Author: Frankie

Self-Signed SSL Certificate

Self-Signed SSL Certificate

If you are planning on developing or customizing some web systems such as WordPress or Magento, then at one point you will need some security. You might want to sign the SSL certificate yourself. A number of guides exists for this, for Windows Systems I found the one by Shivprasad Koirala to be very intuitive and for Unix systems the one by Heroku and Scott Baker are best. Here are the steps required:

  1. Check that openssl is installed by running the following command in a terminal:
    which openssl
     
  2. If no such file is found then you need to install. Here are the possible installation methods
    1. Mac OSX – Via Homebrew: homebrew install openssl
    2. Windows – Download software package.
    3. Linux (Debian/Ubuntu Variants) – Guide – sudo apt-get install openssl
    4. Linux (RedHat Variants) – Guide – yum install openssl

     

  3. Generate the keys for the Certificate Authority
    openssl genrsa -des3 -out ca.key 4096
    openssl req -new -x509 -days 3650 -key ca.key -out ca.crt
     
  4. Generate the private key for your server
    openssl genrsa -des3 -out server.key 4096
     
  5. Create the certificate signing request to be signed (leave challenge password and organization name empty)
    openssl req -new -key server.key -out server.csr
     
  6. Sign your certificate
    openssl x509 -req -days 3650 -in server.csr -CA ca.crt -CAkey ca.key -set_serial 01 -out server.crt
     
  7. Optionally remove the password
     openssl rsa -in server.key -out server.key.nopass

For some documentation about how to use openssl check the official site.

Subtypes or Roles for parties

Recently I participated in a discussion of a common problem in data modelling. The question is whether to represent parties (groups) as roles or as subtypes (generalisation hierarchy).

When designing the Conceptual Data Model, parties can be represented as subtypes provided there is a common context amongst sub-types. In the Logical Model, subtypes should be represented only if each subtype has a unique concept that the others don’t.

You can read view the LinkedIn discussion here and/or see my Short notes on Barker’s ERD Notation.

MAMP, MySQL Workbench, WordPress installation and setup guide for MAC

MAMP, MySQL Workbench, WordPress installation and setup guide for MAC

Another task that I needed to do after buying my Mac was to get my Web toolkit working. Apache, MySQL and PHP are very conveniently managed by MAMP, WordPress is as straight forward as always. MySQL Workbench required some fine tuning but managed to fix it properly.

 

Decided to document everything as I went along and prepared a well documented guide with some of my personal recommendations. Hope you will find it useful and as always all feedback is welcome.

 

MAMP, MySQL Workbench and WordPress setup guide

 

Remote Access a system across different OS (A TeamViewer Guide)

Remote Access a system across different OS (A TeamViewer Guide)

One of my first tasks I wanted to be able to do after getting my Mac was to be able to remotely connect to my servers and a number of other trusted systems for support. I wanted to try a number of options and my first serious attempt was with TeamViewer.

My Laptop is a Mac, my Home-PC is Ubuntu Linux and my wife uses Windows XP. I installed version 7.0 of TeamViewer on each OS and got remote access in no time. Thought of creating a short guide on the subject even though the application is very self intuitive.

So here is the guide to getting remote access across different Operating Systems using TeamViewer: TeamViewer Guide

NTFS Read/Write support on Mac OSX Lion

NTFS Read/Write support on Mac OSX Lion

One of the first problems I encountered on my Mac was how to manage some external drives using NTFS. After reading a number of blogs, postings and articles I found the one by Sergey Vasilyev to be the best. The following is a quick guide to getting NTFS read/write support on OSX Lion.

  1. Tuxera MacFuse 2.2: Download Tuxera MacFuse 2.2 from here and install.
  2. NTFS-3G: Download NTFS-3G from here and install.
  3. fuse_wait: Update the fuse_wait script by downloading and installing the setup from here.

Next time you connect a storage device with NTFS you should be able to read/write from/to it.
Do note that there are a number of paid alternatives and a more detailed explanation can be found in the original blog of Sergey Vasilyev at http://blog.nolar.info/ntfs-3g-in-mac-os-x-lion-10-7-with-read-write-support/

ERD Modelling using Barker’s Notation

ERD Modelling using Barker’s Notation

A key process in database development is obviously database modelling and the main diagrams used are ERD. A number of notations exist, some particular to evangelised by particular DBMS. Here I am documenting a short course/notes about ERD modelling using the Barker’s notation, which is greatly adopted by Oracle.

As usual here is the link, do feel free to comment!

Short notes on Barker’s ERD Notation

Diving

Being blessed by being Maltese, it was inevitable that a love for the sea would grow. Every Summer I would head off for the sea snorkeling. Then at the age of twenty I started the diving course and four years ago I started taking some underwater photography. My all time favorite was at the very beginning of a dive! We start descending, then for some reason I turn back to check on my buddy, Roberto! Click! A great shot is taken! Judge for yourself and comment!

Abseiling in Imtahleb

It was a chilly Sunday morning, we met at the Roman Villa, Rabat then headed off to Imtahleb. Roberto and myself secured the ropes, descended slowly to check the terrain and arrange the ropes. All was set and we descended a few more times! Really enjoyed it! First using the double-stop-descender, then a couple of times using figure of eights. Lastly we raced down the slope before we called it a day!

The rope setup for a beginner’s abseiling trial!
The view whilst abseiling at Imtahleb!
The track taken from top to bottom!
Roberto (left) and myself (right) starting our descent!
Roberto and myself racing to the end!

A very enjoyable Sunday morning!

SQL for not registering employees for conflicting appointments!

SQL for not registering employees for conflicting appointments!

I was once asked by a fellow colleague if it was possible to have an SQL statement that would not allow employees from being registered to events that occur simultaneously.

Scenario

Consider a database that stores a list of persons and a list of events. Employees would eventually be registered as event attendees. It is possible that multiple events occur at the same time and therefore it is required that the SQL statement prevent any persons from being registered as attendees of conflicting events. It was required that the solution be all in one SQL statement for some reason whatsoever.

The SQL solution is found attached together with a supporting report! As always all feedback and queries are welcome!

Register employees for non conflicting events

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