Creative Productions, Arrangements and Operations • Art, Technology and Amusements. Software Engineer and certified FileMaker Pro developer and full-stack web developer by day, https//www.kupietz.com
Here's the SQL query to get all post revisions, which I do prior to cleaning them out of the database, which seems to make it much faster:
SELECT p.* FROM [posts table name] p WHERE (p.post_type = 'post' OR p.post_type = 'page') -- Include posts/pages AND (p.post_date BETWEEN '2020-01-01' AND '2029-07-01') -- Adjust date range OR (p.post_type = 'revision' AND p.post_parent IN ( SELECT ID FROM [posts table name] WHERE post_date BETWEEN '2024-01-01' AND '2024-07-01' ));
To get just a count of revisions, change SELECT p.* to SELECT count(*).
I removed a bunch of wildcard paths from rsnapshot.conf's exclude, and suddenly tonight my backup ran in a few minutes instead of taking over a day like it usually does.
Interesting, I've been looking off and on for at least the better part of a year for ways to lighten the load of rsnapshot's under-the-hood rsync backup commands, which reliably took up about half my CPU power almost continuously, and never found this tip before. You can see, plenty of wildcard paths removed, plus a few other things.
Here's a diff, rsnapshot.conf before changes (<) vs after (>): < verbose 1 --- > verbose 4 120c120 < loglevel 2 --- > loglevel 4 143a144,146 > rsync_short_args -Wa > #-W is transfer whole files without prescan, recommended for performance by https://serverfault.com/questions/639458/rsync-taking-100-of-cpu-and-hours-to-complete > #NOTE: if you set the above short…
I had an interesting problem where I set an image's CSS rules to display:fixed and it still scrolled with the page. Here's what I discovered:
In CSS, display:fixed means fixed with regard to the nearest ancestor stacking context, not necessarily to the page coordinates. You can reset the stacking context by adding a transform, will-change, or other attributes (list provided below) to an element. If an ancestor element resets the stacking context, any descendant of it with display:fixed will stay fixed with regard to it, but if it scrolls with the page, will scroll too.
Ditto for the CSS attribute z-index. A higher z-index is only in front of objects in its stacking context. A new stacking context, lower down on the page, can contain elements with a lower z-index but that nonetheless appear in front of it visually, because they're not in the same stacking context.
- added var_dump(opcache_get_status()) to php status page to be able to monitor opcache usage
- changed warning logs from E_ALL & ~E_DEPRECATED & ~E_STRICT to ---- noticed contained a LOT of processes being stopped for tracing turned off request_slowlog_timeout by setting to 0s in had been 4s --- I had turned on lightspeed at 1:45 am est , aug 26. Seems like more problems since then.
None of the above seem to help, still getting freezes maybe every 30 minutes. Next…
I discovered rsnapshot hadn't run in a few days. Checking /etc/rsnapshot.log, I found every recent day had this:
rsync: --delete does not work without --recursive (-r) or --dirs (-d). rsync error: syntax or usage error (code 1) at main.c(1795) [client=3.2.7]
A few days ago I had added the line rsync_short_args -W to /etc/rsnapshot.conf in an effort to get rsync to run without putting such a load on my system. Removing this and running rsnapshot -v hourly from the command line shows that without it, the first line of the rsync command was /usr/bin/rsync -ax --delete --numeric-ids --relative --delete-excluded \, but with it, the first line was /usr/bin/rsync -Wx --delete --numeric-ids --relative --delete-excluded \.
Changing the line rsync_short_args -W to rsync_short_args -Wa, with an a flag explicitly included, solved the problem. Apparently specifying custom short flags overrides at least one of the default flags.
There are intentionally vague broad steps, here just as a reminder to myself; best to look specific instructions for each of these steps up at restore time for the particular system you're restoring to.
A.) Backups should include all user data. Depending on who you ask, that's either: 1.) The entire filesystem except /dev/*, /proc/*, /sys/*, /tmp/*, /run/*, /mnt/*, /media/*, /lost+found (which can be pulled from a complete filesystem backup with rsync -avhP --exclude={"/dev/*","/proc/*","/sys/*","/tmp/*","/run/*","/mnt/*","/media/*","/lost+found"} /mnt/olddrive/ /mnt/netdrive/) 2.)/home, /etc (except /etc/passwd and /etc/groups, these have useful information to back up but may conflict if written to a new install), /usr/local, /opt, /root, /var (exluding /var/tmp, /var/run/, /var/lock, or /var/spool except you DO want /var/spool/cron/crontabs/)
B.) After copying all the above to the new or restored disk, you need to update /etc/fstab with the new disk UUIDs.
Per numerous references around the web, to delete /path/to/directory-to-delete/:
cd /path/to/ mkdir empty_dir rsync -a --delete empty_dir/ directory-to-delete/ rm -r empty_dir rm -r directory-to-delete
Disclaimer: this is for my own reference, not recommended for your use. Use it at your own risk. If I am wrong—and I may be—these commands can do tremendous damage to your system.
Here’s a guide to all currently available CSS units, with explanations and common use notes. This includes all CSS units listed in MDN Web Docs as of 2025aug15.
My VWWare VM lost internet connectivity after a reboot. Even the host machine could not access any service on it. Http/https got 523 errors.
I powered down the VM, changed the networking to NAT, powered it back up, shut it down again, changed the networking back to Autodetect, booted it again, and everything seemed fine.
I have always been a dedicated archiver and curator of interesting information: trivia, facts, tidbits, how-tos, items of possible future interest. In the internet age, some of this it makes sense to keep as a public archive: IT troubleshooting information, links and general interest info I want to share with other people, etc.
However, since this site is intended primarily as my creative showcase, this presented me with a conundrum. There are a lot of things I want to share online for various reasons, but which aren't my creative output. And it seemed silly to set up a whole separate website for that.
Hence this "General Reference Library": information I want to make easily available under my own domain, but as a reference, not as my creative output. Eventually this section will just be a colossal brain dump of anything I felt for some reason I wanted to…
I've had sporadic problems with clearing the WP cache causing the server to return 520 errors for a few minutes. Usually other sites on the same server are fine, it's specific to this vhost. Logging in via SSH, checking with htop, rsync is usually hogging most of the cpu. Restarting the fpm and then restarting Apache restores the website.
According to https://www.claudiokuenzler.com/blog/361/rsnapshot-backup-reduce-high-load-with-ionice, the big bottleneck with rsync, which rsnaphot runs on, is i/o, not cpu, and rsync can actually tie up i/o such that a web server won't respond to http requests. This can be solved by making the rsnapshot command in crontab ionice -c 3 [rsnapshot command] instead of just the rsnapshot command, which tells rsync not to wait until the disk is idle before trying to access it. So I did. In fact, I made it nice -n 19 ionice -c 3 [rsnapshot command] although…
Use code you find here at your own risk! I am not responsible if you damage your data or system by following any instructions you find here.
Navigate to your plugin's root directory:
Bash
cd /home/kupietzc/public_html/kartscode/wp-content/plugins/ktwp-draggable-elements
Fetch the latest changes from GitHub: Bash
git fetch origin
Perform a hard reset to match GitHub's main branch (assuming main is your branch):
Bash git reset --hard origin/main
WARNING: This command is destructive. It will discard all local changes to tracked files and make your local repository exactly match your GitHub repository. Ensure you have a backup of any local modifications you wish to preserve that are NOT on GitHub before running this.
Clean up any untracked files or directories (remnants from manual copying): …
I don't know if this affects other versions of Photoshop, but on MacOS Photoshop CC 2017 frequently starts unexpectedly graying out all save buttons when you have made changes to your file and should be able to save.
The secret is to resize and move around the dialog. Drag the lower right corner to make it bigger and smaller a few times, and try dragging the whole dialog to the upper left corner of the screen and making it small.
I use the uBlock Origin browser plugin to filter my LinkedIn Posts, Notifications, and Comments to hide anything containing objectionable topics. uBlock Origin allows you to add custom rules to block web content.
How to use and setup uBlock Origin is beyond the scope of this post. It's not hard, figure it out and then come back. What you want to know how to do is add your own custom rules.
Let's say, for purposes of these example, I want to block all mentions of someone named Grump.
The simplest version: block a single word
The following three rules hide Posts, Comments, and Notifications, respectively, that contain the word "grump", whether as a separate word, or as part of other words, such as "grumpier".
I installed the WordPress plugin LWS Optimize, which turned out to be unusably broken (which is the reason I'm not linking to it) and made my site unusable. To make matters worse, when I tried to deactivate it, it told me it deactivated... and was still active. I went in through FTP and deleted the plugin folder entirely, and then WordPress said it had been deactivated because it couldn't be found... and it still showed as present and activated in the plugin list.
Had a weird one today. Last one website of the several of on this server suddenly started returning 503 (service unavailable) errors. There was nothing in the PHP error log or Apache error log. All server configs are already thoroughly optimized for performance. Other websites on the same server were functioning normally.
I didn't notice this at the time, but my uptime monitor didn't report an outage. When I used redirect-checker.com to check the status code, it returned 200, which should have been a clue, also.
Next time, before doing all sorts of arcane troubleshooting: 1. Try with a different browser 2. Is there a CDN? Try bypassing it. 3. Are you using a VPN? Try selecting a different endpoint (VPN server) if it will let you, or turning it off.
I use the NordVPN plugin in Firefox, and quic.cloud is my…
This command shows your system's total, used, and free memory in a human-readable format.
Key metrics:
total: Total RAM.
used: RAM currently in use.
free: Unused RAM.
buff/cache: RAM used for file system buffers and page cache. This is good; Linux uses free RAM for this and frees it when applications need it.
available: The most important metric. This estimates how much memory is available for starting new applications without swapping.
Run it before and after: Run free -hbefore you increase max_children and then after your server has been running for a while under typical load with the new settings. Compare the available memory.
Add or change /etc/cron.d/sysstat to this. This creates a cron jobe to write file /tmp/outage_resource_log.txt that keeps minute-by-minute stats, sometimes useful in troubleshooting slowdowns. However, it's not a great way to do things, it create a small, constant resource drag, so disable it when done troubleshooting.
# The first element of the path is a directory where the debian-sa1 # script is located PATH=/usr/lib/sysstat:/usr/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin
# Activity reports every 10 minutes everyday #ORIGINAL DEFAULT WAS 5-55/10 * * * * root command -v debian-sa1 > /dev/null && debian-sa1 1 1 #uncomment above line and comment out /tmp/outage_resource_log.txt lines to restore original functionality * * * * * root date +"%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S" >> /tmp/outage_resource_log.txt * * * * * root sar -u 1 1 >> /tmp/outage_resource_log.txt 2>&1 * * * * * root sar -r 1 1 >> /tmp/outage_resource_log.txt 2>&1 * * *…
I've spent so much time fruitlessly trying to get LLMs (Large Language Model chatbots, commonly referred to generically as "AI") to actually help me solve coding problems that I've taken, as a hobby, to collecting screenshots of AI "apologizing". I just wanted a gallery to send a convenient link to people who insist AI is going to replace human programmers. If you're one if those people, tell me what human programmer, even a junior one, wouldn't get fired after even just two or three project assignments ended like these, um, several hundred examples from the last few months alone.
Update: By popular demand, I have included at bottom a bonus gallery of AI swearing and threatening to destroy itself.
Aposiopesis (pron.: /ˌæpəsaɪ.əˈpiːsɪs/; Classical Greek: ἀποσιώπησις, "becoming silent") - a figure of speech wherein a sentence is deliberately broken off and left unfinished, the ending to be supplied by the imagination, giving an impression of unwillingness or inability to continue.[1] An example would be the threat "Get out, or else—!" This device often portrays its users as overcome with passion (fear, anger, excitement) or modesty. To mark the occurrence of aposiopesis with punctuation, an em dash (—) or an ellipsis (...) may be used.
Monological belief system - a self-sustaining worldview comprised of a network of mutually supportive beliefs, such as conspiracy theories which are supported by other conspiracy theories.
Resistentialism - a jocular theory to describe "seemingly spiteful behavior manifested by inanimate objects."[1] For example, objects that cause problems (like lost keys or a fleeing bouncy…
Updated "AI copyright" headers on generative art galleries to more properly refer to "generative art" and "AI-assisted" tooling.
2026apr5
restore gallery easter egg on 404 pages.
2026apr4
Changed webmin background stats from every 5 minutes to every 12. Set up cloudflare WAF to block urls looking for certain specific pages that don't exist. Changed how wp-cron is called so won't be called while it's still running, see crontab. Turned off Simple History plugin, it was reading and writing huge logs all the time.
Add "help" kupietools url param
Add "cli" kupietools url parameter to open cli popup
Add "scrollable" selector to draggable elements to handle Help popup not scrolling on mobile because draggability "eats" it.
2026apr3
Ad urlparam "kupietools=eyes" to open eyes
Added option to open page appearance adjuster plugin with kupietools=paa url parameter
Michael Kupietz (1848-1922) was a pioneering British Arctic explorer best known for his controversial claim of discovering a tropical paradise at the North Pole and his unorthodox expedition methods, which included training polar bears to pull his sledges while playing the bagpipes to "keep their spirits up."
Kupietz began his career as a professional umbrella tester in Manchester before becoming inexplicably convinced that the Arctic contained vast deposits of marmalade. His first expedition in 1880 was funded entirely through the sale of his revolutionary "frost-proof tea cozy," which he insisted was essential Arctic survival gear.
During his most famous expedition (1885-1887), Mike Kupietz allegedly survived for six months by teaching himself to photosynthesize like a plant, claiming the Aurora Borealis provided sufficient light. He documented discovering a colony of Portuguese-speaking penguins (despite penguins being native to the Antarctic) and mapped what he called the "Great Northern Hot Springs Resort," which…
For confused first-time visitors and other people still acclimating, here is a description of these little tabs to the left, as well as some other features of the site.
Open "Expert Mode" CLI Navigation - this give you the option to switch your browser's display to an old-fashioned terminal mode where you may browse this site, view pages and images by typing text commands. Just like how we used to browse the web back in 1978!
Open Visual Settings - This gives you controls to customize the visual display of this website to your liking: turn up or down the brightness, contrast, color temperature, hue, saturation, dark mode, and earthquake. Settings are saved per browser tab, so they will be remembered for your whole visit.
Open My Eyes - Have you ever been engrossed in your work, when you suddenly realize someone is staring at your screen, watching everything you do over your shoulder? If not, this simulates the experience.
Open Help - This help popup, silly! You just clicked it! Do you not remember?
New - Draggable elements! Several elements on this website, including these tabs, this popup message, and the "Hire Mike" badge in the lower right, can be dragged around with your mouse, to avoid them blocking content. Positions are remembered per tab, so as you navigate around the site, they will stay in the same place for your whole visit.
Enjoy!
CLI Website Navigation
Are you sure you want to switch to viewing this website in the "expert mode" command-line interface?
This will switch to a terminal emulator, load this page, and allow you to browse this website and view its contents by typing text commands.
Plus there might be, y'know, some fun stuff hidden in there. Just for geeks.
