Techie on

Surface Book, Windows 10, and WSL: A year in review from a UNIX Geek

Sun, 05 Nov 2017 04:15:57 +0000

TL;DR Unix geek tries Windows 10 for a year. For the most part it works, but lots of growing pains. Going back to the land of GNU.

Introduction

A year ago, I started an attempt to give Windows another try. I jump around different platforms to stay current and cognisant of the industry shifts professionally. The need to get back to Windows happen to coincide with need for a new laptop.

Microsoft in 2016: A review from a UNIX Geek

Sun, 30 Oct 2016 07:30:35 +0000

New laptop purchase seems like a good time to give Microsoft another chance.

What happened?

I was using a wonderful 4th Generation X1 Carbon that ran Linux like a top. My only issue was that, in taking on a new role, I needed Windows or Mac support with a CUDA capable GPU. Moving to a 15” MacBook Pro wasn’t an option due to the size/weight and my general dismay of the direction of macOS.

OpenWRT and PIA

Sun, 28 Aug 2016 17:41:31 +0000

I use an OpenWRT travel router to deal with public WiFi access security and geolocation concerns. I have written extensively prior and ran into an issue with the latest OpenWRT release.

For those struggling with PIA using the luci-app-openvpn please see the below for a working config you can place in /etc/config/openvpn.

Grab the new PIA Strong crypto files here: https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/openvpn/openvpn-strong.zip
vi /etc/config/openvpn
Paste this block of text and change the hostname as needed

config openvpn 'piaEU'
               option dev 'tun'
               option nobind '1'
               option verb '3'
               option fast_io '1'
               option persist_tun '1'
               option persist_key '1'
               option client '1'
               option proto 'udp'
               option tls_client '1'
               option remote_cert_tls 'server'
               option cipher 'aes-256-cbc'
               option auth 'sha256'
               option ca '/etc/config/ca.rsa.4096.crt'
               option keepalive '10 120'
               list remote 'nl.privateinternetaccess.com'
               option comp_lzo 'adaptive'
               option auth_user_pass '/etc/openvpn/authuser'
               option resolv_retry 'infinite'
               option reneg_sec '0'
               option disable_occ '1'
               option enabled '1'
                option crl_verify '/etc/config/crl.rsa.4096.pem'
               option port '1197'

The port is a biggie. Make sure it is the correct one for the new secure settings!

Ring Doorbell Security

Sun, 24 Jul 2016 09:54:55 +0000

The Ring Doorbell has been invaluable as we travel the world. The reactions of people are often times pretty funny as the doorbell they just pressed begins talking to them and asking them to do some action in our absence. Even over our very low-bandwidth WiMax link it is usable. The most annoying part of the device, until now, is that our dog Bentley goes crazy when the device rings the multitude of devices. Even when we are abroad if he hears the phone notification he goes ballistic instinctively knowing someone is in his yardfrom a few hundred/thousand miles away.

Apache and HTTP Headers with Underscores

Wed, 23 Mar 2016 14:45:39 +0000

Starting with Apache 2.4, headers were dropped that contained items to include underscores and expects dashes instead. Red Hat backported this change into the Apache 2.2 that ships with 6.7. You can read more here:https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/env.html

If you run into the issue where your REMOTE_USER or similar is not being passed to your WSGI application or similar, it is most likely due to the above. Good news, easy fix. I came across this issue with the wonderful Oracle Access Manager (OAM) 10g. Side note: what a crappy piece of code and a disgrace to authentication mechanisms everywhere.

Lenovo Yoga Tab 3 Pro Review

Sun, 21 Feb 2016 12:07:29 +0000

After the unfortunate loss of my 2014 Nexus 7 tablet I was on the prowl for a replacement. I prefer to keep an Android tablet due to the flexibility to use it as a mini Linux workstation if the need arises. The USB OTG support means the tablet is capable of taking on most of the tasks I use my Linux laptop with in the event I am stuck somewhere. Additionally I wanted a tablet that really excelled at media consumption as that is the primary use for a tablet in my workflow.

You are dev to me

Sun, 11 Oct 2015 04:26:50 +0000

Introduction

The idea of keeping a production and development network always wears on me. Unless the change management is in place to offer some assurances that both threads are kept exactly in sync, they inevitably turn into a game of not good enough to buy down risk.

That was the rationale behind creating a system that allowed rapid captures of running machines, transitioning to a closed network, and with no changes to the network/systems have them be as they were just minutes earlier. Thanks to technology from EMC, Cisco, VMware, and VyOS this is all very possible.

Withings Home Camera Review

Sun, 08 Feb 2015 12:26:50 +0000

I am always in search of products that help me automate and secure my home. I have run a mix of Foscam, D-Link, and Panasonics cameras dumping to a Linux server for the longest time, but it was clunky and not without its horrendous maintenance. Additionally the cameras, as aptly pointed out by Wife, were less than aesthetically pleasing.

Traffic Control on Linux with FireQOS

Sat, 01 Nov 2014 15:28:44 +0000

In order to make full use of my half-duplex WiMAX link, I started looking for anything and everything I could use to optimize it. Linux has some pretty decent utilities with iproute2 and netem to handle these type of configurations. They don’t compare to OpenBSD’s PF, but they work once you get the setup in place.

Due in part to how ugly TC is out of the box, I really like FireQOS for defining the basic configuration. The developer also makes a great iptables wrapper called FireHOL, but iptables rules are easy enough to write in my opinion.

The machine is self aware…

Sun, 19 Oct 2014 16:57:09 +0000

I live in the boonies now, but thankfully we have some semblance of broadband with SpeedConnect. It is a WiMax setup with a modem that needs to be reset once a day (sometimes more if I am downloading ISO’s) and only connects at 10Mb Half-Duplex. Better than nothing I suppose.

Originally I just succom to needing to wake-up, hit the head, and then hit the server room to pull the power. The geek in me couldn’t take it. Enter an extra Wemo Insight I had lying around. Initially I attempted to set up a rule that reset the switch (and thereby the modem) and coincide that with a cron script to bring down and back up the connection.