A great article! I love it.
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/no-one-nos-learning-to-say-no-to-bad-ideas/
Quote:
No One Nos: Learning to Say No to Bad Ideas
by Whitney Hess
* Published in: Business, Project Management and Workflow
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No One Nos: Learning to Say No to Bad Ideas
No. One word, a complete sentence. We all learned to say it around our first birthday, so why do we have such a hard time saying it now when it comes to our work?
Guilt. Fear. Pressure. Doubt. As we grow up, we begin to learn that not doing what others expect of us can lead to all sorts of negative consequences. It becomes easier to concede to their demands than to stand up for ourselves and for what is right.
Need to no
As a user experience designer, I have made a career out of having to say No. It is my job to put an end to bad design practices within an organization before I can make any progress on improving the lives of our customers. And it’s rarely easy.
My client says, “I want to build a spaceship!” I say, “No, we need to make a kite.”
My client says, “We need to keep that space blank for my next genius idea!” I say, “No, we’ll find space for your idea once you have one.”
My client says, “I want this done tomorrow!” I say, “No, it will take a month.”
I am a human brake pad.
Each one of us brings an area of specialization to our projects, and it is our responsibility to exhibit that expertise. If you don’t know anything that no one else on your team knows, then it’s probably time to walk away. But if you do, it is your duty to assert that capability and share your knowledge for the betterment of the final product.
Mahatma Gandhi said, “A ‘no’ uttered from deepest conviction is better and greater than a ‘yes’ merely uttered to please, or what is worse, to avoid trouble.” As people who create stuff with the hope that other people will use it, it is outright cowardly for us to protect ourselves before defending the needs of our users.
When to no
When I’m incredibly passionate about something, I tend to be stubborn. And when I recognize a problem, I’m not one to keep it inside. As a result, I have had some situations with teammates and clients in which I have been rather abrasive with my delivery of a no. Fearful that I won’t be heard or understood, I have overemphasized my position to the point that people don’t hear what I said but how how I said it.
Having been made aware of this issue and given the opportunity to fix it, I can freely admit now that it was getting in the way of my ultimate goal—helping people. As practitioners in design and development, there are many common difficult situations in which we may find ourselves, and there are tactful ways to handle them. Perhaps you will recognize a few of the following.
Citing best practices
When you’re hired to serve a specific function on your team but are asked to do something you’re not comfortable with, often the best way to say no is to simply educate the other on best practices.
Kelly Andrews, owner of 1618design, recently received a client request to remove a quick e-mail-only mailing list signup from their site in favor of a full-page signup form.
Fearing that this would significantly decrease their number of subscribers, Andrews informed them that it is common practice for websites to include a quick subscribe since most people don’t want to spend the time filling out a form. A simple but powerful business case: The shorter option “would allow for immediate capture of interested people,” he explained. And they were sold. They hadn’t considered that before, but once they had that information, it armed them with the power to make a better choice. “The client was happy with the decision,” Andrews said. “She thanked me for being an expert and educating her instead of just doing what was asked.”
Data reigns
When Samantha LeVan worked as a user experience designer at Corel, she was surrounded by a large team of engineers who were also accustomed to doing design. Most of the time, they had really interesting ideas that LeVan enjoyed riffing off of, but now and then they got stuck in the details and LeVan would have to make her case.
In one particular design, one of the engineers insisted that a drop-down component was necessary for the selection of three options. LeVan urged that three radio buttons would be more appropriate, but the engineer was unconvinced. The disagreement went on for a few days before LeVan realized that she needed data to support her case.
She turned to the CogTool—a UI prototyping tool that automatically evaluates the effectiveness of a design based on a “predictive human performance model”—developed at Carnegie Mellon University. The results showed that expert use task time was dramatically reduced with radio buttons over drop-downs. Seeing the facts, the engineer relented.
“Your opinion won’t matter,” says LeVan. “It’s important that you prove your point with numbers.”
Pricing yourself out
Sometimes the best way to say no to bad design is not to take on the project in the first place. When Charlene Jaszewski, a freelance content strategist, was recently asked to help a friend’s brother with a website for his concrete company, she knew he had a limited budget but expected that she could help him limit the scope.
“Besides wanting ‘flying’ menus on each and every page, in a different style for each page,” Jaszewski recounts, “he wanted huge orange diamonds for the menus on the front page, and to top it off, he wanted a custom-made animation of a concrete truck on the front page and in the sidebar of every other page—the barrel rolling around with the logo of his company.” Now that just gives me shivers.
Jaszewski advised that his customers would be more interested in some relevant content, such as a portfolio of his previous work, but he was convinced that he needed lots of flashy extras to impress his visitors. And he wouldn’t give up.
Not wanting to overtly turn down the work, Jaszewski contacted animators and Flash designers, and came back with a price that was five times the business owner’s budget. He demanded a lower price, but Jaszewski just apologized and said that that’s what she would have to pay the appropriate people to do the work. Unsurprisingly, he took a pass, and Jaszewski later found out that he’d been trying to get his dream site built for the past eight years. Happily, she wouldn’t be the one to give it to him.
Shifting focus from what to who
In April 2009, Lynne Polischuik, an independent user experience designer, was hired by an early stage startup—a private photo-sharing web app—to act as project manager to get them to launch. The product was intended to be an alternative to Facebook for parents who desired private groups of friends with whom to safely share photos of their young children.
Because the team envisioned the product as appealing to all members of the family, they wanted people of all ages to be able to use the app—including children and elderly grandparents without e-mail addresses. To allow for this, they developed a login system that relied extensively on cookies and technological trickery to provide secure access without requiring the user to enter credentials. Things were constantly breaking, and as a result, no one could log in.
Polischuik felt she had to step in. “I ended up making the argument that they needed to design not for extreme edge cases, but for the more probable, and revenue generating, ones,” she explains. “Would someone who doesn’t have an e-mail address be savvy enough to want to share images and photos on the web? Probably not.”
To sway the team, Polischuik took a step back and did some user research to develop personas to guide their decisions. Once the team was refocused on who they were really designing for, they were able to move forward more strategically. As disagreements in execution came up along the way, she would do a few quick usability tests of the proposed idea, and let the team see with their own eyes how their prospective customers struggled. By reframing the argument away from their opinions and demonstrating the negative impact on the user, the opposition was quickly defeated.
How to no
Last October while on the phone with Harry Max—a pioneer in the field of Information Architecture, co-founder of Virtual Vineyards/Wine.com, (the first secure shopping system on the web), and now an executive coach—I complained about having way too much on my plate and desperately needing someone to give me a break.
He made me realize that it was actually I who was to blame, taking on more than I could handle by not protecting my time, and recommended that I read The Power of a Positive No by William Ury.
The book changed my life.
Ury proposes a methodology for saying no “while getting to Yes.” He argues that our desire to say no is not to be contradictory, but rather to stand up for a deeper yes—what we believe to be true, right, virtuous, and necessary. And that instead of making our defense a negative one, we can frame it in a positive light that is more likely to lead to a favorable outcome.
The following may sound really corny, but bear with me. It has completely transformed how I handle conflict and decision-making.
The structure of a positive no is a “Yes! No. Yes? statement.” In Ury’s words: The first Yes! expresses your interest; the No asserts your power; and the second Yes? furthers your relationship. For example, you might say “I, too, want prospective customers to see our company as current and approachable, but I don’t feel that a dozen social media badges at the top of the page will help us achieve that. What if we came up with a few alternative approaches and chose the most effective one together?”
He advocates not for just delivering your no in that manner, but also preparing for it and following through on it in the same way. Without a plan and without continued action, your assertion is a lot less believable—and a lot less likely to work.
Some of the most powerful takeaways from the book just might help you when it comes time for you to fight the good fight.
* Never say no immediately. Don’t react in the heat of the moment, or you might say something you don’t really mean. Things are rarely as urgent as we believe them to be, so take a step back, go to your quiet place, and really think through the issue at hand. Not only will your argument be clearer once you’ve had a chance to rehearse it, but it’s more likely the other will be ready to hear it.
* Be specific in describing your interests. When saying no, it’s better to describe what you’re for rather than what you’re against. Instead of just maintaining a position, help the other person to understand why you are concerned and what you’re trying to protect. You may just find that you share the same goal, and can work together to find the right solution.
* Have a plan B. There will be times that other people just won’t take your no for an answer. So you’re going to need a plan B as a last resort. Are you going to go over the person’s head? Are you going to prevent the project from moving forward? Are you going to quit? By exploring what you’re truly prepared to do ahead of time, you’ll have considerably more confidence to stand your ground and you won’t be afraid of what might come next.
* Express your need without neediness. Desperation is never attractive and won’t get you anywhere. Present your case with conviction and matter-of-factness. Does your assertion cease to be true if the other person refuses to agree? No. So don’t act like it does. Needing the other to comply makes you look unsure and dependent, diminishing yourself and putting them in a position of power.
* Present the facts and let the other draw their own conclusions. I’d venture to guess that most of the time you’re working with people who are pretty smart, pretty logical, and pretty well-intentioned. Perhaps they just don’t have all of the information that you do. Instead of telling them what to think, it is more useful to provide the necessary facts on which they can base their own judgment. Sometimes allowing the other person to feel like the decision was partially their own will help you get your way.
* The shorter it is, the stronger it is. Pascal famously said, “I wrote you a long letter because I didn’t have time to make it shorter.” The longer the argument, the sloppier and less well-thought out it appears. You don’t need five reasons why something won’t work; just one good one will do.
* As you close one door, open another. Don’t be a wet blanket. If you strongly believe that something shouldn’t be done, devise an alternative that the team can get behind. You aren’t helping anyone—let alone yourself—if you simply derail the project with your objections. Being a team player instead of a contrarian will help build trust and respect for your ideas.
* Be polite. Ninety-nine times out of 100 we’re talking about issues of mild discomfort and dissatisfaction of our users, not life-or-death issues. There’s no reason to raise your voice, use inappropriate language, or cut anyone down. When you do, you prevent people from hearing the essence of what you’re trying to communicate. So keep your cool, be kind, and give your teammates and clients the respect they deserve. Just because you might understand something that they don’t doesn’t mean you’re a better person than they are.
Good to no
By taking pride in your work and upholding your role on a team, you will help to create a positive environment for all involved. No doubt other people will follow in your footsteps, and each person will become more responsible for themselves and for the greater good of the project. You’ll be seen as more professional, more authoritative, and more reliable.
Also consider the possibility that you may be steamrolling over other people’s ideas, and they’re too afraid to speak up. One of my favorite sayings is: “God gave us two ears and one mouth to use in proportion.” Let this be a reminder not only to say no, but to be willing to hear no, and to encourage others to do the same.
9/02/2010
FOLLOW: No One Nos: Learning to Say No to Bad Ideas
7/06/2010
Interview prep
I know job markets are tough out there. Here's one thing you should prep for.
Quote from the site "Art of Manliness".
How Prepare for and Rock a Behavioral Job Interview
Posted By Brett & Kate McKay On July 2, 2010 @ 1:29 am In Money & Career | 27 Comments
Job interviews can be nerve-racking. You have one shot to convince a potential employer that they should hire you instead of dozens (and maybe hundreds) of other qualified candidates. In this tough job market, a man has to be on top of his game during interviews if he wants a chance to land the job.
A few months ago, I interviewed for a job I had been hoping to get since I was a student in law school. I got through the first round of interviews fine. It was the kind of straightforward and traditional interview that most of us have probably experienced. I was asked questions about my strengths, my weaknesses, and why I wanted to work for this particular company. Basically, they were the kind of questions you can prepare for and have some go-to answers you can use with confidence.
I got the call-back and scheduled an interview with a company executive. Before I flew out to my interview, a friend of mine who knew this person tipped me off on the executive’s interview style. The executive liked to use behavioral interviewing to weed out candidates for positions. I had never heard of this interview style before, so I set out to research as much as I could about it, aiming to be as prepared as possible.
Here’s what I learned on the way to landing the job.
What Is Behavioral Interviewing?
Behavioral interviewing is a relatively new method of job screening. In the 1970s, industrial psychologists found that traditional job interviewing was a pretty crappy way of predicting whether a candidate would succeed at a job. And when you look at traditional job interview questions, it’s easy to see why.
In a traditional job interview an employer might ask questions like:
* “What are your strengths?” Typical banal answer: “I’m a team player who’s passionate about engaging with people to realize the mission statement of the organization.”
* “What are your weaknesses?” Typical banal answer: “Oh, I guess my biggest weakness is that I’m just so darn hard working. I never know when to quit. Oh, and I’m really hard on myself. I’m a perfectionist.” Basically, the candidate makes a lame effort to turn a “weakness” into a strength.
* “What’s your passion?” Typical banal answer: “I’m passionate about whatever the company I’m interviewing for does for business. I hear you guys make fertilizer. Did I tell you about my dog poop collection in my backyard? It’s amazing!”
* “How would you handle a co-worker who is bothering you?” Typical banal answer: “The truth is I would probably leave passive-aggressive notes on his desk, but you don’t want to hear that, so I’ll just tell you what you want to hear. I would seek to understand and then to be understood. I would kill them with kindness. And if worse comes to worse, I’d take the problem to HR.”
* Or simply: “Tell me about yourself.” Typical banal answer: “Here’s my 2 minute elevator pitch that makes me look really awesome but in no way reveals to you whether I really have the skills to excel at this job.”
These types of questions are pretty easy to answer. You just have to give the interviewer a vague reply filled with the right buzz words. These answers don’t reveal if the candidate really has the skill set needed to succeed in the job because they don’t require a candidate to give specific examples from their past when they demonstrated said skills. What these types of questions usually reveal is that a job candidate is good at telling a boss what they want to hear.
Behavioral interviewing cuts through the banalities of traditional interviewing and requires candidates to give concrete examples of when they demonstrated the skills needed for the job. Instead of asking what your strengths are, an employer using the behavioral interview process will ask a question like this:
“This job requires the ability to make quick decisions in pressure-filled situations. Can you give me an example from your past when you had to make a quick decision under lots of pressure?”
Yikes. It’s a lot harder to B.S. an answer to this question than the “What are your strengths?” question.
But the questioning doesn’t stop there. The employer using the behavioral interview method will often follow-up your initial response with probing questions to elicit more details from you. Going back to our example question on decision-making, as you tell a story of when you made a quick decision, the interviewer might stop you and ask, “What were you thinking at this point?” These types of probing questions serve two purposes: 1) they give the employer more insight about your personality and character, and 2) they serve as B.S. filters. If you’re telling a totally fabricated story, the probing questions will usually trip you up.
Behavioral Interview Question Examples
The possible number of unique behavioral interview questions is only limited by the imagination of the interviewer. You’ll face questions that focus on a large variety of skills and behavior. An employer can then multiply the number of questions he or she asks you about those skill sets by inquiring about different projects or situations you’ve experienced in the past where you demonstrated those skills. Below we’ve included a few sample behavioral interview questions to give you an idea of what you’re up against:
* What do you do when priorities change quickly? Give one example of when this happened.
* Describe a project or idea that was implemented primarily because of your efforts. What was your role? What was the outcome?
* What is the riskiest decision you have made? What was the situation? What happened?
* Give an example of an important goal that you set in the past. Tell about your success in reaching it.
* Tell us about a time when you had to analyze information and make a recommendation. What kind of thought process did you go through? What was your reasoning behind your decision?
* Tell us about a time when you built rapport quickly with someone under difficult conditions.
* Tell us about the most difficult or frustrating individual that you’ve ever had to work with, and how you managed to work with them.
* There are many jobs that require creative or innovative thinking. Give an example of when you had such a job and how you handled it.
* On occasion we are confronted by dishonesty in the workplace. Tell about such an occurrence and how you handled it.
* Describe the most challenging negotiation in which you were involved. What did you do? What were the results for you? What were the results for the other party?
* Tell us about the most effective presentation you have made. What was the topic? What made it difficult? How did you handle it?
* What have you done to develop your subordinates? Give an example.
* Describe a situation where you had to use confrontation skills.
That’s just a sampling. I recommend that you print off this mega list of behavioral interview questions [2]. There are over 100 questions on the list. When I was preparing for my job interview, I printed them off and had my wife give me a mock interview. It forced me to think of different examples from my past that I could use when answering the questions. It was tough, but well worth the effort. During the interview, I had a stockpile of examples fresh in my mind, ready to be drawn from.
And don’t forget that your interviewer will ask you follow-up questions! As you come up with examples to use for your answers, put together as many details as you can so you’re ready for the probes of your potential employer.
How to Answer a Behavioral Interview Question
Alright, we know a behavioral interview can be a real son of a gun. What’s the best way to answer a behavioral interview question so you impress the boss and get the job?
Most guides on behavioral interviewing suggest using the three step STAR process when giving an answer to a behavioral job interview:
1. The Situation or Task you were in
2. Action that you took
3. Result of that action
Let’s take a look at the STAR process in action.
Question: Describe a situation where you had a conflict with another individual, and how you dealt with it. What was the outcome?
Answer: During college I worked on a four person team that was researching the effects of plastics on male rats. I got along with everyone quite well, except for one fellow. We disagreed strongly on the method we should use to conduct the experiments. My other teammates and I agreed on one way, but this guy wanted to do it his way. He didn’t budge at all on his position and even took passive-aggressive steps to prevent us from completing the project. (Situation or Task)
I set up an informal meeting at the local coffee shop with the guy. I simply asked him to explain his reasons for wanting to do the experiment his way. I just listened and asked questions to clarify. Some of his assumptions were clearly erroneous, but I knew pointing them out right away would just make him get defensive, so I bit my tongue. After hearing him out, I had a better idea of where he was coming from and realized that he might have some misunderstandings on some basic concepts. I didn’t think he would take too kindly to a peer correcting him, so I suggested that maybe we should set up a meeting with the professor to discuss our different ideas and to see if he had any feedback or advice. (Action that you took)
So we met with the professor. We both presented our different reasons for wanting to do the experiment in a certain way. As predicted, the professor brought up the faulty assumptions our stubborn teammate had and that his method wouldn’t be the best to use. The guy was sort of deflated, but he accepted the feedback and agreed to start the experiment using our method. (Result of the action)
There are no right or wrong answers. An important note to remember when answering behavioral interview questions is that there are no right or wrong answers. It’s often hard to tell what employers are looking for when they ask behavioral interview questions. Take our example about conflict resolution. You might think the interviewer is looking for a certain textbook method of conflict resolution. But maybe the employer’s own managerial philosophy doesn’t line up with the typical conflict resolution technique. I enjoy reading a weekly feature in the New York Times called “The Corner Office [3].” They ask CEO’s about leadership and what they’re looking for when interviewing a candidate for a job. Each CEO has a different rubric for what makes a good employee. So just concentrate on coming up with a concrete, truthful example that answers the question and presents you in a good light. And let the chips fall where they may.
Be honest. Don’t try to B.S. your way through a behavioral interview. If you don’t have an example for a question you’re asked, don’t try to make something up. For starters, you’ll probably get called on it with follow-up questions. But more importantly, the questions are designed to see if your skill set and personality fit with the position. If your answers aren’t what the interviewer is looking for, this position may not be the best job for you anyway, and you’d be miserable at work if you did get the job. That’s not good for anyone.
Use all your life experiences as examples for your answers. Behavioral interview questions often require you to give examples from your past work experience to answer a question. This can pose a problem for younger job candidates who haven’t held many, if any, prior jobs. To get around your lack of work experience, call on all your life experiences. Take examples from college or any volunteer organizations that you may have been a part of to answer the question.
1/28/2010
Interview with Seth Godin on Indispensability
Are You Indispensable? An Interview with Seth Godin
Seth Godin’s new book, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?, comes out today. As with all of Seth’s books, it’s a quick and inspiring read – if you aspire to make a difference in the world, you’ll find this book thought-provoking.
I recently caught up with Seth to ask him a few questions about the book – I think you’ll find our conversation quite interesting…
First, let’s discuss the essence of the idea: what does it mean to be indispensable?
So, to be indispensable is to do work your boss couldn’t imagine. It means that you’re human, an independent actor, an artist, someone who connects and makes a difference. These people have genuine job security, because what they do is scarce.
It seems like there are a million ways a person could potentially be indispensable. Are some forms of indispensability better or more valuable than others?
Can you figure out whether or not you’re already indispensable in some way? If so, how? Are there clues or characteristics to look for?
The world is a big place – if you’re not already indispensable to someone or some group of people, do you have any recommendations about who or what to focus on serving?
Is becoming indispensable an achievement, an ongoing process, a little of both, or something else entirely?
It appears to be far easier to become indispensable if you choose to walk your own path and consciously break away from the norms of large systems that seek stability and predictability, like schools, governments, and big companies. Is that true? Can “cogs in the machine” become indispensable?
As you note in the book, our ancient “lizard brain” is always instinctively searching for pleasure, safety, and security. The process of becoming indispensable is often uncomfortable and feels quite risky. Do you recommend ignoring these instincts, or is there some way to use them to our advantage?
Generosity seems to be a major theme in the book. The general approach to becoming indispensable seems to be giving away significant value; the more you give, the more indispensable you become. At the same time, the defining moment of every self-supporting business is the transaction – no sales, no business. At what point do you transition from giving to trading?
I love the connection you make between businesses that matter and art, which you define as “a personal gift that changes the recipient.” What do the most successful businesspeople and artists have in common?
Craftsmen and artists, more often than not, hate to compromise – even when their vision requires working with others, who may have different values or priorities. For example, changes to a building’s budget may impact an architect’s vision for the space. When is it better to walk away from situations that compromise your ideals? Is there a time and place for making tradeoffs to ensure the work becomes real? Does accepting tradeoffs make you any less of an artist or craftsman?
A strong mental association many people have related to the idea of art is the image of the “starving artist” – a person who chooses to live a life of material want in favor of living their ideals, which are often anti-commercial. Does commerce cheapen art? Is the business artisan destined to live a life of relative poverty?
In the book, you say that art is the product of “emotional labor,” which is always difficult and guaranteed to provoke inner resistance. How can you tell the difference between something that’s difficult because it’s important and something that’s difficult because your plan isn’t working? Where does “The Dip” fit into the picture?
Self-education and self-improvement are subjects that are near and dear to both of us. What encouragement or advice would you give to someone who is determined to become indispensable and make the most of their life without the benefits (and detriments) of formal schooling or advanced certification?
Don’t pick a job that insists on advanced degrees.
Don’t look for safety.
Fail often.
Fail in public.
Try to find things people will criticize.
Learn from your mistakes, with eagerness.
Do difficult emotional labor that others fear.
Be generous.
Connect.
Have fun!
You can order Seth’s new book, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?, from Amazon.com or your local bookstore. Additional interviews and commentary about the book can be found via The Linchpin Posts.
1/26/2010
DD-WRT for Linksys WRT160N
DD-WRT installation information for Linksys router WRT160N v3.
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Linksys_WRT150N_&_WRT160N
WRT160Nv3 Instructions
- Read the Peacock Announcement.
- Download the latest firmware from ftp://dd-wrt.com/others/eko/V24-K26/ that has "WRT160Nv3" in the file name. Latest as of writing is ftp://dd-wrt.com/others/eko/V24-K26/svn13575/dd-wrt.v24-13575_NEWD-2_K2.6_mini_wrt160nv3.bin
- Ensure you have a physical ethernet connection to your router, and disable your wireless adapter, antivirus/firewall protection, and any software that makes strong use of your network (BitTorrent, Streaming Audio/Video, etc).
- Perform a hard 30/30/30 reset.
- Navigate to http://192.168.1.1/ in your web browser of choice.
- At the Linksys Management Mode screen, do not give the reboot command. You will use this page to upgrade your firmware.
- Browse to the firmware you downloaded and click Upload.
- Do not touch anything. The page will tell you that the upgrade was successful and the router is now rebooting. Your router may take upwards of a couple minutes to reboot. Watch the lights... once the wireless and power indicators are on steadily for several seconds, your router is fully rebooted and you can click "Continue" in your browser window.
- If the DD-WRT password change page displays, your upgrade has been successful, and you must now perform another hard 30/30/30 reset. This time, when you navigate to 192.168.1.1, click "Reboot" and wait for the router to come online again so you can configure it.
If the DD-WRT password change page does not display, your page request times out, or you can't ping 192.168.1.1, make sure both wireless and power lights are on steadily first, then do a hard power cycle (unplug the power from the router--do not do a 30/30/30 reset). Wait a few seconds and plug the power back into the router. Wait until both wireless and power lights are on steadily, then navigate to http://192.168.1.1/ in your browser of choice again. If the DD-WRT password change page displays, your upgrade has been successful, and you must now perform another hard 30/30/30 reset. This time, when you navigate to 192.168.1.1, click "Reboot" and wait for the router to come online again so you can configure it.
I made the following notes from installing on two separate Linksys wrt160nv3 routers. The other routers on this page might also behave this way, but I personally can only verify these for the wrt160nv3.
- wrt160nv3 Forum page: http://dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=371784
- One note from forum on making this router stable when on 3309-mini firmware is to not set it to N mode - I've used it in mixed BG and it has been fine, and the forum says G-only works. ( some of this discussion is here: http://dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=54781&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=210)
[edit] Performing a 30/30/30 Reset on a WRT160Nv3
- Perform a normal 30/30/30 reset.
- Login to http://192.168.1.1/ and you will see the Linksys - Management Mode page.
- Click "Reboot."
- In a moment, you will see "Command reboot completed." The router will now start the reboot process. When the lights return to their normal state, you can click "Continue" to be taken to the router's main page.
5/27/2009
How to download a file from the Web using Perl
Simple enough, use LWP!
NAMEget, head, getprint, getstore, mirror - Procedural LWP interface SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTIONThis interface is intended for those who want a simplified view of the libwww-perl library. It should also be suitable for one-liners. If you need more control or access to the header fields in the requests sent and responses received you should use the full object oriented interface provided by the The following functions are provided (and exported) by this module:
This module also exports the HTTP::Status constants and procedures. These can be used when you check the response code from getprint(), getstore() and mirror(). The constants are:
The HTTP::Status classification functions are:
The module will also export the LWP::UserAgent object as The user agent created by this module will identify itself as "LWP::Simple/#.##" (where "#.##" is the libwww-perl version number) and will initialize its proxy defaults from the environment (by calling $ua->env_proxy). | ||||
5/20/2009
How to optimize your perl code!
Great resource on how to Optimize Perl. This helped me speed up my 3 hour long script to be able to run under 10min!!!
Quote below:
Sloppy programming, sloppy performance
I'll be honest: I love Perl and I use it everywhere. I've written Web sites, administration scripts, and games using Perl. I frequently save time by getting Perl to do and check things automatically for me, everything from my lottery numbers to the stock markets, and I even use it to automatically file my e-mail. Because Perl makes it so easy to do all of these things, there's a tendency to forget about optimization. In many cases this isn't the end of the world. So what if it takes an extra few milliseconds to look up your stock reports or parse those log files?
However, those same lazy habits that cost milliseconds in a small application are multiplied when dealing with larger scale development projects. It's the one area where the Perl mantra of TMTOWTDI (There's More Than One Way To Do It) starts to look like a bad plan. If you need speed, there may be only one or two ways to achieve the fastest results, whereas there are many slower alternatives. Ultimately, sloppy programming -- even if you achieve the desired result -- is going to result in sloppy performance. So, in this article I'm going to look at some of the key techniques you can use to squeeze those extra cycles out of your Perl application.
First of all, it's worth remembering that Perl is a compiled language. The source code you write is compiled on the fly into the bytecode that is executed. The bytecode is itself based on a range of instructions, all of which are written in a highly optimized form of C. However, even within these instructions, some operations that can achieve similar results are more highly optimized than others. Overall, this means that it's the combination of the logic sequence you use and the bytecode that is generated from this that ultimately affects performance. The differences between certain similar operations can be drastic. Consider the code in Listings 1 and 2. Both create a concatenated string, one through ordinary concatenation and the other through generating an array and concatenating it with join.
Listing 1. Concatenating a string, version 1
my $string = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz'; |
Listing 2. Concatenating a string, version 2
my $string = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz'; |
Running Listing 1, I get a time of 1.765 seconds, whereas Listing 2 requires 5.244 seconds. Both generate a string, so what's taking up the time? Conventional wisdom (including that of the Perl team) would say that concatenating a string is a time-expensive process, because we have to extend the memory allocation for the variable and then copy the string and its addition into the new variable. Conversely, adding a string to an array should be relatively easy. We also have the added problem of duplicating the string concatenation using join(), which adds an extra second.
The problem, in this instance, is that push()-ing strings onto an array is time-intensive; first of all, we have a function call (which means pushing items onto a stack, and then taking them off), and we also have the additional array management overhead. In contrast, concatenating a string is pretty much just a case of running a single opcode to append a string variable to an existing string variable. Even if we set the array size to alleviate the overhead (using $#concat = 999999), we still only save another second.
The above is an extreme example, and there are times when using an array will be much quicker than using strings; a good example here is if you need to reuse a particular sequence but with an alternate order or different interstitial character. Arrays are also useful, of course, if you want to rearrange or reorder the contents. By the way, in this example, an even quicker way of producing a string that repeats the alphabet 999,999 times would be to use:
$concat = 999999 x 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz';
Individually, many of the techniques covered here won't make a huge difference, but combined in one application, you could shave a few hundred milliseconds, or even seconds, off of your Perl applications.
If you work with large arrays or hashes and use them as arguments to functions, use a reference instead of the variable directly. By using a reference, you tell the function to point to the information. Without a reference, you copy the entire array or hash onto the function call stack, and then copy it again in the function. References also save memory (which reduces footprint and management overheads) and simplify your programming.
If you are using static strings in your application a lot -- for example, in a Web application -- remember to use single quotes rather than doubles. Double quotes force Perl to look for a potential interpolation of information, which adds to the overhead of printing out the string:
print 'A string','another string',"\n";
I've also used commas to separate arguments rather than using a period to concatenate the string first. This simplifies the process; print simply sends each argument to the output file. Concatenation would concatenate the string and print it as one argument.
As you've already seen, function calls with arguments are expensive, because for the function call to work, Perl has to put the arguments onto the call stack, call the function, and then receive the responses back through the stack again. All of this requires overhead and processing that we could probably do without. For this reason, excessive function calls in a loop are generally a bad idea. Again, it comes down to a comparison of numbers. Looping through 1,000 items and passing information to a function will trigger the function call 1,000 times. To get around this, I just switch the sequence around. Instead of using the format in Listing 3, I use the approach in Listing 4.
Listing 3. Loop calling functions
foreach my $item (keys %{$values}) |
Listing 4. Function using loops
calculate_list($values); |
Better still, in a simple calculation like this one or for any straightforward loop work, use map:
map { $values->{$_}->{result} = $values->{$_}->{adda}+$values->{$_}->{addb} } keys %{$values};
Remember also that each iteration through the loop wastes time, so rather than working through the same loop a number of times, try to perform all the actions in one pass through the loop.
Another common operation related to loops is sorting information, particularly keys in a hash. It's tempting in this instance to embed some processing of list elements into the sort operation, such as the one shown here in Listing 5.
Listing 5. Bad sorting
my @marksorted = sort {sprintf('%s%s%s', |
This is a fairly typical sort of complex data, in this case ordering something by date, time, and ID number by concatenating the numbers into a single number that we can then sort numerically. The problem is that the sort works through the list of items and moves them up or down through the list based on the comparison operation. In effect, this is a type of loop, but unlike the loop examples we've already seen, a sprintf call has to be made for each comparison. That's at least twice for each iteration, and the exact number of iterations through the list will depend how ordered it was to begin with. For example, with a 10,000-item list you could expect to call sprintf over 240,000 times.
The solution is to create a list that contains the sort information, and generate the sort field information just once. Taking the sample in Listing 5 as a guide, I'd rewrite that fragment into something like the code in Listing 6.
Listing 6. Better sorting
map { $marked_items->{$_}->{sort} = sprintf('%s%s%s', |
Instead of calling sprintf all those times, we call it just once for each item in the hash in order to generate a sort field in the hash, and then use that sort field directly during the sort. The sorting process only has to access the sort field's value. You have cut down the calls on that 10,000-item hash from 240,000 to just 10,000. It depends on what you are doing in that sort section originally, but it's possible to save as much as half the time it would take using the method shown in Listing 6.
If you produce these hashes through results from a database query -- through MySQL or similar -- using sorting within the query and then recording the order as you build the hash, you won't need to iterate over the information again.
Related to the sort operation is how to work through a list of alternative values. Using many if statements can be incredibly time consuming. For example, look at the code in Listing 7.
Listing 7. Making a choice
if ($userchoice > 0) |
Aside from the waste of space in terms of sheer content, there are a couple of problems with this structure. From a programming perspective, it has the issue that it never checks if any of the variables have a valid value, a fact that would be highlighted if warnings were switched on. Second, it has to check each option until it gets to the one it wants, which is wasteful, as comparison operations (particularly on strings) are time consuming. Both problems can be solved by using short circuit logic.
If you use the logical || operator, Perl will use the first true value it comes across, in order, from left to right. The moment it finds a valid value, it doesn't bother processing any of the other values. In addition, because Perl is looking for a true value, it also ignores undefined values without complaining about them. So we can rewrite the above into a single line:
$realchoice = $userchoice || $systemchoice || $defaultchoice;
If $userchoice is a true value, Perl doesn't even look at the other variables. If $userchoice is false (see Table 1), then Perl checks the value of $systemchoice and so on until it gets to the last value, which is always used, whether it's true or not.
| Value | Logical value |
| Negative number | True |
| Zero | False |
| Positive number | True |
| Empty string | False |
| Non-empty string | True |
| Undefined value | False |
| Empty list (including hashes) | False |
| List with at least one element (including hashes) | True |
One of the most expensive portions of the execution of a Perl script is the compilation of source code into the bytecode that is actually executed. On a small script with no external modules, the process takes milliseconds. But start to include a few of your own external modules and the time increases. The reason is that Perl does little more with a module than importing the text and running it through the same compilation stage. That can turn your 200 line script into a 10,000 or 20,000 line script very quickly. The result is that you increase the initial stages of the compilation process before the script even starts to do any work.
During the normal execution of your script, it may be that you only use 10 percent, or even 5 percent, of all the functions defined in those modules. So why load them all when you start the script? The solution is to use AutoLoader, which acts a bit like a dynamic loader for Perl modules. This uses files generated by the AutoSplit system, which divides up a module into the individual functions. When you load the module through use, all you do is load the stub code for the module. It's only when you call a function contained within the module that the AutoLoader steps in and then loads and compiles the code only for that function. The result is that you convert that 20,000 line script with modules back into a 200-line script, speeding up the initial loading and compilation stages.
I've saved as much as two seconds just by converting one of my applications to use the AutoLoader system in place of preloading. It's easy to use by just changing your modules from the format shown in Listing 8 to that shown in Listing 9, and then making sure to use AutoSplit to create the loading functions you need. Note that you don't need to use Exporter any more; AutoLoader handles the loading of individual functions automatically without you have to explicitly list them.
Listing 8. A standard module
package MyModule; |
Listing 9. An autoloading module
package MyModule; |
The main difference here is that functions you want to autoload are no longer defined within the module's package space but in the data section at the end of the module (after the __END__ token). AutoSplit will place any functions defined here into the special AutoLoader files. To split up the module, use the following command line:
perl -e 'use AutoSplit; autosplit($ARGV[0], $ARGV[1], 0, 1, 1)' MyModule.pm auto
Using bytecode and the compiler back ends
There are three ways to use the compiler: bytecode production, full compilation, or simply as a debugging/optimizing tool. The first two methods rely on converting your original Perl source into its compiled bytecode form and storing this precompiled version for execution. This is best used through the perlcc command. These two modes follow the same basic model but produce the final result differently. In bytecode mode, the resulting compiled bytecode is written out to another Perl script. The script consists of the ByteLoader preamble, with the compiled code stored as a byte string. To create this bytecode version, use the -B option to the perlcc command. For example:
$ perlcc -B script.pl
This will create a file, a.out. The output, however, is not very Web friendly. The resulting file can be executed with any Perl executable on any platform (Perl bytecode is platform independent):
$ perl a.out
What this does is save Perl from having to compile the script from its source code into the bytecode each time. Instead, it just runs the bytecode that was generated. This is similar to the process behind Java compilation and is in fact that same one-step away from being a truly compiled form of the language. On short scripts, especially those that use a number of external modules, you probably won't notice a huge speed increase. On larger scripts that "stand alone" without a lot of external module use, you should see a noticeable improvement.
The full compilation mode is almost identical, except that instead of producing a Perl script with the compiled bytecode embedded in it, perlcc produces a version embedded into C source that is then compiled into a full-blown, standalone executable. This is not cross-platform compatible, but it does allow you to distribute an executable version of a Perl script without giving out the source. Note, however, that this doesn't convert the Perl into C, it just embeds Perl bytecode into a C-based application. This is actually the default mode of perlcc, so a simple: $ perlcc script.pl will create, and compile, a standalone application called a.out.
One of the lesser-known solutions for both debugging and optimizing your code is to use the Perl compiler with one of the many "back ends."
The back ends are actually what drive the perlcc command, and it's possible to use a back-end module directly to create a C source file that you can examine. The Perl compiler works by taking the generated bytecode and then outputting the results in a variety of different ways. Because you're looking at the opcodes generated during the compilation stage, you get to see the code after Perl's own internal optimizations have been applied. Providing you know the Perl opcodes, you can begin to identify where the potential bottlenecks might be. From a debugging perspective, go with back ends such as Terse (which is itself a wrapper on Concise) and Showlex. You can see in Listing 10 what the original Listing 1 looks like through the Terse back end.
Listing 10. Using Terse to study bytecode
LISTOP (0x306230) leave [1] |
What I've covered here looks entirely at the code that makes up your applications. While that's where most of the problems will be, there are tools and systems you can use that can help identify and locate problems in your code that might ultimately help with performance.
It's a common recommendation, but it really can make a difference. Use the warnings and strict pragmas to ensure nothing funny is going on with variable use, typos, and other inconsistencies. Using them in all your scripts will help you eliminate all sorts of problems, many of which can be the source of performance bottlenecks. Common faults picked up by these pragmas are ambiguous references and de-references, use of undefined values, and some help identifying typos for unused or undefined functions.
All of this help, though, comes at a slight performance cost. I keep warnings and strict on while programming and debugging, and I switch it off once the script is ready to be used in the real world. It won't save much, but every millisecond counts.
Profiling is a useful tool for optimizing code, but all it does is identify the potential location of the problem; it doesn't actually point out what the potential issue is or how to resolve it. Also, because profiling relies on monitoring the number of executions of different parts of your application it can, on occasion, give misleading advice about where a problem lies and the best approach for resolving it.
However, profiling is still a useful, and often vital, part of the optimization process. Just don't rely on it to tell you everything you need to know.
To me, a badly optimized program means that it has a bug. The reverse is also true: bugs often lead to performance problems. Classic examples are badly de-referenced variables or reading and/or filtering the wrong information. It doesn't matter whether your debugging technique involves using print statements or the full-blown debugger provided by Perl. The sooner you eliminate the bugs, the sooner you will be able to start optimizing your application.
Now that you know the techniques, here is the way to go about using them together to produce optimized applications. I generally follow this sequence when optimizing:
- Write the program as optimized as possible using the techniques above. Once you start to use them regularly, they become the only way you program.
- Once the program is finished or at least in a releasable state, go through and double check that you are using the most efficient solution by hand by reading the code. You'll be able to spot a number of issues just by re-reading, and you might pick up a few potential bugs, too.
- Debug your program. Bugs can cause performance problems, so you should always eliminate the bugs first before doing a more intense optimization.
- Run the profiler. I always do this once on any serious application, just to see if there's something -- often obvious -- that I might have missed.
- Go back to step 1 and repeat. I've lost track of the number of times I've completely missed a potential optimization the first time around. Either I'll go back and repeat the process two or three times in one session, or I'll leave, do another project, and return a few days, weeks, or months later. Weeks and months after, you'll often have found an alternative way of doing something that saves time.
At the end of the day, there is no magic wand that will optimize your software for you. Even with the debugger and profiler, all you get is information about what might be causing a performance problem, not necessarily any helpful advice on what you should do to fix it. Be aware as well that there is a limit to what you can optimize. Some operations will simply take a lot of time to complete. If you have to work through a 10,000-item hash, there's no way of simplifying that process. But as you've seen, there might be ways of reducing the overhead in each case.
4/14/2009
Freeware password recovery tools and lot more freewares
Can find them here: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/index.html#password_utils
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| MessenPass v1.24 - Instant Messenger Password Recovery MessenPass is a password recovery tool that reveals the passwords of the following instant messenger applications: MSN Messenger, Windows Messenger (In Windows XP), Windows Live Messenger (In Windows XP And Vista), Yahoo Messenger (Version 5.x/6.x), ICQ Lite 4.x/5.x/2003, AOL Instant Messenger, AIM 6.x, AIM Pro, Trillian, Miranda, and GAIM. |
| Asterisk Logger v1.04 Automatically reveals the passwords stored behind the asterisks ('***') in standard password text-boxes of Windows. |
| Dialupass v3.01 - Dialup Password Recovery This utility enumerates all dialup/VPN entries on your computers, and displays their logon details: User Name, Password, and Domain. You can use it to recover a lost password of your Internet connection or VPN. Dialupass also allows you to save the dialup/VPN list into text/html/csv/xml file, or copy it to the clipboard.
|
| Protected Storage PassView v1.63 This utility reveals the passwords stored on your computer by Internet Explorer, Outlook Express and POP3 accounts of MS-Outlook. The passwords are revealed by reading the information from the Protected Storage.
|
IE PassView v1.15 IE PassView is a small utility that reveals the passwords stored by Internet Explorer browser. It supports the new Internet Explorer 7.0/8.0, as well as older versions of Internet explorer, v4.0 - v6.0
|
| PasswordFox v1.11 PasswordFox is a small password recovery tool that allows you to view the user names and passwords stored by Mozilla Firefox Web browser. By default, PasswordFox displays the passwords stored in your current profile, but you can easily select to watch the passwords of any other Firefox profile. For each password entry, the following information is displayed: Record Index, Web Site, User Name, Password, User Name Field, Password Field, and the Signons filename.
|
| ChromePass v1.05 ChromePass is a small password recovery tool that allows you to view the user names and passwords stored by Google Chrome Web browser. For each password entry, the following information is displayed: Origin URL, Action URL, User Name Field, Password Field, User Name, Password, and Created Time. You can select one or more items and then save them into text/html/xml file or copy them to the clipboard.
|
| Network Password Recovery v1.20 When you connect to a network share on your LAN or to your .NET Passport/Messenger account, Windows XP/Vista allows you to save your password in order to use it in each time that you connect the remote server. This utility recovers all network passwords stored on your system for the current logged-on user. |
| AsterWin IE v1.03 This utility reveals the passwords stored behind the asterisks in the web pages of Internet Explorer 5.0 and above. You can use it for recovering a lost web site password, if it's stored on your computer. It was developed in Visual Basic environment and requires the Visual Basic Runtime library. Source code is included !
|
| Mail PassView v1.50 - Email Password Recovery Recovers the passwords and other email accounts information of the following email applications: Outlook Express, Microsoft Outlook 2000 (POP3/SMTP Accounts only), Microsoft Outlook 2002/2003/2007, Windows Mail, IncrediMail, Eudora, Netscape Mail, Mozilla Thunderbird, Group Mail Free, and Web-based email accounts.
|
| PstPassword v1.12 PstPassword is a small utility that recover lost password of Outlook .PST (Personal Folders) file.
|
| WirelessKeyView v1.26 WirelessKeyView recovers all wireless network keys (WEP/WPA) stored in your computer by the 'Wireless Zero Configuration' service of Windows XP and by the 'WLAN AutoConfig' service of Windows Vista. It allows you to easily save all keys to text/html/xml file, or copy a single key to the clipboard.
|
| Remote Desktop PassView v1.01 Remote Desktop PassView is a small utility that reveals the password stored by Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection utility inside .rdp files.
|
| LSASecretsView v1.20 LSASecretsView is a small utility that displays the list of all LSA secrets stored in the Registry on your computer. The LSA secrets key is located under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Security\Policy\Secrets and may contain your RAS/VPN passwords, Autologon password, and other system passwords/keys.
|
| LSASecretsDump v1.20 LSASecretsDump is a small console application that extract the LSA secrets from the Registry, decrypt them, and dump them into the console window. The LSA secrets key is located under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Security\Policy\Secrets and may contain your RAS/VPN passwords, Autologon password, and other system passwords/keys. This utility is the console version of LSASecretsView.
|
| PCAnywhere PassView v1.11 Reveals the passwords stored in PCAnywhere items. Both login information and the protection passwords are revealed instantly.
|
| Access PassView v1.12 This utility reveals the database password of every password-protected mdb file that created with Microsoft Access 95/97/2000/XP or with Jet Database Engine 3.0/4.0 It can be very useful if you forgot your Access Database password and you want to recover it.
|
| Win9x PassView v1.1 The Win9x PassView utility reveals the passwords stored on your computer by Windows 95/98 operating system.
|
| Content Advisor Password Remover v1.01 Removes the Content Advisor password in Internet Explorer (versions 4.x and above). Visual C++ Source code is included.
|
| Enterprise Manager PassView v1.00 Reveals the passwords that SQL Server Enterprise Manager stores on your computer.
|
| AsterWin v1.20 This utility reveals the passwords stored behind the asterisks in standard password text-boxes. It supports the following operating systems: Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
|
| VNCPassView v1.01 VNCPassView is a small utility that recover the passwords stored by the VNC tool. It can recover 2 of passwords: password stored for the current logged-on user (HKEY_CURRENT_USER in the Registry), and password stored for the all users. |
| AspNetUserPass v1.00 AspNetUserPass is a very simple console-based utility that displays the password of ASPNet user on your system. |
| Netscapass v2.03 Reveals the stored mail password (POP3 server password) for Netscape Communicator 4.x, Netscape 6.x and Netscape 7. It can also reveal the stored web-sites passwords in Netscape 6.x/7.x |
3/30/2009
More free online courses!
More of great free online courses by Wendy Boswell from lifehacker.
Quote below:
Free online college courses
Grab some larnin' from the University of Washington's free online courses; Greek mythology, American Revolution, Heroic Fantasy are just some of the offerings. If you get tired of that, you can study economics at the University of Nebraska.
Teach yourself sign language from Michigan State University. Browse through the vast treasures at the Library of Congress. View free videos on all sorts of subjects from Annenberg Media, a major supplier to most distance learning universities, or read the core documents of American democracy.
Feel like a little light reading? You can study theology at Covenant Seminary; course offerings are delivered via a combo of free downloadable .pdf files and podcasts, and include subjects ranging from Church History to the Modern Reformation.
Learn mathematics with this extensive list of free online math courses from Whatcom Community College. Visit Carnegie Mellon University and take Biology, Causal Reasoning, Statistics, and more, all for free.
Penn State University offers a free Swedish language course, in addition to a free Hungarian language course. Or, you can take an Italian language and culture course from Brooklyn College. California State also offers a free Conversational Mandarin Chinese course, and you can learn Turkish via the University of Arizona.
The University of Washington School of Medicine offers free CPR classes online, complete with video and instructional guides. You can also take health courses from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; anything from adolescent health to population science.
Prepare for the US citizenship test from the Missouri Southern State University. Learn linear algebra from the University of Puget Sound. Learn about bioterrorism (really) and other hazards from the University of North Carolina.
Get free online mathematics textbooks, videos, and lecture notes from New York University. Take advantage of Tufts University's open courses on dentistry, medicine, nutrition, and more. Learn about cognitive science from Hampshire College.
Take eight different courses via the Sofia Project, a collaborative effort between select California community colleges. Brigham Young University offers independent study in subjects such as Family History, Family Life, and Religious Scripture Study. Get access to ten free seminary courses from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
Learn about human resources in 52 (!) different free courses from ERI. Browse a huge variety of materials in the University of Michigan's courses and seminars on Internet laws.
Ivy League
Take advantage of Stanford University's free CS education library. Go to college by taking free classes at MIT. Go to Berkeley with your iPod.The University of Pennsylvania has an extensive online library; over 25,000 books are listed here.
Just debuted, you can take free courses from Yale (funded by HP) on such diverse subjects as the Old Testament or Physics. Watch or read free online lectures in archival format from Princeton. Get a free Introduction to Probability text from Dartmouth.
Google tricks
Using the right keywords, find course syllabi (insert your own subject), lectures, tutorials, notes, podcasts, and various sorts of online books using Google.
12/23/2008
Great htaccess tip for web masters!
These are one of the best tips and tricks involving .htaccess capabilities listed in 16 Useful .htaccess Tricks and Hacks For Web Developers! Check it out.
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1. Creating a custom error page with .htaccess on a linux apache is a very simple task. Using you a text editor like notepad you create an .htaccess files. Custom error pages give your website an professional look and catch those visitors who reach your website following a back link.
ErrorDocument 401 /error/401.php
ErrorDocument 403 /error/403.php
ErrorDocument 404 /error/404.php
ErrorDocument 500 /error/500.php
2. How to set the timezone on your server
SetEnv TZ America/Houston
3. Block IPs Using htaccess
Sometime you need to block certain IPs from accessing your entire site or directory. Its pretty simple task. All you have to do is inside the .htaccess file is put the following code.
allow from all
deny from 145.186.14.122
deny from 124.15
If you use the whole IP or a part of the IP to block and add the new ones in a new line.
When someone trying to access your site from the banned ip they will get a 403 error access forbidden message.
4. SEO Friendly 301 permanent redirects for bad/old links and moved links
Redirect 301 /d/file.html http://www.htaccesselite.com/r/file.html
5. Set the Email Address for the Server Administrator - Using this code you can specifying the default email address for the server administrator.
ServerSignature EMail
SetEnv SERVER_ADMIN default@domain.com
6. Hotlinking protection with .htaccess is very important because anyone can hot link to your images and eat up all your bandwith of your server. The following code will help you to prevent that.
Options +FollowSymlinks
# Protect Hotlinking
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?domainname\.com/ [nc]
RewriteRule .*\.(gif|jpg|png)$ http://domainname.com/img/hotlink_f_o.png [nc]
7. Block all requests from user agent - by creating a perfect .htaccess ban list, you can block all of unwanted user agents that will keep your server load down. Also Check out this interesting thread on webmaster world about the 228 user agents ban list.
## .htaccess Code :: BEGIN
## Block Bad Bots by user-Agent
SetEnvIfNoCase user-Agent ^FrontPage [NC,OR]
SetEnvIfNoCase user-Agent ^Java.* [NC,OR]
SetEnvIfNoCase user-Agent ^Microsoft.URL [NC,OR]
SetEnvIfNoCase user-Agent ^MSFrontPage [NC,OR]
SetEnvIfNoCase user-Agent ^Offline.Explorer [NC,OR]
SetEnvIfNoCase user-Agent ^[Ww]eb[Bb]andit [NC,OR]
SetEnvIfNoCase user-Agent ^Zeus [NC]
Order Allow,Deny
Allow from all
Deny from env=bad_bot
## .htaccess Code :: END
8. Redirect everyone to different site except few IP -If you want to redirect all the visitors to a different IP. Also give access to certain few IPs. You can use the code below
ErrorDocument 403 http://www.youdomain.com
Order deny,allow
Deny from all
Allow from 124.34.48.165
Allow from 102.54.68.123
9. Don’t want to display download request - Usually when you try to download something from a web server you get a request asking whether you want to save the file or open it.
To avoid that you can use the below code on your .htaccess file.
AddType application/octet-stream .pdf
AddType application/octet-stream .zip
AddType application/octet-stream .mov
10. Change the file type - Make any file be a certain kind of file type Makes image.jpg, index.html, default.cgi all act as php
ForceType application/x-httpd-php
SetHandler application/x-httpd-php
11. Block access to your .htaccess file - By adding he following code to your htaccess file will prevent attempts to access your htaccess file. This extra layer of security protects your htaccess file by displaying a 403 error message on the browser.
# secure htaccess file
 order allow,deny
 deny from all
12. Protect access to certain specific file on your server - this can be done by adding the below mentioned code. For example you want to block with the file name default.jpg This will prevent the viewing of this file.
# prevent access of a certain file
 order allow,deny
 deny from all
13. Prevent access to unauthorized browsing - Protecting specific directory browsing can be done by intructing the server to serve a Forbidden and Authorization required message while anyone requests to view that particular directory. Usually if you site doesn’t have a default index page any files within that directory is accessible to the visitors. To avoid that use the following code in the .htaccess file.
# disable directory browsing
Options All -Indexes
14. Setting the default page - You can set the default page of a directory to any page you like. For example in this code the default page is set as about.html instead of index.html
# serve alternate default index page
DirectoryIndex about.html
15. Password protect your directories and files - You can create authentication for certain files and directories from being access. The code has examples of both password protection for a single file and password protection for a entire directory.
# to protect a file
AuthType Basic
AuthName “Prompt”
AuthUserFile /home/path/.htpasswd
Require valid-user
# password-protect a directory
resides
AuthType basic
AuthName “This directory is protected”
AuthUserFile /home/path/.htpasswd
AuthGroupFile /dev/null
Require valid-user
16. Redirect an old domain to a new domain - Using htaccess file you can redirect a old domain name to a new domain by adding the following code into the htaccess file. Basically what it does is it will remap the old domain to the new one.
# redirect from old domain to new domain
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.yourdomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]
