2017-11-29T15:08:35-06:00 http://rexmac.com/ Rex McConnell Copyright (c) Rex McConnell 2013-04-04T13:22:36Z http://rexmac.com/blog/fun-with-css3-backgrounds/

I decided to have some fun with different background effects using CSS3. Notebook Paper The first effect I wanted to achieve was a background resembling a sheet of notebook paper. I found a “Lined paper” pattern in Lea Verou’s CSS3 Patterns Gallery, but the vertical line wasn’t working 100% when I tested it. It looks fine in Firefox, but it only shows up at certain window widths in Chrome 26, and when the line does…

2013-02-25T13:17:53Z http://rexmac.com/blog/virtualbox-host-only-adater-for-ubuntu-vm/

Just some notes to help me next time I go about setting up an Ubunutu VM Configure host-only interface /etc/network/interfaces# The loopback interface auto lo iface lo inet loopback # The primary network interface auto eth0 iface eth0 inet dhcp # The secondary network interface auto eth1 iface eth1 inet static address 192.168.56.101 netmask 255.255.255.0 gateway 192.168.56.1 sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart Update system Consolesudo apt-get update sudo apt-get upgrade sudo reboot Build PHP v5.3.22 on Ubuntu…

2012-09-07T16:22:40Z http://rexmac.com/blog/openswan-patch-for-android-ics-bug/

I recently setup a private VPN using an Amazon EC2 instance. Unfortunately, while my Samsung Galaxy Nexus, which is running Android JellyBean, has no trouble connecting to the VPN, my wife’s Samsung Galaxy S2, which is running Android ICS, refused to connect. The only error on the phone was “Timeout”. Very helpful. Thankfully, the authentication log on the EC2 instance revealed much more: /var/log/auth.logSep 7 14:38:22 localhost pluto[7325]: "L2TP-PSK-NAT"[32] xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx #30: sending notification PAYLOAD_MALFORMED to…

2012-09-07T16:22:40Z http://rexmac.com/blog/internet-security-when-travelling/

My wife and I plan on doing some travelling soon, and, as usual, we will be bringing along plenty of digital toys (e.g., laptop, iPad, smartphone). All of these upcoming trips are for business purposes, so we’ll need to be checking our email and accessing other online resources on-the-go. In the past, I have always avoided using WiFi hotspots in airports and hotels (or anywhere, really) as they are typically unsecured and open to prying…

2012-09-01T12:03:01Z http://rexmac.com/blog/jekyll-power/

Several months ago, when I decided to launch a new blog, I knew that I wanted a platform that would allow me to quickly and easily add new content (and manage existing content), while also spreading my developer wings and having some fun in the process. WordPress I’ve used it in the past for personal projects and also for a few clients, but it always felt…wrong. From a user’s perspective, WP can be a pleasure,…

2011-05-21T04:07:32Z http://rexmac.com/blog/mturk-qualtrics-helper/

Background Recently, my fiancée was investigating the use of Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT) as a means of paying people for participating in her latest empirical research. The study involves taking an online survey that she created at Qualtrics.com (her University has an account). The Problem AMT has a built-in feature for creating surveys. Unfortunately, it is rather limited in its implementation: There are no options for customizing the structure of surveys (e.g. multiple pages, order…