Creation of website, graphic identity and communications material, in cooperation with SiSustainable.
Urs Riggenbach
Webdesign, Consulting, Renewable Energies
Since 2012 I've been working with GoSol.org toward initiating a global wave of solar enterpreneurship.
Building web-platforms and systems with purpose that connect actors, empower people and facilitate change.
I am a Web-Designer, Sysadmin and Renewable Energy specialist. I'm a UWC and COA graduate, Farmer, Human Ecologist, Open Source Enthusiast, Techno Peasant, Biker, Longboarder, Scout, Hiker, Junglist and Salsa dancer.
My mantra is Global Collaboration - Local Production.
I bring an international Baccalaureate from the United World College, India and BA in Human Ecology from the College of Atlantic, US.
June 2012 - now
Launch of innovative platform for the spread of solar thermal energy solutions.
June 2012 - now
Solar thermal technology solutions in the humanitarian and industrial sector.
Technological development, project management, IT consulting, web and communication.
February 2017 - May 2017
Industrial CNC machine training (Waterjet, Lasercuting, 5 axis CNC)
Rapid prototyping using state of the art CNC machinery
August 2013 - February 2014
Support in research and development.
February 2013 - July 2013
Development of exhibition on renewable energies.
Instructors from the fields of architecture, construction and joinery/Carpentry
Application of principles of sustainability and sustainable design in the architecture of a "tiny house" of 227 square feet.
Project planning and management with different build milestones.
Construction of entire tiny house, see it in New York Post "Tiny House 227".
Study and implementation of HVAC systems.
September 2008 - June 2012
Relevant Coursework: Agroecology, Economic Development, International Water Resource Management, Physics II, Collaborative Leadership, Fieldwork: Seminar in Community-based Research, Documentary Film Making, Webdesign, Fixing Food Systems, Sustainability, Local Production - Global Collaboration.
Senior project in Nepal installing renewable energy framework at rural school
Spanish proficiency during project-stay in Yucatán, Mexico
Davis UWC Scholar: full scholarship awarded
September 2006 - May 2008
International Baccelaurate (IB) with major biology and economics.
Course language English.
Extended essay: Sugarcane Cultivation in the Mulshi Valley, India.
Full Scholarship from the Swiss Association for UWC
One of the most critical factors in getting a high Google PageSpeed ranking is optimized images. Penalty is given for any image that is not compressed. This blog post will show you a framework-independent way to optimize your images with PHP and NGINX.
SPIP, Drupal, WordPress and the like store and serve uncompressed files usually from a single folder. In SPIP it is "local", in Wordpress it would be "wp-uploads". Instead of directly optimizing the source images in these folders, I’ve developed a PHP script that copies the files to a separate folder mimicking the same folder structures and filenames, and then optimizing the files. The specific software tools used for optimization are jpegtran and optipng.
Optimizing the Images
Deploy the following script in the root directory of your PHP framework.
<?php
//Optimizes images for delivery over web
function copyfile($in, $out,$outfolder) {
//check fi fiel is in destiation
if (file_exists($out)) {
$return = "already_processed";
}
else {
exec('mkdir -p ' . $outfolder);
exec('cp ' . $in . ' ' . $out);
exec('chmod 777 ' . $out);
echo "copied file: $in to $out";
$return = "not_processed";
}
if (isset($_GET['all'])) {
$return = "not_processed";
}
return $return;
}
$rii = new RecursiveIteratorIterator(new RecursiveDirectoryIterator('/var/www/html/local'));
$files = array();
foreach ($rii as $file) {
if ($file->isDir()){
continue;
}
$files[] = $file->getPathname();
}
foreach ($files as $value) {
$file_input = $value;
//regex to replace last folders
$re = '/(\/var\/www\/html\/local)/';
$subst = '/var/www/html/local_optimized';
$file_output = preg_replace($re, $subst, $value);
//regex to get folder name of file
$file_output_pathinfo = pathinfo($file_output);
$file_output_folder = $file_output_pathinfo['dirname'];
echo $file_input . "\n";
echo $file_output . "\n";
echo $file_output_folder . "\n";
if (exif_imagetype($value) == IMAGETYPE_PNG) {
echo 'The picture is a PNG...
';
$processing_status = copyfile($file_input,$file_output,$file_output_folder);
if($processing_status == "already_processed"){
echo "already processed... nothing to do. \n \n";
} else {
echo "processing now... \n \n";
$output = exec('optipng -o5 '.$file_output);
echo $output;
}
}
if (exif_imagetype($value) == IMAGETYPE_JPEG) {
echo 'The picture is a JPG...
';
$processing_status = copyfile($file_input,$file_output,$file_output_folder);
if($processing_status == "already_processed"){
echo "already processed...\n\n";
}in
else{
echo "processing now...\n\n";
$output = exec("jpegoptim --verbose --max=80 --strip-all --preserve --totals " . $file_output);
echo $output;
}
}
}
?>
You can run the script directly from the command line, such as php filename.php or access the file over the internet via https://yourwebsite/filename.php (however, running over CLI and automating this with a cron-job is better as there is no PHP max execution time limit on the CLI, and optimizing images is a resource heavy process).
Configuring NGINX
Next we need to configure NGINX to serve images from the "local_optimized" folder as opposed to the "local" folder. Because the above script will run as Cron Job periodically, we want to fall back to the "local" folder when the iamge cannot be found in the "local_optimized" folder (yet).
In your NGINX website conf-file, make sure you add a "location" block for your main website ("/"), and then serve the "local_optimized" folder primarily and then the original "local" folder as backup:
#your main location block
location / {
proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
proxy_set_header Host $host;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
proxy_pass https://10.0.0.10:443;
}
#your optimized image block
location /local/ {
proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
proxy_set_header Host $host;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
proxy_pass https://10.0.0.10:443/local_optimized/ ;
proxy_intercept_errors on;
recursive_error_pages on;
error_page 404 = @static_image_https;
}
#your optimized image block fallback
location @static_image_https {
proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
proxy_set_header Host $host;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
proxy_pass https://10.0.0.10:443;
}Don’t forget to nginx -t and service nginx reload
Validate your Setup
As mentioned in the beginning, Google PageSpeed is a great tool to validate that your images are served compressed. To validate the script working, you can simply compare the filesizes of the images in the "local" folder versus the "local_optimized" folder.
I use qemu to virtualize appliances on my servers, and I access them over SSH. Allthough SSH supports streaming X windows so it is possible to fire up a graphical install, it is not so convenient as the connection may drop and cancel the install.
A convenient workaround is to use qemu’s curses interface, where instead of a display, a terminal is attached to the virtual machine. That way you can install and use your virtual machines directly in the SSH terminal.
To install a new system from scratch, simply define the -hda, -cdrom and -boot flags, and add the -curses option:
qemu-system-x86_64 -hda /dev/sdc1 -m 1500 --enable-kvm -curses -cdrom images/debian-stable.iso -boot d
The Debian installer supports headless mode, but we have to add two settings at the boot prompt to make it work with curses.
1. Fire up qemu with the command above. Wait a few seconds, the screen will turn black after loading syslinux. Hit ESC, and enter:
install fb=none vga=normal
and follow the install. Voilà, you’re installing your VM in qemu directly over ssh.
Tip: To prevent losing the install if the network connection is lost, run the commands in a screen terminal.
Send me an email to mail@ursrig.com