Aug

25

SVN AUTO UPDATING A DEV SERVER ON COMMIT

August 25, 2013 | 1 Comment

My goal here was to update a dev server anytime I commit a file. The simpliest way to do that seemed to create a post-commit hook. The difficulty though, came from file ownership and user issues. Basically, the post-commit script is executed as Apache : www-data on debian. And this user, on my setup, didn’t […]

Jun

4

Apache : mod_vhost_alias

June 4, 2013 | Leave a Comment

The mod_vhost_alias offers a powerful way to map URL and file locations. Do you remember in school, when you had an user account on the school’s server and each student could host a website out of his home’s www folder ? Well, the school admin was using Apache’s mod_userdir to map urls such as school.com/student/index.html […]

Jan

31

How to install Dropbox client on a windowless debian server

January 31, 2013 | Leave a Comment

I use Dropbox to sync, among other things, many of my application and profile settings (.bashrc files for example or Sublime Text preferences). I wanted to synchronize these same files with my Debian server even though it does not have a graphical interface installed. Good news, it’s possible. Yes, Dropbox rocks ! How to Download […]

Dec

30

Analyze your web server logs using Piwik

December 30, 2012 | Leave a Comment

Piwik is an open source Google Analytics like tool. Normally, it works by setting up piwik and adding a tracking code (JS or PHP or any code able to call the API) to record your site’s or app’s usage. Another option is to use piwik to analyze your webserver’s logs to generate tracking infos for […]

Apr

26

A Single User Across Multiple Computers

April 26, 2011 | 1 Comment

The problem : The problem is famous : how to keep multiple computers in sync in order to have access to our data no matter where we are, no matter which computer we are using. It isn’t the first time I wonder about how to improve this aspect of my computer setup and I must […]

Apr

24

Dead iMac, a geek’s nightmare (with Happy Ending)

April 24, 2011 | 1 Comment

On tuesday this week, my iMac started acting up. It would boot successfully, run normally for a while but sometimes hang from 20 to 60 seconds in a row with the spinning beach ball cursor. I quickly identified two things : hangs would occur when launching apps or triggering the launcher (spotlight, Alfred) which meant […]

Apr

17

Change the default language and keyboard layout of a Debian machine

April 17, 2011 | Leave a Comment

Recently, I was given a Virtual Machine development appliance to work with. The machine was running Debian which I like but it had been installed in French which I … dislike. First, I find Debian to be not so well translated and I’d rather use it in English. Second, I use qwerty keyboards so the […]

Apr

17

Convert a VMWare Player appliance to be used with Virtual Box

April 17, 2011 | 1 Comment

As I understand, this post might soon be outdated if the next version of Virtual Box does manage to natively run VMWare Player appliances. Still, this version hasn’t be released yet and, since the VMWare Player doesn’t exist for OS X, I had to convert an appliance from VMWare player to Virtual Box. Here are […]

Apr

10

Getting rid of the .DS_Store files

April 10, 2011 | Leave a Comment

If you are a Mac user only, you might not be aware of the trail of files our OS leaves in every folder you open and browse but as soon as you share data/external hard drives or network drives with a Windows or Linux user (or if you use multiple OS) they become a bummer […]

Feb

27

Creating a Mac OS X Finder Droplet for iTerm

February 27, 2011 | 3 Comments

Recently, I stumbled on the Textmate droplet by Henrik Nyh allowing me to quickly open a file or a folder in Textmate by dragging it to the Finder toolbar. Since I had just setup iTerm2 and learned to script it with AppleScript, I figured I’d put the two together and create my own iTerm2 droplet. […]

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  • About Me


    photo of Samantha Halfon Samantha Halfon
    Software Engineer
    blueKiwi software
    Paris, France
    I enjoy playing with my computer(s), listening to Bob Dylan (and related artists) and watching movies (especially if they were directed by Martin Scorsese or John Cassavetes). Sometimes, I play a little guitar... If not doing any of the above, I am either riding a small red bike around Paris, or, making videos. About my videomaking please check out World Wide Angle and its blog.