File Permissions for gmap_markers.js
| Drupal Development | 12 seen
Time after time I'm facing this issue with gmap markers. As mostly this happens when I'm doing something on the server side with file permissions, I decided to keep the notes
here is the problem
GMap is unable to save the marker bundle, so the markers will not work. Please check file system permissions of the public://js/gmap_markers.js!Here is the solution
sudo chmod 755 /sites/all/files/js/gmap_markers.jsSimple CSS trick to Make Table Responsive
| Drupal Development | 51 seen
Working on the OptionsBrew.com project (website is powered by Drupal 8) I faced the following responsive table issue while browsing content with a table on smaller screens (phone)
Broken Table on a smaller screen
Luckily there is a simple CSS workaround:
in the .css file add the following to table properties:
display: block; overflow-x: auto;like this:
table{ border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0; width:100%; margin: 25px 0 40px; display: block; overflow-x: auto; }here is how it looks now
Responsive table
You can see a live example here: Top 20 Most Active Stock Options May 2020
Poppy fields near Marneuli
| | 94 seen
We love poppy fields, we have featured them a couple of times here at the Piece of Life series
- Beautiful Poppy Field Near P104 (Jaunpils-Tukums) Road (Latvia)
- Railroad crossing in Skrunda municipality, Latvia
Today we are going to share a brief photo story with poppy field near Marneuli, next to the Милена Оптовый Магазин (Milena mall)
It was one of the first days when travel restrictions between Georgia's inner cities were lifted and we decided to head to the Marneuli side looking for poppy fields (my partner have seen online some beautiful photos of poppies the day before). I love these wandering around days.
We didn't find the special poppy field, instead we found poppies. Surprisingly we made a lot of great family portraits here rich with poppies in the background.
Poppy fields next to the Milena Shopping mall near Marneuli
Quite an interesting stop here, we spent about an hour in this flower field.
Poppy field
That was a nice day at the end of May 2020.
Drupal 7 Fix: SQLSTATE[42000]: Syntax error or access violation: 1231 Variable 'sql_mode' can't be set to the value of 'NO_AUTO_CREATE_USER'.
| Drupal Development | 1,125 seen
I was migrating Drupal 7 website to a newer infrastructure (PHP 7.4) and during the migration process when tried to connect to the MySQL database I faced following error - SQLSTATE[42000]: Syntax error or access violation: 1231 Variable 'sql_mode' can't be set to the value of 'NO_AUTO_CREATE_USER'.
Here is the error code:
Resolve all issues below to continue the installation. For help configuring your database server, see the installation handbook, or contact your hosting provider. Failed to connect to your database server. The server reports the following message: SQLSTATE[42000]: Syntax error or access violation: 1231 Variable 'sql_mode' can't be set to the value of 'NO_AUTO_CREATE_USER'. Is the database server running? Does the database exist, and have you entered the correct database name? Have you entered the correct username and password? Have you entered the correct database hostname?No_auto_create_user
After quick research I was able to find a patch (Mysql 8 Support on Drupal 7 #24) which involves overwriting core database.inc file (inclues/database/mysql - > database.inc)
here I'm pasting full working example (for a patch see here)
<?php /** * @file * Database interface code for MySQL database servers. */ /** * @addtogroup database * @{ */ class DatabaseConnection_mysql extends DatabaseConnection { /** * Flag to indicate if the cleanup function in __destruct() should run. * * @var boolean */ protected $needsCleanup = FALSE; public function __construct(array $connection_options = array()) { // This driver defaults to transaction support, except if explicitly passed FALSE. $this->transactionSupport = !isset($connection_options['transactions']) || ($connection_options['transactions'] !== FALSE); // MySQL never supports transactional DDL. $this->transactionalDDLSupport = FALSE; $this->connectionOptions = $connection_options; $charset = 'utf8'; // Check if the charset is overridden to utf8mb4 in settings.php. if ($this->utf8mb4IsActive()) { $charset = 'utf8mb4'; } // The DSN should use either a socket or a host/port. if (isset($connection_options['unix_socket'])) { $dsn = 'mysql:unix_socket=' . $connection_options['unix_socket']; } else { // Default to TCP connection on port 3306. $dsn = 'mysql:host=' . $connection_options['host'] . ';port=' . (empty($connection_options['port']) ? 3306 : $connection_options['port']); } // Character set is added to dsn to ensure PDO uses the proper character // set when escaping. This has security implications. See // https://www.drupal.org/node/1201452 for further discussion. $dsn .= ';charset=' . $charset; $dsn .= ';dbname=' . $connection_options['database']; // Allow PDO options to be overridden. $connection_options += array( 'pdo' => array(), ); $connection_options['pdo'] += array( // So we don't have to mess around with cursors and unbuffered queries by default. PDO::MYSQL_ATTR_USE_BUFFERED_QUERY => TRUE, // Because MySQL's prepared statements skip the query cache, because it's dumb. PDO::ATTR_EMULATE_PREPARES => TRUE, ); if (defined('PDO::MYSQL_ATTR_MULTI_STATEMENTS')) { // An added connection option in PHP 5.5.21+ to optionally limit SQL to a // single statement like mysqli. $connection_options['pdo'] += array(PDO::MYSQL_ATTR_MULTI_STATEMENTS => FALSE); } parent::__construct($dsn, $connection_options['username'], $connection_options['password'], $connection_options['pdo']); // Force MySQL to use the UTF-8 character set. Also set the collation, if a // certain one has been set; otherwise, MySQL defaults to 'utf8_general_ci' // for UTF-8. if (!empty($connection_options['collation'])) { $this->exec('SET NAMES ' . $charset . ' COLLATE ' . $connection_options['collation']); } else { $this->exec('SET NAMES ' . $charset); } // Set MySQL init_commands if not already defined. Default Drupal's MySQL // behavior to conform more closely to SQL standards. This allows Drupal // to run almost seamlessly on many different kinds of database systems. // These settings force MySQL to behave the same as postgresql, or sqlite // in regards to syntax interpretation and invalid data handling. See // http://drupal.org/node/344575 for further discussion. Also, as MySQL 5.5 // changed the meaning of TRADITIONAL we need to spell out the modes one by // one. $connection_options += array( 'init_commands' => array(), ); $connection_options['init_commands'] += array( 'sql_mode' => "SET sql_mode = 'REAL_AS_FLOAT,PIPES_AS_CONCAT,ANSI_QUOTES,IGNORE_SPACE,STRICT_TRANS_TABLES,STRICT_ALL_TABLES,NO_ZERO_IN_DATE,NO_ZERO_DATE,ERROR_FOR_DIVISION_BY_ZERO'", ); // Execute initial commands. foreach ($connection_options['init_commands'] as $sql) { $this->exec($sql); } } public function __destruct() { if ($this->needsCleanup) { $this->nextIdDelete(); } } public function query($query, array $args = array(), $options = array()) { $query = preg_replace('/{([^}]+)}/', '`\1`', $query); // This to make Drush work $query = str_replace(' system.', ' `system`.', $query); $query = str_replace('`system` system', '`system` `system`', $query); return parent::query($query, $args, $options); } public function queryRange($query, $from, $count, array $args = array(), array $options = array()) { return $this->query($query . ' LIMIT ' . (int) $from . ', ' . (int) $count, $args, $options); } public function queryTemporary($query, array $args = array(), array $options = array()) { $tablename = $this->generateTemporaryTableName(); $this->query('CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE {' . $tablename . '} Engine=MEMORY ' . $query, $args, $options); return $tablename; } public function driver() { return 'mysql'; } public function databaseType() { return 'mysql'; } public function mapConditionOperator($operator) { // We don't want to override any of the defaults. return NULL; } public function nextId($existing_id = 0) { $new_id = $this->query('INSERT INTO {sequences} () VALUES ()', array(), array('return' => Database::RETURN_INSERT_ID)); // This should only happen after an import or similar event. if ($existing_id >= $new_id) { // If we INSERT a value manually into the sequences table, on the next // INSERT, MySQL will generate a larger value. However, there is no way // of knowing whether this value already exists in the table. MySQL // provides an INSERT IGNORE which would work, but that can mask problems // other than duplicate keys. Instead, we use INSERT ... ON DUPLICATE KEY // UPDATE in such a way that the UPDATE does not do anything. This way, // duplicate keys do not generate errors but everything else does. $this->query('INSERT INTO {sequences} (value) VALUES (:value) ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE value = value', array(':value' => $existing_id)); $new_id = $this->query('INSERT INTO {sequences} () VALUES ()', array(), array('return' => Database::RETURN_INSERT_ID)); } $this->needsCleanup = TRUE; return $new_id; } public function nextIdDelete() { // While we want to clean up the table to keep it up from occupying too // much storage and memory, we must keep the highest value in the table // because InnoDB uses an in-memory auto-increment counter as long as the // server runs. When the server is stopped and restarted, InnoDB // reinitializes the counter for each table for the first INSERT to the // table based solely on values from the table so deleting all values would // be a problem in this case. Also, TRUNCATE resets the auto increment // counter. try { $max_id = $this->query('SELECT MAX(value) FROM {sequences}')->fetchField(); // We know we are using MySQL here, no need for the slower db_delete(). $this->query('DELETE FROM {sequences} WHERE value < :value', array(':value' => $max_id)); } // During testing, this function is called from shutdown with the // simpletest prefix stored in $this->connection, and those tables are gone // by the time shutdown is called so we need to ignore the database // errors. There is no problem with completely ignoring errors here: if // these queries fail, the sequence will work just fine, just use a bit // more database storage and memory. catch (PDOException $e) { } } /** * Overridden to work around issues to MySQL not supporting transactional DDL. */ protected function popCommittableTransactions() { // Commit all the committable layers. foreach (array_reverse($this->transactionLayers) as $name => $active) { // Stop once we found an active transaction. if ($active) { break; } // If there are no more layers left then we should commit. unset($this->transactionLayers[$name]); if (empty($this->transactionLayers)) { if (!PDO::commit()) { throw new DatabaseTransactionCommitFailedException(); } } else { // Attempt to release this savepoint in the standard way. try { $this->query('RELEASE SAVEPOINT ' . $name); } catch (PDOException $e) { // However, in MySQL (InnoDB), savepoints are automatically committed // when tables are altered or created (DDL transactions are not // supported). This can cause exceptions due to trying to release // savepoints which no longer exist. // // To avoid exceptions when no actual error has occurred, we silently // succeed for MySQL error code 1305 ("SAVEPOINT does not exist"). if ($e->errorInfo[1] == '1305') { // If one SAVEPOINT was released automatically, then all were. // Therefore, clean the transaction stack. $this->transactionLayers = array(); // We also have to explain to PDO that the transaction stack has // been cleaned-up. PDO::commit(); } else { throw $e; } } } } } public function utf8mb4IsConfigurable() { return TRUE; } public function utf8mb4IsActive() { return isset($this->connectionOptions['charset']) && $this->connectionOptions['charset'] === 'utf8mb4'; } public function utf8mb4IsSupported() { // Ensure that the MySQL driver supports utf8mb4 encoding. $version = $this->getAttribute(PDO::ATTR_CLIENT_VERSION); if (strpos($version, 'mysqlnd') !== FALSE) { // The mysqlnd driver supports utf8mb4 starting at version 5.0.9. $version = preg_replace('/^\D+([\d.]+).*/', '$1', $version); if (version_compare($version, '5.0.9', '<')) { return FALSE; } } else { // The libmysqlclient driver supports utf8mb4 starting at version 5.5.3. if (version_compare($version, '5.5.3', '<')) { return FALSE; } } // Ensure that the MySQL server supports large prefixes and utf8mb4. try { $this->query("CREATE TABLE {drupal_utf8mb4_test} (id VARCHAR(255), PRIMARY KEY(id(255))) CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_general_ci ROW_FORMAT=DYNAMIC ENGINE=INNODB"); } catch (Exception $e) { return FALSE; } $this->query("DROP TABLE {drupal_utf8mb4_test}"); return TRUE; } } /** * @} End of "addtogroup database". */May 2020 Dividend Income Report - $225.17
| Investments | 16 seen
Welcome to the thirty-seventh (#37) dividend income report, covering earnings I've made from dividend-paying stocks and peer to peer lending in May 2020.
Just like the previous month of April, in May we also spent in a self-isolation (because of Covid-19) here in Georgia. Some of the strict lockdown measurements were lifted (like using a private vehicle and going from city to city) we did a few road trips here in Georgia. Baby girl is doing her online class, learning about animals, shapes, continents, and even planets. Quite fascinating what a 22-month-old can do. Development is very rapid.
Saint Dimitri Tesalonikeli Fathers Moanstery near Mtksheta
May come with very sad news - my dad passed away, some 11 days before his 66 year birthday. My dad was like a best buddy to me, we talked a lot about investments, stocks, politics, we argued, disagreed, we had opinions - most of our conversations were on WhatsApp chat, he was very tech guy, into gadgets.. dad I miss you. Everything's gonna be alright - this was his favorite phrase. His last message on WhatsApp was on May 8:
Last message from Dad on May 8, 2020
The loss of dad will leave a space in my life that can never get filled.
From the perspective of dividend income - last May was very good, we were able to take $225.17, despite most of our dividends are trimmed by half and more. Back in March's market panic, we bought for a cheap a lot of FGB stock, this stock helped to boost this May's dividend income. FGB is not the stock we would like to keep for life, but I feel happy I bought it back in March.
Compared to the previous May in 2019, our monthly dividend has increased by a mere 4.16% (+$9.00). Despite I was looking at a $300-$350 dividend this month a year ago, I will say the overall result is very good, taking into account the market downturn.
An additional $595.43 was made from options trading. As options trading is not a passive form of making money while you are sleeping it wouldn't be fair to include them in dividend income reports. As we love selling options a lot, during the month of May I launched a separate website - Investing with covered calls - OptionsBrew.com You can read our first options income review here: May 2020 Options Income Report - $595.43
If counted all together (dividends + options) it seems we have made $820.6 in total last month.
Effective income yield last May was 4.36% (about 52.32% annually) Which is great. One of my monthly goals is to generate at least 2.5% income yield from the portfolio. As longs it's above to it - it's awesome.
From dividends + active trading taking 30% year seems quite doable. The first five months of 2020 have been a bumpy road, but we have been able to take more than 2.5% from the market in 3 out of the 5 months.
Interest income in May 2020
From the stocks and peer to peer lending I got following income last month:
Ticker
Earnings
FGB
€75.23
BGLF
€36.30
XIN
€17.52
EDI
€14.04
Mintos
€11.26
EDF
€9.77
NRZ
€9.54
KNF1L
€9.05
RA
€7.60
NCV
€6.48
ET
€5.44
AWP
€3.66
Total EUR 206.58 / USD 225.17
In total there were 12 companies paying us dividend in May 2020 that is 3 companies less than in May 2019
Monthly income
I've been tracking my journey towards million dollars in a savings account since January 2017. More than three years already. The result, so far, looks quite good. Dividends are growing (even when they are not)
Monthly dividend Income chart as of May 2020
The cumulative earnings for 2020 now are $882.72 which is exactly 24.52% from my goal of 2020 ($3,600). On average, it would ask us to generate $388.89 every month for the next 7 months to reach this goal. Right, now the goal looks unattainable, as for now, I cannot see even a single $300 month for 2020, but this could change later, during the year as we are trying to add more quality stock to the portfolio.
2019 in Review and Financial Goals for 2020Goals for May 2021
This is my favorite part of the reports - trying to forecast/set goals for the next year. But before setting a goal for 2020, let's see what I forecasted/said a year ago (May 2019)
When setting goals for May 2020, I will say $300 seems a good number to work with, but I want more - at least $350 for May 2020
None of the numbers were reached. Taking into account the downturn in the markets and many dividend trims. I will say that it is quite acceptable.
For May 2021 I have a goal to crack finally that $300 milestone, to get there will add more quarterly stocks paying dividends in May (like FBG, PBCT, and T). From today's perspective looks quite possible.
Top 30 Dividend Paying Stocks in Germany (DAX Index)
| Investments | 708 seen
Investing in Germany is quite easy, you could do so by buying German stocks. There are many German stocks to invest in, but in this article, I will talk about Germany's blue-chip stocks, stocks from the DAX index
The DAX (Deutscher Aktienindex (German stock index)) is a blue-chip stock market index consisting of the 30 major German companies trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Prices are taken from the Xetra trading venue. According to Deutsche Börse, the operator of Xetra, DAX measures the performance of the Prime Standard’s 30 largest German companies in terms of order book volume and market capitalization.
Here I have listed all 30 stocks from the DAX index, sorting by the highest dividend yield.
When looking at German stocks, I'm more interested in selling options on them, as to collect dividends, when talking about the DAX index - all stocks from the index are optionable, which is awesome.
Click here to join my covered calls newsletter
Highest paying dividend stocks from the German DAX index
Use this table to find out the highest paying dividend stock in Germany, grouped by sector, stock, price, dividend yield and year established.
Company Prime Standard industry group Ticker symbol Price Dividend Yield Options Founded Deutsche Lufthansa Transport Aviation ETR:LHA €9.27 8.07% yes 1953 BASF Chemicals ETR:BAS €49.75 6.66% yes 1865 Allianz Insurance ETR:ALV €168.90 5.64% yes 1890 E.ON Energy ETR:EOAN €9.98 4.65% yes 2000 Munich Re Insurance ETR:MUV2 €210.00 4.59% yes 1880 Bayer Pharmaceuticals and chemicals ETR:BAYN €62.00 4.56% yes 1863 BMW Manufacturing ETR:BMW €54.39 4.54% yes 1916 Volkswagen Group Manufacturing ETR:VOW3 €140.12 4.53% yes 1937 Continental Manufacturing ETR:CON €91.78 4.37% yes 1871 Deutsche Post Logistics ETR:DPW €28.98 4.31% yes 1995 Deutsche Telekom Communications ETR:DTE €14.10 4.26% yes 1995 Siemens Industrial, electronics ETR:SIE €98.98 3.86% yes 1847 Covestro Chemicals ETR:1COV €34.92 3.47% yes 2015 Vonovia Real estate ETR:VNA €50.12 3.11% yes 2001 RWE Energy ETR:RWE €29.35 2.72% yes 1898 Daimler Manufacturing ETR:DAI €35.55 2.56% yes 1926 Henkel Consumer goods and chemicals ETR:HEN3 €78.54 2.35% yes 1876 Linde Industrial gases ETR:LIN €175.75 2.20% yes 1879 MTU Aero Engines Aerospace ETR:MTX €152.80 2.19% yes 1934 Fresenius Medical ETR:FRE €42.36 1.98% yes 1912 Deutsche Börse Securities ETR:DB1 €148.65 1.95% yes 1992 Adidas Clothing ETR:ADS €233.00 1.64% yes 1924 Fresenius Medical Care Medical ETR:FME €73.16 1.64% yes 1996 Deutsche Bank Banking ETR:DBK €7.79 1.41% yes 1870 SAP Software ETR:SAP €111.84 1.40% yes 1972 Infineon Technologies Semiconductors ETR:IFX €19.25 1.37% yes 1999 HeidelbergCement Building ETR:HEI €45.40 1.31% yes 1874 Merck Pharmaceuticals ETR:MRK €101.20 1.28% yes 1668 Beiersdorf Consumer goods and chemicals ETR:BEI €93.84 0.77% yes 1882 Wirecard Financial Technology ETR:WDI €89.25 0.22% yes 1999Data source: DAX, stock prices as of May 27, 2020
It's amazing to note, all stocks from the DAX index are paying dividends. I'm not an expert in German stocks but seems dividends are paid annually (unlike in the US, where dividends are paid quarterly or even monthly)
Dividends are not the reason I'm looking at these German stocks, options are.
If you are interested to learn more about our options trades on these German stocks, see this covered call idea with Deutsche Bank stock (FRA:DBK)
How To Swap / Transfer IP address with Linode VPS
| Servers | 73 seen
Recently I was rebuilding a compromised VPS on the Linode - this was a small web server serving some 3 established websites. It took me a few hours from A-Z - launch a new Linode, install a new webserver on it, then transfer data from one host to another.
Once all migration works were done, there was an option to change DNS entry to point to the new server. Nothing complicated. But there is a neat feature from Linode called - Swap IP (IP Transfer). That's a little perk from Linode and quite good for SEO
You can get a cheap VPS starting just $5/mo from Linode. That's what I did - bought a new Linode just for $10
If you have two Linodes in the same data center, you can use the IP transfer feature to switch their IP addresses. This could be useful in several situations. For example, if you’ve built a new server to replace an old one, you could swap IP addresses instead of updating the DNS records.
IP Transfer with Linode
Here are the instructions how to transfer IP on Linode (found here: How do I move an IP Address around between different Linodes?)
How To Block IP Address in Drupal 8
| Drupal Development | 118 seen
Unlike in Drupal 7 version where IP banning is enabled by default, with Drupal 8 version, there is one more step added - IP banning must be enabled from the extend section.
Here is how. (source)
Now head to the Configuration -> People -> IP address bans and manually enter IP addresses that are abusing your Drupal 8 website
Ip address bans in Drupal 8
Under The Georgian Sun / King Davids Tower (s)
| | 17 seen
It was on the evening of April 27, 2020, I decided to switch glass (from the kit lens to telephoto) and make some photo for the month of April to put in the description in the monthly dividend income report.
The photo of the month turned out to be a sunset in Tbilisi with skyscraper in the foreground
King David Towers in Tbilisi
From the KDR website
Two landmark towers King David Residences and King David Business Center are harmonically united in an exclusive multifunctional complex King David.
King David creates a five-star lifestyle within exceptionally elegant residential and business towers with beautifully designed amenity spaces organized enticingly as a multistory urban resort and exclusive collection of specially-designed services.
King David Residences - the tall tower, which contains luxury Residences, has been designed to create a lifestyle of true sophistication. Floor-to-ceiling window walls capture the breathtaking panorama of Tbilisi, allow for abundant natural light and create a sense of tranquility in each and every home.
Each residence will provide inspiration, comfort, and empowerment for its residents. This unique full-service condominium residence introduces a new way of living in Tbilisi, merging comfort and convenience to balance the demands of today’s active lifestyles. Residents can spend their days working, relaxing, and socializing throughout their own building.
This project offers opportunities for people to live and work in the downtown area, meeting the city's long-term objectives. King David Business Center is built with thoughtful amenities and luxurious conveniences to create the right working environment for business organizations.
King David is a celebration of excellence and innovation, with an estimated completion date of July 2017, which will be an architecturally significant addition to the Tbilisi skyline.
Taken April 27, 2020 / Sigma photo lens 70-300mm
How To HTTPS Secure Drupal 8 Running Nginx with Let's Encrypt on Ubuntu 18.04
| Servers | 47 seen
Let's Encrypt have done some very good job, providing SSL certificates that everyone can use absolutely for free. Encrypted HTTPS websites should be default in 2020.
I have been implementing HTTPS secure websites for years. Until now I mostly worked with Drupal 7 websites and for securing them I have been using this guide, back from 2016 - Linode: How To Secure Nginx with Let's Encrypt on Ubuntu 12.04
Now, in 2020, working on a new, Drupal 8 powered, website after then initial web development was completed, I was looking for an easy way to implement a free SSL certificate from Let's Encrypt.
And here comes this tutorial from Digital Ocean in help: How To Secure Nginx with Let's Encrypt on Ubuntu 18.04
in 2020, installing, obtaining and renewing an SSL certificate is much easier than it was back in 2016
Before proceeding, make sure you have installed Drupal 8 with Nginix on Ubuntu 18.04,
Non secure Drupal 8 website
Step 1: Installing Certbot
The first step to using Let’s Encrypt to obtain an SSL certificate is to install the Certbot software on your server.
Certbot is in very active development, so the Certbot packages provided by Ubuntu tend to be outdated. However, the Certbot developers maintain a Ubuntu software repository with up-to-date versions, so we’ll use that repository instead.
First, add the repository:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:certbot/certbotYou’ll need to press ENTER to accept.
Install Certbot’s Nginx package with apt:
sudo apt install python-certbot-nginxCertbot is now ready to use, but in order for it to configure SSL for Nginx, we need to verify some of Nginx’s configuration.
Step 2: Obtaining an SSL Certificate
Certbot provides a variety of ways to obtain SSL certificates through plugins. The Nginx plugin will take care of reconfiguring Nginx and reloading the config whenever necessary. To use this plugin, type the following:
sudo certbot --nginx -d optionsbrew.comThis runs certbot with the --nginx plugin, using -d to specify the names we’d like the certificate to be valid for.
If this is your first time running certbot, you will be prompted to enter an email address and agree to the terms of service. After doing so, certbot will communicate with the Let’s Encrypt server, then run a challenge to verify that you control the domain you’re requesting a certificate for.
If that’s successful, certbot will ask how you’d like to configure your HTTPS settings.
Configuring certbot
Select your choice then hit ENTER. The configuration will be updated, and Nginx will reload to pick up the new settings. certbot will wrap up with a message telling you the process was successful and where your certificates are stored:
Your certificates are downloaded, installed, and loaded. Try reloading your website using https:// and notice your browser’s security indicator. It should indicate that the site is properly secured,
Secure HTTPS Drupal 8 site
Step 3: Verifying Certbot Auto-Renewal
Let’s Encrypt’s certificates are only valid for ninety days. This is to encourage users to automate their certificate renewal process. The certbot package we installed takes care of this for us by adding a renew script to /etc/cron.d. This script runs twice a day and will automatically renew any certificate that’s within thirty days of expiration.
To test the renewal process, you can do a dry run with certbot:
sudo certbot renew --dry-runIf you see no errors, you’re all set. When necessary, Certbot will renew your certificates and reload Nginx to pick up the changes. If the automated renewal process ever fails, Let’s Encrypt will send a message to the email you specified, warning you when your certificate is about to expire.
How to Install Drupal 8 with Nginx, PHP-FPM 7.2, MySQL, phpMyAdmin on Ubuntu 18.04 - Linode Guide
| Servers | 68 seen
In this article, you will learn how to setup Drupal 8 with Nginx, PHP-FPM 7.2, MySQL and phpMyAdmin on Ubuntu 18.04
For the following tutorial, I used very much the information from my previous guide with Ubuntu 16.04, but decided to rewrite it for Ubuntu 18.04 version as when I tried to setup my latest project about stock trading 0dtespxtrading.com with Drupal 8.8.5 on Ubunut 16.04 machine an error from Drupal that PHP version shipped with Ubuntu 16.04 was outdated and instead of upgrading that box I decided to go with a new server from scratch,
Prerequisites
- Ubuntu 18.04
- Root privileges.
You can get a cheap VPS starting just $5/mo from Linode. That's what I did - bought a new nanode from Linode
Deploying server with Linode
Literally in couple of seconds the new server was up and running - that's what I love sticking with Linode for years
Follow basic security guide, see: Securing Your Server
I will use Putty for Windows to access SSH
Secure your server
Create the user, replacing example_user with your desired username. You’ll then be asked to assign the user a password:
adduser example_user
Add the user to the sudo group so you’ll have administrative privileges:
Disallow root logins over SSH. This requires all SSH connections be by non-root users. Once a limited user account is connected, administrative privileges are accessible either by using sudo or changing to a root shell using su -.
sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_configUnder # Authetification section change to
# Authentication: ... PermitRootLogin noUpdate the Ubuntu system
sudo apt-get update
Install Nginx and PHP-FPM
Install Nginx with the following apt command:
sudo apt-get install nginx -yNext, install php7.0-fpm with php-gd extension that is required by Drupal core:
sudo apt-get install php7.2-fpm php7.2-cli php7.2-gd php7.2-mysql php7.2-xml -yConfigure Nginx and PHP-FPM
In this step, we will configure Nginx to use php-fpm to serve HTTP requests for PHP pages. Go to the php-fpm directory "/etc/php/7.0/fpm" and edit the "php.ini" file:
sudo nano /etc/php/7.2/fpm/php.iniUn-comment the cgi.fix_pathinfo line and change the value to "0"
When using nano command you can use CTRL+W to locate that line. Once changed press CTRL+O to save changes and CTRL+X to exit from nano editor
Now we should modify the default Nginx virtual host configuration. Edit the "default" file and enable the php-fpm directive.
sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/defaultUn-comment location ~ \.php$ section, so it look like this
location ~ \.php$ { include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf; # With php7.0-cgi alone: #fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000; # With php7.0-fpm: fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php7.2-fpm.sock; }CTRL+O and CTRL+X
Then test the Nginx configuration with the command "nginx -t" to ensure that it is valid:
nginx -tIf there is no error, restart nginx and the php-fpm service:
systemctl restart nginx systemctl restart php7.2-fpmPHP Info file (Optional)
Next, test that php-fpm is working properly with nginx by creating new php info file in the web directory "/var/www/html"
cd /var/www/html/ echo "<?php phpinfo(); ?>" > info.phpVisit the info.php file at the server IP in a web browser.
Configure the VirtualHost for Drupal
We will install Drupal 8 in the directory "/srv/www/0dtespxtrading.com". Please replace my domain name in your installation with the domain name of the website that you want to use this Drupal installation for. So let's create the directory:
sudo mkdir -p /srv/www/0dtespxtrading.com/{public_html,logs} sudo usermod -a -G www-data admin sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /srv/www sudo chmod -R 775 /srv/www sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/0dtespxtrading.comPaste the Nginx configuration for Drupal 8:
server { server_name 0dtespxtrading.com; root /srv/www/0dtespxtrading.com/public_html; ## <-- Your only path $ access_log /srv/www/0dtespxtrading.com/logs/access.log; error_log /srv/www/0dtespxtrading.com/logs/error.log; listen 80; listen [::]:80; location = /favicon.ico { log_not_found off; access_log off; } location = /robots.txt { allow all; log_not_found off; access_log off; } # Very rarely should these ever be accessed outside of your lan location ~* \.(txt|log)$ { allow 192.168.0.0/16; deny all; } location ~ \..*/.*\.php$ { return 403; } location ~ ^/sites/.*/private/ { return 403; } # Block access to "hidden" files and directories whose names begin with a # period. This includes directories used by version control systems such # as Subversion or Git to store control files. location ~ (^|/)\. { return 403; } location / { # try_files $uri @rewrite; # For Drupal <= 6 try_files $uri /index.php?$query_string; # For Drupal >= 7 } location @rewrite { rewrite ^/(.*)$ /index.php?q=$1; } # In Drupal 8, we must also match new paths where the '.php' appears in the middle, # such as update.php/selection. The rule we use is strict, and only allows this pattern # with the update.php front controller. This allows legacy path aliases in the form of # blog/index.php/legacy-path to continue to route to Drupal nodes. If you do not have # any paths like that, then you might prefer to use a laxer rule, such as: # location ~ \.php(/|$) { # The laxer rule will continue to work if Drupal uses this new URL pattern with front # controllers other than update.php in a future release. location ~ '\.php$|^/update.php' { fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+?\.php)(|/.*)$; #NOTE: You should have "cgi.fix_pathinfo = 0;" in php.ini include fastcgi_params; include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf; fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $request_filename; fastcgi_intercept_errors on; fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php7.2-fpm.sock; } # Fighting with Styles? This little gem is amazing. # location ~ ^/sites/.*/files/imagecache/ { # For Drupal <= 6 location ~ ^/sites/.*/files/styles/ { # For Drpal >= 7 try_files $uri @rewrite; } location ~* \.(js|css|png|jpg|jpeg|gif|ico)$ { expires max; log_not_found off; } }CTRL+O and CTRL + X
The Drupal virtual host file has been created, now we have to activate it by creating a symlink to the file in the "sites-enabled" directory:
ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/0dtespxtrading.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/Test the Nginx configuration and if there is no errors restart Nginx:
nginx -t systemctl restart nginxInstall MySQL
sudo apt-get install mysql-server sudo mysql_secure_installationInstall phpMyAdmin
sudo apt-get install phpmyadminHit ESC when the installation prompts you for auto-configuration, because there is no option for Nginx.
Make an easy accessible symlink
sudo ln -s /usr/share/phpmyadmin/ /srv/www/reinisfischer.com/public_html/phpmyadmin
Install and Configure Drupal
Enter the directory that we created earlier and download Drupal with wget. I'm using the latest Drupal 8.8.7]5. release as of April 23, 2020, make sure you are downloading latest version by visiting Drupal 8 download page and writing down the last numbers (version)
cd /srv/www/0dtespxtrading.com sudo wget https://ftp.drupal.org/files/projects/drupal-8.8.5.tar.gz sudo tar -xvzf drupal-8.8.5.tar.gz sudo cp drupal-8.8.5/* public_html/ -R sudo chown www-data:www-data public_html -RNow visit your Drupal site in the web Browser, you should see following screen
Drupal 8 welcome screen
Now, it's just time to connect database and set up your Drupal 8 website
April 2020 Dividend Income Report - $78.40
| Investments | 16 seen
Welcome to the thirty-sixth (#36) dividend income report, covering earnings I've made from dividend-paying stocks and peer to peer lending in April 2020.
Last April we spent in a self-isolation (because of Covid-19) here in Georgia. Baby girl is doing her online class, learning about animals, shapes, continents, and even planets. Quite fascinating what a 21-month-old can do. Development is very rapid.
King Davids Tower (s) in Tbilisi
It was on the evening of April 27, 2020, I decided to switch glass (from the kit lens to telephoto) and make some photo for the month of April to put in the description for the monthly dividend income report.
From the perspective of the market, last April was quite good, we recovered some 15% from the lost value, but still are under the water. From the perspective of dividends - this was a complete disaster - most ot the dividends were trimmed, some cut down to 0. Before the World's health crisis is was planned to take about $230 in dividends last April, but we managed to book only $78.40.
That's one of the worst dividend months in years - the sad news, this is not over - it will take many months, if not years to recover.
Compared to the previous April in 2019, that is a decrease of -52.26% (-$85.84)
Options trades helped a little to offset the losses, but also were nothing impressive - I made some money with calls and puts, but lost some money with vertical spreads. At the end of the month, we were able to book $41.33 from options trades.
For a now I have decided to pause my adventures with crypto options, but I made some $9.28 last month
When counted all together (dividends + options + crypto options), it seems I have made $129.01 in total last month. Effective income yield last April was 0.76% (about 9.12% annually) Which is humble for me, but anything positive in these times is good.
One of my monthly goals is to generate at least 2.5% income yield from a portfolio. Let's see, can I get on the track in the futures months (Spoiler alert - the only way I see this happen is from option trading
Interest income in April 2020
From the stocks and peer to peer lending I got following income last month:
Ticker
Earnings
EDI
€27.26
EDF
€21.33
Mintos
€8.09
RA
€7.81
NCV
€3.88
AWP
€3.76
Total EUR 71.83 / USD 78.40
In total there were 6 companies paying us dividend in April 2020 that 5 companies less than in April 2020
We didn't get payments this April from, NRZ (dividend will be paid in May, but is cut by 90%), PNNT (we still hold the stock, but our stock was sold on div ex-day back in March, so we didn't qualify for a dividend this April, hopefully, things will get better in July.
If things were at the pre-COVID-19, we would collect at least $138.45 from NRZ and PNNT, but we didn't.
Monthly income
I've been tracking my journey towards million dollars in a savings account since January 2017. More than three years already. The result for 2020 is lagging behind
in 3 out of 4 months this year, the dividend income has been lower than in 2019
Monthly dividend Income chart as of April 2020
The cumulative dividend earnings for 2020 now are $657.55 which is exactly 18.27% from my goal of 2020 ($3,600). On average, it would ask me to generate $367.81 every month for the next 8 months to reach my goal. With 90% confidence, I'm saying this goal won't be reached this year.
2019 in Review and Financial Goals for 2020
Goals for April 2021
This is my favorite part of the reports - trying to forecast/set goals for the next year. But before setting a goal for 2020, let's see what I forecasted/said a year ago (April 2019)
When setting goals for April 2020, I will say I want to increase dividend income by at least $70 - it translates in $234. Let's keep an odd number. I like them. lol
Wow, a total failure. I wasn't' smart enough to build Covid-19 proof dividend portfolio and instead of an increase of $70, we are now experiencing a decrease of more than $80.
When setting goals for 2021 - I will say anything above $200 will be a great result. To get there it will ask a lot of smart investments and a lot of cash deployed
Rundāle Palace and Garden
| Tourism objects | 17 seen
Rundāle Palace is one of the two major baroque palaces built for the Dukes of Courland in what is now Latvia, the other being Jelgava Palace. The palace was built in two periods, from 1736 until 1740 and from 1764 until 1768. It is situated at Pilsrundāle, 12 km west of Bauska.
The palace and its garden are among the top 10 destinations to visit in Latvia.
We have been heading to Rundāle once in a while, when in Latvia, preferably in Summer.
Rundala palace and its garden
In 1735 Duke of Courland Ernst Johann von Biron bought land in Rundāle with an old medieval castle in the territory of a planned summer residence. The old castle was demolished and construction after the design of Bartolomeo Rastrelli started in 1736.
Construction proceeded slowly because part of the materials and resources were transferred to the construction of Jelgava Palace, a project which was more important for the duke. Following Biron's fall from grace in 1740, the palace stood unfinished and empty until 1762 when Biron returned from his exile.
Under the supervision of Rastrelli its construction was finished in 1768. Johann Michael Graff produced lavish stucco decorations for the palace during this time. Ernst Johann von Biron loved the palace and moved there already in 1768. He often visited palace and spent summers there until his death in 1772. Son of an Ernst Johann duke Peter von Biron visited palace only a few times because unlike his father he preferred to spend summers in his Vircava manor.
Garden at Rundale place
The garden is really impressive. It can compete to the famous Keukenhof tulip fields in the Netherlands.
The palace is one of the major tourist destinations in Latvia. It is also used for the accommodation of notable guests, such as the leaders of foreign nations. The palace and the surrounding gardens are now a museum
Guest House Old Wall in Lagodekhi
| Hotel reviews | 9 seen
Offering a barbecue and children's playground, Guest House Old Wall is situated in Lagodekhi.
Property is set within the historic walls of the old castle Lakuasti. Guests can enjoy the on-site bar. Free WiFi is available throughout the property and free private parking is available on site.
This was our first stay in Lagodekhi, during a recent trip to the region (September 2019), we arrived here after a nice and comfy stay at Akhasheni Wine Resort near Gurjaani.
Guest House Old Wall in Lagodekhi
It was decided to use this guesthouse as a base to reach the Ninoskhevi waterfall. And seems the guest house is one of the top choices for travelers from all around the World to get there.
Rooms feature mountain or garden views. Guests can enjoy traditional Georgian dishes on site.
Interior inside guest house
Nice and cozy. We were offered a duplex room, but as we were traveling with a toddler, we asked to switch our rooms and were presented room in the first floor.
During our one night stay here we met travelers from Germany, Israel. In the evening kid hosts made a supra for us in the outside garden.
Traditional Georgian supra in the evening
Grilled mead, salads and cheese, really good.
3 Trades to Generate $200/mo Selling Naked Puts on Dividend Stocks
| Investments | 45 seen
Selling naked puts on dividend stocks is one of my favorite income-generating strategies. I've been selling options since the end of March 2019, and as a seasoned dividend income investor, I find options as one of the best inventions of our time.
3 Trades to Generate $165 - $350/mo Selling Cash-Secured Put Options
Income from options regularly puts food on our family table (or at least buys some candies).
To follow up on my trades in almost real-time - subscribe to my newsletter at Covered Calls with Reinis Fischer
I sell puts and calls. Also, I do verticals on the S&P 500 (SPX), and trade futures on Gold, and other instruments. the most important - I find a lot of fun there.
Investment Goal #7 - Selling Puts to Own / Generate Income
Recently I was reading a good article about 3 Trades to Generate $1,000 Every Month Selling Puts article, where the author talks about selling puts on Microsoft, BP, and XLF stocks. The author also finds it will require about $46,100 to generate $1,020/mo or 2.21% yield/mo.
I decided to mirror this approach, but instead of selling puts on MSFT, BP, or XLF stocks, I will use stocks I hold in our portfolio - AT&T, Pfizer, and Cisco Systems. By the way, all three are great dividend stocks that combined are paying dividends every month of the year.
Generate monthly income selling puts on AT&T (T) stock
At&T stock price as of February 7, 2020
T probably is my favorite stock to sell options on it. There are a few reasons I like T - it is a component of the S&P 500 composite index, it has raised it's dividend for 34 consecutive years, and it has one of the highest dividends on the S&P 500 list.
I have been selling puts on it since March or April 2019. T is the stock I have in my dividend stock portfolio and it contributes a little to our dividend income in February, May, August, and November.
You could sell a put with March 6 expiry with a strike price of $38 for about $0.49. That gets you $49 and makes about 1.28% return is less than 30 days. Or about 15.36% annualized. Break-even: $37.51
If T stock closes above $38 on March 6, you keep the premium and start over. If the stock closes under $38 you get assigned but check your break-even points. There are several options you could use not to get assigned, like a roll down or roll forward. Or you could take stock, collect the dividend and sell covered calls. Win, win, win
Remember, you are selling one contract, 100 shares of T stock, make sure you have $3,800 cash or buying power (margin) to buy 100 shares if assigned.
Generate monthly income selling puts on Pfizer (PFE) stock
Pfizer stock price as of February 7, 2020
Just like AT&T, Pfizer stock is also a component of S&P 500, plus is on the list of Dow Jones, even more, Pfizer is part of the Dogs of the Dow list (highest dividend-paying stocks from Dow Jones index), the dividend is above 3%, and what's great Pfizer has increased its dividend for the past 9 consecutive years.
Pfizer is one of the latest additions to our dividend income portfolio. I started to acquire Pfizer stock for the so-called Partnership fund, which basically means I'm buying once in a month Pfizer stock for my better part.
I have been selling puts on Pfizer stock since January 2020. Pfizer stock also contributes some bits to our dividend income in the following months: March, June, September, and December
You could sell a put on Pfizer stock with March 6 expiry and strike price of $38 for about $0.68. That gets you $68 and makes about 1.78% return is less than 30 days. Or about 21.36% annualized. Break-even: $37.42
If PFE stock closes above $38 on March 6, you keep the premium and start over. If the stock closes under $38 you get assigned but check your break-even points. There are several options you could use not to get assigned, like a roll down or roll forward. Or you could take stock, collect dividend and sell covered calls. Win, win, win
Remember, you are selling one contract, 100 shares of PFE stock, make sure you have $3,800 cash or buying power (margin) to buy 100 shares if assigned.
Generate monthly income selling puts on Cisco Systems (CSCO) stock
Cisco stock price as of February 7, 2020
Just like AT&T and Pfizer, Cisco Systems stock is also a component of S&P 500, and just like Pfizer, Cisco systems are on the list of Dow Jones, and like Pfizer is part of the Dogs of the Dow list, the dividend is just above shy 2%, I would like more, but as we can generate extra income from puts and calls it's quite good actually. Also, Cisco systems have increased dividends for the past 9 consecutive years.
I have been adding Cisco Systems to our dividend income portfolio since January 2020, we are waiting for dividend income in the following months: January, April, July, and November
You could sell a puton Cisco systems stock with March 6 expiry and strike price of $48 for about $1.21. That gets you $68 and makes about 2.52% return in less than 30 days. Or about 30.24% annualized. Break-even: $46.79
If CSCO stock closes above $48 on March 6, you keep the premium and start over. If the stock closes under $48 you get assigned but check your break-even points. There are several options you could use not to get assigned, like a roll down or roll forward. Or you could take stock, collect the dividend and sell covered calls. Win, win, win
Remember, you are selling one contract, 100 shares of CSCO stock, make sure you have $4,800 cash or buying power (margin) to buy 100 shares if assigned.
Subscribe to my newsletter at Covered Calls with Reinis Fischer
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