Tips & Tricks

Tips and tricks about a wide range of topics. Mostly programming-related.

How to tell if somebody has blocked you on Facebook.

This is a guide on how to tell if somebody has blocked you on Facebook. I wrote this guide because most of the other articles about this subject were pretty much useless.

Changing a select element option using JavaScript.

This is a short JavaScript tutorial on how to change the selected option of a select HTML element. In this post, I will show you how to do it with and without JQuery.

No, we do not serve the “Irish Car Bomb” drink in Ireland.

The other day, I saw someone asking whether the “Irish Car Bomb” drink is popular in Ireland.

PHP: Rounding a number up.

This is a beginners guide on how to round a decimal number up using PHP’s ceil function.

The Facebook crawler DDOS.

Facebook’s crawler is an untamed beast and if you are not careful, it will cause you a lot of problems. Especially you use a lot of story images.

PHP cURL: Fixing the “SSL certificate problem: unable to get local issuer certificate” error.

This is a common error that occurs whenever you attempt to use PHP’s cURL functions to connect to an HTTPS website.

Renaming a file with the Linux command line.

This is a short beginners guide on how to rename a file using the Linux command line.

PHP tutorial: Converting images into Base 64.

This is a short PHP tutorial on how to convert an image file into Base 64 before displaying it.

Logging to a file with PHP.

This is a short guide on how to log text to a file using PHP.

Speeding up HAProxy SSL with multiple CPU processes.

This is a guide on how to speed up SSL on HAProxy. In this post, I will show you how to dedicate specific CPU processes to HTTP and HTTPS traffic.

Adding and modifying cookie values in Chrome Developer Tools.

A short guide showing you how to add and modify cookie values using Chrome’s Developer Tools feature.

Blocking POST, TRACE and PUT requests with HAProxy.

A short guide on how to allow or deny certain HTTP methods using HAProxy.

Prevent unwanted domains from forwarding to Nginx.

A short guide on how to prevent spammy domains from forwarding to your Nginx web server.

PHP: Calculate the ratio between two numbers.

This is a short guide on how to calculate the ratio between two numbers using PHP.

Link existing Facebook page to Facebook app.

A guide on how to link an existing Facebook page to a Facebook app.

PHP trend / forecast function.

Emulating Excel’s TREND / FORECAST function in PHP.

PHP-FPM settings tutorial. max_servers, min_servers, etc.

A guide on selecting the correct www.conf settings for PHP-FPM.

Guide: Upgrading HAProxy from 1.6 to 1.8 on Ubuntu 16.04.4 LTS (Xenial).

This post details the steps that I took to upgrade HAProxy from 1.6 to 1.8 on Ubuntu 16.04.4 LTS (Xenial).

ngx_slab_alloc() failed: no memory in SSL session shared cache “le_nginx_SSL”

An SSL issue that I ran into the other day.

Incorrect validation certificate for tls-sni-01 challenge.

The other day, I came across a frustrating issue while attempting to renew the Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate on my haproxy load balancer.

The best Audacity settings for Blue Snowball Microphone.

This is a short Audacity tutorial on how to “clean up” recordings that you’ve made with the Blue Snowball microphone.

Fixing “Uncaught error: Call to undefined function curl_init”

This is a common error that occurs whenever PHP’s curl extension has not been installed or enabled.

PHP: Get a list of included PHP files.

This is a PHP tutorial on how to get a list of files that have been included in your script.

Copy a file with PHP.

This is a short tutorial on how to copy files using PHP.

The logon process was unable to display security and logon options.

The other day, when my PC became unbearably slow, I decided to press the Ctrl+Alt+Del command.

Fixed: spoolsv.exe causing high CPU usage.

In this guide, we will show you what to do if the spoolsv.exe process on your Windows PC is causing high CPU usage.

PHP: Detect if operating system is Windows.

This is a PHP tutorial on how to check if the operating system is Windows.

Infinite loops with PHP.

This is a short guide on how to create an infinite loop using PHP.

Linux: Delete files older than 30 days.

This is a short guide on how to use the Linux find utility to remove old files.

MySQL: INT(11) vs TINYINT(1) – What do the numbers in brackets mean?

When it comes to columns such as INT (11) and TINYINT (3), the number in brackets isn’t actually that important.

Force HTTPS with HAProxy.

This is a short tutorial on how to force HTTPS / SSL with the HAProxy load balancer.

How to kill Ivy.

A short article that discusses the different methods that are often used to kill English Ivy.

Vauxhall Limp Mode: Losing Acceleration (P2282)

For the past couple of months, my Vauxhall Insignia has been going into limp mode because of a tear in the Turbo Intercooler Pipe.

Setting up haproxy as a load balancer with sticky sessions.

In this tutorial, I will show you how to setup haproxy as a load balancer that uses sticky sessions.

Do not use a Stop Loss!

Before you use a Stop Loss order, you need to be aware of its drawbacks. There are a number of scenarios where it can punish you.