Michael McNamara

technology, networking, virtualization and IP telephony

I’m making the jump to HTTPS and SSL for this blog

by

In early January I enabled HTTPS/SSL on the discussion forums with the primary goal of securing user credentials that were being used to log into the forums. Almost twelve months later I’ve found some free time to migrate my blog to HTTPS/SSL as well. The goal is essentially the same, however, this change is more to protect my credentials as I’m really the only user that logs into WordPress. That said there’s more to secure than just the user credentials. Security is becoming a big and bigger topic as ISPs have been taking more and more liberties with customer traffic. While some ISPs have been data mining and profiling their customer traffic other ISP are actively inserting third parties cookies and headers into the datastream. You only need to search Google for a few minutes to find some blatant examples. It’s one of the reasons I’ve started using private VPN services, using HTTPS/SSL over an IPSec VPN I should say.

In addition, Google has been using HTTP/HTTPS signals in their ranking for quite a few months now. Not sure if that will have any impact on my little blog but I’m happy to try and push that percentage of sites using HTTPS/SSL just a little higher.

I purchased a wildcard SSL certificate from RapidSSL that covers *.michaelfmcnamara.com. I have multiple servers and virtual hosts so it only made sense to purchase a wildcard certificate instead of purchasing multiple individual certificates.

The installation was pretty simple, I did need to bundle all the certificates including the root GeoTrust Global CA, the intermediate RapidSSL SHA265 CA – G3 and then my certificate into the certificate file so the browser was presented the proper SSL chaining. I changed the WordPress Address and Site Address URLs from within WordPress and then I setup a redirect from Nginx;

server {
    listen              [::]:80;
    server_name         blog.michaelfmcnamara.com mirror.michaelfmcnamara.com;

    return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}

I also had to make a few small changes to the Google Adsense scripts.

Any Issues?

Yes, there will be a few issues… Internet Explorer 8 for Windows XP doesn’t support SNI (Server Name Indicator) so that browser won’t be able to connect now that I’ve enabled two SSL enabled sites on the same IP address using two different certificates in Nginx. If you are still using Internet Explorer 8 on Windows XP you should really consider migrating off Windows XP.

Are you going to enable HTTPS/SSL on your blog or website?

Cheers!

Update: December 30, 2015 –  I had issues uploading images via WordPress after turning on the HTTP redirect. I was getting the error “An error occurred in the upload. Please try again later.” when I tried to upload an image via HTTPS/SSL. I had to go into wp-config.php and add the following, “define(‘FORCE_SSL_ADMIN’, true);” which appears to have resolved the problem.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2015

by

Last year at this time I had pictures from a few different snow storms to post with this greeting. This year it’s been extremely warm around southeastern Pennsylvania so this picture is from our Washington, DC trip in the summer.

IMG_20150810_111551569_HDR-scale

I hope you and your family have a Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year!

Cheers!

Oracle spams IT professionals blames network issue

by

Why is it that people still try to blame the network when either they don’t completely understand what broke or when they don’t want to admit what actually happened? It’s the digital equivalent of sweeping it under the rug… it was the networks fault.

Here’s a great example from Oracle. On Tuesday December 8th I received 12 messages from Oracle with the subject, “2016 Commerce Survey and a $25 Amazon Gift Card” between 6:00AM and 6:45AM EST. As a side note, they weren’t offering a $25 Amazon gift card for completing the survey, you would be entered to win a $25 Amazon gift card for completing the survey – see the difference?

This morning I received a follow-up from Zach Hanlon with the following explanation;

OracleNetworkIssue

If I’m an industry expert then please treat me as one and don’t just “blame the network”. I find it fascinating that there’s no mention of human error anywhere in the above statement. It’s certainly possible that “network problems” could have interrupted some process but I usually find that issues like these have multiple causes.

While I’m on my rant if you really value my input then you won’t insult my intelligence with that clickbait subject line next time.

Cheers!

Rollerblade Macroblade 90 – Impressive Skates

by

This morning I debuted a pair or Rollerblade Macroblade 90’s on the Schuylkill River Trail between Pawlings Road and Rt 202 in Norristown, PA. It was a leisurely 13+ mile skate as I tested out my new skates only occasionally pushing the pace when I needed to pass some bikes. The skates are relatively comfortable, even while breaking them in. I ended up getting only small blisters on both feet (on my big toe nonetheless). The skates provided an extremely smooth and silent ride with great excellent power transfer in each stroke and great stability through each stride.

Workout June 7 2015

As is usually the chase on the Schuylkill River Trail there was a headwind heading toward Norristown and then a really strong headwind along Rt 422 heading back toward Pawlings road. Only rarely do I end up with the headwind behind me pushing me along.

I was easily able to maintain a high tempo with the SG9 bearings and 90mm wheels so I pushed the distance bit to provide a good workout.

I’m happy to report that I’m down 24 lbs. in my battle of the bulge after about 7 weeks of eating smarter and working out.

Cheers!

Personal Fitness – Losing the spare tire

by

A few weeks ago I started a “Biggest Loser” competition at work, trying to foster a healthier lifestyle and better eating habits mixed up with a little friendly competition from my coworkers. I weighed in at a whopping 321 lbs which is a lifetime personal high for me. Almost 3 weeks later I’m off to a good start having lost almost 20 lbs weighing in at 301.

I’ve been a Fitbit and Withings user for more than 3 years now so I can look back at the data and easily see how I’ve let things get out of control. You can easily see that things started to get really bad just before January 2015.

WeightIncrease2012

I’m no fitness or nutrition expert… far from it but I’ll share what seems to be working for me.

I’ve cut out the after dinner snacks or desserts, I’ve reduced the portion sizes I eat, I’ve taken to eating more fruit, I’ve cut out the soda and Gatorade and just drink water now and I’ve taken to working out for at least 60 minutes 4 times a week while I try to walk at least 3 times a week for 2 miles or more. Working out can be boring and it’s hard for me to stay motivated, so a little friendly competition is just what I need to keep myself engaged.

I still enjoy in-line skating and the Valley Forge Schuylkill River Trail offers a really smooth virtually flat trail for joggers, bikers and skaters.

I was out this morning and was able to complete a 11 mile circuit in just over an hour. Unfortunately it had rained last night so the sections of the trail that were covered by the tree canopy were still wet and if you’ve ever skated on wet roads you’ll know that it’s akin to skating on ice with rubber feet – it’s hard to get traction and extremely slippery. And to that the leaves and other debris on the trail that you usually find on a tree covered trail and it can get really interesting. It can also occasionally be dangerous as I was reminded this morning when I wiped out at Betzwood, my wet wheels failing to grip the surface as I rounded a curve. I’ve got a nice case of road rash up my right leg for my inattentiveness.

InlineSkate-ValleyForge-051715

I used the Fibit application on my Android smartphone to track my exercise above, I only just realized recently the Fitbit app could do that.

What are you doing to stay fit?

Cheers!

Recent Posts

Categories

SUBSCRIBE BY EMAIL