This is my little hobbyist site. I work on it to get experience with new technologies and expand my horizons. It gives me an outlet to talk about tech and music, when the feeling strikes.
It is grossly neglected, but lately I’ve put a little work into some housekeeping:
TLS and the Apex Domain
For years http://skrvn.com and https://www.skrvn.com and http://skrvn.com functioned but https://skrvn.com did not.
And do you know what typing skrvn.com into a web browser opens?
https://skrvn.com. Because browsers are concerned about security and man-in-the-middle attacks or some shit.
I’ve never verbally given anyone my website[1], but it defeats the purpose of having an easy-to-remember domain like “skrvn” if I also have to specify, “http-colon-forwardslash-forward-slash-s-k-r-v-n-dot-com.” It’s too much. It’s cumbersome. It’s embarrassing.
This was due to a quirk of my web-hosting situation and possibly my own ignorance. In other projects I’ve configured this correctly—almost like it’s my livelihood—but I never got around to it on this site, partly because I just couldn’t remember how. In any case, I finally hitched up my trousers to fix it and this time I wrote it down so I can remember the steps for next time (there will surely be a next time).
For starters I migrated my domain from my old, terrible domain registrar to AWS. I don’t know if AWS is my best option but I’ve worked them professionally and they’re what I’m familiar with. And they’re miles superior to my old registrar.
This accomplished, I had to take three additional steps. First, I created a static site forwarding bucket on AWS S3 so that http://skrvn.com forwards to www.skrvn.com[2]. Second I created a certificate in AWS Certificate Manager to cover these domains, and third I created a Cloudfront Distribution to forward from the apex domain to the bucket, attaching the certificate I created.
Most of this I learned courtesy of this Stack Overflow post, which I’ve referenced on multiple occasions.
Next
On the main blog scroll are little page numbers and a next link. In the seven years (as of writing) I’ve maintained this blog, I’ve never had sufficient posts to spill onto a second page. So I never previously noticed the CSS was wrong and the kerning was bad. I’ve fixed it.
My aforementioned terrible registrar was also my previous terrible webmail host. At one point they unceremoniously shut down my webmail and any emails have been condemned to dead letter hell ever since.
Well, with the move to AWS and a better DNS service I availed myself of the opportunity to restore my email services. If you really want to write me, you can find my address somewhere on this site. I still only vow to check it monthly, so a better way to get in touch would be via Threads. Speaking of Threads…
Goodbye X, Hello TikTok and Threads
There has been change in the air and I’ve decided to move on from x.com. I mean, one might think I moved on seven years ago when I stopped posting.
I wrote about some of my reasons here. The fact is, my Twitter[3]days carry some shame with them. It was an experiment for me. I followed some…questionable…practices and gained a lot of followers. That’s shame #1. I also met some good people, even made some friends and…simply abandoned them. That’s shame #2.
So there’s baggage there, even apart from any metacontextual concerns surrounding that website. I feel like I need a fresh start. And that’s where I’ve been using Threads, as a more organic, less manufactured outlet.
I’m also dipping my toes into what could generously be deemed “music videos.” Video seems to be so favored over audio. So I’m learning some (more) editing and filming technique. I’ve thrown my first video on TikTok and YouTube, with plans to produce more in the future.
Goodbye Google Analytics
Google has been bugging me to take action to prepare for something called “GA4.” One of the steps is to “implement ads measurement consent signals” so Google can track user activities for ad purposes lawfully in the European Economic Area.
No thank you. I just want some data about my site traffic, like which pages are viewed and from what region. I don’t need to be complicit in Google’s advertising machine.
To this end I stripped out Google Analytics and installed Clicky. Clicky is a GDPR-compliant web-analytics tracker that doesn’t use cookies or log personal data. Just what I need.[4]
The Future
What does the future hold? Well, God only knows. Part of the point of my hobby is to not be beholden to it. I don’t need another obligation in my life. This is here for me when I want it, and completely optional when I don’t.
But I can have some broad hopes. I hope for more music. More videos. More posts. And…dare I say it? More engagement. I mean, screaming into the void is fine, but every so often I would like for the void to scream back.[5]
But, even if none of that comes to fruition, at least in 2024 I’ve done this much housekeeping.
Well, maybe once. ↩︎
Because I need a
CNAMErecord in DNS to redirect to the DNS of my site host (GitLab), and one cannot create such a record for an apex domain. ↩︎It was called Twitter back then, you know. ↩︎
Furthermore, I can actually navigate the interface on their website, as opposed to GA’s abstruse morass. ↩︎
With kind, affirming feedback and support. ↩︎