Up and running on a new rootshell.be a/c

So few of my friends are planning to attend Y! India hack day scheduled on 14-15th Feb 2009. They just requested a free rootshell.be a/c and thanks to the guys there, they had a free a/c to play with within few hours (Thanks to Xavier and his team at rootshell.be again).

We hit a small problem while hosting our application there. First of all the files we created were not having the right access permissions. Second, rootshell has default configurations to append a little tracking scripts from google to every page that is served from its servers. Now we had problem with this because YAP (Y! application platform) tries to validate a domain by fetching a static file uploaded with some specific content onto the target server. We were getting screwed here because of that small tracking script. This is how we resolved the two issues.

1. All files in ${HOME}/html folder were given 755 permissions so that apache could read and execute them (umm well most of their stuff is going to be dynamic, so uhh you know...).


2. We added a .htaccess file in ${HOME}/html folder to change some of the default settings. The portion that helped us get rid of the tracking script is as follows:
   
   LayoutMerge Off
   LayoutDefaultHandlers Off
   


3. Provide 755 permission to .htaccess file as well so that apache can read it. Else it will be throwing "403 forbidden" errors

But, this is just part of the .htaccess configuration. If you are writing a .htaccess file, it is recommended that you search on Y! Search for tutorials on what all you should take care of. That's all for now. Will keep updating as we go on.

BTW everybody is invited to the Y! India hack day. There are limited seats and final participation will be by confirmed invitation only. So what are you waiting for, go book your seat before they are gone... :-)

Are You Going to Finish Strong?

Source: http://www.maniacworld.com/are-you-going-to-finish-strong.html

Where the hell is Matt?

At first you say "WTH?" and then you notice so much of energy that it becomes interesting...



[source: http://wherethehellismatt.com/?fbid=1FFb4WHWFo1]

Well he visited Y! office recently, here is the link



[source: http://ycorpblog.com/2008/08/04/and-now-we-dance/]

Thought of the day

Its about change, the only constant in life. You know its coming, every second and the very next second is different (there is a change). With time and experience, you may be able to identify few changes when and why they are coming; and then there will be few others which you won't be able to. Ask or not, they will come, for good or for bad. And by the human nature, you would resist. Either resist to hold the good times or try to run away from the bad times. But then you will realize, they are already there and the only thing you can do is hold onto yourself and let time flow like a cold breeze. Because when that breeze is gone there will be a new sunshine with new rays of hope. And when you look back on what the bad times have given you, you will see-"Things were not so bad after all."

My Present State of Mind...

Well yeah.. very confused state of mind. But as Neo states it - "The problem is choice". We make many conscious/unconscious decisions on these choices; few are right and few others are wrong. But our present and future both depend on these choices we make at different points of time. I own all my actions and choices i made for whatever reasons i made, after all those choices were my own and its me, only me responsible for it. [:)] No i've not committed anything wrong, its just an illusion between what could be and what can be good for me that confuses me at times. And since i've already made that decision, its time to own it and move on, in a new direction, for a new challenge. For you don't know what lies ahead until you begin the journey... only when you reach there, that you know whether that choice, your own choice that you made in past, was the right one or not... and so i keep walking, on and on and on...