Author: James Bradach

  • How your NFT’s may be tracking you

    How your NFT’s may be tracking you

    NFTs have been all the rage these days, but did you know the NFT in your wallet could be collecting information about you? This information could include your IP address, operating system, and geography. All it takes is the creator placing an image URL in the NFT ‘s metadata that points to a machine they […]

  • Bridging Funds to Gnosis Chain

    Gnosis Chain, formerly xDai Chain, is an execution-layer EVM chain for stable transactions. Rather than using Ethereum to pay for gas fees, it uses the xDai stablecoin. Transactions cost just a few cents and running a validator requires only 1 GNO making staking much more accessible. Dai can be bridged from Ethereum using the official…

  • Crowdsourcing Nonprofit Service and Tool Discounts

    When those of us working in the nonprofit space think of nonprofit discounts, we often think of sites such as TechSoup. While that’s a great resource with a large number of discounts for many of the large mainstream vendors, there are many more digital tools and services that offer nonprofit discounts directly as well. Often…

  • Upload Progress with PHP 7.1 and NGINX

    Upload Progress with PHP 7.1 and NGINX

    While working on a Drupal 8 project served by NGINX and PHP-FPM, the status report looked great aside from UPLOAD PROGRESS at the bottom: Your server is capable of displaying file upload progress, but does not have the required libraries. It is recommended to install the PECL uploadprogress library. As of Drupal 8.3.5, Drupal will…

  • Let’s Encrypt + Nginx: Three Months Into Beta

    Let’s Encrypt + Nginx: Three Months Into Beta

    Nginx Plugin During Early Beta When Let’s Encrypt started their closed beta, their documentation warned that their Nginx plugin was experimental. Using it as the authenticator to obtain certificates seemed to work, but using it as the installer would almost certainly guarantee that your Nginx configuration would become a jumbled mess. But that automated installation…

  • Let’s Encrypt SSL Certificates and Nginx

    Let’s Encrypt SSL Certificates and Nginx

    HTTPS and Encryption by Default Encryption by default has become the new standard for web applications and many of the world’s top busiest sites have already made the switch to serving content via HTTPS. Google is no stranger to encryption, having made HTTPS the default for many of their apps long before it was cool,…

  • Configuring Nginx for CiviCRM

    Configuring Nginx for CiviCRM

    For almost a year now I’ve been hosting CiviCRM instances for a couple clients. This has resulted in quite a bit of troubleshooting and experimentation with file permissions and Nginx configuration. Unfortunately, most of the documentation I’ve been able to find out there seems to assume you’ll be using Apache and the source is full…

  • Adding PageSpeed and other Nginx modules on Ubuntu

    Adding PageSpeed and other Nginx modules on Ubuntu

    Enabling Nginx Modules One inconvenience with Nginx is that modules cannot be dynamically added or removed as they can in Apache. Instead, Nginx modules are specified at compile-time. If you want to add or remove any Nginx modules such as ngx_lua, ngx_http_secure_download_module, or nginx_uploadprogress_module you’ll either need to compile from source or find a PPA…

  • Install CiviCRM on WordPress with Nginx

    Install CiviCRM on WordPress with Nginx

    Over the weekend I installed a copy of CiviCRM on WordPress to demo for a small nonprofit that recently asked me to help with some of their data needs. CiviCRM is a constituent relationship management (CRM) system designed for nonprofit organizations. While I installed it as a WordPress plugin, it’s also available for Joomla and Drupal.…

  • Password protect WordPress admin directory on Nginx

    Password protect WordPress admin directory on Nginx

    Extra protection against brute force attacks While WordPress has an authentication system of its own, some opt to add additional server-side password protection to /wp-admin/ using basic authentication. This prompts users for a username and a password before even allowing access to the admin files and WordPress authentication. Password protecting wp-login.php is generally sufficient WordPress…