Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Day 31

LOG: 6p - 7:30p

Hostgator said yes!  They will remove all but the most recent invoice, I just need to pay that.  Very cool of them.

The plan is to start up, download everything, and shut down... lol.

Salient

Just playing around with the theme, learning how to use it.

This explains the nector slider:

Which is superior to the home slider, seems as though there's no point in using the home slider at all.

Lol tripped for like 15 min trying to figure out where the fuck i set the home page to "slider only" until I was on "edit page" for the third time and finally saw the "Page attributes" on the right.

https://www.youtube.com/user/ThemeNectar/videos

^ The rest of the tutorials.  I think "Setting up your portfolio" will be important, as I want that to be under the slider I think.

I think I'm using a slider...

I dunno yet, so many options!!  YEY

Okay... 1.5 hours of exploring... PASS

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Day 30

Tough day so far... 2 cases of fraud (one confirmed, one HIGHLY suspected) and dealing with the real assholes of the world that waste my time and frustrate me...

Waking up at 1:30am is fucking ridiculous, going to have to turn off the computer tonight and pray I don't wake up...

Getting shit for the lackluster results that this month is yielding across the board...

It's been tough.

That being said, keep in mind, Salient IS INSTALLED!!!

So let's get back to work on the ultimate freedom and figure out the next steps here:

1. Design blog in salient.
2. Gather old stuff -- get what you can -- I'll start here.

LOG: 5:15pm - 6:15pm  PASS.

The Gathering

http://gator4080.hostgator.com/ should be where my data is stored.

Hostgator is obviously suspended but they want the entire sum of invoices from early 2014 TO DATE to reactivate my account... even though it's been suspended for 18 months!!

They want me to pay full price for service for months in which I did not receive service??

Anyways... I submitted a ticket... hopefully I can get off the hook here for $10 - $30... don't want to pay $200 but I will if that's what I gotta do.  Too much valuable shit on that server.

The problem is that I don't know I can get it back even if I reactive.  Will my data even still be around?

I put in a ticket, let's hope for good news tomorrow here.

NaturalCuresForInsomnia.org

Rebuy the URL, Re-Direct to howtocureinsomnia.com.  There's a lot of old videos that have snowballed a bit over the years and that traffic source is worth the $20 / year or whatever it costs.

Plus, a lot of my key content videos mention that URL I think.

Salient By Design

Following the documentation is still key -- there's an order to doing everything, go in the order written or risk missing key pieces of the tutorial.

For starters, you need to setup the home and the blog.

HOME: Page > Add New, title, TEMPLATE selection :) under Page Attributes, Publish.
ADD Blog Page as well, NO template.

TELL WORDPRESS TO USE THEM APPROPRIATELY.
Settings > Reading
"Front page displays" > "A static page" > home = "front page" blog = "posts page" Save.

And my hour's up!  Thank god this day is fuckin' done.


Monday, October 26, 2015

Day 29

Log: 5pm - 7pm

Today's Goals:

-Get the plugin install thing to work... with any plugin
-Get your Salient theme installed.

Begin

https://codex.wordpress.org/Changing_File_Permissions

If you want to use the built-in theme editor, all files need to be group writable. Try using it before modifying file permissions, it should work. (This may be true if different users uploaded the WordPress package and the Plugin or Theme. This wouldn't be a problem for Plugin and Themes installed via the admin. When uploading files with different ftp users group writable is needed. On shared hosting, make sure the group is exclusive to users you trust... the apache user shouldn't be in the group and shouldn't own files.)

TO CHANGE FILE PERMISSIONS in WinSCP, just right click any file and goto properties.  :)

Installing themes / plugins w/ wordpress -- here's my idea:

1. Get wordpress theme editor to FTP into server.
2. Change permissions to 777 for testwp1 (anyone in the server can read, write, and execute anything in wordpress)
3. Install theme
4. Reset permissions.

FTP access for wordpress: repost from Day 22 of initial renaissance:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7052875/setting-up-ftp-on-amazon-cloud-server

FTP Hostname should be ftp.52.11.177.228 I think

NOPE... no ftp in front :)  just 52.11.177.228

Made a new user cuz I couldn't find the old ones... he is:

wptest1user

pass is rwar###ij :)  (not the real password, obviously.  But even if someone gets it, they can only edit the testwp1 blog since that's the only place it has access to... I think.

and BANG plugins work.

Salient is installed.  My objectives are complete.  2 Hrs.



mmmmmmm look at this baby...

http://www.adimage.it/

Sunday, October 25, 2015

Day 28

Review of last week:

Hours 9 (3 given due to lifted meds and LEAF)

All around a great week.  Reality is I am limiting the hours I give myself when I pre-determine LEAF over Roars... extra-circular hours put me well over 10... so I will count it as "Around 10"

Average calls per day: ?? (ADD THIS AT WORK LATER) [Goal: 70]
Hours on ROARS: ~10 [Goal: 10]
Average size per day: 3.9 [Goal: 5]

----

Sunday, Day 28


LOG:  6.33 hrs.

GOALS:
-Get SCP sudo access
-Re-install wordpress correctly now that you have access to edit your own server.
-Get the plugin install thing to work... with any plugin
-Get your Salient theme installed.

See if you can get all that done and we'll re-evaluate at that point.

---

WinSCP Sudo Access

Seems that I need to connect as the root user, however there is a problem.

http://serverfault.com/questions/613393/getting-received-too-large-sftp-packet-error-when-connecting-with-root-account


I believe that the error message you are getting explains it.
Your server's root account has wrongly setup profile scripts. Some of them print a message that violates SFTP protocol. There's different profile script for a terminal and non-terminal session (one that has and does not have TTY allocated). Messages can be printed only from the script used for terminal sessions. When you print a message from profile script used for non-terminal sessions, it breaks any client using a strict protocol (such as SFTP or SCP).
The message starts with "Plea" as the error says. It can easily be something as trivial as
echo "Please be careful when using root account!"
You will see a complete message when you log in using SSH terminal (such as PuTTY).
Typically you will need to move the commands that print the message from .bashrc script to .bash_profile.
It works with ubuntu account, because its profile scripts do not print the error message.
See also WinSCP documentation for the error message:
http://winscp.net/eng/docs/message_large_packet
--
I opened with PuTTY to see the full message:

Googling -- "Please login as the user "ec2-user" rather than the user "root".
--
Appearently, Amazon blocks root access by default.  One solution is to make it so you can login to root without needing a password.
I am going to keep this in my back pocket as a solution but I am not going to do it this way unless I fail to get sudo working.  This has obvious security implications and it means that I will be going against Amazon's default parameters, which they obviously have setup for good reasons, whether its security or just preventing me from making stupid mistakes with root.
Solution:
--
Now, the other tactic is to get SCP to be able to Sudo, which RED HAT prevents by default (by default TTY is required for Sudo, TTY = command line console like PuTTY), but they admit that this is outdated and will be removed in the future.
TTY disabled...
You can't change users (meaning, no sudo / su) after login with WinSCP, so you have to do it on login.
Aaaaannnnd permission is GRANTED!!  I'm finally passed the security guard and in the club.
-----

INSTALLING WORDPRESS

Requirements:
  • PHP 5.6 or greater
  • MySQL 5.5 or greater
  • The mod_rewrite Apache module

Not required, but recommended for better security

Hosting is more secure when PHP applications, like WordPress, are run using your account’s username instead of the server’s default shared username. The most common way nowadays for hosting companies to do this is using suPHP. Just ask your potential host if they run suPHP or something similar.
^ suPHP MAY BE REQUIRED for some of these plugins to install.  Might explain where I got held up in the beginning of the year.
Since I don't know yet, I am going to proceed without it, maybe install it later for security if nothing else.
0. (Pre-req) Creating a secure password for your Secret Key in wp-config
1. Download / Extract
2. DATABASE.  I know one has been setup by AWS already... need to figure out the name / location and MySQL username / password.
3. ...hold-on... need to figure out 2

STEP 0: Secret Key in wp-config

Step 1: Installing... easy enough

Step 2: Database

What is my info?
// ** MySQL settings - You can get this info from your web host ** //
/** The name of the database for WordPress */
define( 'DB_NAME', 'database_name_here' );

/** MySQL database username */
define( 'DB_USER', 'username_here' );

/** MySQL database password */
define( 'DB_PASSWORD', 'password_here' );

/** MySQL hostname */
define( 'DB_HOST', 'localhost' );

Database name: insomniadb
Username: jcahoon (in theory... may have been changed to jcmo per my accident below, prob not tho)
Password: standard
Hostname: I suspect "localhost" is ALREADY correct.  After all, in my stack details, it says "creates a sample wordpress blog with a local MySQL database.
UPDATE: Wordpress install guide is saying "It's usually just localhost".

Man, if only I could find the "Stack" it made and maybe just get access to all this stuff.  I mean, where'd it go, am I rite??

Yeah.  Which is why we dont put 8 months of blank space in between working on the same project.  Here's the "stack", I used "CloudFormation"





You can also press "Update Stack" and update things... so here's what's up... there is no username lol.

Fuck, there was, it just shows up blank in edits, and now I don't know if I changed it or not.  When you look at design mode it doesn't say them there either, like it's hiding the info to protect me but at the same time it tricked me... thought it was blank.

Annd another wall... an hour of failure being able to add, change, or do anything with the above... I keep getting a fucking retarded error when updating the username / pass saying that I must use alphanumeric on DBpassword... last I checked, the letters of the alphabet ARE alphanumeric...

So decided I'm wasting time, just find the originals and try those, I see this from when I made it in Jan:
"
Making a stack using Amazon's sample WP blog template.

db is insomniadb
db passwords are standard,
user is jcahoon
"
but how do I know for sure it'll work???  I don't even know if I just changed it or not.

Based on the error, if I failed to change something it was just the DBpass.  That or nothing changed.  Feels like nothing changed... no confirmation that any changes went through.

Found
the
DB:

var/lib/mysql/insomniadb

But I doubt that's going to help me.  At least I am pretty sure I know it's name for sure :)

Back to wordpress:

https://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress#Using_the_MySQL_Client


  • Should you need, you can make a new database.  Seems that if anything I will just overwrite the old one which is fine.
Okay let's just try this.

Secret Key Generator:

Installation Link:
http://52.11.177.228/wp-admin/install.php


AND SHE'S BACK!
http://52.11.177.228/testwp1/

Working just great too :)

RECAP

Objectives completed:
--Security issues solved, WinSCP full access gained,
--Personally installed new wordpress blog.
--Various learning and understanding about wordpress, accessing databases, security & how to connect to SSH with sudo, AWS services & stacks, etc.  Big learning day.  Getting the theme installed is going to draw upon this knowledge.

Failed to complete:
--Install Salient

At least I know what to do next.  Do it on the wptest1 blog.

HOURS: 8:50 - 3:10 -- 6.33 -- PASS


Day 25 was Thursday, Oct. 22

I made the same choice as day 24 -- I needed to work deals, I did make a predetermined choice here, even if the end result was coming in to LEAF at 4:45am.

Friday, day 26 was the busiest I've ever been in regards to how many LEAF deals I had to get to quickly... so it makes sense... hopefully this will result in a lot of money, cuz damn that's a 3 hr hit to ROARS this week due to the demands of LEAF.

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Saturday, October 24, 2015

REPOST: ADD meds can have long term side effects


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https://storify.com/fourminutemind/add-drugs-revealed-to-have-long-term-side-effects

Here is the whole article -- mainly reposting to save the links in case the link above ever goes down.  Really important points about the potential for killing the dopamine in your brain the same way Ecstasy does -- and shows that they are both amphetamines.

ADD Drugs Revealed To Have Long-Term Side Effects

Adderall (ie, Dexedrine) can be neurotoxic in the long run by damaging dopamine neurons, while Ritalin has little to no neurotoxicity potential. This extended neurotoxicity leads to neurological disorders like Parkinson's Disease and Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS).

byFour Minute Mind3 years ago14,818 Views
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  1. Tolerance can happen with either, but tolerance is not neurotoxicity as it can be reversed by taking breaks.

    Adderall Toxicity vs Tolerance: Many Causes

    (I will use the word dexedrine interchangeably with Adderall, since they're mostly similar - Adderall is 75% d-amphetamine and 25% l-amphetamine, and Dexedrine is 100% D-amphetamine)

    Having lived with ADD since I was young and having taken stimulants to help counteract their long term effects, I consider myself an authority on this subject.

    With regards to heart health, this report shows that there is no increase in severe cardiovascular events for children. There is some research that suggests otherwise, but the article above seems to be the most rigorous.

    However, taking either dexedrine or Adderall can lead to drug-tolerance. This means that you may need to get higher doses over time in order to achieve the same effect. However, numerous people with ADD are able to achieve a stable dose of either drug over time (but there is also a significant population that does get tolerant and that does need to titrate its dose over time). In any case, tolerance is reversible, and you can prevent it by taking breaks once in a while.
  2. The Neuroscience News report is a bit sobering - students who use Adderall long term will have significant depletion of dopamine when they try to quit the drug. This is yet another possible mechanism of tolerance (the brain's compensation of dopamine-loss by increasing the number of DAT transporters)

    The effects BEYOND tolerance

    Adderall is a dopamine release agent, whereas Ritalin is a dopamine reuptake inhibitor. Both of them increase dopamine signalling by increasing the amount of dopamine in the synapse (so more dopamine ends up binding to the dopamine receptors in the postsynaptic neuron).

    The key difference is their action on the dopamine transporter, which generally moves a lot of the dopamine in the synapse back into the presynaptic neuron - effectively reducing the amount of dopamine in the synapse, and reducing dopamine signalling. 

    Ritalin increases dopamine signalling by effectively _blocking the dopamine transporter_. Meanwhile, Adderall does it by reversing the action of the dopamine transporter, which effectively forces even more dopamine into the synapse (where it can increase dopamine signalling even further). 

    There is another difference between the two: and that difference is related to the activity of the VMAT-2 transporter. This transporter effectively transports dopamine from the cellular cytosol into synaptic vesicles (pictured below), which effectively sequesters up the dopamine and prevents it from auto-oxidation. The VMAT-2 protein is well-documented as part of our pleasure-pain (reward/motivation) system:

  3. The difference is this:  Amphetamine effectively inhibits the activity of the VMAT-2 transporter, so it packages up less dopamine. Methylphenidate (the chemical name for Ritalin), on the other hand, enhances the activity of the transporter. And this difference is actually what makes amphetamine neurotoxic and methylphenidate comparatively benign.

    Dopamine is a very reactive molecule, and when it autooxidizes in the presynaptic cytosol, it can actually damage the presynaptic terminal. Amphetamine accelerates this, and causes presynaptic terminal damage. Meanwhile, methylphenidate prevents it from happening.

    Surprisingly enough, this produces interesting results, which led to this paper: Basically, that paper shows that methylphenidate actually attenuated the deficits associated with damage induced by methamphetamine (methamphetamine does all the damage of amphetamine , but adds A LOT to that damage). So surprisingly enough, methylphenidate actually can attenuate the neurotoxicity associated with amphetamine, if taken along with it.

    Has amphetamine's neurotoxicity (relative to methylphenidate) been experimentally demonstrated? Here's one paper that addresses this question:
  4. As the use of amphetamine in the treatment of ADHD has increased, a large body of preclinical data has accrued indicating that amphetamine has the potential to damage brain dopamine-containing neurons in experimental animals.

    In particular, animals treated with amphetamine develop lasting reductions in striatal dopamine, its major metabolite dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC), its rate-limiting enzyme tyrosine hydroxylase, its membrane transporter (DAT), and its vesicular transporter (VMAT2) . Anatomic studies indicate that lasting dopaminergic deficits after amphetamine are due to damage of dopaminergic nerve endings in the striatum, with sparing of dopaminergic nerve cell bodies in the substantia nigra.
  5. In particular, the results of the present study indicate that an oral regimen of amphetamine, modeled after dosing regimens used in patients with ADHD,engenders plasma amphetamine concentrations that result in toxicity to brain dopaminergic axon terminals in baboons and squirrel monkeys.

    These results may have implications for the pathophysiology and treatment of ADHD and raise the question of whether or not plasma monitoring might be indicated in ADHD patients receiving higher, chronic doses of amphetamine.
    Here's another very good thread discussing this theme:
  6. And a very comprehensive lit review article (discusses what I've covered here and much more):
  7. That all being said, amphetamine's effects are not universally bad. It can increase neurogenesis, perhaps because many individuals with ADD are so distracted that their distraction effectively inhibits neural pathways from forming.

    Amphetamine/methylphenidate can help promote the formation of these neural pathways by reducing this noise. See below:
  8. In early studies, high doses of amphetamine, comparable to amounts used by addicts, were shown to damage dopaminergic pathways. More recent studies, using therapeutic regimens, appear contradictory. One paradigm shows significant decreases in striatal dopamine and transporter density after oral administration of “therapeutic” doses in primates.

    Another shows morphological evidence of “trophic” dendritic growth in the brains of adult and juvenile rats given systemic injections mimicking “therapeutic” treatment. Imaging studies of ADHD-diagnosed individuals show an increase in striatal dopamine transporter availability that may be reduced by methylphenidate treatment. And from the mentioned lit review:
  9. In contrast to concerns about potential adverse effects of amphetamine on the brain during aging, it is remarkable that the reduction of the heightened risk for substance abuse that is otherwise associated with ADHD by the initiation of stimulant treatment during childhood appears to be accompanied by a congruent reduction in structural brain pathology.

    Unmedicated children with ADHD had smaller brain white matter volume than medicated children with ADHD (−8.9%, P<.001) or children without ADHD (−10.7%, P<.001), suggesting that early stimulant treatment may normalize brain white matter volume in ADHD 182.

    The mentioned lit review also says that amphetamine appears to be less neurotoxic in younger primates, as compared to older primates. With that being said, there is one study that says that high doses of amphetamine in adolescence can impair adult working memory:
  10. Recent update (press release article after my original post): In fact, one end result of dopamine neurotoxicity is Parkinson's - the risk of which is increased among methamphetamine users - see:
  11. However, meth users destroy *far* more dopamine neurons than any person on Adderall could ever do (meth is far more neurotoxic than amphetamine, and the doses are usually far higher), so I don't think Adderall users need to fear a significantly higher risk of Parkinson's.

    Possibly even in ADD-related doses too (not too rigorous of a study, but it is suggestive):

    The study involved 66,348 people in northern California who had participated in the Multiphasic Health Checkup Cohort Exam between 1964 and 1973 and were evaluated again in 1995. The average age of the participants at the start of the study was 36 years old. Of the participants, 1,154 people had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease by the end of the study.

    Exposure to amphetamines was determined by two questions: one on the use of drugs for weight loss and a second question on whether people often used Benzedrine or Dexedrine. Amphetamines were among the drugs commonly used for weight loss when this information was collected.

    According to the study, those people who reported using Benzedrine or Dexedrine were nearly 60 percent more likely to develop Parkinson's than those people who didn't take the drugs. There was no increased risk found for those people who used drugs for weight loss.

    Amphetamine Abuse Can Ruin An Individual's Personality

    However, despite being quite similar in function and structure, Adderall and Ritalin can indeed be taken without destroying your life.

    Some of the subjective effects that are possibly of concern are effects on your personality and sense of self. It is hard to explain, but you can end up with a feeling that you are sort of just "observing" yourself live your life, you are not actually experiencing it. You can find yourself being extremely productive and doing everything right, but somehow it feels like someone else did it, you were just along for the ride. 
  12. Kari Ann Peniche on Beauty Queens gone wrong
  13. It can be a good idea to take a break from the drugs from time to time to get your bearings and make sure you are in touch with yourself.
  14. All These Side Effects And No Benefits

    Furthermore, new research shows that Adderall has zero long term benefits. Dr Paolo Fusar-Poli and Professor Katya Rubia at King’s University led the research. 
  15. Prof Rubia says:

    ‘There is currently no evidence for the long-term effectiveness of stimulant medication. In fact, there is evidence that the effect of medication diminishes over time and we know from clinicians that medication doses often need to be increased over time to be as effective as they were initially. Our findings could help explain why stimulants work very well in the short term but not so well long-term.’

    The case for nootropics as safe, legal study drugs is being made without effort as the evidence against Adderall begins to mount.

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