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Nextcloud Cron Issues on Debian Fix

I started having problems with cron running as recommended on Debian because something changed and it makes sense that it would not be able to run because the webserver Debian user doesn’t have a default shell. I don’t know how this really was working technically at all ever, but I swear it was at one time. Anyway, it got annoying to see alerts on the cron task in NextCloud not...

Microsoft Teams on Debian Linux Install Fix

MS Teams Download From Microsoft Quick post here but if you are having issues playing an install of Microsoft Teams Desktop application for Linux on a Debian Buster system, like I initially was, it could be due to the use of su and sudo. I have always, just out of habit, immediately prefer dropping to root on all things when needed, but that is not helpful in Debian on default paths, etc. So...

Dark Fiber Setup Back at Lick-Wilmerding with Monkeybrains

Here are pics from way back when Alex and Rudy at Monkeybrains figured-out how to snag access to the old Earthlink dark fiber nearby for Lick-Wilmerding and to open a line of sight access point for Excelsior and Ingleside in SF. I was the Director of IT at Lick-Wilmerding at the time. We were struggling with bandwidth and were excited to partner with Alex and Rudy in addition to making something...

Seen Around San Francisco

Salvaging some old pictures from the pile of old Mergy.org files to continue sharing from years gone by around San Francisco. Most of these were taken from around 2008-2014-ish. Mount Davidson old petrified treeSt. Francis fountain car accidentOcean Beach car surferScary driveway parking sign in MissionWaldo in Glen ParkThe Pope Room at old Buca Di BeppoErlich Bachman in Masonic trafficDarth...

Fred Mergy Page Fixed, Updated

Many years ago, I created a page on my old site so if people were searching for my late father, they would find him. Over the many years, I’ve always received queries and comments from people that played and worked with my father in the Bay Area jazz scene in the 1960s through to the 1980s. The page was broken but as WordPress tech improved and I could drop all the various audio and image...

New Year, New Mergy Dot Org!

After maintaining ~15+ years of hacked together and patched versions/updates of Linux, Apache, mysql, php and WordPress, I purged a lot of junk and the maze of crazy configs over the holiday break. As we all move into 2021 and out of the mess that was 2020, I felt a purge was needed.

On to new and better things!

Favorite Maker Faire Memories Over The Years

Here are some pics from various years hitting Maker Faire in San Mateo and the East Bay.  

Dark room mechsCombat GnomesHuge motorized flyerfrom 2012?Steam areasThought it was Ren FaireMiles O’Brien doing interviewsThe big rock swingFire sculpture mechsMore Combat GnomesHippy elementPuppet sculpturesLive from the Tesla StageMore motorized mechs

Using fail2ban To Mitigate Excessive Apache 403, 404, 500, and 503 Attacks

I finally spent some time last weekend to address the botnets attacking my site and specifically looking for known exploits, bad WordPress plugins, and just general random stuff. I should disclaimer that messing around and systematically blocking hosts viewing your website generating 404s may or may not make sense for you. If you create a fail2ban filter, jail, and start picking off hosts that...

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