David Westerfield

For future reference. This came in very handy after I turned on Google 2-step verification. Originally found here: http://passion4high-tech.blogspot.com/2013/03/postfix-sasl-authentication-failed-with.html

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If you configure your Google account for extra security to use the 2-step verification, then some applications which work outside the browser might not be compatible with 2-step verification and cannot ask for verification codes.

Postfix which was installed and configured to send out emails won’t work anymore, and you might notice error messages in the /var/log/mail.log file.

Something like:

SASL authentication failed; server smtp.gmail.com said: Application-specific password required.

The solution below should fix this issue:

Redirecting Only The Root URL Within NGINX

By David Westerfield

On December 17, 2014

In Technology

For some reason I found this rule to be difficult but finally got it to work thanks to the internets. This is the only rule that worked within the NGINX configuration to get only the root URL to redirect to (in my case) a non-SSL location. Here’s the section:

server {
  (..)
  location / {
    rewrite ^(/)$ http://www.domain.com/ permanent;
  }
}

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9336261/nginx-rewrite-only-when-root-domain

Optimal NGINX SSL Settings

By David Westerfield

On December 14, 2014

In Technology

Recently I embarked on finding the optimal NGINX SSL security settings and stumbled across this post: https://raymii.org/s/tutorials/Strong_SSL_Security_On_nginx.html

For a number of reasons, it recommends disabling SSLv3 (as a result of its insecurity), settings AES256 as the standard cipher to utilize and a couple of other things that can prevent attacks. Good stuff to tighten up security on an NGINX SSL implementation.

Zimzum of Whuh? Quote from Bell Sounds Too Familiar

By David Westerfield

On December 2, 2014

In Christian Culture, Theology

http://www.religionnews.com/2014/12/02/what-ever-happened-rob-bell-pastor-questioned-gates-hell/

Rob Bell, speaking of his newfound “church” expression sounds way too familiar, as in it sounds like much of the language of the younger evangelical ecclesiological experiments of the present.

“Now resettled near Los Angeles, the couple no longer belongs to a traditional church. ‘We have a little tribe of friends,’ Bell said. ‘We have a group that we are journeying with. There’s no building. We’re churching all the time. It’s more of a verb for us.'”

Antinomianism Ironically Produces Legalism

By David Westerfield

On November 28, 2014

In Theology

The antinomian, in an attempt to overthrow the law of God for lawlessness, finds himself, of necessity, creating his own basis for morality. The void will not go unfilled. The end result is legalism, that is, the establishment of his own laws that he attempts to enforce on others. The ironic thing about lawlessness is that it actually produces the worst kind of law: legalism. Whereas antinomianism and legalism are normally pitted against each other as two ditches on either side of the road (which in fact they are in many respects), the deeper reality is that they are extremely complimentary and inextricably tied together, one giving rise to the other. Antinomianism ironically produces legalism and many times the worst forms.

AT&T Gigapower in West Fort Worth, TX

By David Westerfield

On September 18, 2014

In Technology

Update 8/3/2015:

The speed has now been bumped up to 300 mbps up/down; so fast now, I need a new internal router/firewall 🙂

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After events that occurred with AT&T on the technical and customer service sides back when I first moved into my new house, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect with changing over, once again, to new service. However, after all of the frustration and mind-boggling breakdowns in order processing and account bungling from a few months ago, this has been worth the wait.

The Error of Full on Ayn Randian Libertarianism on Display

By David Westerfield

On August 7, 2014

In Christian Culture, Culture

Donald Trump and Ann Coulter’s stunning comments clearly display what is wrong with a purely Ayn Randian libertarian worldview and philosophy, wrapped in a veneer of Christian language (in Coulter’s case). It’s simply the flip side of the coin of Marxism. One side of the coin believes in the all-powerful State and collectivism as the sufficient means for human flourishing, while the other believes in the all-powerful individual to “pull up his bootstraps,” a radical individualism at the expense of those most in need, physically and spiritually.

Quick How-To: Getting Someone’s New Name in AD to Show Up in SharePoint 2010

By David Westerfield

On July 24, 2014

In Technology

Why won’t a users’ new name that was changed in Active Directory show up in the sites within SharePoint 2010???

For whatever reason, this is a little tricky because of multiple levels of caching. But here is a quick run-down of how you get a name changed for a user in SharePoint 2010.

Being Thankful in the Ordinary

By David Westerfield

On July 9, 2014

In Christian Culture, Theology

Is The Christian Life More Like Colorado Or Nebraska? – R. Scott Clark

R. Scott Clark at The Heidelblog has written a great piece on appreciating and even expecting the ordinary in the Christian life. So much of evangelicalism has pushed the idea, intentionally or not, that the Christian life is one of extraordinary emotional experience and that if you’re not experiencing that “high” or mountain-top event on a frequent basis, well, something is amiss in your walk (which is a form of legalism). The result is misplaced guilt that you aren’t doing enough to warrant obtaining that experience others seem to have. The reality though is that so much of the Christian life simply comes down to contentment, thankfulness and settled-ness as to where God has us and looking for the opportunities to be a light in that place. Here are a few quotes from his article: