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I created a custom cabinet for my video game consoles, AV switch and Framemeister. Includes removable back panel to access and manage the cables.

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I commissioned a vector version of the Pile of Poo emoji so that I could blow it up, frame it and hang it in my bathroom. I am classy like that.

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Steps to setup a Raspberry Pi running Raspbian to boot into a full screen web browser, hiding mouse pointer, disabling screen saver. Includes installing additional fonts and putting the browser in kiosk mode.

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How to create a SSH tunnel in a Java app from a localhost port through a jump box to a specific port on a server. Allowing a connection to the remote server port as if it was a localhost port.

Examples found online provided only one ‘hop’, not the double ‘hop’ needed. The code below supports 2 hops, but in theory could be used to support any number of hops.

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tl;dr

Steps to setup a Raspberry Pi running Raspbian to boot into a full screen web browser, hiding mouse pointer, disabling screen saver. Includes installing additional fonts and putting the browser in kiosk mode.

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tl;dr

A web app to control devices over HDMI-cec, turning tvs on and off, switching inputs adjusting volume. New project, customization requires editing simple HTML and JavaScript.

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Most modern HDMI connected devices support Consumer Electronics Control (CEC). It allows devices to send commands to each other, typically to get the TV to switch input and control volume. If you have ever turned on a Game Console and had your TV automatically change input to that device you have seen CEC in action. It is very convenient and useful, sort of a universal remote that works.

Every manufacturer seems to have it’s own branding of CEC (e.g. Samsung Anynet+, LG SimpLink, Sharp Aquos Link) but it may need to be enabled. Check your manual for details.

Using a Raspberry Pi connected to a TV that supports CEC, you can use the command line `cec-client` application to control the inputs and the TV itself. These are notes on how to use `cec-client` and understand the different options.

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Being able to remotely connect to my home network over VPN has always been on my ‘nice to have’ list. It allows easier access to resources and direct ssh (rather then hoping through the gateway). I have recently updated the OpenBSD server I used for VPN to 6.0 and thought I would share the configuration and settings.

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In an effort to improve monitoring, I setup an ELK (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) server and setup my different servers to forward their logs. Filebeat is typically installed on the servers to do the forwarding and normally this installation is pretty straight forward.

However, Filebeat is dependent on Go 1.7 and OpenBSD 6.0 only provides 1.6 as a binary package.

The following steps will setup an OpenBSD ports build machine, update the ports to current, build the required packages; then copy the packages to the target OpenBSD server, install the packages, install and configure Filebeat.

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If you have ever had a server exposed to the Internet, you will often see attempts to login to ssh on port 22.

After improving my log monitoring, these login attempts annoyed me enough to take action. So I installed Fail2ban.

Fail2ban monitors logs and will add ip addresses to your firewall to block based on rules. Fail2ban is written in Python and available for several platforms and can monitor different logs (not just ssh).

I have setup Fail2ban to watch for 3 failed logins (one failed login will allow 3 password attempts) and then block that IP address for 1 day.

The following instructions are for:

OpenBSD 6.0
Fail2ban 0.9.5

The instructions also assume that you have an OpenBSD server running with ssh port 22 exposed to the Internet and use Packet Filter (PF) for your firewall.

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