https://nextpertise.net/index.xml

In the category of unexpected questions: Over a glass of good whisky, a semi-technical friend of mine said, “Ok - I’ve been wondering about this, it’s appropos of nothing, but have no idea how to figure it out: How long (in length) is a bit?”

I’m a distro hopper.

I wrote back on January 5th about an issue with VMWare Workstation on the latest Linux kernels.

My office sits beside an Interstate and generally the Interstate corridor is one of the best places to find cellular coverage.

Nautilus, the Gnome file manager, has a number of available plug-ins available that make it much easier to use.

Filezilla produces a set of graphical file transfer tools and this has been a high-quality product for a very long time.

After the Tower of Hanoi discussion, I was trying to think about other tricks I’ve picked up over my career that aren’t really taught anywhere.

When I was getting started in IT in the late 80s, my mentor taught me the most effecient way to handle backup tapes.

My friend Jared recommended that I checkout Howdy, which is a PAM add-in to support authentication by facial recognition.

My son’s computer blew up and we didn’t have a copy of the Windows key.

My company uses Teams.

Google’s move to RCS/Chat You really shouldn’t care about Google’s supported messaging app.

Using Web Applications I’ve found that the quality and capability of applications delivered over the web has been on-par with what is expected in a native application.

Look, I know you’re reading this, but sometimes I write these posts for myself.

I really like the powerline-style prompts that jazz up the command line and I’d like to be able to carry that experience through from Linux to Windows.

Some Windows Powershell commands must be run from Powershell running in an administrative context.

Work uses Windows, but I need a Linux workstation with that set of tools.

I’m setting up a new Windows 10 VM (this time in VMWare) and decided to use Chocolatey to install applications this time, since I tried winget last time.

Brother Printers work well with Linux My last two printers have been Brother multi-function copiers (MFCs).

Public Service Annoucement on VMWare Workstation That’s a little dramatic, but I have had a fit with VMWare Workstation and want to pass along what I’ve learned.

I’m experimenting with KVM and decided to build a new Windows VM.

Czkawka is a “simple, fast, and free app to remove unnecessary files”.

In recent articles, I walked through how to setup a home webserver with Apache on Linux and how to configure home DNS server using bind on Linux, complete with custom in-home domain for local name resolution.

Continuing from my previous post, I have recently rebuilt my server infrastructure at home, migrating from VMWare to Proxmox VE.

I’ve been running the free version of ESXi 6.5 for a while, but the vulnerabilities kept piling up and I had issues upgrading it.

If “web-based graphical interface for administering Linux” makes you think Webmin, then you need to look at Cockpit.

Markdown is a fantastic distraction-free way to write.

I got a little distracted.

I mentioned a month or so ago that I wanted to set out on a journey to create a set of template networks and then substitute in the various appliances that are supported under GNS3.

I don’t have to check CPU statistics very often, but occassionally I need to remember details like how many cores I have.

This article continues a series of articles I’ve done on SSH.

Nobody likes change but a baby.

A good friend lost his father to COVID last week.

Readers may recall that six months ago I wrote about the most commonly used Linux commands.

I’m kicking off an exciting new project, and I’d appreciate your thoughts as I get started.

GNS3 2.2.18 was released on February 15th, no doubt to spare our significant others.

These days I live in VSCode.

The GNS3 project continues to see regular updates, even though we haven’t see a release since December.

Cisco devices have long had the Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP).

I install Linux pretty regularly.

Deskreen is an open-source utility that allows you to send your Windows, Mac, or Linux desktop onto another screen, including another computer, a tablet, or even a phone.

In another blog, planning downtime would involve tropical pictures.

Eternal Terminal acts like ssh - you start a console session on a remote device by typing et username@host and it connects.

The articles I post generally start out as a way to share something I’ve learned through years of experience.

GNS3 is great for simulating networks, but what happens when your lab needs to include devices outside GNS3 (like physical hardware)?

From 12-30-20 My kids got me a Ducky mechanical keyboard for Christmas.

I’m going to be upgrading my home VMware server and need to backup the VMs.

I started writing this blog back in July of 2020.

GNS3 2.2.17 was released in December.

Cleaning up Crypto A previous article - SSH Admin - went through understanding who was logging into a Linux server using SSH or SFTP.