Category: Technology

I work in technology sector. And I do round a clock, not only from 9 to 5. It is my bread and butter, it is my hobby, it is the fascination of my life. And with the current rate of change particular in information technology (IT), there is always something new to learn, to try, to talk about. I often post news, thoughts, and reviews. And when I do, this is the category I use.

Do Not Use Amazon Linux

I came across “Do Not Use Amazon Linux” opinion on Ex Ratione.  I have to say that I mostly agree with it.  When I initially started using Amazon Web Services, I assumed (due to time constraints mostly) that Amazon Linux was a close derivative of CentOs and I opted for that.  For the majority of things that affect applications in my environment that holds true, however it’s not all as simple as it sounds.

There are in fact differences that have to be taken into account.  Some of the configuration issues can be abstracted with the tools like Puppet (which I do use).  But not all of it.   I’ve been bitten by package names and version differences (hello PHP 5.3, 5.4, and 5.5; and MySQL and MariaDB) between Amazon AMI and CentOS distribution.  It’s an absolute worst when trying to push an application from our testing and development environments into the client’s production environment.  Especially when tight deadlines are involved.

One of the best reasons for CentOS is that developers can easily have their local environments (Vagrant anyone?) setup in an exactly the same way as test and production servers.

Paphos court orders Facebook to remove offensive comments

facebook

Cyprus News reports that :

The Paphos District Court has issued an injunction against social media giant Facebook, ordering the company to remove a number of offensive comments posted on a local business profile, aimed at a local man.

The comments, posted on February 4, accuse the man of criminal activities. The original post was still on Facebook on Wednesday morning.  It has over 1,000 shares.

Charalambos Savvides of the Ch. P. Savvides & Associates LLC law firm, which handled the case, told the Cyprus Mail that Facebook was not only required to remove the comments but also take steps to ensure that future related comments were taken down immediately.

In-Cyprus has a few more details:

The case concerns comments on Facebook made against a bar owner from Paphos who became the target of a hate campaign which attracted thousands of users who shared and liked the page. The man in question was, according to those who had got the ball rolling on popular social media site, committing various crimes around the town and especially against competing bars.

He was also accused of being a police informant that was getting special protection in the town despite his ‘known illegal activities’.

The man has denied all the allegations against him.

It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.