Goobs Slush Motorsports Festival Coverage
Ditching WordPress
A quick Google search indicates that approximately 43% of the public facing internet is running WordPress. WordPress is a popular free and open-sourcePHP application that operates as a Content Management System (CMS), an HTML templating software, and provides an extensible platform for developers to write server-side or “backend” code.
The Content Management System and HTML Templating features go hand in hand. Together they create an overarching “Web Page Builder”. By utilizing “Themes” - This Web Page Builder provides users an easy process for creating and managing pages, blog posts, media, forms, and more. All while maintaining consistent design across the site. These Themes are a huge aspect of the WordPress platform. The WordPress Organization releases a new “default” theme every year; additionally it is common to purchase a pre-built Theme from a company or a Web Designer.
Major Drawbacks
WordPress requires a database to operate. This database keeps usernames, passwords, post information, and more. While the presence of a database is a critical requirement for the operation of an online web-store; I do not sell anything on my personal website. Furthermore, this website is running on a $5/mo Nanode. My available resources are rather limited. While the underlying AMD EYPC 7713 (Milan Series) is a database-crunching monster, I only have 1GB of system memory available. The operation of any database consumes valuable resources.
This web server is exposed over TCP ports 80 and 443. Port 80 listens for HTTP requests while Port 443 listens for HTTPS requests. When folks ask me about port forwarding, I always advise that port forwarding itself is not dangerous. Most times, it is an out-right necessity to operate a server. The port is only as “exposed” as the listening Application. However I would estimate most WordPress-based websites use 10+ plugins from 10+ unique developers. This introduces a wide-range of code quality. This increases attack vectors which inherently increases risk of data loss.
My final gripe is with the PHP-based templating function. While it helps retains artistic consistency and provides a graphical web page builder; it decreases your ability to effectively leverage a Content Delivery Network (CDN). When a visitor loads a webpage to view, it starts an underlying PHP process to “build”, “serve”, and “cache” the page. Typically after a small period of time, the underlying server (CPU/Memory/Storage) needs to rebuild the pages. This is because you are serving .php files. (Seen in the URL) This can result in decreased overall capacity and an in increase in page load times.
Personal Requirements
Until Chirstmas Day 2023, my website was running WordPress. It looked really good, and it would load quick enough. My disappointment was always in the Themes. If the Theme is free, it has watermarks and limited customization. Otherwise the Themes come with heafty yearly fee. As an experinced Techhy, I was no longer satisfied with the watermarks, ugly text colors, and I sure wasn’t going to pay a yearly fee. I did some tinkering with GitHub Pages and CloudFlare Pages. These exposed me to JekyllRB and Hugo. I’ve found JekyllRB to be my preference.
By leveraging JekyllRB, I can easily convert Markdown into plain ol’ HTML5 and CSS3. This means that I only need to “build” the site one-time. Now the underlying server only needs to “serve” the requested webpage HTML file. This greatly increases the overall capacity and reduces attack vectors by removing the reachability of a local or remote SQL database. This provides me the freedom to manipulate any aspect of my website as I wish, all without paying anyone.
Change Procedure
- Create Snapshot of my Linode.
- Install GitHub CLI and Authenticate it.
- Sync GitHub Repo into a folder in my Home Directory.
- Install JekyllRB and pre-requisites.
- Build the Site using Jekyll into my Homr Directory.
- Empty the /var/www/html folder.
- Move new content into /var/www/html/.
- Fix file permissions in /var/www/html/.
- Reload Web Server processes.
- Clear CDN cache.
- Restart the underlying Server.
- Verify functionallity on Home PC, Cell Phone, and PageSpeed Insights.
2025
I Created GoobyDesk
Reflecting on my open-source project GoobyDesk.
Images from the Greece DLC
Screenshots from exploring Greece, In the southern Balkan Peninsula.
Importing a custom Minecraft Bedrock world into Realms.
How-To Import a custom world into Singleplayer, then Realms using Minecraft Bedrock Edition.
My Brother Alex
Remebering Alex
2024
Alondra and Aaliyah Obituary
Remebering Alondra and Aaliyah
Guide to ADS-B
Matt’s Guide to ADS-B and PiAware.
Around The Sun 2024
I had something to say, until I didn’t.
Guide to FRS Radio
Matt’s Guide to FRS and GRMS Radio.
Guide to CB Radio - 11 Meter
Matt’s Guide to CB Radio
Secure Your Linux Box
Matt’s Guide to Securing a Linux Box for Production.
Deploying NextCloud AIO at Home
My Experience deploying the NextCloud AIO Docker Image at Home.
My Website Architecture
Quick overview of my websites architecture.
Exploring Glacier National Park
One Night in Glacier NP - 2024
Images from the Nebraska DLC
Exploring and capturing the scenery in American Truck Simulator, Nebraska DLC
Sail High Seas Safely!
how-to be safe while downloading linux isos.
Jackson-Faulkner Family Trip 2024
Exploring South Dakota with the Jacksons.
Serving Up WebP instead of PNG
How I reduced my home page 610 percent.
Javascript Cat!
how-to add oneko.js to the minimal-mistakes jekyll template.
Growing Cannabis Notes
My personal running notes for growing cannabis.
SMB Mount Errors found in dmesg
Dealing with CIFS errors between TrueNAS and Debian.
Bounce a Juniper Switchport
how-to bounce a Juniper JunOS switchport.
Fixing apt error, ‘list of sources could not be read’
how-to fix ‘the list of sources could not be read.’ when using apt.
Basic Network Troubleshooting
how-to troubleshoot a home network, by a Network Engineer.
Moving to Caddy
Moving my webserver from OpenLiteSpeed to Caddy
Could Not Resolve Error in apt
how-to resolve, could not resolve packages.adoptium.net
Responding to XZ-Utils Vulnerability
how-to validate XZ-Utils impact.
Ninite is Awesome
How and Why I use Ninite
Certbot Renewal on OpenLiteSpeed
Manually renewing Certbot on OpenLiteSpeed
YABS Results
Yet Another Benchmark Results
Basic Linux Administration
Linux Basics and Core Concepts by Matt F.
How to Setup and Manage a Web Domain
how-to Buy and Manage a Web Domain
Learn Linux in 5 Days
My Udemy Course Completion Certification.
2013 Scion FRS Service Manual
Scion FRS Service Manual Download and Sources
My Discord Server
My Discord Server Widget
Migrating to BunnyCDN
How I moved from QUIC.Cloud to BunnyNet CDN.
2023
99.99% Uptime Goal for 2024
My High Uptime Plan for 2024.
Magic The Gathering Notes
Personal notes for Magic the Gathering
HTML Hobbiest Webring
HTML Hobbiest Webring Landing Page/Post
Ditching WordPress
Method of Procedure for migrating from WordPress to plain HTML.
W900 Tuning Pack
W900 Tuning Pack DLC Review.
Goodbye Google Domains
Google Domains is Ending.
Experience OpenLiteSpeed
Deep dive into OpenLiteSpeed webserver.
Struggles with Jekyll and Cloudflare Pages
how-to resolve my Jekyll/Cloudflare Pages deployment error.
Mom Said Redefine Success
In High School I had one dream that stands out. Own a Porsche by the time I was 26. Looking back, I have no idea where this dream came from; because I was ra...
Cow Town Hoe Down - 2023
Personal ramblings about my new town.
Knowledge Sharing
Knowledge Filled PDF Bundle
Jellyfin Guide for Friends and Family
how-to Jellyfun.
My ProtonMail Review
ProtonMail Review - 1 Year
2022
Managing Pi-Hole - A Guide for Beginners in 2022
how-to manage Pi-Hole.
Matt’s Desktop Build in 2022
My new Gaming PC. Its boring but it’ll do.
Ad-Blocking on the Go using Pi-Hole and Pi-VPN in the Cloud
how-to setup Pi-Hole and Wireguard on Linode.
How To Change The Hostname of a Raspberry Pi
how-to update the hostname of a Raspberry Pi.
2021
Using A Raspberry Pi Zero To Host a VPN Server
Can a Raspberry Pi Zero host a family VPN Server? Yes.
Logitech G413 Carbon - Keyboard Review
Logitech G413 Keyboard review.
Razer Huntsman Mini - My First Keyboard Review
Razer Huntsman Mini review.
Weekend with the Bois - June 2021 Video
YouTube video cruising through Colorado!
PiAware - One Month of Ownership
Ramblings about PiAware after one month of operation.
Setup a Headless Raspberry Pi - For Beginners
Guide to setup a Raspberry Pi from start to finish!
Setting the Timezone on your Raspberry Pi 4
Guide to configuring the Timezone on a Raspberry Pi.