Tagged "security"

The year of self hosting

Over the last month or so, I’ve come to embrace my home server setup and how powerful it can be. Here I have this small little Intel NUC Server, for which I promised myself I would do lots of cool and interesting things with.

The first thing I’ve hosted is Plex. I’ve used Docker Compose to bring up a Plex Docker container, with:

The way it works is this:

Irish SOPA Law: An Overview

Irish SOPA Illustration

Nuke support in UK hits record high

If only we had such sense here in Ireland, we can’t meet our commitments and it will hurt the economy in the long run not to go nuclear. The ESB has said “sometime in the 2030’s we will need to look at it” - why not look at it now? These projects take 10-15 years at least to implement properly.

Reflection on 9-11

It’s been 10 years since the anniversary of 9/11 and much of the world has changed a lot in that period. We’ve had full body scanners at airports, marshalls on flights, bombs hidden in toner cartridges and two wars. I reflected on this and remembered two really good articles I’ll share here on the topic. Hopefully we’ve changed for the better.

Yesterday I finally wrote something that’s been bothering me for about ten years: The fact that Al Qaeda can’t be as big and bad as it’s made out to be, because its whole design violates every rule of guerrilla organisation. It’s like a counter intelligence officer’s dream, the Al Qaeda plan to bring guerrillas from all over the world, introduce them to each other, and exchange funds, material and ideas.

Have you got viruses or spyware? Here's my tips!

I come into contact everyday with people asking how to fix their machines due to the inevitable spyware and viruses found on a Windows machine. Lately I have been switching people to Ubuntu, and even getting them to buy machines to install it on (Dell). But I understand and have no zealotry for Linux when it comes to fixing peoples’ real world problems. I always mention Ubuntu as a matter of course, and also Macs. I follow up peoples Ubuntu installs with friendly emails explaining the free help open to them, but also as common (probably moreso) are my emailed tips to people guiding them how to fix there Windows XP computer. So I’ll list the steps here which are generic and should help anyone out their with such problems; this is not a miracle cure and I fix these problems on a case by case basis, so expect better perfromance, but not a new computer!!

Tor helps Privacy

Tor
LogoTor, (or The Onion Router) is a service which connects people all over the world with one aim: privacy. Tor protects from traffic analysis, basically where you have been. Benn to you Banks website? Feel like buying something off Amazon or Ebay? Your behaviour online is by no means private, you hand over your numerical address, browser details, country, city, versions of which plugins you use, where you came from, just to name a few. You may have seen on sites something to the effect of “Welcome Google user!”, that website knows exactly what you typed to get to it. Tor routes your online activity through different computers, for example mine went through an educational institution in the US and an Internet Service Provider in the Netherlands.

Wireless, New Design and Web Services

Welcome to the new and improved Duey Finsters. As I mentioned before, I hope to receive a Nokia 770 Internet Tablet soon, so I will be checking the free wireless services offered by Eircom in Dublin and at McDonalds restaurants.

You may have noticed the new look and this revamped blog. You may also question where has Duey Finsters Web Services gone? It is still here, but me and Thomas Whelan, who run it, cannot decide on a name. Maybe you all could help us out? Since well over 97% of all the words in the dictionary are registered as dot coms, we have no clue what to call ourselves.