Apache references the .htaccess file in web document directories for access control information and other uses. A simple configuration allows password protection with multiple username/password combinations.In the directory to be protected, create a .htaccess file with contents like this: AuthType Basic AuthUserFile /safe/dir/htpasswd AuthName "Text displayed in popup" require valid-user There are many other options for .htaccess, but these are basic password related options to get started. The AuthUserFile refers to a fully qualified file that should not be in the web server document directories. The htpasswd file can be named anything, there can be multiple files storing passwords for .htaccess, and each can be shared for use in multiple directories. To create the first and second user/password pairs, use: htpasswd -cb /safe/dir/htpasswd user1 password1 htpasswd -b /safe/dir/htpasswd user2 PaSsWoRd2 Additional user/password pairs can be added using the second form. Be certa... Read More

 You may want all visitors to your site using www in front of your domain name (www.yourdomain.com) instead of just your domain name (yourdomain.com). By implementing a simple .htaccess RewriteRule, visitors to yourdomain.com will see the URL change in their browser as they are redirected to the correct URL.To redirect a URL such as "http://yourdomain.com/images/logo.png" to "http://www.yourdomain.com/images/logo.png" use: Options +FollowSymLinks RewriteEngine on RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^yourdomain\.com RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.yourdomain.com/$1 [R=permanent,L] In the RewriteRule code, the R=permanent sets the type of redirection (permanent is 301; the default is temporary or 302). The L makes this the last Rule to use and stops rewrite processing.... Read More

 After making changes to Apache's configuration file (httpd.conf), it is necessary to restart Apache for the changes to take effect. A normal restart will close active connections which may cause problems for users.To restart Apache gracefully without aborting open connections or to start Apache if it is not running: apachectl graceful If apachectl is not in your PATH and you don't know where it is, refer to the recipe Find a file by name to find the location of apachectl, then run it with the fully qualified path, for example: /usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl graceful... Read More

 After making changes to the Apache configuration file, it is a good practice to test the configuration before implementing it.To test the Apache configuration file for errors: apachectl configtest If the configuration file is fine, this command will return Syntax Ok. Otherwise, it will return detailed information about the error discovered. If apachectl is not in your PATH and you don't know where it is, refer to the recipe Find a file by name to find the location of apachectl, then run it with the fully qualified path, for example: /usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl configtest... Read More

 What do you do when you server freezes? This explains the safest steps for rebooting your apache webserver.We've all been there. You try to access your site and nothing works. You can ping and login through your shell, but apache isn't spitting out any info. Here is how to fix it. Short Version: 1. Login as root 2. Try apachectl graceful 3. If doesn't work, apachectl stop 4. ps -ef | grep http 5. apachectl start Long Version: 1. Login and obtain root 2. Type in apachectl graceful and hit enter. This attempts to reboot apache "gracefully" and is the safest way to reboot the server. 3. Try to access your webserver again. If apache is truely locked, often the graceful restart will not work. Give it a minute or two and refresh the site to see if apache is spitting information again. 4. If graceful doesn't work, then you'll need to be a little rougher. Rebooting this way increases your risk of badness; however, if apache is frozen, you are not accessing much data anyway. 5. Type in apachect... Read More

 Always good to preserve your battery on mobile devices because they always seem to die when you need them most. Here are some generic tips for Blackberry battery longevity and some information that is model specific.Wireless connectivity requires a substantial power drain, so turning it off when it is not needed is a great savings. In the home page, look for the icon that resembles a radio tower which should say "Turn wireless off" (or on, if it is already off) and click the wheel. Devices accessing these networks typically use more power when the signal is low, so in fringe coverage areas, turning off the wireless will have a greater effect. Unless you really need to know that you got a new piece of spam mail at 3AM, you can have your Blackberry automatically turn itself off at a set time each day. To enable this, click on the Options icon in the home page and click on Auto On/Off. When you click there, you have the option of setting the on and off times and the option to enable or di... Read More

 Having to scroll back and forth over unused applications will wear out your thumb. Place your most frequently used applications close together on the home screen to make your life easier.To move an application icon on the home screen of your Blackberry, roll over the application, press the Alt key (the one that looks a little like a crescent moon) and click the wheel. Select Move Application and roll the wheel until you find the right place for the application and press the wheel again to put the application there.... Read More

 When adding or editing a contact in your Blackberry, there is only one email field visible. This simple recipe describes how to add multiple email addresses for a contact.When creating or adding a contact, click the wheel and select Add Email Address. Another email field will be visible and you can edit the new email address. This process can be repeated to add more email addresses.... Read More

 You may never use some of the applications in the home screen on your Blackberry. To simplify your Blackberry life, you can easily hide some of them.To hide an application, use the scroll wheel to highlight the app, press the alt key (crescent moon) and press the scroll wheel. In the menu that appears, select Hide Application and press the scroll wheel. The application no longer shows up on the home screen, but it is still installed on the Blackberry. Note, some applications cannot be hidden. If you don't see the Hide Application choice in the menu, then you know it can't be hidden.... Read More

 If you (or your seven year old) have hidden applications on your Blackberry, it is simple to view them again.From the home screen, press the alt key (crescent moon) and press the scroll wheel. In the menu that pops up, select Show All and click the scroll wheel. Applications that are hidden are now visible and have an X through them. To make hidden applications invisible again, repeat the process above.... Read More

 How to change your homepage on IE.Ever wanted to change your homepage to a site that doesnt have a quick button to hit? Well this is how. 1. Pull up any site at all.(what your reading this from works fine) 2. Hit Tools at the top menu inbetween Favorites and Help. 3. Select Internet Options. 4. Now look for the URL in the selction labeled Homepage: a. type in what ever site you want it to be. b. if you are on the site you want to become your homepage than juss simply hit Use Current. 5. Now hit OK and enjoy your new homepage.... Read More

 Learn the easy way to change your homepage in any browser.To do this all you do is: 1. Drag the favicon or the logo of the browser(the logo to the left of the address in the address bar) to the home button/icon on the standard buttons toolbar. For example: Drag that "chef's hat" that you see on the address bar beside the tech-recipes URL to the home button. 2.Click Yes and this will automatically become your homepage! This way you can change your homepage in two seconds! *Note: This trick works with most of the browsers... and you can also drag a link to the page you want to set as your homepage to the home button!... Read More

 Duplicating tabs in both of these browsers is accomplished the same way. Here's the shortcut to do it.As much as they are different, these two tabbed-browsers do a lot of things the same. The most useful thing in common is the shortcut to duplicate a tab. Here's how... 1. Open either firefox or IE7 2. Click in the address bar 3. Press ALT-ENTER 4. Your current tab will be duplicated. Yes, this works in both tabbed browsers.... Read More

 Sprint allows you to upload your pictures and videos to its website. Here's the google search to find them all.A buddy of mine just sent me a URL to his Sprint PCS photo collection. They were so funny, I decided to see what other people had uploaded from their cell phone. Here's the google search that worked well for me. google: intitle:"Pictures from Sprint:View Thumbnails" site:pictures.sprintpcs.com Some examples found... This, for example, reminds me of office space. Is this band any good? And what about these crazy kids? If somebody will post in the comments other similiar cell phone services, I'll try to pound out the google searches for those too...... Read More

 We all knew it was going to happen. Here's the first review of Google Reader -- Google's RSS Aggregator.It's AJAX, it's sexy, it's an RSS Reader to kill all other RSS readers. reader.google.com You first login with your typical google sign-in. The stepwise drawing the user into a portal system is taking hold. "Why not just hit gmail and my RSS at the same time?" many people will ask. The AJAX "everything slides around" eye-candy is there. Google is obviously embracing tags... although they call them labels. Every subscription and every post in every subscription can be uniquely tagged for later search quickness. Feeds and feed entries can also be starred (like gmail) or easy recovery. OPML importing and exporting is easily handled and will many users to switch very quickly. Speaking of quickness, google is fast. Speed has been my biggest complaint against all the online web aggregators so far... and so far Google Reader is fast. Of course, you could argue that it is not under stress ye... Read More

 The New RSS Reader from Google will allow you to import your subscriptions from other services. Here is directions on importing those feeds into the google service.First you must export your subscriptions into an OPML file. Outline Processor Markup Language (OPML) is the typical format that RSS aggregators import and export the subscription list. Now to import your OPML file into Google: 1. Login to Google Reader 2. Click Your Subscription 3. Click the More Actions dropdown 4. Select Import 5. Browse for your OPML file 6. Click Open 7. Click Upload 8. You will see the following displayed until it is done: Your subscriptions are being imported...... Read More

 Google has recently added the ability to search for copyright-free, license-free information.Looking through the results returned, I am not sure how google decides what information has a license and what does not. Information under the Creative Common License is included in this search. How to Search for License-Free or Creative Common License Material: 1. Goto google advance search 2. Input your search text in the Find Results box 3. Under Usage Rights select: can be freely modified, adapted, or built upon 4. Hit the Google Search button Here's a license-free search for XP At the top of the search page you can easily see the option to search for license material or not: Search only pages that can be freely modified, adapted or built upon Examing the URL you can see the new search options... http://www.google.com/search?as_q=xp&as_rights=%28cc_publicdomain%7Ccc_attribute%29.-%28cc_noncommercial%7Ccc_nonderived%7Ccc_sharealike%29 cc_publicdomain cc_attribute cc_noncommerical cc_nonderiv... Read More

 Type in anything in the Google Search box without clicking on it.Okay, so you want to search something using the Google toolbar. Instead of clicking on the Google search box, there is a easier way to do this! If you don't have the Google toolbar then you can get it at http://toolbar.google.com/firefox/ (for firefox) Then when you want to use this "quick trick" all you do is press Alt+any key. But make sure that you don't use the keys that activate any other feature (if you use numbers you can avoid unexpected reactions). For example if you press Alt+F the file menu is going to open up. You can press any other key. This way if you want to search anything from the window all you do is press Alt+key this is going to automatically take your cursor to the text box in Google search bar. Type in what you want to search and click on enter. Note: This "quick trick" only seems to work in FireFox.... Read More

 Navigating analytics can be painful. This explains how to see what people are linking to your site using google's new free service.When setting up a new site with google analytics, the most frequent question I get is this: How can I see who is linking to me? The information is there; it's just hidden away. How to see the Full Referrer Path: 1. Log-in to Analytics 2. Click Marketing Optimization 3. Click Marketing Campaign Results 4. Click Referral Conversion 5. You probably want to increase your display amount 6. Click the + beside each site to see the pages within that site are linking to you. Sadly, they do not provide you an easy link to click to view the referring site...... Read More

 When using google SiteSearch, you can have the search box default to google or to your own site. It is not obvious how to change this choice so this should point it out to you. Google SiteSearch is an excellent tool to add to your site. It allow people to search your site with google's excellent search engine... and it gives you an additional way to make money through adsense. Although SiteSearch typically defaults to searching the web first, you can change the default if you wish. You change it by selecting the correct button in the Search Type example. I have highlighted this area in red for you below: After you click this button, copy the adsense SiteSearch code and place it within your site. By defaulting to your own site first, you reward your users by allowing them an easy way to search through your site. However, if they don't find it on your site, the sitesearch will give you an additional chance to yield an ad click from them.... Read More