Shell One-liners and Quick and Dirty Loops

Posted on March 23, 2017 by

Sometimes you just need to get stuff done quickly and there’s nary a replacement than a quick shell one-liner.  Recently I’ve needed to feed some large, multi-variable commands into an external program for processing.  Here’s some simple shell one-liners and loops that have helped me along the way. Continue reading →

Posted in open source, sysadmin | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Let’s Encrypt Everything – Setting up the Free, Automated CA

Posted on February 21, 2017 by

le-logo-lockonlyLet’s Encrypt is a free, public SSL certificate authority (CA) you can use to generate and automate SSL certificate renewal.  I co-manage Trystack.org, a free OpenStack sandbox for the general public and our Horizon SSL certificate came up for expiration so we moved to Let’s Encrypt.  Using EFF’s certbot it’s trivial to automate everything.  You can do the same for your own blog or website.

Continue reading →

Posted in open source, sysadmin | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Combat Unsolicited Sales with a Unique Office Voice Mail Recording

Posted on December 21, 2016 by

lumbergh_office_spaceOffice voice mail has become a graveyard for unwanted sales solicitations for things I don’t need.  People who need to reach me have many available methods.  I’ve decided to take some creative liberties with my voice mail recording and you should too, listen to it below for an example to spur your own unique recording! Continue reading →

Posted in comedy, life | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Back to the Future: Converting a Server VM to Bare Metal

Posted on December 7, 2016 by

back2futureIt might seem like stepping back in time, but sometimes you start something with a VM and the desire for resources and usage skyrockets and you need to transplant it onto a bare metal server.  This was my situation with Plex Media Server.  I’ll walk you through using Clonezilla to get the job done. Continue reading →

Posted in open source, sysadmin | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

How to Use Self-signed SSL Certificates for Plex Media Server

Posted on November 11, 2016 by

plexPlex is a fork of the Open Source Kodi (previously XBMC) project from 2008, the Plex Media Server has evolved into what amounts to a free,  personal Netflix + Spotify that lets you stream home content to devices or browsers with an optional subscription model for added features.  Here’s how to use your own self-signed SSL certificates to encrypt connection streams. Continue reading →

Posted in open source, sysadmin | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments

10 Must-have Firefox Addons for Privacy, Security and Utility

Posted on November 10, 2016 by

firefox-512-noshadowI have used every manner of web browser from lynx, Mosaic and Netscape builds to abusing curl commands and mostly prefer Firefox for the bulk of my daily desktop/laptop needs due to the strong plugin ecosystem.  Below you’ll find my top Firefox addons categorized between security/privacy and general utility. Continue reading →

Posted in open source | Tagged , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Funcamp ET Legacy and Urban Terror Servers Upgraded

Posted on November 7, 2016 by

tuxfragRecently two fun, actively developed Open Source FPS game projects have had major updates: Enemy Territory: Legacy and Urban Terror.  Over the weekend I’ve upgraded the Funcamp ET:L (2.75) and UT (4.3.1) servers to the latest versions.  Setup instructions and more info below. Continue reading →

Posted in gaming, open source | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments