Author: mike

Laravel Surveillance is a package by Neelkanth Kaushik to put malicious users, IP addresses, and anonymous browser fingerprints under surveillance. Once a user is under supervision, this package logs the URLs they visit and even blocks users deemed malicious.

This package consists of a CLI to manage surveillance and a PHP API to survey users programmatically.

Here’s a few CLI examples of what this package can do:

# Survey ip, user id, browser fingerprints
php artisan surveillance:enable ip 192.1.2.4
php artisan surveillance:enable userid 1234
php artisan surveillance:enable fingerprint hjP0tLyIUy7SXaSY6gyb

# Block IP, user id, etc.
php artisan surveillance:block ip 192.1.2.4
php artisan surveillance:block userid 1234
php artisan surveillance:block fingerprint hjP0tLyIUy7SXaSY6gyb

Using the package’s PHP API, you can do the same things programmatically:

use Neelkanth\Laravel\Surveillance\Services\Surveillance;

// Enable IP surveillance
Surveillance::manager()
    ->type("ip")
    ->value("192.5.4.1")
    ->enableSurveillance();

// Block User
Surveillance::manager()
    ->type("userid")
    ->value(2121)
    ->blockAccess();

You can learn more about this package, get full installation instructions, and view the source code on GitHub at neelkanthk/laravel-surveillance.

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Top Offer: Spend $10 at Amazon Small Biz, Get $10 Back

Amazon Prime Day is less than a week away, delivering a 2-day bonanza of fantastic deals all across the retailer. We’re expecting thousands of items on sale, including some of the best prices we’ve seen all year.

If you’re planning on jumping on some serious deals come October 13-14, Amazon is offering a handful of ways to build up a cache of Prime Day credit that Prime members can spend freely during the event. You can earn Prime Day credit by buying groceries at Whole Foods, for example, or shopping at Amazon-partnered small businesses.

All told, as of this writing, you can earn up to $165 dollars in Amazon credit. Here are the promotions that Amazon is offering ahead of Prime Day.

Here’s one promo that yields considerable returns for a good cause: Support small business, and still get a bonus reward in the end. Simply spend $10 or more at one of the small businesses of Amazon’s choice and you’ll get a $10 Prime Day credit (limit one per customer). Whether it’s pet supplies, toys, skincare, or electronics, you’re bound to find something you’d like.

Need groceries? Perfect: Prime members who shop at Whole Foods and spend at least $10 in a single transaction will get a $10 Amazon credit specifically for Prime Day. Whether you shop in-store, online, or via the mobile app, you’ll get the bonus bucks (one per customer).

If you have an Amazon Books or Amazon Pop-Up physical retailer near you and don’t mind making a visit in the next week, you’ll get a $10 Prime Day credit after spending at least $10 at either store. Amazon has 29 total locations in the United States between the two store types, although you’ll only get credit at one or the other (not both).

Amazon 4-Star is another type of Amazon retail store, featuring an array of items with at least a 4-star rating on the site—including books, gadgets, kitchen appliances, and more. Still, you can take home a separate $10 Prime Day credit if you spend at least $10 at a 4-Star store, separate from the aforementioned Books/Pop-Up deal. Amazon currently has 4-Star stores open in 15 states, with more on the horizon.

What’s this? Another Amazon retail shop? Amazon Go is a bit different, taking a contactless approach in which you can get things like breakfast, lunch, and snacks without dealing with a cashier—the items you carry out are billed to the Amazon account on your phone. As with the other shops, you’ll get a $10 Prime Day credit for spending at least $10 at an Amazon Go location.

Here’s a promotion in the same Prime Day window that doesn’t lock you to spending earned credit during Prime Day itself. Right now, if you spend $20 or more on eBooks via Amazon’s Kindle platform by October 12, you’ll get a $5 credit towards future eBooks. The credit is good for 21 days upon receipt, so at least you’ll have wiggle room to pick your next reads after Prime Day.

If you happen to live in the vicinity of the single current Amazon Fresh grocery store in Woodland Hills, California, then you can take advantage of this bargain. Spend $10 or more at the store between now and October 14 and scan the QR code in your Amazon app and you’ll get a $10 credit for Prime Day. According to the terms and conditions, this deal does not apply to the Amazon Fresh delivery service, only in-store purchases. More Amazon Fresh stores are coming to California and the Chicago area, but at least for now, this promo is exclusive to that one location.

If you shop at Amazon a lot and are on the hunt for a new credit card—or possibly a better one than what you have—then this deal might entice you to apply for the Amazon Prime Rewards Credit Card. Sign up now, and you’ll get a $100 Amazon gift card you can spend whenever you want. A lesser deal is available to non-Prime members, as well: Sign up for the standard Amazon Rewards Credit Card and you’ll receive a $50 Amazon gift card. The standard card has fewer benefits, but you will need a Prime subscription to sign up for the Prime Rewards card mentioned above.

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Somehow, it has only been a week and a day since the first presidential debate of the 2020 election season. If you watched it, you may even still be recovering from the chaos. Well, it’s time to regroup, because the first and only vice presidential debate is on tonight. Here’s what to expect from the face-off between Vice President Mike Pence and Senator Kamala Harris—and how to watch it, whether over the air, on cable, or online.

What to expect from the VP debate

After last week’s debate, having a “what to expect” section seems a little pointless, but here goes. Vice President Mike Pence (the Republican nominee for vice president) will debate Senator Kamala Harris (the Democratic nominee for vice president) tonight at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City starting at 9 p.m. ET. This time, Susan Page, USA Today’s Washington bureau chief, will moderate.

The debate will run for 90 minutes and consist of nine 10-minute segments without commercial breaks. At this point, a list of topics to be covered in the debate has not yet been released—though it’s difficult to imagine that COVID-19 won’t come up.

Pence and Harris will be seated 12 feet apart with a plexiglass barrier between them, as well as with another between the two candidates and Page. Though the Cleveland Clinic—which hosted the last debate and has been providing health and safety protocols for in-person campaign events—approves of this measure, the Pence campaign opposes it. “If Sen. Harris wants to use a fortress around herself, have at it,” Katie Miller, a Pence spokesperson, told Politico.

How to watch the VP debate

Like the first presidential debate, there are plenty of ways to watch this round for free. It will be shown live on every major network and cable news channel, including ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and C-SPAN. There will also be multiple livestreams of the debate on YouTube, including ones from CBS News and C-SPAN. Viewers can also stream the debate through Twitter’s US Election hub in the “Explore” tab.