How to create a fancy Apache directory index listing with .htaccess

Published on by Klaus HarrisLeave a comment

Sometimes you don’t need a CMS and want to keep things as simple as possible. For my use case I wanted sailing club race officers to be able to upload Sailwave race results and display them in the most simple way possible.

To achieve that and ensure isolation from the website’s WordPress CMS I added a subdomain and configured a pretty Apache directory listing. Users now just upload files via FTP.

Assuming your website is running on the Apache web server, you can achieve the same with .htaccess and few tweaks.

Screen Shot 2018-08-04 at 09.18.47

See above example here, see the code which you can easily alter to suit on github.

More about this the Apache docs:

https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/mod_autoindex.html

https://httpd.apache.org/docs/trunk/howto/htaccess.html

How I’ve started using Gutenberg. Ramp!

Published on by Klaus HarrisLeave a comment

If you’re familiar with the world of WordPress you’ll know that the next version of WordPress will ship with a new editor called Gutenberg. You can read all about Gutenberg over here and try it out too.

I confess I’ve been a late adopter till now; sure I’ve experimented with Gutenberg locally but I haven’t used it on a production site, mainly because on the one public site I currently personally manage, I simply didn’t have the time to be concerned with Gutenberg  compatibility and also I didn’t want all post types edited with Gutenberg.

What is Ramp?

I work within WordPress.com VIP at Automattic and today we released a new plugin to help with Gutenberg testing and transition called Ramp.

Screen Shot 2018-06-13 at 19.42.02

Ramp basically let’s you control how you enable Gutenberg on your site. From the wordpress.org download page it says. Continue reading “How I’ve started using Gutenberg. Ramp!” →

Coaching Session

Published on by Klaus HarrisLeave a comment

I was fortunate to have a coaching session with Sam Whaley, British Sailing Team member this week. It was an enlightening experience and looking at my notes, I have a lot to work on and practise which is great. Thanks Sam.

https://youtu.be/4O8adFBDt60

I also used my new action camera for the first time, an Akaso EK7000. The recording (clips above) was at 1080p (60FPS), it stored two files; 4.6GB 25 mins, and 3.5GB 21 mins, the battery died after 46 minutes and some condensation appeared on the inside of the waterproof casing. This disappeared quickly on opening the case.

I think it’d make sense to dry the camera on a sunny window sill before using for the first time to clear out any residual moisture. For the money I think it’s fine.

RS Vareo Sailing Spring 2018

Published on by Klaus HarrisLeave a comment

Looking back (and #) to this time last year it looks like there wasn’t much wind on the days I went out and I was often looking forward to stronger winds.

2018 has been better or perhaps I’ve just been out more and I have some observations and learnings after my first full year of RS Vareo sailing.

IMG_20180522_092921179

Continue reading “RS Vareo Sailing Spring 2018” →

Birds in Napa

Published on by Klaus Harris1 Comment

Last week I attended the WordPress.com VIP workshop in Napa and this time took a camera with some zoom to get some pictures of the local wildlife.

I saw some hummingbirds up close last year and was hoping to get better shots this year. I only saw one hummingbird briefly this year but nevertheless saw a variety of species I hadn’t seen before.

Western Bluebird pair
Western Bluebird male
Western Bluebird

Western Bluebird. This pair lived outside my room and I got to know the male’s routine, he didn’t mind me getting up close at all. Continue reading “Birds in Napa” →

How to do VoIP Internet Telephony at Home

Published on by Klaus HarrisLeave a comment

When we moved to the UK from Germany in 2013 we quickly discovered BT’s high and fiddly telephone call pricing structure which soon got me thinking about how to bypass as much of their service as I could. Cheap calls and simpler pricing was a must.

Setting up a SIP phone to do VoIP (voice over IP) seemed like a good solution to reduce call costs and also make adding further landline numbers cheap and easy, SIP being part of the VoIP family of technologies. Read more about SIP vs VoIP here.

Continue reading “How to do VoIP Internet Telephony at Home” →