=^.^=

/etc/init.d/apache2 restart lags, fails with mpm_worker, SSL

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If you've switched to the threaded mpm_worker you may have noticed restarting apache sometimes looks like this:

* Stopping apache2 ... [ ok ]
* Starting apache2 ...
* start-stop-daemon: /usr/sbin/apache2 is already running

Then, if you wait for it to really die, this:

# /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
* apache2 not running (no pid file)
* Starting apache2 ...

SSL vhosts add considerably to the amount of time it takes for apache to start or stop; I've had this problem crop up on a server that otherwise seemed fine until I added an SSL host which lead me down the wrong path.

The actual culprit is a bug in the init script:

https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=389965

The while loop condition in stop() was wrong. The loop should continue as long as the PID file still exist, the apache2 PID is still running, and the timeout value hasn't been exceeded yet.

This bug was marked RESOLVED FIXED and it's still happening in 2.2.22 so it looks like despite the ongoing pleas in the comments to fix this I wouldn't be holding my breath (CORRECTION: This issue seems to have been resolved in -r1)

max_input_fields: Why Your Long Forms are Being Chopped Off

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If you don't keep your php.ini in sync with your PHP version you might be wondering why very large forms seem to be missing their bottom half when you go to analyse your $_POST array. Newer releases of PHP have a configuration directive called max_input_fields with a default value of 1000 which is meant to help reduce the risk of DoS.

I've seen it argued that forms with over 1000 fields can probably be organised a better way, and that's mostly true - but what happens when your software is a dynamically generated spreadsheet a la CSV verification and pre-processing?

You might want to take this as a cue to update your php.ini but it's also safe to drop

max_input_fields = 40960

or some other number reasonably tuned to your needs into your existing config.

Documentary for Dinner: The Iceman Tapes

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Richard Kuklinski, prolific mafia hitman known as "The Iceman" sits down for a series of interviews:

Inside the Mind of a Mafia Hitman

America Undercover: Confessions Of A Mafia Hitman 1

America Undercover: Confessions Of A Mafia Hitman 2

Documentary for Dinner: Let's Make Money (2008)

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Let's Make Money explores financial exploitation in both emerging and developed economies by following the hypothetical and hidden trail of an ordinary bank account depositor's money. The film illustrates that while globalization is reducing the cost of goods and services, protectionist subsidization in developed countries reduces workers in the developing world to virtually unpaid slaves in an effort to compete.

http://thoughtmaybe.com/video/lets-make-money

Privatization and real-estate speculation in the developed world are also touched on briefly but I think the filmmakers could have expanded greatly on the clear ramifications of this rather than focusing mostly on the nationalistic sentiment against foreign investment.

My favourite part of this film is John Perkins' interview. What John has to say is the key to understanding how and why the United States goes to war with countries that pose no obvious threat while propping up some of the most vile regimes on the planet at the same time.

Documentary for Dinner: The 2nd Assassination of JFK (2010)

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The 2nd Assassination of JFK bemoans the recent loss of funding and subsequent program terminations at NASA through interviews with retired employees and politicians in the vicinity of the Kennedy Space Center.

Despite the jobs being lost as an indirect result of NASA's de-funding I for one am quite optimistic about the future of corporate space ventures.

I am particularly tired of the time-worn argument most NASA defenders (including those in this film) eventually resort to - without NASA there would be no microwave oven and so on. This film makes that argument in one breath then in another points out that virtually everything made by NASA is done by corporate contractors. Would we really have no microwave oven without NASA? One can not really say how the course of development for any number of technologies would be affected were there no space program. I feel the argument is empty and distracting.

The film also points out that jobs in every state are affected by budget cuts to NASA but does not explore the widely accepted fact that this is by design; a tactic intended to prevent congress from shutting their programs down by putting the jobs of sizeable numbers of constituents on the line for every congressperson and senator.