In a previous guide I documented my mutt + offlineimap + notmuch setup. If you’re using Gmail with IMAP enabled you can still utilize the superpower of this trio but you’ll need to do some things differently. I’ll show you how to use offlineimap with the Google Gmail OAuth2 API and configure it. Continue reading
Git is a powerful tool for lots of tasks, it makes a wonderful VCS that can drive easy utility and automation. Recently I used git and remote repositories to deploy code & data fanned out to multiple locations. Here are some examples along with using Etckeeper, a related wrapper tool for revision control around git (or other VCS) with some extra features. Continue reading
Sometimes you just need to get stuff done quickly and there’s nary a replacement better 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
Let’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.
Office 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
It 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
Plex 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
I 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
Recently 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
Sometimes I need to quickly copy SSH keys to remote systems in a pinch. I can do this with the Ansible authorized_key module but that’s not always available. I might be on a random system and Ansible or external internet isn’t available and things need to be pushed out quickly. Here’s a simple interactive tool to quickly push SSH keys to many hosts, may you never SSH for loop again. Continue reading
I recently gave two talks at the OpenStack Summit in Barcelona on two upstream Open Source projects that I work on – Trystack and Browbeat. Trystack is a large, public free OpenStack sandbox we run for the general public and Browbeat is a FOSS performance/scale testing tool for OpenStack. Come check out my sessions or stay tuned for slides/video later. Continue reading
Git is more than just an awesome, decentralized version control system (VCS) – it can also drive lots of useful automation by triggering actions to deploy infrastructure and services based on event and commit-based hooks. You can drive a lot of complex automation with this functionality but I’m going to provide you with a simple example using a Git repo to push web content to a remote webserver. Continue reading
“It’s not done unless it’s documented,” says the wise Ops sage. Frequently updated documentation is critical, it’s also one of the most neglected parts of technology. Learn how we auto-generate server resource wiki data with Python, WordPress and Foreman. Continue reading
We use Foreman for systems provisioning and recently received a large shipment of Supermicro for Ceph. Out of the box they were a lot of trouble to get integrated/automated at the same level of our Dell gear but we managed, here’s our story. Continue reading
You seem to burn almost as many calories making risotto as you do eating it – there’s constant action required to keep things under control. Don’t worry, it’s not too difficult and it’s a lot of fun. We’re going to show you how to make a delicious vegetarian aubergine (eggplant) risotto that feeds two hungry people. Continue reading
Code
hobo.house 