about done. how to build first draft

7 files changed, 342 insertions, 115 deletions

diff --git a/.md/about/faq.md b/.md/about/faq.md
index ecbdc2b..bd022e8 100644
--- a/.md/about/faq.md
+++ b/.md/about/faq.md
@@ -1,4 +1,45 @@
 # Frequently Anticipated Questions
-- *A question?*
+## Questions noone asked, but could maybe
+- *Why bother running a Tor hidden service if you're gonna put your full
+  name on it?*
 
-Yes, that is a question. Nice one
+One, because I think hidden services are neat and I thought it'd be neat
+to make one. And two, if I really needed to be anonymous, I would
+probably self-host or find a hosting provider somewhere else, or
+reconsider using the Internet all together.
+
+The hidden service has a benefit though, mostly to *you*. You don't need
+to expose your IP to me or to anyone else to access this site.
+
+- *You wrote all this in vim? Why tho?*
+
+Neovim more lately, but yeah other than large projects, I prefer using
+vim for editing. Mostly because it's easy to edit consistently across
+servers and because I just spend so much of my time in the terminal
+lately that I'm used to it.
+
+- *Why OpenBSD*?
+
+Honestly, I though the fish was cool.
+
+<img src="/static/puffy.gif" />
+
+I don't know the artist of that one unfortunately, I just found it on a
+forum.
+
+Besides I've installed Debian lots of times so I figured, why not try
+something different? It's pretty cool as a server OS. Just a lot of
+homework. I'm sure it's good as a desktop/laptop one too, but it's not
+different enough for me to move all my data.
+
+- *Why bother making your site from scratch? It looks like crap*
+
+Eh. I feel like if what I say isn't interesting, prettying it up won't
+help keep attention that much. I like simple sites like this one. It
+forces you to poke around more. Poking around is a good thing.
+
+- *Why does your RSS feed update me on old stuff?*
+
+Because I made it to set the publication date to the last write time of
+the file. Change is important and I do it often, because I'm often
+wrong.
diff --git a/.md/about/howami.md b/.md/about/howami.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fe82c61
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.md/about/howami.md
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Doing all right, thanks for asking.
diff --git a/.md/about/whatami.md b/.md/about/whatami.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6120c15
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.md/about/whatami.md
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+In case of alien transmission...
+
+It should be noted for the record I'm a human (*homo sapiens sapiens*),
+which by [most estimates](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_water) puts
+me firmly in the category of *water-like object* at ~60% of my total
+body mass, with the remaining matter compromised of various arrangements
+of carbon.
diff --git a/.md/about/whereami.md b/.md/about/whereami.md
index f69eaef..e00750a 100644
--- a/.md/about/whereami.md
+++ b/.md/about/whereami.md
@@ -50,11 +50,8 @@ being, not a corporation, or a bot, or a government, or work, or a *network*.
 All these files were loving crafted by yours truly in vim, in markdown and
 converted with pandoc to HTML because of laziness. The Internet I grew up with,
 though I didn't really appreciate because I was too young at the
-time, used to be filled with places like this. "Homepages" were a *thing*, or
-were just starting to be at least. And people made
-[all](http://textfiles.com/) [sorts](http://toastytech.com/)
-[of](http://sam.zoy.org/) [weird](https://newgrounds.com)
-[pages](https://something.com/) to get lost for a while.
+time, used to be filled with places like this. "Homepages" were a thing, or
+were just starting to be at least.
 
 But as soon as it started it all got sucked up social media, everyone got coerced
 into profiles, templates, and standards to make us easier for ad companies to
diff --git a/.md/about/whoami.md b/.md/about/whoami.md
index 0394a8b..cf8cd32 100644
--- a/.md/about/whoami.md
+++ b/.md/about/whoami.md
@@ -1,79 +1,42 @@
-<p>Last I checked:</p>
-<code>
-$ whoami
-mjf
-</code>
-<p>There's a lot of ways to go about this question, honestly.</p>
-<p>I could start with my name, but that doesn't really tell you much and it's
-on the site anyway. A lot of people answer "who they are" with what they do.
-I'm working in an IT department right now trying my best to wrap my head around
-securing their network. I suppose that tells you something, even if I haven't
-been at this long. I got here after I fell down the rabbit hole of
-understanding how the hell this whole Internet thing works, and I've been
-trapped ever since. Cybersecurity people seem to touch a lot of things in this
-area so I naturally sort of stumbled in this direction.
-</p>
-<p>At this point, though, I still don't think I've really answered the
-question. I'm not my job title to probably most people I know. And I think it's
-a little unwise to base my identity on something that could taken away by a
-financial crisis or an EMP blast.
-</p>
-<p>I could get more vague and go for a meme-y tribal identifier like "nerd,"
-"metalhead," "hacker," "warlock," or whatever classes people are running these
-days.
-</p>
-<p>
-None these are really true though either. I was never really smart enough to
-hang out with nerds and I never much liked keeping up with them anyway. I
-certainly have enough of a music snob streak to fit in with metalheads, but
-I've gotten over that illness for the most part, where most of my peers have
-not. If we're going with Richard Stallman's notion of
-<a href="https://archive.is/epjm4">hacking</a>, then maybe I share some of the
-same spirit. But I didn't grow up in that culture. I knew of a computer mostly
-as Windows--and even that I didn't understand well. My parents were luddites so
-these were all magic boxes to me growing up and I was far to afraid to try to
-look inside and risk breaking it. I had a vague notion that I wanted to design
-games, but I spent my time playing Runescape and Elder Scrolls instead of
-botting and modding them. Maybe I'm gatekeeping myself, but fitting into any
-sort of tribe has never really been on my mind.
-</p>
-<p>
-A lucky few will have biographers write their final word, but most of us
-will have to settle for the obituary. Either way though, I think it's important
-to remember in the long term, all we really have is our history. Hopefully,
-that won't include web history...
-</p>
-<p>
-So I think it's probably better to start with who I am, with where I've been.
-I was born in the US in 1993 about two weeks after the World Wide Web was
-released to the public domain. Our family didn't get online until I was around
-five or six when people started handing out free Windows and America Online CDs
-around public places. Pokemon was also released around that time so that
-computer was primarily used for Pokemon-themed version of Print Artist and
-reading fake articles on how to get Mew in Blue version. As I grew up, my
-school assignments went from stacks of notebooks to folders full of .doc files.
-It became expected by around middle school/high school that you had a Windows
-PC or at least had access to one to write essays. Runescape was a thing, so
-that same computer still saw it's fair share of play, but study crept in when
-it could.
-</p>
-<p>
-I never bothered studying the computer itself though. Any tutorial I could find
-on messing with Windows (like getting a stupid cursor or soemthing) started in
-big bold letters with "DON'T TRY THIS IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING."
-Well I didn't know, so I didn't try. I did fall in love with Wikipedia though
-and just hopping through history and philosophy articles. I couldn't always use
-the PC downstairs so I learned to use the PSP and eventually the PS3 browser
-instead so I could read up until late. God knows how much crap was on there
-back then...
-</p>
-<p>
-I got into guitar around eighth grade since Guitar Hero was popular and I
-wanted girls to like me. I was also into band and chorus at school and somehow
-got the idea that I was pretty good at all that. The idea of playing music or
-composing started to really look like a serious thing after two years at it,
-but when I first started to write music, I had so much trouble drawing the
-freaking clefs and fancy stuff that I would waste too much time to write half
-of a score. I need like Microsoft Word for music, but I didn't know if such a
-thing was even real
-</p>
+<center>
+TL;DR Above everything I'm a lurker. And I mean that in the traditional
+forum/mailing list sense. You could put it a few ways and still be
+right: a reader, a people watcher, a listener, maybe a coward if you're
+cynical. But all in all, not anyone in particular really.
+</center>
+
+When I first came up with a writing a page with this title, it devolved
+into a kind of personal essay. The kind of unwelcome nonsense you no
+doubt encounter (and I no doubt supplied) in comment sections on the
+Internet or the paginated newsfeeds written by faceless names or in
+the rambling profiles that start with birth and forget where they're
+going around college. It seems to come easy to a lot of us.
+
+Now, I'm not sure I've earned the right yet.
+
+I'd rather just let my work (and my play) stand for itself, for whatever
+it's worth. You'll get it as you go I'm sure. That said, there are some
+things that probably help for context's sake:
+- I'm born, raised, and hosted on the US East Coast. By most countries'
+  standards, that means I have no sense of the world outside of my own
+  country, which despite my best efforts, is probably true
+- I'm raised and hosted (not born) on free software (unless you count
+  whatever my VPS is running). This server is running OpenBSD with
+  nginx and httpd working together to host a small git repo and this
+  flask app I threw together
+- I'm born and raised (not hosted) by Luddites, for the most part. And I
+  don't mean that in entirely bad way. What I mean is I grew up around
+  mostly people who didn't know and didn't care to know about advances
+  in technology or the merging of that technology with culture. In
+  fact, that might be the appropriate view to have in light of
+  recent circumstances.
+- By trade, I'm best at data recovery and writing good documentation.
+  I'm self-taught at programming software design so by most metrics,
+  I'm probably not great at that, but I'm getting there. I love a good
+  math problem, and though I only got a B in my college circuits class,
+  I still find time to make some lights blink.
+- I spend a lot of time on the Internet lost. And in the process,
+  sometimes find useful things; though I largely find nonsense, which
+  has it's own value, but it's separate.
+
+Here is as close to home as I'll get for now.
diff --git a/.md/about/whyami.md b/.md/about/whyami.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7dbc4af
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.md/about/whyami.md
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+I am because I need to be I guess. Because I need to know things and
+because I need to be understood. But mostly because I need a place for
+my stuff.
diff --git a/.md/tutorials/how-to-make-this-site.md b/.md/tutorials/how-to-make-this-site.md
index 684f00f..e898828 100644
--- a/.md/tutorials/how-to-make-this-site.md
+++ b/.md/tutorials/how-to-make-this-site.md
@@ -1,20 +1,20 @@
-<h2>Background</h2>
-*I don't got time, get to *[the point](#thepoint)
+## Background
+*TL;DR get to *[the point](#thepoint)
 
 I think it was roughly the end of high school when I first had the idea I
-wanted to make <i>some</i> kind of website. This would be around 2010 and I did
+wanted to make *some* kind of website. This would be around 2010 and I did
 what I thought would be a good idea and bought a book on the subject: "Web
 Sites for Dummies." I was dummy after all...
 
 I got up to hyper linking with the "a" tag until I hit a wall. I don't want to
 link the exact page since I don't want to get sued, but it basically read:
 
-<pre>
+```
     Web design programs:
     - Adobe Dreamweaver
     - Adobe Contribute
     - Microsoft Expression Web
-</pre>
+```
 
 Well, damn. I didn't have any of those. And as a stingy high school kid, I
 didn't want to buy anything. So I shelved that book and forgot about for a
@@ -25,70 +25,285 @@ music software like Audacity which is what I was into at the time.
 A few years later I caught a bit of a poetry bug--and maybe a bit of a snooty
 college kid bug--and tried to run a blog. At that point, I had learned about
 WordPress, which lets you easily make a space for sharing writing, media,
-content, whatever really. And it's free as in <i>freedom</i> as I understand
+content, whatever really. And it's free as in *freedom* as I understand
 since it's licensed under the GPL (if you want to take the time to deploy it
 yourself). But they also give out free .wordpress domains and some storage
-space for people who know nothing about hosting.
+space.
 
 I had fun with that one, I don't update it anymore, but it's still up at
 <a href="https://postquantumpoetry.wordpress.com">postquantumpoetry.wordpress.com
 </a>. WordPress got closer to what I wanted, but it still wasn't <i>really</i>
 my site; it was WordPress's site unless I wanted to pay the hosting and domain
 fee. It's pretty modest, but I wasn't sold on sticking with a .com or .space
-domain, or even sticking with WordPress. I was getting tired of blogging and
-wanted to really make something.
+domain, or even sticking with WordPress. I was getting tired of blogging
+anyway. I was getting more interested in the stuff that made it work; it
+seemed a lot more fruitful than writing to no one.
 
 It's now 2021, five years later, when I write this (and this website isn't even
 finished yet). So what led me down the rabbit hole again? It probably started
 where the last one left off, when I decided I wanted to switch to more
-practical IT things over the academic science-y things I had previously wanted
+practical IT things over the academic things I had previously wanted
 to pursue. I signed up for a Cybersecurity program, somehow got in, and
 eventually managed to land a entry-level SOC role after graduating. At this
-point, it was getting a little embarrassing that I had no web
+point, it was getting a little weird that I had no web
 presence--especially after I decided to take down most of my social media
 accounts. So I was back at "how do I make a website," again, but this time, I
 at least had some understanding of what a server was and how networks work. And
 more importantly, I had a better idea of what it meant for a computer to be
-<i>mine</i>. Even though--let's be real--it <i>still isn't</i>. I can't get
+*mine*. Even though--let's be real--it *still isn't.* I can't get
 high-speed Internet easily which I need to host a server long-term so I'm stuck
 using some else's computer, otherwise called a Virtual Private Server (VPS).
 Even if I could host at home, I'm still of course at the mercy of my ISP so
 even then, I'm not totally free.
 
 Because of that, I think it's important to understand that
-"running your own website" is not just a <i>technical</i> ordeal, but also an
-<i>economic</i> one since you have to carefully think about what it means to
-you to <i>own</i> your server, your software, and your hardware
-
+"running your own website" is not just a *technical* ordeal, but also an
+*economic* one since you have to carefully think about what it means to
+you to *own* your server, your software, and your hardware. That doesn't
+mean it's hard to do, just that there's options.
 
 <a id="thepoint"></a>
-<h2>What is a web server and how do I run one?</h2>
-TL;DR a web server is just a way for other computers on a network to
-view files in a particular folder.
+## What is a web server and how do I run one?
+TL;DR a web server is just a program that lets other computers on a
+network view files in a chosen folder. All you need to do is download a
+web server: apache and nginx are popular ones, but you can easily
+program your own with web frameworks like
+[Flask](https://flask.palletsprojects.com/en/2.0.x/) or
+[Facil](https://facil.io/)
+
+You can run a web server for free right now. If you're on windows go
+download Apache for Windows
+[here](https://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/platform/windows.html) and
+follow the set up guide
+[here](https://www.liquidweb.com/kb/how-to-install-apache-on-a-windows-server/).
+If you're on Linux, you probably already have it installed.
+
+Find the configuration file in `sites-available/default` (on
+windows, this may be led by C:\Program Files\Apache Software
+Foundation\Apache2.4\ ). You'll see something like the following:
+
+```
+<VirtualHost *:80>
+        ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
+
+        DocumentRoot /var/www
+        <Directory />
+                Options FollowSymLinks
+                AllowOverride None
+        </Directory>
+        <Directory /var/www/>
+                Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
+                AllowOverride None
+                Order allow,deny
+                allow from all
+        </Directory>
+```
+
+For now, you don't need to change anything, so don't worry about what it
+means.
+
+Note in particular the "DocumentRoot" which may differ for you. This is
+where the web server looks for files. So let's put a file there! Put
+whatever, a picture, a text file. Run the server, then go to
+your web browser and type: `http://localhost`. You'll find a directory
+with your files in it!
+
+The problem is, only you and others on your home network can visit your
+site right now.
+
+Your computer's most likely behind your router's firewall, which will
+not allow any traffic in. You'll need to forward a port from your router
+(port 80 is for HTTP) to point to the device hosting the server.
+
+Router's differ when it comes to to exact configuration, but MOST
+routers will have some kind of steps similar to this:
+
+1) Click "Advanced" then click "Firewall"
+
+2) Scroll to the add new rule form (if you must, press a button to bring
+it up)
 
-<h2>How can make this server available on the Internet <i>cheaply</i> and <i>independently</i></h2>
+3) Put in the following values
+- source/original port: 80
+- forward to address/device: your device's local ip
+- forward to/destination port: 8000
 
-TL;DR expense scales with independence. It's possible to become your own
+You can get your device's local ip by typing `ipconfig` (Windows) or `ip
+a` (Linux). Typically it is listed first and will start with "192.168" or
+"10.0" but it depends on the manufacturer.
+
+Now get your *public* ip address at this site https://who.is/ and share
+it with your friends. Watch in horror as they access all the files in
+the directory you launched the server!
+
+## How can make this server available on the Internet *cheaply* and *independently*
+
+TL;DR Expense scales with independence. It's possible to become your own
 service provider, get IP addresses from ICANN, your own hardware to host
 it, to host your cat pics; but it's also a lot of time, work and money
-to do all that (see [Null]())
+to do all that (see [Null]())>. Most likely you'll want to rent someone
+else's server, usually a VPS.
+
+Once you understand the basic installation above, you can now populate
+your site with content just by adding HTML files to your web directory.
+You can use an HTML editor to write these, or you can download a full
+content management system to help you. Here are some options I know
+about:
+
+- You can just write the damn HTML and use apache or nginx
+
+This honestly is not that hard, it just takes long and takes away from
+the joy of writing in my opinion. But if your content is short and
+sweet, or you're mostly hosting files, writing a few basic HTML files in
+vim or notepad and adding some CSS goes a long way.
+
+- [Neocities](https://neocities.org/)
+
+Neocities is based on the old Geocities from the mid 90s which allows
+simple static hosting and features and amazing array of creative
+projects. Everything is managed through the website, and you can pay to
+set your own custom domain.
+
+- Wordpress (but this time, you set it up)
+
+Before wordpress was a social media blogging thingamajig, it was just a
+content management system to spin up a pretty blog. You can download and
+install Wordpress by following:
+
+https://wordpress.org/support/article/how-to-install-wordpress/
+
+The benefit of installing yourself is enormous,
+since you have full control and can even edit the source if you have
+the guts.
 
-<h3>Can I run a web server at home</h3>
+- [Github pages](https://guides.github.com/features/pages/)
 
-TL;DR Technically yes, but practically probably not. At least not at a lot of
-extra cost to you.
+In addition to hosting code repositories, you can host small sites on
+github for mostly free. I've never used it, but I definitely would if I
+needed something like a small wiki.
+
+But once you have stuff to share, how do you keep this stuff online?
+
+### Can I run a web server at home
+
+Technically yes, but practically probably not. At least not at a lot of
+extra cost to you. If you do want to host a small thing at home, like
+some text or some cat pics, a
+[tor hidden service]("/site/tutorial/how-to-host-a-tor-hidden-service.html")
+is a great option.
 
 I spent a lot of time searching on this (you can find a full list of references
 at the bottom), and I've even tested a little bit by hosting game servers and
 web projects for code jams, but the problem is twofold. First, if you are in
 the United States and not a business, you probably have a standard plan with
-one of the major ISPs (Verizon, Optimum, etc.). This limits
-you in a few ways.
+one of the major ISPs (Verizon, Optimum, etc.). This limits you in a
+few ways.
 
 - Your bandwidth is limited, which limits the amount of people you can serve
-at one time <i>and</i> the rate you can transfer data to them. Think laggy
+at one time *and* the rate you can transfer data to them. Think laggy
 games and videos that take 10 years to download.
-- Your ISP probably explicitly does not allow this (at least in the US). I have <i>never</i> had my
+
+- Your ISP probably explicitly does not allow this (at least in the US). I have *never* had my
 ISP complain about hosting small personal servers at home, but I imagine if I
 hosted higher traffic things, I would have some problems.
 
+### So what should I do
+
+Most people will find it cheapest to rent from a VPS provider--VPS
+stands for "Virtual Private Server," which just means an
+Internet-connected server stored somewhere in someone's private data
+center. You pay them for the storage and to keep your server online and
+accessible.
+
+Once you've got enough content and a way to manage it, all you have to
+do is just copy all that stuff over to your VPS. Usually that looks
+like:
+
+- Installing a web server and a CMS tweaked to your liking
+- Copying over your stuff to the web directory
+- Opening up your ports to the outside world.
+
+And in a nutshell that's it. There's fancy stuff of course, like you'll
+want a [domain name](#dns) probably and I'll talk about that too, but at
+this point, your stuff is on the Internet! Just tell your friends to
+paste in your public ip address (your VPS provider will tell you this)
+and there's your stuff!
+
+<a id="dns"></a>
+## What's a "Domain Name"
+
+Expecting people to save your IP address is not really a good idea
+though. It's better to have an easy name they can remember. Enter DNS,
+the Domain Name System. If an IP address is a telephone number, DNS is
+the telephone book. ICANN and IANA host the top level servers, which
+point to local domain registries who buy names like "mjfer.net" on
+behalf of their customers.
+
+The actual business of domain names is complicated and not something I
+understand all that well. But setting up a domain name to point to an IP
+address is typically easy, once you've chosen a domain registrar (just
+search that online and you'll find a ton) and name you like. Be aware
+that shorter names are rarer and usually more expensive and different
+TLDs (like ".net" and ".io") will be priced differently.
+
+Once you have a domain name, you'll need to set up a DNS record. Again,
+this varies a bit based on the provider, but all will have some kind of
+text input of API where you can edit DNS records. You'll want to make
+two records
+
+- A Type A that will be your main record
+ - set the HOST to your domain name (like mjfer.net)
+ - set the ANSWER to your IP address (like 8.9.36.54)
+- A CNAME record, that will help point to all your other records
+ - set the HOST to your domain name, with a wildcard subdomain (like \*.mjfer.net)
+ - set the ANSWER to your main record (like mjfer.net)
+
+The reason for the second record is in case you want to set subdomains
+on the same IP address like "git.mjfer.net".
+
+Wait a few minutes for the DNS servers to update and you should now be
+able access your server by name.
+
+## Setup HTTPS and TLS, a false sense of security
+
+A decade of half-though through security advice has convinced everyone
+that HTTPS and *only* HTTPS is secure. This is simply not true. Using
+HTTP alone doesn't inherently make you insecure and using HTTPS
+doesn't automatically guarantee the app your communicating with is
+secure.
+
+What HTTPS means is that the *data you send to the server* is
+encrypted. This only provides security in contexts where you're entering
+information like a credit card number or a password. In those cases 
+*you need HTTPS*. But if you're just requesting a text document, or a
+cat picture, and not sending any data, HTTP is perfectly acceptable for
+retrieving that information.
+
+Web browsers have largely responded to this fact by assuming that HTTP
+is always insecure and printing a warning when you visit a site without
+HTTPS enabled. Unfortunately, most users interpret this to mean the site
+is somehow dangerous, even if it doesn't collect any information about
+the user. Because of that, most you will want to go the extra mile to
+make your visitors feel warm and fuzzy inside and implement HTTPS.
+
+Fortunately, this is now much easier than is used to be thanks to
+[LetsEncrypt](https://letsencrypt.org/). LetsEncrypt generously serves
+as a free certificate authority, which allows you to generate signed
+certificates that are recognized by every web browser in the world. The
+tool they recommend, [certbot](https://certbot.eff.org/) is painless to
+install. I've rarely had to do much more than `certbot certonly` and
+follow the prompts to get a certificate. Once you've obtained one, add
+it to
+[apache](https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/ssl/ssl_howto.html)
+or
+[nginx](https://www.nginx.com/blog/nginx-ssl/#Examples),
+switch the port to 443 instead of 80 and bam, you've got HTTPS!
+
+## References
+
+1. https://dataswamp.org/~solene/2021-07-23-why-selfhosting-is-important.html
+2. https://selfhostedweb.org/yourserver/
+3. https://www.howtogeek.com/362602/can-you-host-a-web-server-on-your-home-internet-connection/
+4. https://googiehost.com/blog/create-your-own-server-at-home-for-web-hosting/
+5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICANN
+