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. ...
Say Yes! to Michigan Moving here was the culmination of a vacation turned scouting trip. Having spent the past 4 years living abroad in various countries it was time to visit the Vaterland and bring my Wife to meet the family. That was until I decided I wanted and we needed a change. Having now spent 6 full months here I wanted to share the things I have learned since moving here. It is by no means an exhaustive list, but they are the things that have struck me as a new Michigander. ...
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. ...
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. ...
Circumstances were such that I could not make a more public notification when it actually occurred, but I am now able. I have sold my portion of Spec Ops Technology and will be moving on to new and exciting things for which I have yet to fully determine. It is such a bittersweet moment in life to look back on the progress and effects we have done as a company. We had such humble beginnings and desires that were quickly overshadowed by the reality of success. During my tenure as Co-Founder and Managing Partner, we have done amazing things and I have had a fascinating life. The memories formed and the relationships forged through the countless travels will be forever a shining moment. ...