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Hosting a website with LAMP on Debian 10

Many people have asked me over the years for assistance setting up a website. I’m no expert in hosting one, and until now never took the time to learn. It took my girlfriend asking for help to make me seriously consider assisting instead of pointing to a company that specializes in web hosting. Only time will tell if we made the right decision in self-managing our own domains and servers. At least I will have learned a lot by the end of this journey, whenever that may be.

Since I already had a VPS (Virtual Private Server) that I use daily, and some experience with Linux administration I can thank a previous employer for allowing me to learn with, I was able to extrapolate and iterate on those past experiences. I definitely wanted to tackle it using open-source tools, and it only took a tiny bit of effort to get started thanks to the guides offered by Digital Ocean and Linode.

For Linux, I prefer Debian because I’m familiar with it and it’s one of the most widely known distributions of Linux available. I needed to need to install a set of packages on Linux, called Apache, MySQL (Maria db), and PHP2. This is a guide I wrote afterward, and I hope to be able to follow it to success again in the future.

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Ignoring UAC

set __compat_layer=RunAsInvoker

That simple environmental variable will allow you to ignore the UAC prompt and still execute the program (or at least try to). You still won’t have administrator privileges but sometimes, in a corporate environment, you run into a program that’s being blocked due to (poor) blanket security configuration.

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Thai Iced Tea

Ingredients:

  • 4 cups water
  • 4 organic black tea bags
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 anise stars
  • 1 green cardamom pod , smashed
  • 2 whole cloves
  • 1 cup half and half (approximately), (some folks also use coconut milk, whole milk, sweetened condensed milk)
  • ice

My fiancée wanted to enjoy some Thai Tea at home, and at first we just bought some bags of flavored tea. It was fine, but missing… something. So, as a loose-leaf tea enthusiast, I suggested trying to make it from scratch.

We stumbled at first, following recipe’s from larger sites that threw everything in but the kitchen sink, but by attempt/recipe three, we found it: an excellent recipe from WhiteonRiceCouple. I gotta hand it to them and give much respect to their Auntie Chung: It’s really really, really really really, outstandingly good. In fact, it hits the mark so well, it will change our take-out-Thai game. Immensely.

As for the instructions, please go to their blog to find that. I only copied the ingredients so I can find it faster in the future. But it’s not complicated: Fill pot with 4.5 cups of water, set it to boil your usual way. Instead of attempting to be enthralled by watching water boil, gather the remaining ingredients. Place the green cardamom pod in a tea filter/bag, and crush it lightly, add the star anise and cloves to the filter. When the water finally starts to boil, turn it down a bit, and toss in the tea bags, and your herb bag. Let that simmer for a few minutes, as you stir in your sugar until it’s melted in. Place the top on, turn the heat off, and wait.

The hardest part is waiting. Let this sit for at least 30 minutes, and up to 2 hours. The additional time will ensure a deeper flavor profile to your tea.

See, easy. But do yourself a favor and follow the real recipe and instructions from WhiteOnRiceCouple. They have some great photos, and the backstory on it is touching. Additionally, there’s an alternative method that uses some prepped stuff. But I like scratch.

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Big Mom’s Sweet Potato Pie

Ingredients (makes 2+ pies), Straight from my Big Mom’s mouth:

  • 5 Large Yams
  • 6 Eggs
  • 1 Cup Brown Sugar
  • 1 1/2 Cup White Sugar
  • 2 Cans of Evaporated Milk
  • 1 1/2 cube butter
  • 1 teaspoon powdered sugar, nutmeg
  • 3-4 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon cloves

Modified Ingredients (makes 2 pies, far less sugar):

  • 4 Cups Yams (Peeled, Steamed then Mashed)
  • 6 Large Eggs
  • 3/4 Cup Brown Sugar (packed tight)
  • 2/3 Cup White Sugar
  • 20 oz Evaporated Milk
  • 1 Cube Unsalted Butter
  • 1 teaspoon grated Nutmeg
  • 4 teaspoon Cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp pulverized Cloves
  • 1/2 tsp salt

Instructions: Peel your yams, should need about 4 medium sized yams, and chop them up into similar sizes, I like to cut them into discs about 1″ across in the center piece and roughly similar volume sizes after. Steam these bad boys. If you don’t have a steamer, boiling is okay, or bake. If you bake them, leave them in the skin, and let them cool before handling.

While those are cooking, prepare your remaining ingredients. Feel free to mix the spices in a single ramekin or bowl. Divide Evaporated Milk into two separate 10 oz portions, you’ll have some left over for your Tea or Coffee. Lightly beat your eggs and lightly whisk or stir in the white sugar and 1 portion of evaporated milk. Set aside.

When the potatoes are ready drain them in a colander over the sink, and be cautious of the released steam. Once they’ve stopped steaming, return them to the now empty, but still warm, pot. Mash them well, and mix the butter, then the brown sugar in thoroughly. Now, stir in the dry spices (cinnamon, nutmeg & cloves).

Now, stir in the other 10oz portion of evaporated milk When that’s thick and viscous, stir in the egg mixture until it’s all one homogeneous amalgamation.

Let it sit for a bit, while you prep your pie crust in the fashion you deem appropriate. My Big Mom always bought pre-made shells in my life-time. But a delicious butter, buttermilk or lard crust is great with this.

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Alexa, Samuel L. Jackson

Today, Amazon unlocked the celebrity voice option featuring Samuel L. Jackson for their Virtual Assistant Alexa. It’s introduced at $0.99 , but will settle at $4.99 “soon” – I wouldn’t pay $5 for what I’m sure will just be a novelty voice, but I have happily paid $1.

On the off-chance someone stumbles upon this, during it’s introductory fee, and gets a kick out of Sam Jackson’s personality, and has an Alexa device in their home… then I hop this saves someone some cash. https://amazon.com/AskSam (this is a smile.amazon link, because you should shop that way to help a non-profit of your choice)

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beaucoup

beaucoup | beau·coup | ˌbōˈko͞o
(adjective, informal US)

  1. many or much.”there were beaucoup bucks on the line”

ORIGIN
mid 18th century: French, ‘a large quantity, a lot’.

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I’m Whisker-rich, pronounced whiskrich

The other night, while whipping up a few of my Big Mom’s sweet potato pies, I was suddenly charmed by the number of whisks I’ve accumulated since returning to California. There was a time in my life where I only had one whisk… amusingly (in hindsight at least), I also kept my facial hair to a minimum, and hence: I was whisk-poor.

Since then, I’ve grown a pretty impressive ‘stache, and acquired 5+ whisks; two are squirreled away for a rainy day. So, now I’m rich with whisks and whiskers. I’m whisk-rich.

I look forward to becoming whisk-wealthy but that just doesn’t have the same zing. But I find it an endearing thought to think about a snapshot of me me whisking whiskey while ‘wearing’ whiskers (now, do I mean just me, or friends with whisks, whisking egg whites for a meringue?). An epitome of frivolity and senseless humor.

Now, in sinks the slight trepidation at the idea of following a Marie Kondo style clean-up of thing’s that don’t bring me joy. I can find joy in the most mundane things…

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Initializing…

NeuroticApe… I sure am. My intention for this blog is to satisfy my own edification and posterity: to keep a record of problems I run into as a general IT professional or that friends, family and life throw at me.

Perhaps now I can stop fooling myself into thinking that I’ll actually remember how I set up some esoteric or ancient software. Like that one time, 5 months ago in the middle of a hectic day…. only time will tell.

Oh, and digression is on the agenda as well. And pie. Lots of pie. You do know that the cake is a lie?