@gerowen@mastodon.social
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gerowen

@gerowen@mastodon.social

Husband, father, US Army veteran, IT specialist, school bus driver, diesel mechanic, tech, security, Linux and free software enthusiast, gamer, dog lover.

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gerowen, to plex
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

Random observation with my media server. I have it installed via their official Debian repository. Plex is only ever executed as a systemd service. At no point, that I'm aware of, does the user "plex" ever sign in interactively for any reason.

Yet installing on Linux does indeed give it a default shell in /etc/passwd , and you can log into that account interactively with bash. I wonder if it would continue to work properly if I changed that to nologin ...

sysop408, to random
@sysop408@sfba.social avatar

OK, hardware nerds, I have an ancient computing device that takes a 6V 750ma DC power adapter. I'm having an impossible time finding a 6V 750ma adapter.

Am I correct in believing that I can use a 6V 1A or 6V 2A adapter just fine? Is it safe to do? It's a really old computing device so I don't want to take any chances.

gerowen,
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

@sysop408 You are correct. An easy way to visualize it is that volts are pushed, amps are pulled. A device been be over or under driven if the voltage is wrong, but will only draw as many amps as it needs, so as long as your power supply provides at least as many amps as the device wants, you can safely exceed that rating as long as the volts are correct. However, if you try pushing 19v through a 6v device, you'll have a bad time.

gerowen, to firefox
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

#Mozilla now has an official .deb and matching apt repo for installing #Firefox on #Debian based distributions. If you want the latest stable release instead of using the ESR release in Debian, or if you want a real native package instead of using the #Ubuntu snap, this might be a good option for you.

https://news.itsfoss.com/mozilla-firefox-deb/

Gargron, to random
@Gargron@mastodon.social avatar

The trailer for the new Avatar: The Last Airbender show looks decent, but even if the show turns out to be a faithful recreation of the original I'm not sure what for? The original is already perfect. It's still there. Why does it have to be recreated again?

gerowen,
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

@Gargron A lot of stuff these days, from movies to anime to video games, seems to just be re-hashing existing content. People are out of new ideas and they know this stuff will make money, so they're giving old content a new coat of paint because it's a quick and easy cash grab.

gerowen, to privacy
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

Inside a Global Phone Spy Tool Monitoring Billions

A wide-spanning investigation by 404 Media reveals more details about a secretive spy tool that can tracks billions of phone profiles through the advertising industry called . Google has taken action in response to 404 Media's inquiries.

https://www.404media.co/inside-global-phone-spy-tool-patternz-nuviad-real-time-bidding/

reay, to random
@reay@mastodon.social avatar

Hey, digital security types:

I use Authy for some secure logging in. Yesterday, twice on two separate occasions when I wasn't online (let alone using Authy), I got text notifications from Authy with a two-step verifcation code.

That's something, to my knowledge, that only happens when I'm trying to log on to certain websites.

Would that have been someone (or a system/whatever) trying to access my account info? Or would that just be a glitch generating those codes out of the blue?

gerowen,
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

@reay I would assume it was somebody trying to log into those accounts and change their passwords just to be safe. If you're getting a 2FA code then it means they probably have your password in order to get that far, so even though the 2FA did its job, I would change the password just to be safe. You might also be able to check security logs to see login activity and see if there has been anything suspicious, especially around the time you got those messages.

gerowen, (edited )
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

@reay @sexybenfranklin Glad you're getting it all squared away and that changing your passwords got the messages to stop. If you were using good passwords then it's probably the case that some service provider wasn't hashing them properly and got compromised. If you haven't looked already, has a website where you can punch in an email address or phone number and it'll return all the data breaches they know about that contain that information.

https://haveibeenpwned.com/

gerowen, to privacy
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

So my brother called today saying he wanted to run a #Tor node to help folks in need, and asked for my help.

I told him that one of the more beneficial options in my opinion would be a dedicated snowflake proxy. It's simple to set up and helps to relay/proxy people who might otherwise have access to Tor blocked, which would be helpful for people under oppressive regimes or on restricted networks.

An hour after getting it going it had already handled a couple GB worth of traffic, 🙂

#Privacy

A video of a raspberry pi 4 with a wired ethernet connection. The link lights are blinking without interruption.

gerowen,
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

@stfn The Tor project has a page about it with various ways. You can even run one temporarily inside your browser. There's an Ansible script and a docker image too.

The way I did it for him is the same way I do it for myself.

  • Git pull the repo
  • Compile it with go
  • Run the "proxy" executable that gets generated
  • Open ports 32768-60999 , UDP on your firewall, and in your router make sure the device has a static IP and that same port range is forwarded to it.

https://community.torproject.org/relay/setup/snowflake/standalone/

gerowen,
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

@stfn I created my own scripts to start, stop, update and restart itself and email me the log so I know it's still working. I wrote my own systemd service file so it's easy to start and stop it. I also created a separate user account specifically for running the proxy so it's not running under the general purpose account that has sudo privileges. Here's a screenshot of the systemd service file. I'm on my phone so it may be kinda small. I may write up my own how to, or a script to automate it.

gerowen,
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

@dexternemrod @stfn Yep. I've never bothered with docker for anything but it seems really straight forward to start the snowflake proxy with docker.

Bethany1993, to Dog

My enjoying the snow .

gerowen,
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

@Bethany1993 One hashtag I tend to add to dog related posts is . Seems like a lot of people follow that one so I usually just stick it at the bottom of my post below whatever else I said.

gerowen, to privacy
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

I really didn't like the microphone in my LG television remote, especially after it was discovered Samsung was using theirs to listen to customers without their consent.

My soldering gun needs a new tip though, so I brought out my propane torch, might have been a little overkill, 😛 . I got it a little too hot, despite my best effort to only hit the corner, but I succeeded in removing only the microphone and leaving the rest of the remote functional. win, :-)

I'm holding the little metal cover for the microphone that was installed in my TV remote on the tip of my finger.

gerowen, to privacy
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

THIS is why #privacy is CRUCIAL

https://youtu.be/eR7D6Fx0fTQ

gerowen, to geopolitics
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

"You don't get to line up for the buffet again until everybody has a plate."
-- Linus Sebastian

https://youtu.be/IcgSu4ckb3E

gerowen, to FreeSpeech
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

So much for

" Suddenly Suspends Journalists Critical of
No explanation was given."

#X

https://futurism.com/the-byte/twitter-suspends-journalists-critical-elon-musk

gerowen,
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

@LouisIngenthron I put "free speech" as a hashtag since that line is in the article itself. Apologies if it didn't display correctly for you.

gerowen, to homelab
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

So after 4.5 years it's time to replace the batteries in our UPS again. I don't think the runtime or battery charge level is accurate since I literally just put them in. I'll give them a day to charge and warm up and run a calibration and self test on them. Started getting emails from the server the other day that the battery needed changing and its runtime was down into the sub 20 minute range. They've been pretty abused by this Kentucky electrical grid.

gerowen,
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

@marczak The biggest reason I keep an eye on it is because our electricity isn't the most reliable. Though to be fair, I don't believe we had any unexpected flickers for all of December. I like getting the alerts because it gives me the opportunity to notify my brother and sister in law and the couple friends on my Plex server if it's going to shut down.

dgar, to random
@dgar@aus.social avatar

The thing is about Australian wildlife is that most Aussie animals won’t back down from a fight, but most of them don’t go looking for a fight either.

If you’re worried about visiting Australia because of our deadly fauna, here’s a hint. If you see an Australian animal, walk away from it.

A kangaroo has trouble disemboweling a retreating person because its attack involves rocking back on its tail and kicking you with both feet. It’s not really able to do any damage on something that’s moving away.

Magpies will generally let you know where their territory is, and if you stay out of it while they’re nesting, they won’t knock a hole in your head.

You literally have to get in the water to be bothered by sharks or crocodiles. Swim where the locals swim.

Snakes and spiders are about the only thing that you might happen upon by surprise and they tend to be happy to let you leave, but will happily fuck you up in self defence.

Y’see, Aussie wildlife mostly kills idiots who approach it, try to pat it, or catch it. Our animals mostly kill and maim stupid people.

I guess, my point is, we don’t have anything like lions or bears that will chase you down, pull you out of your car and tear you to pieces.

Also, the chances of being shot in this country is almost non existent.

Australia’s a pretty safe place to visit, comparatively.

gerowen,
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

@dgar Your wildlife only attacks idiots that get too close? America has plenty of those, lol.

https://youtu.be/1-lcudRQQVQ?si=uf1TnZxN-8U8YWvr

gerowen,
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

@dgar That's true. Mountain lions have even been known to pick a target, like somebody who runs every day, learn their habits and route and choose an appropriate spot to attack. Bears are bad too because they're not like most predators. A mountain lion or a wolf or something will kill you "then" eat you. A grizzly bear though will just straight up pin you down and eat you alive.

We joke about Australia, but every country has some messed up animals if you pay attention.

jhx, to linux
@jhx@fosstodon.org avatar

My #OS stack:

#Linux side:

#BSD side:

...and a little #Windows :windows95:

How does yours look like? 😎

gerowen,
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

@jhx My whole house is Debian except our phones, which all run CalyxOS. I do have a Windows VM for the occasional one-off Windows specific task, but that's it.

gerowen, to Israel
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

BB has wanted and worked towards this for years.

As Gazans return to destroyed homes, Israeli ministers push resettlement

#Israel #Gaza #Palestine

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/01/04/gaza-displaced-civilians-resettlement-israel/

gerowen, to internet
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

"Japanese disaster prevention #X account can’t post anymore after hitting API limit"

Governments should not depend on #SocialMedia for #emergency communication. If you run a group or organization, you shouldn't be using Facebook or Twitter for your official communications, you should use products designed for that purpose that won't interfere with your ability to disseminate information in the event of an emergency.

#Japan #EarthQuake #Twitter

https://www.dexerto.com/tech/japanese-disaster-prevention-x-account-cant-post-anymore-after-hitting-api-limit-2451266/

gerowen, to Israel
@gerowen@mastodon.social avatar

Holy shit, even #TheOnion is getting in on it.

"IDF Soldier Recounts Harrowing, Heroic War Story Of Killing 8-Month-Old Child"

https://www.theonion.com/idf-soldier-recounts-harrowing-heroic-war-story-of-kil-1826048745

#Israel #Palestine #Gaza

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