Bits & Pieces of Knowledge in Random Order

For those of you who know me well, my wife and I are expecting our first child in January, with G-d's help. I've been delving deeper into my Jewish roots over the last year and have been becoming more and more fascinated by the freely available explanations of life's concepts, questions and answers. Through what I've learned so far, I’d like to share what I currently believe to be the reason why so much emphasis is put on having children in Judaism. There is the clear responsibility of Jews being a light unto the world and being role models that are honest in all their dealings, relationships and overall good human beings, which would clearly conclude that it’s important to “be fruitful and multiply” so as to reach and cause positive effects on as much of humanity as possible.

However, there is a deeper meaning that goes closer to the relationship between children and their parents. One of the Ten Commandments is to respect your parents, which most of us know is a very hard commandment to keep at times. Of all the 248 positive commandments and 365 negative commandments that Jews are required to keep, why is this one given such importance? Here’s a better question: we know that the first five commandments are for the relationship of man to G-d, and the next five are for the relationship between man and man. Why is respecting your parents a commandment between man and G-d?

In a lot of cases, in both the Torah and therefore in Prayer, you’ll see G-d’s name being written in different ways. Sometimes you will see Elo-kim, which represents G-d’s attribute of “din” (justice) and sometimes you will see Yu-K-Vav-K representing His attribute of “rahamim” (mercy). If G-d were to exercise his attribute of justice at all times with no mercy, the world would be destroyed almost immediately given the atrocities that go on in the world. If He were to solely exercise his attribute of mercy, there would be no reward and punishment, causing total chaos in the world. What good are laws without judgment when they are broken?

Let’s parallel these two attributes to your parents. Parents will, in most cases, have to exercise both of these attributes. Usually it’s split between the father and mother. The father will take on the “educator” role and the one to serve out punishment when his children are misbehaving. The mother will be the one you run to when you need something and always be the one you are closest to because you can relate more closely to someone who shows constant love, or at least the way you perceive love at a young age. But the Torah tells you to respect them both, and actually puts the father before the mother in the wording. When we’re young and we don’t understand why we “can’t have” this, “can’t do” this, “can’t go” there, the answer is in most cases “you’ll understand when you’re older”. The truth is, when you finally reach the age where you understand why you were told “no” and denied things you wanted at a young age, you realize that even though it seemed to be a form of punishment or lack of love back then, today with your better developed intellect you understand that it was all done out of love. Your parents tried to direct you based on their own past experiences, and sometimes it takes the attribute of justice to help push you back in the proper direction.

This allows us to understand that everything G-d does is for the good. Whether you are suffering in your material existence by lack of funds, trouble at work, trouble with your health or your family’s health, these are all forms of communication between G-d and you to help drive you in a certain direction. And who better to do that than the One with the most experience of anyone you can possibly fathom. If you concentrate on this you will realize that there is no reason to be angry, upset, sad or depressed. You will realize that your life is constantly being helped and directed from above. It is true that we believe in free will and making our own choices, but we are also receiving constant divine assistance and are only given tests and trials in life that we have the potential to overcome.

So now that we understand the above, we realize that honoring your parents for both their attributes of justice and mercy is a direct way of honoring G-d by acknowledging that everything He does is for the good and we respect and love Him for it. Unfortunately, it sometimes takes the realization that you will be a father soon to understand and appreciate your parents and give G-d his proper tribute. We should all merit to extend this circle of learning to love and appreciate our parents and G-d by extension and hopefully sooner rather than later.

If you heard about Facebook's new Timeline feature, you're probably one of the millions of people who won't have access to it until September 29th. But there is a trick to getting quick access, here's how to do it:

You will need a Facebook Application under your account first, so head over to:

https://developers.facebook.com/apps

Once you're there, click on the Create New App button:

Then fill out the form with bogus information:

Then you'll be able to edit your application. Click on Open Graph on the left side menu. And fill out the two field form to add a random action that a user can do (this doesn't matter, put anything).

Now when you hit Get Started, it will send you to the next page. You're done, don't even look at this page. Just head back to Facebook and you should see a special invite at the top from Facebook to access your page. Once you accept you'll be able to start using Timeline:

So let's be honest. Some Facebook applications are really awesome, but there have been so many spammy applications that most people are afraid to test out new apps for fear that the applications will start posting crap on your wall and spamming your friends. Luckily, the way Facebook's authentication for applications is setup, you can test out applications without giving them all the information they require. Here's how:

Let's say you want to check out Slide's FunApp

The problem is, you don't want to share your email address. You don't want it to be able to post on your wall while you're in the bathroom or on vacation, or any time for that matter. You also don't want it to be able to access your sensitive information at any time. You just want them to have access to your basic information.

But for some reason, Facebook is not allowing you to select NOT to share the rest. You feel like you're being forced to do it just to get past the first page and see what the app is about.

Here's the solution:

Go to the URL bar

Scroll to the end of it and delete the part after &perms=

It should now end like this:

Hit Enter and look at the new screen:

Now you can click Allow with no fears.

Hope you enjoyed this trick.

Most new or potential business owners have no idea where to start. It begins with the inception of a new idea, either something that hasn't been done or sold before, or something that has been done, either way though, you need an online store.

You may have gone to friends to ask them if they know anyone who builds websites, at which point you were referred to someone who has built a few decent looking online stores. After you explain your project to to this person, he quotes you his standard $15,000 to $20,000 to get started. But did you know that most e-commerce websites nowadays use already developed systems that are completely customizable? If you find the right developer, who asks you the right questions to understand your project completely, you would be amazed at the talent that's out there and how quickly you can get running while still in budget.

Most people try to to become an "Amazon" from the start, they want to have everything figured out completely. They want the person they choose to develop their website to be someone full time who does Search Engine Optimization (so you show up in a good place on Google, Yahoo etc), PPC Management (to run ads), Affiliate network management (so you can pay marketers commission on the sales they bring you), Website development, Website maintenance, Website graphics design, Logo design, Importing products, the list goes on. What most people don't typically understand is that these are all individual jobs. The person that has all or the majority of those listed talents is already running their own company, they don't need your money.

Here's a tip, start small. Get your website developed by someone who's local. For the Montreal area, I recommend getting in touch with David Azoulay at Daversion.com. You'd be surprised at how much more affordable and organized your business model will have just gotten.

Once you have the website done the way you want it (website design, development, hosting), you're ready to proceed to the next steps.

More to come.

People keep asking me how I get so productive when working. The trick is to properly setup your work environment so that everything is accessible extremely quickly. The last thing you want to do is maximize and minimize windows continually to go between data. One MAJOR enhancement, which I've only appreciated a lot recently, is to have more than one screen. However, you need to optimize the way you use the screens because otherwise you'll run out of space pretty quickly. I, personally, am not yet completely content with two screens, because I need to have chats, browser, programming, shells and documents open at the same time to work on projects. But this is how I optimized my setup with two screens for now (until my next screen comes in by mail).

I am assuming you have PHP and Apache 2.x+ installed

To begin, log into your server and run the following commands:

cd /tmp
wget http://geolite.maxmind.com/download/geoip/database/GeoLiteCountry/GeoIP.dat.gz
gunzip GeoIP.dat.gz
wget http://geolite.maxmind.com/download/geoip/api/c/GeoIP.tar.gz
tar -xzvf GeoIP.tar.gz
cd GeoIP-*
./configure
make
sudo make install
cd ..
cp GeoIP.dat /usr/local/share/GeoIP/GeoIP.dat
wget http://geolite.maxmind.com/download/geoip/api/mod_geoip2/mod_geoip2_1.2.5.tar.gz
tar -xzvf mod_geoip2_1.2.5.tar.gz
cd mod_geoip2_1.2.5
apxs -i -a -L/usr/local/lib -I/usr/local/include -lGeoIP -c mod_geoip.c

Next you'll need to open your apache config file (either apache.conf or httpd.conf). Try

/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

or

/etc/apache2/apache2.conf

You'll need to add this somewhere at the end:

GeoIPEnable On
GeoIPDBFile /usr/local/share/GeoIP/GeoIP.dat MemoryCache
GeoIPOutput Env

Now just restart apache using one of these commands (whichever one applies to you):

sudo apachectl restart
sudo /etc/init.d/httpd restart
sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

And do a quick test by creating a new php script with the following code:

<?php
print_r($_SERVER);
?>

You should see new GEOIP variables that will tell you what country the user is in:

Array
(
   [GEOIP_ADDR] => 74.59.82.169
   [GEOIP_CONTINENT_CODE] => NA
   [GEOIP_COUNTRY_CODE] => CA
   [GEOIP_COUNTRY_NAME] => Canada
...

There you go, you can now use

$_SERVER['GEOIP_COUNTRY_CODE']

in PHP to redirect the user based on the country they're connecting from.

<?php
phpinfo();
?>

[browscap]
;browscap = extra/browscap.ini

You'll now need to download the latest version of the browscap.ini (and update it as often as you like to keep current).

I decided to store mine in /etc/php_browscap.ini , so I ran this:

wget http://browsers.garykeith.com/stream.asp?PHP_BrowsCapINI > /etc/php_browscap.ini

Now that it was there, I went into my php.ini configuration and changed the above code to:

[browscap]
browscap = /etc/php_browscap.ini

(Notice I removed the semicolon (;) at the beginning of the line to uncomment it)

Then simply restart your webserver. One of these might work for you:

sudo apachectl restart
sudo /etc/init.d/httpd restart
sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

And open a new php script, to try this code:

<?php
$tmp = get_browser(null, true);
print_r($tmp);
?>

When I access that script from Google Chrome I see:

Array
(
    [browser_name_regex] => §^mozilla/5\.0 \(macintosh; .*; .*mac os x.*; .*; rv:1\.9\.2.*\) gecko/.* firefox/3\.6.*$§
    [browser_name_pattern] => Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; *; *Mac OS X*; *; rv:1.9.2*) Gecko/* Firefox/3.6*
    [parent] => Firefox 3.6
    [platform] => MacOSX
    [browser] => Firefox
    [version] => 3.6
    [majorver] => 3
    [minorver] => 6
    [frames] => 1
    [iframes] => 1
    [tables] => 1
    [cookies] => 1
    [javaapplets] => 1
    [javascript] => 1
    [cssversion] => 3
    [supportscss] => 1
    [alpha] => 
    [beta] => 
    [win16] => 
    [win32] => 
    [win64] => 
    [backgroundsounds] => 
    [cdf] => 
    [vbscript] => 
    [activexcontrols] => 
    [isbanned] => 
    [ismobiledevice] => 
    [issyndicationreader] => 
    [crawler] => 
    [aol] => 
    [aolversion] => 0
)

So I know that the client is connecting using Firefox running on a Mac, and some of the capabilities of the browser (it won't detect if those are disabled though by the user).

Voila, you're done!

I had an interesting debate this morning in class. My Rabbi was debating whether or not shyness is a form of ego.

I immediately rejected that possibility, whenever you invite another person over for a meal, or are in a group of people with someone who is shy, it is easy to immediately place them as someone who feels inferior and does not express themselves as others because they don't feel they are at the same level.

However, I was told quickly not to immediately reject something because of my beliefs, and to think hard about it to see if there was a possibility that I was incorrect. So I did just that.

I read an excerpt of Eckhart Tolle on Shyness, Self-esteem and Ego, taken from an interview with Oprah Winfrey (not the best source, but interesting nonetheless).

OPRAH WINFREY (HOST): But what surprised me is that you say that often people who are also shy are also acting out of their egos. And you say whenever you feel superior or inferior to anyone, that's the ego in you. Why is that?
 
ECKHART TOLLE (AUTHOR, “A NEW EARTH”): Well, if you're shy, then what you fear is to be found wanting. But so you're not, you dare not...
 
OPRAH WINFREY: So the fear is that the attention may take the form of disapproval or criticism.
 
ECKHART TOLLE: Yes. So because you're afraid of that, whatever the disapproval or the criticism would represent an injury of your mentally made sense of self which is the ego. 

So it would, the image that I have of myself as the very capable person or whatever it is that I'm trying to uphold, if I encounter criticism, the ego immediately will be hurt.
And so a shy person would not dare to say anything because they're afraid of ego loss.  And.. sometimes that's mistaken for an egoless person.  

It's not.  And deep down inside the shy person or this person who is suffering from this sense of inferiority, there's the desire, the unexpressed desire to be superior.
And inside the person who acts superior who seems to have a big confident ego, is always the hidden fear that he might be inferior. And his whole acting out is to compensate for that hidden fear of being inferior.
 
OPRAH WINFREY: Okay. Behind every positive self consent is the hidden fear of not being good enough?
 
ECKHART TOLLE: Yes.
 
OPRAH WINFREY: Behind every negative self consent is the hidden desire of being the greatest or better than others.
 
ECKHART TOLLE: Yes.

It actually hit home quite a bit. I've been in a lot of situations where I've refrained from speaking, and looking back, it might have been for fear of saying the wrong thing and sounding inferior. It's a very big eye opener that things aren't always what they seem, and it helps to know that I now have a lot of work to do on myself.

In a recent quote from the movie American Gangster (2007):

The loudest one in the room is the weakest.

I can't help but think that it's still not enough to judge people by their actions, because you never know what struggles they are going through deep down inside.

JSON-p allows for just that. Webpages can inject javascript on their website from another domain, and pass data to that secondary domain through GET parameters, and have that secondary domain call a function that is already defined on the primary domain to post-process the information.

For example, if my website knew your Twittter nickname (mine's gmalca), and I wanted to access that user's posts to display them on my website (assuming this person's posts were public), I could simply add this piece of javascript to my webpage:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://api.twitter.com/1/statuses/user_timeline.json?screen_name=gmalca&callback=processTweets"></script>

Then, on my first domain, I could create a function called processTweets, which will receive this information back from Twitter through the client, and process the list of Tweets for easy display on my webpage.

JSON-p does have its limitations though. For example, some browsers only allow 4096 characters to be passed through the URL, so if you're passing too much data over to the JSON-p script on the other end, you might hit a browser error. In addition, a lot of websites that use Ajax to communicate information over without reloading the page, use JSON-p internally with their own callback functions. The problem is that a malicious website could simply inject that code into their page if the user is already logged into this other domain, and get information sent back to them that might be sensitive to the user.

A lot of caution and good engineering need to be taken into account when designing websites, because when a user's information is at risk, your brand and website follow suit.