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Alpine as a desktop OS
  • I've dabbled in it, but not really committed to it. It's a great lightweight server of course. I am a KDE Plasma user so I did a quick test of that and was able to install it via Alpine, but at the time, the support for javaws was not there which I needed at the time for my job, so that killed my plans on using it. I may venture back to it later on .

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    HACS
  • Mushroom cards Local Tuya - so I can control my Tuya Devices without needing the cloud.
    Wyze - I have a couple of cameras which are Wyze so I use it for those. I'm not against the cloud for some things. :) Spook - not your homie -- When I deactivate or rename a device (seasonally), it lets me know which dashboards need updated for example. Playstation Network - so I can show what my PS5 and PS4 are doing while active. Several other items such as themes I've tried out and probably more I've tried but never removed.

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    What do people here think of Nebula?
  • I have been using Tailscale, connected it to my domain, I use Authentik for my OIDC/SSO Sign in and tied it that way for the MFA OIDC Login Tailscale let's you use. All I needed to do is setup a webfinger for it and once it verified my domain, I was able to give them my OIDC settings for them. Tailscale so far for me in the last year or so has been quite simple to use. Plus, being able to log into my admin console and any devices I enroll through Authentik's front end, has given me peace of mind knowing it's quite secure. (All of this on a Proxmox server BTW).

    One may argue about self hosting Wireguard and I agree, it's quite easy to do if you use something like wg-easy which makes it simple to add phones to your network. My concern with it though was having to poke a hole into my firewall for the WG traffic to hit the server, once I got into Tailscale, it's made it easier and I don't have any open ports on the router now. I think this is primarily why the Jupiter Broadcasting guys push it so much on their podcasts, not to mention one of the hosts on his podcast is an employee for Tailscale as well, so that probably helps a bit.

    As for funding for both Nebula, or Tailscale, they do cater to enterprise customers so you have the assurance that they do have to answer to them if they revoke a service or ruin it. :)

    For Tailscale, it's just a matter of them allowing you to add 100 devices for free and it's simple command to install it on any client via the cli including Apple TV for example. For phones, I have Tailscale on my phone connected 24/7 to my exit node which is my Proxmox server which acts as one, and as a backup, my Raspberry Pi which acts as one as well. So, even if I'm on the road or away from home, I'm always on my home network (unless blocked by overzealous sysadmins on their public WiFi networks). There's not much to manage via the phone, but I like to think it's 'set and forget' really, once you have it all configured, it just runs in the background and they do not decrypt your traffic much less care what goes through it.

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    Router died - Replacement/solution recommendations
  • I took a quick read of the comments and I apologize in advance if this has been suggested already.

    I use a self hosted DNS server (AdGuardHome) I was using TechnitiumDNS for a long while, but moved over to the other recently so I could do some more blocking as needed (adult special needs house dweller sometimes needs limited internet). It also acts as a DHCP Server so it takes the role of both the DHCP assignments away from the router. As it so happens, this week, I got to experience the benefit of having this setup live when my main router also went down, I was able to switch to a spare router (My ISP provided one) and all I had to do was turn the DHCP off and optionally point the DNS To my AdGuardHome address, set the SSID's up and I was in business. All of my devices happily reconnected and grabbed their assigned IP's.

    In short, if you have a spare computer, SBC such as a raspberry PI or whatnot, you can easily host something like that and not have to worry about setting those again.

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    Hey Reddit lurkers! my ad-free, open source Reddit viewer RDX is on Android now
  • I also use Stealth for my Reddit experience. It also doesn't support comments or logging in. :) https://f-droid.org/packages/com.cosmos.unreddit/

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    What do you prefer to selfhost?
  • Cyberchef, I've looked at but honestly for me, IT Tools works best for my needs so it's all good on my end.

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    What do you prefer to selfhost?
  • Dozzle is just log viewing plain and simple. Dockge shows more that's all I know. I tested Dockge earlier on in development and haven't been back since, I know it's grown a lot more since.

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    What do you prefer to selfhost?
  • I've seen a few mentions of PiHole and AdguardHome, I started on PiHole, then moved to AdguardHome for adblocking. Then I heard about and have been using TechnitiumDNS server which is sort of overkill for our needs, but with the right ad-lists, it is fantastic at blocking advertisements on my home network. Super fast install too, even on a Raspberry Pi 2 :) I run that along with Proxmox-VE (Protected behind OIDC Login) and several other containers on my cranky old Dell Desktop server.

    Mostly Vaultwarden, and a few other services for home private use such as PairDrop for inter system sharing and a self destructing file sharing server for when we need to send documents to our Attorney's (rarely but sometimes we need to) office via Pingvin.

    I also run:

    • Home Assistant
    • Transmission Dockerized so I can help contribute to the Linux community and share the ISO's.
    • For some of my externalized sites, I run Authentik It acts sort of like a Reverse Proxy if you configure it to do so. I love that I can simply identify myself with my WebAuthn device skipping any passwords. :)

    With Authentik setup, I can login to things like my Fresh Tomato Router TechnitiumDNS (Both use HTTP Auth headers) and Memos which uses OIDC/SSO. It's meant to replace our Google Keep notes.

    • Tailscale is installed and I connect to it from my phone when away from home to always stay on my network. Sometimes, hotspots block it so I generally avoid those as much as possible.
    • Wallos to help keep track of our re-occuring subscriptions.
    • Grafana and Promethus - both are staged and ready for configuration and one of those I will get around to eventually.
    • InfluxDB - I plan on moving Home Assistsant logging soon to that which should tie nicely into Grafana later.
    • Ben Phelps' Homepage - it's my main server dashboard my wife and I use to access our server. Quite simply one of the best dashboards IMHO.
    • Wyze Cam Bridge - One of the better services in which you can log into your Wyze cams and convert their streams to RTSP, RTMP or HLS streams easily. I have that feed to my Home Assistant Security Dashboard.
    • Baserow It's a good Airtable alternative and I use it to keep track of my Static IP assignments, Sleep tracker (I suffer from insomnia), and other data points. It's pretty amazing. I even created a pain logging for for my wife so she just accesses it and answers basic questions about her pain levels and it pushes it to the database for later retrieval.
    • Joplin Server - Sorry, I don't have the link, but it's installed via compose. I use Joplin Notes on my phone and computer for keeping my code snippets. I've tried Obsidian and it didn't really meet my needs and Also Anytype, but that's not self-hosted. Joplin server is for me and that's become handy a time or two when on the road.
    • Bookstack - my grand plan for that is to build a Wiki for my family to use in the event something should happen to me, they can know how to manage the server with nice screenshots and instructional steps. I have that protected behind Authentik's OIDC logins.
    • IT-Tools - hands down one of the coolest self hosted tool sets you can use.
    • Webcheck - All-in-one OSINT tool for analyzing any website https://web-check.xyz/ is their demo site. :)
    • Stirling PDF - Kind of like a Swiss-army knife for PDF's. :)
    • Dozzle - For those times with you really need to see what your Docker logs and too lazy do run a docker logs -follow command.

    I still use Portainer-CE and am happy there, I may try Dockage or the others, but it's fine for what I need it for (It's also protected by OIDC)

    I'm sure I may have missed a few, but this post has gone on long enough. :)

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    some packages install quickly while others take very long time.
  • My biggest issue with YAY is the occasional mandatory compiling of an app seemingly randomly, so I go in thinking a quick update will turn into a much slower one because of the compiling it does. I haven't looked into it, but if there was a way to alert before doing this via a flag, it'd save me time and sometimes frustration.

    I have learned over the years to try to install the -bin version as much as possible, but sometimes that's not enough if flagged out of date (Joplin especially), so I sometimes end up installing the appimage.

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    Before your change to Linux
  • I left Win8 to go full time on Linux. For several years before this, I used to host web sites professionally and build them so I was used to Centos and Debian servers but not comfortable enough to be able to manage them deeply. In other words, just enough to make them work, but more complex troubleshooting was not my strong suit.

    I later landed a job where their primary systems are Linux based and through that training and learning, I became more comfortable in the CLI and have never looked back.

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    What are your favorite music streaming apps? (Spotify replacement)
  • This may fit the bill some? Harmonoid It allows you to use your local media.

    If you don't mind internet radio, there's always Radio Garden which allows you to stream any station from almost anywhere in the world.

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    Moving files from Windows VM to my Host
  • First, confirm if you can access Cockpit by going to the https://localhost:9090, If not, follow the Fedora instructions here: Having some familiarity with Command Line is essential. Your graphical package manager may or may not include Cockpit.

    https://cockpit-project.org/running#fedora

    Cockpit does sometimes allow you to install "plugins" from the web GUI, but in my experience (both on Debian and Arch), it doesn't do it to well. If you can't install plugins for 45 Drives file sharing plugin, you will need to do it manually:

    For the 45 Drives plugin to enable sharing: https://github.com/45Drives/cockpit-file-sharing (I believe it's the "Direct from .rpm" section if you scroll down in the Readme)

    From there, once you are logged into Cockpit on the left you will see a link for "File Sharing"

    This isn't as complex as it may seem as long as you follow their steps you should be golden.

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    Moving files from Windows VM to my Host
  • I only use a Windows VM For our ancient (in computer terms) Canon LIDE 60 scanner which seems to work best there (linux produces highly grey contrasted scans).

    For all of our scanned documents from the scanner, I have it mapped to a network drive via Samba Shares. Since you are using Fedora, I think you may already have Cockpit installed. This makes it a lot easier and is a web gui to manage servers. You can usually access it on your Desktop via https://localhost.9090 Then you would need to install 45 Drives File Sharing plugin and setup a SAMBA share.

    From the Windows VM, just map to the same workgroup you set in the SAMBA Share you created and give it a drive ID such as F:

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    Android 15 can automatically delete your face or fingerprint unlock if they aren't working well
  • What about bad actors which swipe the phone, and it's behind the biometric lock? Too many failed attempts may or may not be a sign of it not working well, so if it bases part of it on the failed attempts, it would lower the chances of being further protected. I know they would ask for the pattern/pin or password to re-enroll the biometric, but let's assume that's already known, then game over.

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    Alternatives to CloudFlare?
  • You can always use something like SSHwifty It retains your logins through your browser's session data and never on your server, but it will allow you to remote into your local system from anywhere on the WWW if you desire to do so. With Tailscale, once you are connected into your Tailnet, you can pretty much SSH into any of your devices as long as the subnet sharing flag is turned on I believe. I've never had any issues with mine not allowing any SSH connections.

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    What are your must-have programs?
  • For terminal, the first thing I install is Midnight Commander - dual pane file manager. https://midnight-commander.org/

    For all of my physical Linux machines - Cockpit and Cockpit-File Sharing plugin.

    Desktop

    • Thunderbird

    • Firefox

    • Vivaldi

    • Gnome

    • Chromium I use Firefox, wife uses Chromium and My WFH job I use Chrome. Vivaldi is a backup browser, I've been messing around with.

    • QEMU/LibVirtd - So I can run a Windows VM for my old Canon Lide 60 scanner which scans clearly there, otherwise in Linux, it's contrasted super grey for some reason.

    • Kopia-UI - Backup system which supports NFS Shares - set and forget type of setup.

    • VLC - Need I say more? Lol

    • OnlyOffice - Better aesthetically IMHO than LibreOffice

    • PDF Arranger - Works well to re-arrange pages or rotate them after scanning them in. (I self host Sterling PDF and will probably switch to that later)

    And for some inspiration - the "Awesome Linux Software" list (Not mine) similar to the other Awesome lists you see around. https://github.com/luong-komorebi/Awesome-Linux-Software

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    Share your Tasker Automations
  • If after 9pm M-F, and I plug it into AC Power (Not USB on desktop), then it mutes all system sounds until I unplug it from the AC power. During said time, if certain people call, it raises the ringer to full so I can answer it.

    I still have this enabled, but rarely ever use it, it came in handy about a year ago though - when near any of the WiFi hotspots at my work, then turn volume off, upon leaving the range, volume comes back up. Also, enabled my work profile which set an Autonotification to set a timer on my phone and watch for my break and meal periods. I now am full time WFH, so neither of these come in to play.

    While connected to Car bluetooth, cancel my work timers (above).

    I was working on but had to put on pause, a Google Voice interceptor - the goal behind it is to auto use Google Voice to make outbound calls if you are not calling a contact in your list otherwise, if you called one of your contacts, it would use your normal phone number.

    Taskernet share for above (Google Voice Robot) If link is broken, it should be searchable. It's not guaranteed to work.

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    Generative AI could soon decimate the call center industry, says CEO
  • In one way, I'm happy this is happening, in another way, I'm not - I've given well over 2 decades of my life to the call center way of living. Let me give you a sneak peak into what really happens in the daily life of a call center worker.

    • You live by the time on your telephone, it's your punch in and punch out system in most centers. Don't clock in more than 8 or 15 or whatever insane metrics they set past your clock in time else you will be considered tardy. This includes all breaks and clocking out.

    • If you are a first contact person and taking phone orders, your 'talk time' is measured. Anything more than the standardized 5 or 6 minutes is considered excessive and they tell you to move the calls along faster.
      If you are customer service, your talk time is loosened but you are also the first and last contact the customer should have for the issue.

    • Your phone calls are monitored and/or recorded (For Real!). If you are like me and hate to your your voice, woe be it to you when they play back your last call or two so you can hear yourself talking to the customer. If not recorded, then it is up to the monitoring person to be nice. You are then told what you need to do to speed up your talk time, or increase sales etc..

    Telemarketing

    Oh dear God, this is a life sucker and has the highest turnover on jobs. You quickly learn more about human nature in an odd sense. The sheer pressure on booking that next sale is insanely high and if you don't meet the sales minimums for the day or even hour, you are sent home without pay. I worked for a company which sold HR Manual trials, I was never more relieved and happy to be fired when I was for not making the per-requisite sales quotas for the half day.

    TIPS

    I don't think I've encountered a single call center rep in my years of service where a CSR decided that today, they would be a jerk. All we ever want to do is get through the day and earn our wages and go home.

    One thing I will say with confidence, is everyone you work with has something in common, you aren't there necessarily because you enjoy it, you are there because it puts food on the table and beats living off of unemployment benefits. It's a thankless job.

    If you receive great service from a call center rep (CSR) and are happy, politely ask to speak with their supervisor and when you do, be sure to leave them a good review. It doesn't always help to do this after a bad call, but sometimes rebounding to a new agent by calling the company back and asking for a supervisor will make a big difference if you take issue with them about the poor quality of service you received.

    Remember, if you can't resolve an issue with a CSR, It's not always that they don't want to resolve the issue for you, their hands are probably tied and in fear of losing their job or being reprimanded, they simply won't budge.

    Kindness goes a long way with us as well, if you are respectful and kind, we reflect the same back to you and often have tools at our disposal to grant you an extra discount and/or savings. We genuinely want to see you happy!

    ON THE OTHER HAND

    If putting AI in front of the call centers will help screen out the most common issues, then by all means do it. Also, if the stupid bean counters out there which insist of outsourcing to third world countries as it's cheaper, can find it to be more cost effective to use AI, and keep the jobs local to their country of operation, then I'm in favor of it.

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    Thinking of building a database of "stuff" that I have at home + some other family households. Multiple accounts with private and shared inventories.
  • Homebox - before we relocate - whenever that is, I will be printing labels and putting them under and behind my stuff, scanning it into there and then will use that to keep track of our items after the move to know what is in which box etc.

    NocoDB Self Hosted (I use this for a few things) - started out with my network ip's I have on my servers and ports for my containers and most recently a sleep log.

    Just a couple there.

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    [Question] Self hosted setup for monitoring Self-hosted services?
  • Grafana + Prometheus dashboards can be quite addicting or useful. Noted.lol put together a nice tutorial for getting started.

    For most of my services though, I simply use Uptime Kuma which then sends an alert to Gotify when my services go down or whatnot, Gotify then instantly notifies my phone so I can be aware. It helps keep the spouse happy when their go to service for some reason crashed. :)

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  • I've noticed that when 6.6.1 came out and it came time to reboot after it installed, I couldn't boot into the OS anymore, it simply hangs on a black screen for about 10-15 minutes then reboots after selecting it. I'm currently on the LTS kernel which is 6.1.67-1-lts (64-bit) with no issues. I figured after updating to the latest one 6.6.6. things may be better but no. Each new kernel release, I test it with the same results.

    CPU is CPU: quad core Intel Core i7-2600S (-MT MCP-) on Dell Optiplex 990 SFF PC with 16GB Ram in UEFI mode. Via either Grub or Systemd-boot. On one hand, I'm thinking that my computer's time may have finally come up once the LTS moves to 6.6.1 but, until then, and I can procure a newer system, I'd like to see if anyone else has encountered such a thing.

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    Someone here brought up that they were able to replace Cloudflare Tunnels with Tailscale - I can't seem to find the post, as it was a comment and deeply buried in a thread I've since forgotten the title of. :)

    Can anyone explain the process for doing this? I assume it's through the use of their Funnel? I have three primary services I require to be accessible through Authentik (that's one of them) via my domain name.

    EDIT

    To answer the question of why I want to leave Cloudflare Tunnels - is basically that I have several services behind it (I forgot one so make that 4 I wish to have exposed). Two password managers, Psono for my special needs daughter which finds it easier than Bitwarden and Vaultwarden for myself and my work logins. So, I can't just set up a VPN or Tailscale at work to connect my work passwords to. :) I also have Authentik and Home Assistant tunneled at present. That doesn't explain the reason why though so let me start here:

    My step-daughter is learning video production and editing, we don't want to share her videos on Youtube or other sites, but would like to keep it more local to home. With that said, Cloudflare may not notice it at first, bit it's against their TOS to stream videos, not to mention their just over 100mb cap for file xfers which leads me to the next reason. Early in May of this year, we were in an auto accident, and we are frequently sending forms, accident photos and paperwork etc to the Attorneys, I want to have control of the ownership of the files and would prefer not to email them, but link them to my server, frequently, those files even zipped can be over 100mb.

    I do have a private DDNS provider I have my domain CNAME pointed to so it resolves to the home IP that way, so the ultimate plan is to untie my site from Cloudflare's DNS to a offload to a VPS or two for (NS1 and NS2) With a recent issue with Oracle Cloud, I'm not motivated to use them for this basic purpose.

    And just a small part of me is starting to get tin hat against the idea that Cloudflare can decrypt the data before it hits my site before it encrypts it. Just just isn't sitting well with me at the moment. I can't verify this data yet, but I like to play it safe than sorry.

    EDIT 2

    So, I ran a funnel test and yes it works, but still have to use the ts.net like others said, so at best, I can figure this to be a good backup service. I can't forward a CNAME to my TS DNS. I checked /r/tailscale (Duckduckgo sent me there), and about a month ago, someone asked if you could use your own domain, the answer was "not yet" but there seems to be some interest.

    What I found pretty fascinating is the mobile app does work quite well on Android and is so far so good, I can at least feel better knowing that the phones are on WG full time now through Tailscale. I had issues with the official WG client and another one staying on with our phones full time, so this so far has been a good improvement.

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    Let me preface this with I was reinstalling my Arch system when Linux 6.6.1 killed the computer's boot cycle. (Dell Optiplex 990 i7) system. Anyway, I needed to get this back up and running and since I couldn't even get it to boot, I did a reinstall relying on my backups and on the Linux LTS for now. I am an early adopter with software and wanted to modify my repo to use the KDE-Unstable branch. To my surprise, upon rebooting after running an update, I was looking at the shiny new KDE 6 desktop! I was thinking maybe just a newer point release.

    The Good

    It looks surprisingly nice! You can certainly tell that a lot of work has been put into this version. The new Dolphin interface is looking quite awesome! Nate Graham on his site details the changes, but it looks and feels more cohesive and unified across the board.

    I had a crash while browsing SDDM screens in their system settings, by canceling it and it killed it, but the reporting system for the failure seemed to be extra fluid and submitted it without much input from my end. Nice Touch!

    Interestingly enough

    They have done some major work on the system settings and I think this will take some training of muscle learning from KDE Plasma 5. It seems a bit more logical if you will. And the change from single click to double click by default is a huge bonus for me. The KDE version number indicated something around 5.27.11 (If I remember correctly), so it isn't quite 6 , but I expect that to change once the desktop is finalized in Feb 2024.

    The Bad

    It's feature incomplete, If you need to change your desktop wallpaper, the option to right click in discover on the picture to set it is no longer there. The sound settings, and other functions listed in Nate's blog just don't exist in the build I tried, but I respect that with it being Alpha.

    The Ugly

    This will probably apply to Arch only, but if you update it through KDE-UNSTABLE's repo in Arch, there is no way that I could find to fully remove it and reinstall it easily even by using the sudo pacman -Syuu command. So, be forewarned.

    Disclaimer

    Yes, I know, this is Alpha and not meant for daily use. I never intended for it to be installed through their unstable repo, but lesson learned. :) I'm glad I was able to take a glimpse at it and I now feel confident in knowing that on my 12 yr old machine, it ran nice and fluid and smoothly. It can only get better from there!

    For now, I'll for sure stick with deploying it in a VM for further testing. :)

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    Invariably, when I try to install themes, or anything from Plasma's menu's I get the following error, If I'm lucky, I get get a few pages in, other times it's right off the bat like this time. Is this due to an overwhelming of the servers or something else?

    5

    Prerequisites

    • Costco Feit Color Bulb :)
    • Tuya Local API Key (Online has some good resources to obtain that)
    • Tuya Local plugin via the HACS store.

    The Seemingly impossible to find settings

    I struggled with this for a good while and believe I came up with the correct settings when adding this in Tuya Local, below are my notes:

    Tuya Local Settings for the bulbs:

    • Brightness 3
    • Color Temp 3
    • Brightness Lower Value: 23
    • Brightness Upper Value 255
    • Color Mode 2
    • Color 2
    • Minimum Color Temp in K 2700
    • Maximum Color Temp in K 6500
    • Color Temp Reverse Unchecked
    • Scene 1
    • Music Mode Available Unchecked

    Using the above settings, we have near accurate color and control of the bulbs. I'm aware that some firmware may change this as I had one new bulb I put in not match the color settings until I updated it to the most current at the time I took these notes (about 6 months ago). But I think and hope that if you are struggling with getting these to work with Home Assistant, this will help!

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    While using KDE Wayland latest version, Flatpak apps always want to display an alert letting me know that the application is running in the background until I dismiss it. Is there a way to disable this? (Using Arch BTW)

    With X11, it works without issue.

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    As I've gotten older, I find myself doing the old ughs and groan while getting off the couch or say things to my kids that my parents told me. I also truly appreciate the coveted chair or spot on the couch which is "Dad's Spot!"

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    Let me preface this with this was a dormant account with no instances set up, and I put it into place maybe 4 or 5 years ago while getting into the Self Hosted space. I don't recall if I had MFA setup, but don't think I did as it was a test space. In fact, I forgot I even had it up until now.

    So this weekend, we were out of town and I get this alert from Oracle Cloud saying that my account was locked with a password reset link/ This was set to an email I've had since 2004 and has been sold many many times on the dark web as evidenced by the amount of SPAM I get on it and as my monitoring services confirm. I figured it was a weak ploy at a fishing to get my credentials so I ignored it. Then about 3 or 4 or so minutes later, the account was unlocked with another email to confirm this. (Without my touching anything)

    So, last night when I returned home, I went to Oracle ignoring the email links and used my browse's address bar. To no surprise of my own, I can't log in or reset my credentials. Somehow, the attackers were able to exploit their platform to intercept the password reset and change everything to their credentials.

    It's no real loss on my end honestly, Oracle had an old canceled debit card number for re-occurring billing if I should have ever used their services anyway. It just bugs me that they allowed it to happen so easily. Having the lack of MFA, I'm sure didn't help the matter, but honestly, what gets me the most - their password reset email and the one saying it was unlocked with no links or contact information to correct the situation if this was incorrect. Further proof on my end that oracle doesn't care about anything other than the money grab.

    tl:dr My lack of MFA enabled hackers to attack my formerly dormant and forgotten Oracle account, and locked me out and Oracle doesn't seem to mind.

    4

    As in no internet, cell phones or computers. Being born in '74, I was lucky enough to know what it meant to go outside, build a fort, play and mess around. Getting the exercise without knowing it. (riding a bike for example, or running to a friend's house). Drinking out of the hose on a hot summer day after running around in the heat. I swear! there's something extra tasty about that!

    Then, being sick from school and laying on the couch watching Bob Barker on the Price is Right before the soaps came on. BORING!!! lol

    Don't get me wrong, I'd probably be lost without all the technology we have today since it's gotten so ingrained in our lives, but I am thankful that I will probably be one of the older folks which can survive driving a manual car, reading cursive, and operating a soon to be antique store item, VCR with the VCR + capability. :)

    1

    My weekly airing of Alf was coming on and I was 14 years old at the time. My dad, an ex firefighter and dispatcher had his trusty scanner relaxing in his favorite easy chair and the call came down at 8pm - a massive fire was happening downtown. We all scrambled out of the house excitedly to go "chase" the fire. It was his favorite past time to relive the old days of firefighting and boy this was the fire of all fires for him!

    So, we drove downtown to where it was, about 2 blocks away, you could see the flames shooting out of the 5 story brick building and the closer you got to it, the hotter the heat was. We found a place to park and watched the firefighters do their best. By now, the fire was melting the lamp poles across the street and everyone had to move away from the intense heat. Firefighters turned to surrounding buildings and sprayed water on the old post office, library and other historic buildings to keep them cool and wet against the embers. Sometime later during that time, the entire side of the building collapsed in the street blanketing anything below in red hot bricks. Later on that night, the news showed footage and didn't bleep out the "Oh Shit!" comment from the camera man filming it.

    More about the fire here: (Sorry, it's a very small entry for them) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medford_Hotel

    Unfortunately, the archive that would have the most information no longer exists, the local news paper closed down earlier this year and took the site with it.

    The story goes, they tracked down the source of the fire to a torch accidentally setting the building ablaze. For the years prior to this, it was an old historic Hotel and was being renovated to be converted for low income housing. During this process, they think someone set a hot torch down and wasn't thinking about the safety at the time and that's all it took to light up the old wood and materials inside.

    For a while longer after that, the shell of the building stayed in place while they rebuilt the building with brick and matched it to the original look.

    0

    With almost everyone you know or even yourself opening the door before the timer stops to check the food temperature.

    12