Just noticed someone has forked Mebe into their own version. Haven't
looked at it more thoroughly, but looking at the feature list they have added lots of useful stuff and removed stuff
that Mebe still has that is specific to my own blog (I'm working on removing them piece by piece). If interested, you
should totally check it out on Github: https://github.com/nmqanh/geekpress.
This is the first project I have that has been forked by someone, makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. 😊 Though
also a bit embarrassed of all the things they have had to fix in the engine… Anyway, such a great motivator to see
someone use something you have created.
You may remember that earlier this fall I found out just how much faster a
2048-bit HTTPS certificate is for the server to handle. Now that I
got one from Let's Encrypt, I decided to redo the performance tests with the new certificate
all set up. Since I ran out of credits on my blitz.io free account, I did the new tests with
loader.io's free tier instead. That's why the graphs are a bit different this time.
Before I go into the HTTPS results, I will bring some context. You might remember that last time I got about 730
requests per second served over HTTPS with a 2048-bit key, and about 1380 requests per second for plain HTTP. Quoting
myself from that time: "So fast… 🚀". Turns out I spoke too soon. By disabling some extraneous console logging,
I was able to more than double the performance. Let's see the latest results.
For reference: The server is an online.net Dedibox XC with an
8-core Intel Atom C2750 processor and 8 GB of DDR3 RAM.
The identity of this website has been verified by Let's Encrypt Authority X1.
That's right! Let's Encrypt, the new free, automated and open certificate authority, has moved to public beta
and their client has improved enough that I was able to request a certificate for this blog! In the end it was criminally easy,
basically a matter of running one command (after fiddling around a bit to find the correct command…):
letsencrypt-auto certonly --webroot -w /path/to/blog -d blog.nytsoi.net
This uses the Let's Encrypt program to automatically validate my domain and request a certificate for it (with the
default value being a 2048-bit one). The way it does the validation is by adding some files to the path I specified and
then making an HTTP request for the domain, checking that the files are accessible. When the domain has been validated,
it requests the certificate and saves it. The cool thing about it is that it creates a directory
/etc/letsencrypt/live/blog.nytsoi.net/ that contains symlinks to the files required for using the certificate, such as
the full chained certificate file and the private key. When I want to renew the certificate, I can run the Let's
Encrypt program with the same arguments again and it will update the symlinks. That means automating it is very easy
(and indeed required since their certificates currently only last for 90 days). The program also contains plugins for
Apache and nginx, but the nginx plugin is very experimental so I settled for the webroot method.
I'm really excited for Let's Encrypt's launch. I hope this will encourage more and more people to adopt HTTPS for their
websites, especially those that deal with user logins or other sensitive data. There's really no reason to not do it
anymore. Encryption for everyone!
This installment of music-i-like deals with a specific album, because I feel like I don't know enough about the artist
Hans-Peter Lindstrøm to talk about him in general,
but I still want to share the album in question. Smalhans (2012) is refreshingly different album from what I usually
listen to. It has a simple formula: simple melodies on top of beats that steadily keep on going, all building towards…
well, it doesn't matter. In Smalhans it's not about the destination, it's about the journey. Perfect music for when you
are driving but are not in any rush to get to where you are going. Also, it has fun track names, like Fāār-i-kāāl and
Ęg-gęd-ōsis.
AURORA, or Aurora Aksnes, is my latest discovery. She is a young Norwegian singer with an awesome voice and who is
already showing some serious promise as a songwriter – she has written most of her songs herself, and they already sound
– to me – better than those from some famous popstars. AURORA has been gaining popularity fast recently, getting good
reviews and being endorsed by people like
Katy Perry.
What I like about AURORA, other than her being a really good singer, is that she conveys a lot of her emotion through
her hands and body while she sings. In some songs she can be seen clutching her dress as if to keep her from exploding,
whereas in others she dances around the stage in a frenzy. That makes her live sessions fun to watch – and as with any
good artist, they are as good as, or even better than the studio versions.
Still waiting for that album, though. I hear it's coming in the beginning of 2016 and I can barely wait. AURORA has, in
a week's time, dominated my 365-day "Most played tracks" statistic (one more playthrough and every track on the
top 10 will be hers). I'm expecting great things from her.
This is kind of a funny entry since I'm usually not into this kind of radio pop, but for some reason Linnea's songs
work for me. I don't know why, but I'm not ashamed to admit it either. Just listen, they're good.
A relatively new electronic band consisting of Iain Cook, Martin Doherty and the main vocalist Lauren Mayberry. I bumped
into this band while reading the Guardian one day, randomly clicking on an article about Internet bullying. Turns out
Lauren had received a lot of terrible messages on the net and had written an article about the matter. I decided to
check them out on YouTube and was blown away. I bought their album The Bones of What You Believe the same day and the
next one, Every Open Eye, when it was available. As a fan of many kinds of electronic music their tracks really click
for me. I really enjoy Lauren's singing voice, and the sound that accompanies it is really good both technically and
musically. I think my favorite moment is when the melody hits in the song Tether (the first example below).
A Swedish folk duo consisting of two sisters, Johanna and Klara Söderberg. From their sound you would never guess they
were Swedish, though. They sing american-ish folk and country songs in a really soothing way, and their voices form some
of the best harmonies I have heard. Their story is what
modern technology has made possible: they uploaded themselves singing duettos on MySpace and were subsequently picked up by a record
label. I was never really into this kind of music before, but instantly got a liking to their albums. I really recommend
checking them out.
A remarkable band of four women from Norway. An amalgamation of talent in both singing and playing, the band members
play a total of fifteen instruments, which they switch between seamlessly during their live gigs. Their music is really
something different, hard to describe and hard to put a label on. That is why I won't even try to pick a genre for them,
they need to be heard to truly know. A total shame, though, that their latest album, Rockland, failed to live up to
my expectations and was quite toned down from the previous two. It wasn't bad, it was just… ok. Here's hoping they will
release more music in the future and catch some of that spark again.
Trio Töykeät are the name to know in Finnish jazz. Extremely well crafted jazz pieces played with precision and
finesse. The musicians themselves are the best Finland has to offer in the genre. I can't find more words to describe
their special qualities, so maybe let the examples speak for themselves.