Memcached

By installing Memcached on your server, you can speed up the load time for your web site pages.

From the official web site: "Free & open source, high-performance, distributed memory object caching system, generic in nature, but intended for use in speeding up dynamic web applications by alleviating database load.

XCache

Using XCache can improve the performance of a web site, by caching PHP.

From the XCache project page: "XCache is a fast, stable PHP opcode cacher that has been tested and is now running on production servers under high load."

It works the same way as other PHP cachers such as APC.

Fast Drupal with Vagrant Scotch Box

This is how I set up a new Vagrant Scotch Box with Drush support.

NOTE: After updating VirtualBox through the normal, daily Ubuntu update, it might be necessary to reinstall with the below commands.

Ubuntu partitions

Setting up a Linux installation can be done in many different ways, but preserving your settings and bookmarks is nice, so you don't have to redo them after a re-installation. This set-up uses another partition (in the example, called "documents") to store your photos, documents, settings for installed programs and your mail program, and connecting to them via symlinks.

Enter these commands in your terminal to prevent the log in screen after boot to disappear too quickly:

gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power idle-brightness 900
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.session idle-delay "uint32 900"
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.screensaver lock-delay "uint32 900"

These commands will enable the Pipelight-plugin in Firefox in Ubuntu 14.04, so you can see movies on Filmstriben:

These commands will install the spider software Scrapy in Linux, this example works for Ubuntu 14.04:

sudo apt-get install python-pip python3-lxml python2.7-dev python-twisted
sudo pip install Scrapy --upgrade

Link to Scrapy

MaxCoin mining

MaxCoin was launched as the latest alt coin, in the beginning of February 2014. The name of the cryptocurrency comes from Max Keiser, from the Keiser Report on RT - an economical journalist, who dissects the modern, neo-liberal capitalism which is ruling the planet these days.

When you update Drupal core, the .htaccess file is overwritten with the latest version. This also means that any www redirects in that file are lost, and you have to re-apply them, which is annoying, and a problem if you forget to do it after updating. The reason why it is important to only show URLs with OR without www. in front of them, is to avoid what Google considers duplicate content.

Tool for removing a broken off cable head from inside a Shimano gear shifter

The rear gear cable on my bike snapped while I was biking on it today. Luckily I had a replacement cable with me, so I thought I could replace it right away. But it turned out that the cable head inside the gear shifter was jammed, and impossible to get access to and remove.