EmmonsNet

I got a call a few minutes ago from a self titled 'webmaster' asking me why all of his directory indexes on his website showing in Google search results. I did a search on Google for 'site:<his domain name> "index of"' and sure enough, I received a bunch of links that I could click on and then start navigating his sites directory structure.

I called him back asking him to send me a copy of his .htaccess file to look over. His response 'My H-T What?!?!'.

Oh brother.

He could have avoided having his sites internals laid naked before the web browsing and Google snooping world easily by doing the following.

Create a default index.html in every directory of his website. Make sure a .htaccess file is present .. if not create it. Add the following two lines to the .htaccess file:

DirectoryIndex index.html
Options All -Indexes

What else could have done?

I don't know ... maybe RTFM!

... or accountability.

I think every Linux user has committed the cardinal sin of working as root when they should not have been as they were cutting teeth on the OS.

I know I had my colossal blunder when typing the ill fated command at 'rm -rf ./*'  while I was root. Furthermore - I really sealed the fate of my workstation at that time because I was currently in /etc! Only after the command had finished and the command prompt was blinking at me again did I start to get that sick cold and sticky feeling in my gut. I realized what I had just done and hoped there was a way to undo it.

I had a a IRC session currently open and was idling in the #linux channel. I let my fellow Linux users know what I did and asked what the solution was.

I have never seen so many 'LOL's before or since. After all the laughter had finished they confirmed what I knew in my heart of hearts to be the stone cold truth .... I had LOBOTOMIZED my OS. Nothing left to do except stop the sobbing and get to re-installing.

Linux has no undo. Like other *nix OS's, it assumes that since you are bright and brave enough to login to it as root, then you are big boy ( or girl ) enough to take your lumps if you do something stupid.

'... Another profession dominated and ruled by men'. That is what a lady friend of mine commented recently about the IT field.

Though, I have to agree with my ultra feminist friend that the male gender is in the majority when it comes to computer and internet related jobs - I also have to point out that without the brilliance and priceless contribution of many women the industry that it would would have been completely different.

One such woman was Grace Hopper. She was a one women powerhouse of geek. She was the first to postulate that because computers should be easier to program for their users, a higher level programming language could be created and then compiled into low level machine code.

In the early 1950's she began working on the first compiler while working on the UNIVAC I.

All compilers today can trace their roots back to the work Grace Hopper did over 50 years ago. Every time I have built applications from source or tweaked my kernel - I am invoking a little bit of that magic Grace Hopper made possible.

'Bugs' is a term used to referred to errors in ones program code. Another contribution to computer science from Grace. While working on a Mark II at Harvard University a moth was discovered in a relay preventing it from working properly. The bug was removed. Later she tapped that bug into a log book with the comment 'First actual case of a bug being found'. It is open to debate as to whether the term debugging orginated here - but after this moth and the log entry, the terming debugging was set firmly within the geek lexicon.

Comic Con is not just your average collection of comic book geeks gathering in a hotel over a weekend to scare the 'straights' with their personal odiferous hygeine and heated debates on socially relevant topics like who would win if Spiderman and Batman fought it out.

It has evolved into the place to premier the latest high gloss productions from the entertainment and gaming industries. This year Disney blew everybody away with a screening of a trailer for Tron Legacy.

Many sci fi geeks will remember the 1982 release of the first Tron movie. At the time it made much of the movie going public crinkle its nose. But in geekdom it became a cult classic over the years and inspiring at least two video games that I know of. I can only imagine the number of quarters a sacrificed to the original arcade game.

The trailer released by Disney at Comic Con this year gave an all to brief glimpse into a new and darker visage of a computer generated realm where the games where more like gladiator matches. The sleek, ominous and polished feel of it made me wonder how much inspiration the art directors took from the Timex Indiglo designs.

I am really looking forward to catch this one on the big screen. I hope it gets a run at my local I-Max theater when it is released in 2010.

Until then, I am just going to have to be content to watch this trailer a few dozen times and keeping FlynnLives bookmarked. High definition trailers can be downloaded from the site too.

Or, you can just enjoy this one (the trailer will be after a very short commercial):