I was a sophomore in high school in 2005; just a couple of years into my hobby of technology. I wasn’t yet an Apple user (or even Linux, that would come in 2006), so my list of applications I was using 20 years ago is almost entirely Windows-based.

1. Yahoo Messenger / MSN Messenger: I’m putting these together. My hometown was very evenly split between Yahoo and MSN for instant messenging. I believe I had tried Trillian by 2005, but went back to the native applications because of the emoji-style features they had released that only worked in the native applications. Instant messenging was a huge part of my early computing life, and I feel like so much of that is lost these days where you can reach anybody at anytime of day.

2. Firefox: I don’t know when I started using Firefox, but it was probably in 2004 or early 2005. Outside of a decade stint starting in 2008 with Chrome, I’ve been a daily Firefox user for my entire computing life. It’s the best browser for me; it works like I expect a browser to work.

3. Picasa: I had a Canon digital camera and was in love with Picasa. My memory is it wasn’t a Google application at first; Google acquired them, but I don’t think I ever used Picasa before Google bought it. The face-grouping features it had back then felt like a magic trick, and I loved that it kept originals untouched on your filesystem.

4. iTunes: I bought my first iPod in 2004 and was pretty quickly converted to an Apple fanboy. I remember running some free podcast catcher (“podcatcher” we used to say!), I think it was iPodder. I have a screenshot on my Flickr page from June 2005 when iTunes was updated to support Podcasts. I can remember those days like it was yesterday, scrolling through the Podcast Directory and finding some gems.

5. XBMC: This is the only non-Windows program, but it has to be my favorite. I used a software-mod to modify my original Xbox; this had to be have been sometime in 2005. I have another picture on my Flickr that shows me watching Diggnation on XBMC on our 52" rear-projection TV. XBMC was pretty life-changing for me, to be honest. It taught me a bunch about file sharing and FTP and video codecs, knowledge I still have and use today.

“You will, for the rest of your life, remember those words every time you pick up a paper towel.”

To pause a Swim Workout, Apple says “press the Digital Crown and side button at the same time”.

First you must disable the “Press Home button to open Launchpad” setting. This is on by default after you pair a controller to macOS. You can find it in System Settings -> Game Controllers. Turn this off. Now when you press the PS button on your paired controller, nothing should happen.

Now you can build a simple Macro in Keyboard Maestro. Set the Trigger to “USB Device Key Trigger”. Press the PS button, mine shows up as “DUALSHOCK 4 Wireless Controller Button 13”.

Now in the Actions for the Macro, choose “Activate a Specific Application” and find “PS Remote Play”.

This same idea could be used to launch your favorite emulator application instead of Remote Play. I tried to find a way to trigger a Macro anytime it detected the controlled was connected via Bluetooth, but it seems like querying Bluetooth devices that way is too energy hungry and isn’t allowed. This is the next best thing for me.

I don’t remember if I figured this out myself or found the suggestion elsewhere, but I just searched and couldn’t find anything online so I decided to document this neat trick.

I use Bartender on all my Macs to clean up my Menu Bar. However I missed being able to glance up and look at the Wireguard icon to tell if I was connected to a Wireguard VPN or not. Bartender has a “Triggers” feature that makes it possible to show certain menu bar icons based on the output of a shell script.

Setup

Open Bartender settings and visit the Triggers menu. Click Add Trigger. Name your Trigger and leave the “Activate a Preset” alone. Choose your Wireguard icon from the “Select menu bar items”. Click Add Trigger Condition and choose Script. Paste the following script:

scutil --nc list | grep -c -e "\(Connected\).*wireguard"

This script uses the built-in scutil command to list all VPN connections configured on your Mac. It then uses grep to filter for only the Wireguard connections that have a status of Connected. The -c flag on grep counts the number of lines instead of outputting them. Bartender’s Triggers expect a script result of 1, yes, or true to activate the Trigger. As far as I know, Wireguard does not allow you to connect to more than one endpoint at a time, so this script should only ever output a 0 or 1.

I have mine set to run every 1 minute. This means that after you connect to a VPN with Wireguard, it could take the icon up to 1 minute to appear in your Menu Bar. Same thing after you disconnect.

That’s it! Click Done and your new Trigger is live and ready to use.

Troubleshooting

If this isn’t working for you, my best suggestion would be to connect to a VPN with Wireguard and run the script above in your Terminal and verify that it is outputting 1.

Wireguard makes this easy to do, you just add the /24 network as an “AllowedIP” for that peer. Wireguard does the work of adding that route to the routing table on the Linux server itself. If this Wireguard server is part of a more complex network, though, you need to be sending these remote networks to your Wireguard server so everyone can access them, not just those using Wireguard. I have been forced to add static routes on my main router to point those networks to my Wireguard servers.

Enter OSPF! If you are reading this, I am going to assume you know what OSPF is and why it’s preferred over static routing. What follows is the steps I took to get my Wireguard “AllowedIPs” network automatically advertised to my main router using OSPF.

Install FRR

FRR is a Linux package that implements a lot of networking routing protocols. On your server running Wireguard (I’m assuming Debian/Ubuntu), running apt get install -y frr gets everything you need installed. This includes a vtysh command that dumps you into a Cisco IOS-like terminal to configure your OSPF routing.

Enable OSPF daemon

Before configuring OSPF, you must enable the ospfd daemon in the FRR config. Edit /etc/frr/daemons and change the ospfd=no line to read ospfd=yes. Then systemctl restart frr is needed to restart FRR with OSPF enabled.

Configure OSPF inside FRR

Run vtysh to enter the FRR VTY interface. config terminal to enter configuration mode. Here is the simplest configuration required to enable OSPF:

interface ens160
	  ip ospf network point-to-point
!
router ospf
	  ospf router-id 192.168.0.0
	  redistribute kernel
	  redistribute connected
	  network 192.168.0.0/31 area 0

Here is the same config with my comments explaining the important parts:

interface ens160 # this is your linux interface that is facing your main router.
  ip ospf network point-to-point # I am using a point-to-point style OSPF network, yours might be a broadcast type.
!
router ospf
  ospf router-id 192.168.0.0 # this could be anything, but traditionally this is your LAN IP of this wireguard server
  redistribute kernel # this was the tricky part. This is required to insert the Wireguard "AllowedIPs" networks into OSPF
  redistribute connected # this is required to insert your wg0 (and other) networks in OSPF
  network 192.168.0.0/31 area 0 # this is your LAN network for this wireguard server. Whatever is assigned to ens160 in my case. This is required to establish a neighbor relationship with my router.

This guide doesn’t cover any of the OSPF configuration on your main router. There are far too many different routers out there to even attempt to cover. The main trick to getting all of this working was stumbling across the redistribute kernel command. I was familiar with the redisribute static and redistribute connected commands from administering Cisco IOS, but the way that Wireguard inserts these routes into the routing table requires use of this redistribute kernel command.

Save your changes

That’s it! You can end and then write memory to save your configuration to /etc/frr/frr.conf. If you miss this part, all of this configuration will be erased when FRR is restarted.

Troubleshooting

Here are a couple of commands I used in the vtysh interface to verify my configuration.

• show ip ospf neighbor - this should return a record showing your neighbor relationship with your main router
• show ip route kernel - this should return all of your AllowedIPs networks that you have configured in Wireguard. These are the networks we are redistributing over OSPF.
• show ip ospf interface - this should return a record indicating ens160 is up, or whatever your LAN interface on your Wireguard server is. You can also see neighbor count here, which should be 1 in a point-to-point OSPF network.

To speed up this task, I wrote this fairly simple script using python3. It uses the REST API that PAN-OS has to retrieve the DHCP leases. This script completes for me in less than 1 second. It outputs a JSON object. This works best for me as I find JSON to be humanly-readable and also allows me to pipe it to a utility like jq to filter it quickly.

Here is the code:

import requests
import json
from xmltodict import parse, ParsingInterrupted
from urllib3.exceptions import InsecureRequestWarning

requests.packages.urllib3.disable_warnings(category=InsecureRequestWarning)

host = "192.168.2.1" # IP of Palo-Alto firewall goes here.
key = "KEY_GOES_HERE" # Run `curl -X GET 'https://<host>/api/?type=keygen&user=<username>&password=<password>'` to create API key.
interface = "ethernet1/2" # can also use "all"

def get_dhcp_leases(host, key, interface):
	url = "https://{host}/api/?type=op&cmd=<show><dhcp><server><lease><interface>{interface}</interface></lease></server></dhcp></show>&key={key}".format(host=host, key=key, interface=interface)
	response = requests.get(url,verify=False)
	return response

if __name__ == "__main__":
	dhcp_leases = get_dhcp_leases(host, key, interface)
	data = parse(dhcp_leases.content)
	entries = data['response']['result']
	print(json.dumps(entries, indent=4))

I also have this hosted as a gist on github. Any changes I make to it are more likely to end up there than here. Comments are welcome over there, too!

Materials

• 9V battery
• 2-conductor wire, enough to run from the battery to each drawer
• a 12V LED or 2 for each drawer (I used these that I had leftover from another project)
• a micro limit switch for each drawer

Setup

It’s a very simple electrical circuit. You are quite literally just flipping a light switch. Still, it’s probably wise to wire up a proof of concept.

I used 12V LEDs but a 9V battery. This naturally brought the brightness of the LEDs down to a more manageable level without the need for some sort of brightness knob. The entire goal of this project was to keep it simple and not alter the exterior appearance of the dresser.

This is a simple script that will toggle the connect/disconnect state of GlobalProtect on macOS. Tested with the latest version of GlobalProtect (v6.2.0-89) and macOS Ventura (13.4.1).

(*
Toggle GlobalProtect VPN with AppleScript
Tested using macOS Ventura 13.4.1 and GlobalProtect version 6.2.0-89
Written by Trevor Manternach, August 2023.
*)

tell application "System Events" to tell process "GlobalProtect"
  click menu bar item 1 of menu bar 2
  set statusText to name of static text 1 of window 1
  if statusText is "Not Connected" then
    # GlobalProtect is disconnected, so let's connect
    click button "Connect" of window 1
    set entireContents to entire contents of window 1
  else if statusText is "Connected" then
    # GlobalProtect is connected, so let's disconnect
    set windowText to entire contents of window 1
    repeat with theItem in windowText
      if (class of theItem is button) then
        if (value of attribute "AXTitle" of theItem is "Disconnect") then
          # We found a Disconnect button on the main page, let's click it.
          click theItem
          exit repeat
        else
          # We did not find a Disconnect button on the main page, let's hope there is one in the Settings Menu.
          click button "Global Protect Options Menu" of window 1
          click menu item "Disconnect" of menu "Global Protect Options Menu" of button "Global Protect Options Menu" of window 1
          exit repeat
        end if
      end if
    end repeat
  end if
  click menu bar item 1 of menu bar 2
end tell

I also have this hosted as a gist on github. Any changes I make to it are more likely to end up there than here. Comments are welcome over there, too!

Another recent discovery is that Overcast, my podcast player of choice, seems to natively support .m4b files (audiobook file format). It even includes artwork and chapters, so it behaves just like most of the podcasts I listen to.

–

I got my first iPod in March 2005. I believe I bought mine at Best Buy on a weekend trip 350 miles away from home.

I was listening to a lot of podcasts in those early days and had to use “podcatcher” software because iTunes didn’t support podcasts yet. That changed later that year when iTunes 4.9 added podcasts and the rest is history.

I visited that same Best Buy a couple years later when the iPod Touch was released. I remember checking their website and they said they had them in stock, but when I got to the store I couldn’t find them. I finally asked and they were still in the back, they went and got one for me.

The iPod Touch was so much fun back then. The iPhone wasn’t “in” Montana back then (no joke) and so the Touch was as close as I could get. I remember jailbreaking the thing, and even hanging out in IRC chatrooms trying to troubleshoot my jailbreak attempts. :-D

This past winter I spent ~$100 on new parts to revive my old 4th gen iPod. It now has new life with a fresh battery and an SD card in place of the 20GB spinning hard drive. It’s hard to believe a piece of consumer technology from 17 years ago is still alive and well.

I love iPod. It was one of my first adventures into a lifetime of technology.

Prerequisites

• You need to be using AdGuard Home for DNS
• You want to quickly add new domains to Nginx Proxy Manager

AdGuard Home setup

In the AdGuard Home web interface, go to Filters->DNS rewrites.

Click Add DNS rewrite and enter something like *.home in the domain name field.

Enter the IP address of your NPM host and click Save.

Nginx Proxy Manager

There really isn’t anything special to do in NPM. Just add a Proxy Host and in the domain names field you can enter anything as long as it ends in .home (or whatever you chose for a wildcard). www.home even works!

Another little feature I discovered while setting this up is that I can add multiple domain names for each proxy host. So adguard.home and dns.home can both get me to the same place. This helps when I can’t remember the name of a service, or when you change software you can keep using something like dashboard.home for your dashboard of choice.

Killing Lincoln 7 hours 49 minutes. Started June 7th. Finished June 15th.

True Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Investigation of Donald Trump 496 pages. Started August 18th. Finished October 1st.

Where Law Ends: Inside the Mueller Investigation 432 pages. Started October 1st. Finished October 27th.

Battle for the Big Sky 286 pages. Started October 28th. Finished November 25th.

The Conscience of a Conservative 144 pages. Started November 26th. Finished November 28th.

The War on Normal People 304 pages. Started November 28th. Finished December 2nd.

Doing Justice 368 pages. Started April 15th. Finished April 27th.

Pound Foolish 9 hours 7 minutes. Started May 2nd. Finished May 14th.

Everything Is Obvious: *Once You Know the Answer 368 pages. Started May 15th. Finished May 31st.

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing 352 pages. Started June 1st. Finished June 12th.

The President is Missing 527 pages. Started June 16th. Finished June 24th.

Paper Towns 305 pages. Started June 25th. Finished July 9th.

Permanent Record 352 pages. Started December 1st. Finished December 4th.

The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century 336 pages. Started November 27th. Finished December 13th.

1984 326 pages. Started December 16th. Finished January 9th.

A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership
312 pages. Started June 3rd. Finished June 11th.

Turtles All The Way Down
304 pages. Started June 12th. Finished June 16th.

The Hellfire Club
9 hours 58 minutes. Started July 6th. Finished July 11th.

Of Mice and Men
112 pages. Started September 3rd. Finished September 7th.

Fear: Trump in the White House
12 hours 20 minutes. Started September 11th. Finished September 17th.

The Old Man and the Sea
128 pages. Started September 22nd. Finished September 25th.

The Tipping Point
8 hours 33 minutes. Started October 15th. Finished December 11th.

And Then There Were None 257 pages. Started January 1st. Finished January 7th.

How to Win Friends and Influence People 226 pages. Started January 21st. Finished February 20th.

To Kill a Mockingbird 385 pages. Started February 22nd. Finished March 16th.

This Life I Live 6 hours 4 minutes. Started March 12th. Finished March 18th.

I recently picked up an AMI R-89 jukebox. It is a combo unit, plays both 45 rpm records and CDs. It looked to be in full working order, was full of music, and only $400. I have always wanted a jukebox, but I also wanted to be able to easily play any music through it. I’ve found a way, and it feels like the future!

CD Player

In order to play CDs, the jukebox comes with a Philips 6-disc CD player. It has RCA audio outputs, and also has a few control wires so the jukebox controller board can tell the player which track to play. My first attempt to play my own music was just to put my own CDs in the player, but (I think) because the CD player had not been used for a long time, it was constantly skipping and freezing up.

Headphone to RCA

I unplugged the RCA outputs from the CD player, and hooked up a 3.5MM headphone to RCA cable. This let me then plug my iPhone in and try to play music through it. It worked, with one major caveat: the amplifier is muted unless it is told by the jukebox that 1) a record is playing or 2) a CD is playing. Because neither of those things were happening, no sound comes through the speakers. This is easy to get around, temporarily, by just telling the jukebox to play a CD track. This only works until that song is over, then the amplifier mutes again.

Wiring Diagrams and Cutting the Orange Wire

By complete luck, the jukebox came with a 3-ring binder full of manuals. Inside one of the books is a step-by-step breakdown of what happens inside the jukebox when a selection is made. Following this, I found that the amplifier is constantly being sent a mute signal on one wire. When a song is playing, there is no signal sent through that wire. That then tells the amplifier to un-mute so we can hear the song. This seemed almost backwards to me, but it’s actually perfect. All I needed to do was cut that mute wire, and the amplifier is then always un-muted. This isn’t perfect, there is a slight hum when nothing is playing, but I can live with that.

Worked Great for 20 Minutes

The above setup was awesome, until 20 minutes in when the jukebox would automatically choose a record to play. It has an “Autoplay” setting, and after 20 minutes of inactivity (because the jukebox has no idea that the iPhone is playing music) it will choose a song at random. Fortunately, again using the manuals, I found a Programming Guide that allowed me to completely disable the Autoplay feature.

Chromecast Audio

The iPhone worked well, but any time a text message or phone call would come in, the music would pause. It also just looked ugly, either the jukebox needed to be open or the iPhone shoved inside to work. I decided to pick up a Google Chromecast Audio. We have a couple of regular Chromecasts in the house, but didn’t have any of the audio-only versions. It plugs into power inside the jukebox, where the CD player used to go. This means that the jukebox still only has 1 power cord coming out of it. The Chromecast Audio uses WiFi, so it was extremely easy to set up. I named it “Jukebox” and could then stream Spotify from my iPhone to it. This was much easier than needing to leave my phone inside the jukebox.

“Ok, Google”

I received a Google Home for Christmas, and it tied this project up into the perfect bow. Because the Home has built-in Google Cast support, I can simply say “Ok, Google, play music on the jukebox” and a few seconds later the jukebox starts playing music. The cool part about the Google Cast/Home ecosystem is that they don’t lock you into their music provider. I was able to connect my Home to my Spotify Premium account, and the Home then knows to use it for music. You don’t have to say “Play music from Spotify”, just “Play music”. It feels very natural. The other benefit is that you can do all of this from your phone or computer, Spotify has great Google Cast support. The Google Home “hands-free” part is just icing on the cake!

Next Step, Maybe

Time will tell how much I actually use this, but the next step might be to look into plugging the jukebox into one of these new “smart” power plugs. Google Home supports the SmartThings Hub from Samsung, and then I would be able to turn on the jukebox, wait a few seconds for the Chromecast to boot up, and then have it play music, all hands-free. But for now, this current setup is perfect for me.

Outro

This was such a fun (and easy) project. Like I said, I have wanted a jukebox for a long time, and I love that this still looks and works like a normal jukebox (45s still play just fine!) while being able to instantly stream almost any song to it.