Web Hosting

Fun and functional ways to trick out your htaccess file

Merlin Mann — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 10:39:05 -0500

Stupid htaccess Tricks « Perishable Press

This is a terrific collection of tricks for hacking on your Apache htaccess file, including some very useful ways to save bandwidth, control site access, and generate havoc.

I have been known to do some “creative” forwarding based on referrers from time to time, and if you’re in the mood to play a bit of psychedelic traffic cop with your own hosted site, there’s enough here to keep you busy through the holiday weekend.

This one’s an old favorite, from which bandwidth can be conserved, leeches can be smote, and hilarity can ensue:

Stop Hotlinking, Serve Alternate Content

To serve ‘em some unexpected alternate content when hotlinking is detected, employ the following code, which will protect all files of the types included in the last line (add more types as needed). Remember to replace the dummy path names with real ones. Also, the name of the nasty image being served in this case is “eatme.jpe”, as indicated in the line containing the RewriteRule. Please advise that this method will also block services such as FeedBurner from accessing your images.

# stop hotlinking and serve alternate content
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?domain\.com/.*$ [NC]
RewriteRule .*\.(gif|jpg)$ http://www.domain.com/eatme.jpe [R,NC,L]
</ifModule>

”Fun and functional ways to trick out your htaccess file” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on November 22, 2006. Except as noted, it's ©2008 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Update: 43f Deals & Discounts

Merlin Mann — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 09:00:09 -0500

Just some quick reminders and news on a few current discounts and special deals available for 43f readers.

30% off DEVONtechnologies applications - This one ends tonight. Check out with code “en-promo-43f-200610” for 30% off most all DEVONtechnologies apps — including the very swell DEVONthink Pro. After midnight tonight (GMT, I’m guessing?), she is, as Daryl Hall and John Oates might say, gone.
10% off A2 web hosting for life - Ends January 10th 2007. Signup with 43f’s web hosting service to get excellent pricing and service, plus a lifetime 10% discount. Just checkout with code “YLUSPXAWOAQAVL”. A2 are very patient and helpful with me, and I suspect they will be with you as well.
35% off 43f ad space - Federated Media continues to offer a perfectly zany 35% discount on all graphical banners that are booked through their zesty online platform.

In somewhat related news, the Working and Living Life Smarter Conference announced last month is being rescheduled to a TBD date next year. Registrants have been notified and received refund info, but you should feel free to ask any questions to either the conference’s organizer, Kay Ethier (sales at aboveandbeyondlearning daht com), or me. Will update when the new dates are announced — I imagine that we’ll have another discount to offer for 43f readers.

”Update: 43f Deals & Discounts” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on November 15, 2006. Except as noted, it's ©2008 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

43F Discount: 10% off all A2 hosting..._for life_

Merlin Mann — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 05:24:20 -0400

A2 Web Hosting

As you may know, 43 Folders is hosted through our friends at A2 Web Hosting. They’ve been great to work with and have an amazing record of stepping up to the plate whenever we have any problems — even those mysterious problems that turn out to be, uh, “pilot errors.”

Well, I’m happy to announce that A2 has kindly offered a terrific deal to new customers who are 43 Folders readers. From now through January 10th 2007 (or for 5,000 registrants, whichever comes first), you’ll get 10% off your hosting fees for the lifetime of your relationship with A2. Just choose the shared, dedicated, or reseller account that suits you, then check out with the coupon code “YLUSPXAWOAQAVL”.

When you sign up in this way, 43F receives a small finder’s fee (at no additional cost to you), so it’s “win/win,” as we used to say back in Menlo Park.

Like we’ve been saying over in the siderail:

A2 supports Ruby on Rails, PHP5, MySQL 5/4.1, PostgreSQL 8.1 and SSH/shell. Prices start at a bafflingly affordable $2.95 per month.

Try A2 today »

”43F Discount: 10% off all A2 hosting..._for life_” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on October 11, 2006. Except as noted, it's ©2008 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Paul Ford: Distraction commentary on NPR's "All Things Considered"

Merlin Mann — Wed, 23 Nov 2005 17:32:41 -0500

NPR : Distracted No More: Going Back to Basics

Paul Ford’s guest post from last month evolved into an excellent commentary on tonight’s All Things Considered. Go Paul.

Distracted No More: Going Back to Basics

by Paul Ford

Commentator Paul Ford has a solution for avoiding the endless distractions a computer provides.

You can listen to it on the NPR site.

”Paul Ford: Distraction commentary on NPR's "All Things Considered"” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on November 23, 2005. Except as noted, it's ©2008 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Blowing up my pager

Merlin Mann — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 13:01:02 -0400

You can’t spell “success” without “suck.” A technology update full of laughter, tears, and Yosemite Sam-like hollerin’. And you might just learn something.

This is just to apologize both to you guys and to my very patient hosts, A2 Web Hosting for the assiness brought on by my perfect storm of events this past few days.

moved to the very fine Wordpress (bang bang bang went Señor CPU; thanks for saving my ass, WP-Cache!)
me dicking around with Mint, Pepper, and about a dozen random WP plugins (bang bang bang goes Señora SQL)
more than doubled page views per visit with the redesign (damn.)
an imperial assload of hand-crafted 301s (the equivalent of washing a barrel of rice one grain at a time)
NYT story
Digg link
moving a gig and a half of just html and graphic bandwidth each day
you magnificent bastards generally turning out in unusually high and wonderfully supportive numbers (you rule!)

So. Yeah. The server’s suicidal, and I’m hiding all the sharp stuff.

Anyhow, I’m working on upgrading to a whiz-bang new account that will afford the CPU, space, and bandwidth needed with maybe even a bit of room to grow.

Please accept my apologies—both retroactive and speculative—as 43 Folders grows into our awkward, pubescent frame.

A Transparent Plug

A2 Web Hosting has been nothing but great to me since the day I first decided to play with Ruby. They have Rails/PHP5/Fantastico, etc. accounts starting at $4.95/month and they apparently put up with choads like me. So there’s that.

Please consider patronizing them if you need a web host (plus I get a spiff if you use them, as well. Talk about win win!)

”Blowing up my pager” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on October 17, 2005. Except as noted, it's ©2008 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"