Adam Breckler : internet professional

June 22, 2010

On Randomness

Inspired by: The Black Swan and MoreNewMath

How to camouflage wordpress

Sometimes you don’t want to broadcast to the world that your site is running on wordpress. Here are some steps to take to remove some of the “traces” of wordpress in your code.

Step 1: Update .htaccess

To mask the paths of your wp-content and theme directories in you will need to make some modifications to your .htaccess file. Place the following code at the top of your .htaccess at the root of your site.

# BEGIN REWRITES
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^images/(.*)$ wp-content/themes/THEMNAME/images/$1 [PT]
RewriteRule ^css/(.*)$ wp-content/themes/THEMNAME/css/$1 [PT]
RewriteRule ^js/(.*)$ wp-content/themes/THEMNAME/js/$1 [PT]
RewriteRule ^uploads/(.*)$ wp-content/uploads/$1 [PT]
RewriteRule ^plugins/(.*)$ wp-content/plugins/$1 [PT]
</IfModule>
# END REWRITES

In your wp-config.php, add the following line to customize your plugin directory url.

define( 'WP_PLUGIN_URL', 'http://www.yoururlhere.com/plugins' );

Step 2: Modify functions.php

Get rid of pesky meta-data that wordpress leaves in your header with the following actions added to your theme’s functions.php.

  remove_action('wp_head', 'wp_generator');
  remove_action('wp_head', 'wlwmanifest_link');
  remove_action('wp_head', 'rsd_link');

Step 3: Remove html comments from plugins you use.

Some wordpress plugins leave behind html comments such as “powered by such-and-such”. It is generally assumed that you will leave in those comments as free advertising for the plugin author, but you are allowed to remove them if you like in almost every case.

Step 4: Modify wp-admin path

Add the following to your .htaccess file. Fully documented here

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} wp-admin/
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} !YOURSECRETWORDHERE
RewriteRule .*\.php [F,L]
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} !YOURSECRETWORDHERE
RewriteRule ^ADMINFOLDER/(.*) wp-admin/$1?%{QUERY_STRING}&amp;YOURSECRETWORDHERE [L]

June 9, 2010

5 ways engineers are like hot chicks

They have options

In Silicon Valley, engineers, like hot chicks, are the ones who are being pursued. They have their pick of the litter (jobs) and are coveted by multiple suitors (companies).

No means no (except when it doesn’t)

When and engineer describes something as “impossible”, this is code for “leave me alone, i’m trying to play starcraft”. You are going to have to ask more than once. Similarly, when a hot chick says no to a date at first, it pays to be persistent.

They are the gatekeepers

To get anything done, you need to procure “engineering resources” for your pet project. For this you need to secure “buy in” from engineering. Hot chicks are a different kind of talent and also need to be “bought in”.

They get good benefits

Good engineers command top salaries and stock options. Hot chicks get benefits like cars and credit cards.

They are in short supply

Good engineers, like hot (and smart) chicks, are a rare breed. Once you find a good one, it pays to hold on.

Adam Breckler