Author Archives: john

Future project idea: Interplanetary file system, IPFS

Posted on June 10, 2018 by john | 7 views

Intro If I had more time and more energy, what I’d like is to explore the Interplanetary Filesystem, perhaps put up a server and create some objects. It seems right up my alley as I was an early adapter and … Continue reading →

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LDAP authentication on the F5 BigIP without Access Policy Manager

Posted on June 7, 2018 by john | 15 views

Intro I recently received revised guidelines for dmz best practices which mentioned a requirement to implement application-independent authentication using the F5 web application firewall. I had never heard of it and didn’t think it was possible without buying the very … Continue reading →

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The IT Detective Agency: the vanishing certificate error

Posted on April 30, 2018 by john | 21 views

Intro I was confronted with a web site certificate error. A user was reluctant – correctly – to proceed to an internal web site because he saw a message to the effect: I tried it myself with IE and got … Continue reading →

Posted in Admin, Linux, Security, Web Site Technologies | Tagged | Leave a comment

The IT Detective agency: Some insights into 4096-bit SSL keys

Posted on April 26, 2018 by john | 23 views

Intro I was recently asked if a new certificate a web site is about to deploy would require any changes to our clients such as needing to import this certificate into their Java keystore. The details Well, I saved the … Continue reading →

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Whois information without the pushy hard sell tactics

Posted on April 19, 2018 by john | 25 views

Intro Did you ever want to learn about a domain registration but were put off by the hard sell tactics that basically all web-based whois searches subject you to? Me, too. Here’s what you can do. The details Linux – … Continue reading →

Posted in DNS, Linux, Network Technologies, Raspberry Pi, Security | Leave a comment

A taste of the Instagram API

Posted on April 16, 2018 by john | 24 views

Intro I always want to know more about how things really work behind the scenes, so I was excited when I overheard talk about how one company uses the Instagram API to do some cool things. An API is an … Continue reading →

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Open Notebook: How does Citrix printing work anyway

Posted on April 13, 2018 by john | 27 views

Intro I’m speaking of the old Citrix Receiver client. You launch that and that puts you in a Citrix ICA “jail.” I recently help a company move an app which had been a browser-based app to a browser within Citrix. … Continue reading →

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Raspberry Pi as Retro Arcade Games emulator

Posted on March 31, 2018 by john | 37 views

Intro I am not going to attempt to provide a guide as there are much better guides out there than anything I can produce. In addition to the arcade function, we wanted to display a slidedeck when not being used … Continue reading →

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Measuring bandwidth on Checkpoint Gaia

Posted on March 21, 2018 by john | 33 views

Intro Sometimes you don’t have the tools you want but you have enough to make do. Such is the case with the command line utilities of the CLI of Checkpoint Gaia. It’s like a basic Linux. The company I consult … Continue reading →

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Consumer tech: Solar Panels – the things they never tell you

Posted on March 8, 2018 by john | 37 views

Intro Since solar panels are a major commitment I did some research first. My criteria (high-efficiency, not manufactured in China, carried by a local installer) was met by Sunpower X-series whose panels generate 345 KWh, which was pretty much at … Continue reading →

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