tech. blog. repeat.
I’ve been wanting to build a Proxmox cluster for a while — mainly to get a feel for Ceph storage. I’m firmly in the ZFS camp, but I do see the appeal of distributed storage paired with a high availability cluster. I plan on using this for my web development stack — LAMP, MEAN, etc…
It is possible to burn an Arduino bootloader with nothing more than a computer and parallel port cable. Finding a system with a parallel port is the hard part. Anything newer than a Core 2 Duo will be hit or miss for legacy ports — so a pre-2010 computer is a good place to start….
Hyper-V Server is great and it’s also completely free. Yes, Windows 10 Pro comes with the option to install and run Hyper-V, but anyone running more than a couple of virtual machines will eventually gravitate towards a dedicated virtualization server. So how do you manage Hyper-V Server if it doesn’t have a GUI? Any Windows…
The dangers of exposing Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) to the internet are well documented. It’s no surprise that a tool designed for ease of use has become a prime target for scripted brute force attacks and other exploits, allowing compromised machines to serve as attack vectors for Ransomware. There are several practices for enhancing Remote…
I work with stepper motors a lot. My projects typically include multiple motors running off of a single microcontroller. Everything is great when you’re running all of them at the same speed. But what if you need each motor to run at a different speed? at a different time? or you need to do something…
Public Key authentication is one of the safest ways to log into a server. Instead of using a plain text password, Public Key authentication uses a Public/Private key pair to identify authorized users. The target server stores the Public Key while the user holds the Private Key. Step 1: Generating Public / Private Keys with…
I’ve long been a user of PDF::API2, a module available for Perl. I use it everyday at work and along with a few other modules, it has made Perl an invaluable tool for me. Being able to generate PDF’s for reports and documents allow for a bevy of automation shortcuts where traditional Data Merging, or…
A few months ago, I found myself needing a null modem cable to connect to a server, the Dell Poweredge R810. I had to figure out why it wasn’t booting (a RAID issue). At the time I didn’t have a VGA cable for video out, but luckily I did have a regular straight through serial…
You have two options for Linux. First is OSMC (https://osmc.tv/download/). Downloading the Apple TV images to a USB drive and booting is the easiest path to get Linux on the Apple TV. It is the method I would recommend. However if you’re like me and you want a vanilla Linux distro, there is option 2,…
The original Apple TV released in 2007. By the time these went on sale, Apple computers were already in transition-mode to Intel processors. Although Apple’s mainstream lineup carried Intel’s then-new “Core” processors, the Apple TV was relegated to a lower cost, low-powered Pentium M chip (not to be confused with the terrible Pentium 4 Mobile…