying server information. * server_tokens off;6. If you have a very long domain name, set the server_names_hash_bucket_size to a multiple of 64. * server_names_hash_bucket_size 256;##### Configuring Nginx to serve your WordPress contentTo configure Nginx to serve your content to the web, you need to get an Nginx virtual hosts file to point to your content. In this installation the WordPress content is located in ~/wordpress, where ~ represents the home directory of the user created at the beginning of the installation.To configure Nginx to serve your content, use the following steps:1. Change to the Nginx sites-available directory:
  cd /etc/nginx/sites-available2. To create the new file use the following command:
  sudo nano wordpress.conf3. Use the sample virtual hosts file below to create your own file. This example already contains the configuration for browser cache functionality, and FastCGI with PHP FPM.
  Ensure that you set the following parameters in it: * Set the root file path to your WordPress directory location. * Set the server_name address to you domain name or IP address.4. When you have set the parameters, save and exit the file.

server {# Set Nginx to listen for incoming HTTP requests      listen   80; root /home/user/wordpress;index index.html index.php index.htm;servername your.ip.address your.website.com;location / {tryfiles $uri $uri/ /index.html;}location /doc/ {alias /usr/share/doc/;autoindex on;allow 127.0.0.1;deny all;}errorpage 404 /404.html;    errorpage 500 502 503 504 /50x.html;location = /50x.html {root /usr/share/nginx/www;}    # Set up browser caching for the following files    # .php .jpg .jpeg .png .css .ico .js .giflocation ~* .(jpg|jpeg|gif|css|png|js|ico|html)$ {    accesslog off;    expires max;  }    location ~* .php$ {    tryfiles $uri =404;    fastcgisplitpathinfo ^(.+.php)(/.+)$;fastcgipass unix:/var/run/php5-fpm.sock;fastcgiindex index.php;fastcgiparam SCRIPTFILENAME $documentroot$fastcgiscriptname;include fastcgi_params;}}

Get your footer to stay put!\n

This section of code plants the footer at the bottom of your page, and it'll stay there.

/* Create the site footer */
#site-footer {
position: absolute;
font-size: 16px;
bottom: 0px;
color: grey;
background: white;
height: 30px;
width: 100%;
text-align: center;
}

Show on hover

This bit of code can be used to enable hover to expand a menu or simply expose an undisplayed div.

.showme{ opacity: 0;}
.showhim:hover 
.showme{opacity : 1;}

Parrallel divs

This piece of code will keep 3 divs parrallel, and while it won't make the final cut it is definitely something useful to know.

Create a holder for both feeds to come into the page

#wrapper {
width: 800px; 
height: 500px; 
align: center;
margin: 0 auto;
top: 215px; 
overflow: auto;
top: 20.5%; 
}

get the tweet and blog feed positioned side by side */\n\n

#tweetfeed, #expression, #blog-feed {
border: none;\n    
min-height: 500px;\n
}

place a div between the two feeds:

#expression {
float: left;
width: 200px;
height: 500px;
}

Get the tweet feed positioned */\n\n

#tweetfeed{
float: left;
width: 300px;
height: 500px;\n
}

get the blog feed positioned */\n\n

#blog-feed{
float: left; 
width: 300px;
height: 500px;
overflow: hidden;}

Here is how that looks in action.

• Left div = Twitter feed
• Middle div = Space filled with background. Originally meant to contain a logo
• Right div = Blog feed