RUN TCP/IP | Morgan Lucas' Tech Portfolio

  As you may not know, but now know, Google Domains is being sold to Squarespace -- To the annoyed groans of many around the world, myself included.  Word spread on Twitter (I will not call it X) on how Squarespace was often a costlier option for people. I don't remember exact numbers people had experience with, but it was more. 36$/yr sticks in my head, but check for yourself. With a domain costing 12$ through Google, I thought above making the choice to transfer myself; and after perusing this Twitter thread , decided to go with Namecheap on a whim. I didn't know there were so many choices to host domains, DNS options, email services. That would actually be a field of interest to own a business in. It has that old internet charm (robot text anyone?). Now, this very site is hosted on Blogger, which is owned (and ignored) by Google, so it probably isn't being killed anytime soon (I hope). Google Domains was owned by, well, Google, so attaching the domain to the site was qu

9/20: The open source version of Terraform is now OpenTofu   I swear, this is not a recurring series. The problem just -- finally -- got solved. I went back to tfsec after seeing the simple start guide posted here , by Liam Galvin at Ghost Security. There are two aspects of my code:  Allow buckets starting with [word]  deny buckets that don't start with [word].  The initial guide only has "don't allow buckets that are exactly named this", but that's all I needed to actually get going! The problems could have been; The rego file and the terraform file don't play well in the same file. Having the options in two separate subfolders helped even though there was a command that I used to read both files in the same folder. Trivy ... I don't know. Maybe the metadata setup was incorrect - but if it's set up as comments -- readable by the program but not acknowledged in the rego -- who knows. I can work on that in the future. The code was similar though not ex

  It started, late one summer evening... This laptop is pretty much lightly used, was package well for shipping, and only sat on my desk after arrival.  description:  a computer monitor with a silver base and black border with a photo of a desert landscape. white lines dance across the surface. I see other people have tried steps listed as to remedy the problem, to no solution. One person on Apple's forums even received an entirely new (to them) machine, and it still persisted, so I'm thinking it's a software problem.  After restarting several times, I restarted into the diagnostics tools. I had dead pixels on my old MacBook Air and I dropped that more than once - no flickering. How can a laptop that simply sat for a few months flicker on the display? [ I forgot to make a video while the issue was happening. If it starts again - hopefully not - I will edit one in ] The stripe is only on light backgrounds.  Anything darker than white does not see the stripe.  There are occas

  Fun fact: This was initially about Roblox, but when I came across a survey about making a meta verse avatar, I decided to go the whole hog with it. I've always loved create your own avatar games. While the metaverse as a concept to the GP is already outdated, some interesting things were created before everyone decided machine learning via ChatGPT and its clones were the hot new ticket to claw our way out of Web 2.0 First, ReadyPlayerMe is a place to create a Metaverse avatar that you can import into the surprising amount of meta verse games out there. I hit the androgynous face type and couldn't change it again but you know what, I like it! Even if it's still somewhat masculine. These days, people seem to be very 1:1 about their virtual avatars. It's just them in a shirt and pants. The world is your oyster, make your virtual hair green and give yourself android lines on your body. Building a level is a lot more intuitive (and doesn't kill my CPU) than using Robl

 While this is the free tier, I cannot share or collaborate with others, nor can I publish content to other people's workspaces, but they will not stop me from screenshooting and recording these self-taught adventures,so! I'm doing this because I idly searched "Mattel careers" and "Information Technology", and seeing a bulletpoint saying the following: Analytical and reporting skills such as creating dashboards and establishing KPIs such as experience with PowerBI, Cognos, Tableau, and Google Data Lake/AWS is preferred And thought "Well, I've used Tableau, and I've heard about PowerBI,  even if its in-demandness is questionable , so how similar is it? And can I write about it?"  First, PowerBI (PIB) does have a downloadable, local version, but apparently Windows-only. I could download the .exe but I couldn't run it / drag it to applications on my MacBook.  Not a problem, we'll use the online SaaS version, and a dataset found here,

9/20: The open source version of Terraform is now  OpenTofu     This comes as the 3rd tool in a long line of tools I am using to make Terraform (OpenTofu) code consistent. I went back to the Styra Academy courses for OPA Policy Writing. I am a very "Just show me the general idea, and I can probably figure it out", and I am reasonable enough to say that it didn't work this time, and I had to take the slow road. Good start; Trivy told us where it installed; trivy info installed /usr/local/bin/trivy /Users/morganza/Library/Caches/trivy the homebrew package had an outdated version, so I had to install v. 0.40.0 myself and link it to the previously installed 0.18.0 I believe -- See the GitHub discussion here . Unfortunately, we are now back to rego, but fortunately, Trivy works as intended when you run it locally with the following command; trivy conf --policy . --namespaces morganza . There was an odd combination of YAML with a bit of rego involved for tfsec -- can we do th

  If there's an official website for Omni -- Not the hotel chain -- and this camera has a specs page, I'm not finding it. I did, however, find a person looking for a copy of the manual in 2011. I got you!  Wonder if they folded or if someone bought them out. Now, with 12 MP, we're not running the gamut on high-resolution photos here, but let's look at some context. Even when I sold phones in 2013, the Samsung Galaxy S4 had 13 MP for the rear camera. Why weren't leaps and bounds happening here?  That's a story for another author. The Omni 2 has a very plastic case. While I can't bend it greatly, I can still bend it, lending to a cheap feel.  There's a very chunky USB port that I recognize. I have another digital camera that's older than this and doesn't look nearly as outdated that also uses the cable. The slidey switch right above it (there's a blue line right beneath it) -- It may have originally been another focus feature, as there are ico

9/20: The open source version of Terraform is now  OpenTofu     Sometimes, I write articles even when things don't work. It's about showing a learning process.  Using IaC means consistency, and one thing you don't want to do is have 5 open S3 buckets on AWS that anyone on the internet can reach.  That's where tools such as Terrascan and Tfsec come in, where we can make our own policies and rules to be checked against our code before we init.  As this was contract work, I can't show you the exact code used, but I can tell you that this blog post by Cesar Rodriguez of Cloud Security Musings was quite helpful, as well as this one by Chris Ayers . The issue is using Rego; I found a cool VS Code Extension; Terrascan Rego Editor , as well as several courses on Styra Academy; Policy Authoring and Policy Essentials . The big issue was figuring out how to tell Terrascan to follow a certain policy; I made it, put it in a directory, and ran the program while in that directory

 Good on Netflix for being more like cable television, from adding ads , to attempting to livestream in 2023.  I am not familiar with Netflix's "Love Is Blind" show, but on 4/16, Netflix had intended to livestream a reunion at 8/7c, and it was hotly anticipated. To their credit, they did it successfully earlier this year, after a comedian's stint at the Hippodrome Theater in March, where there was apparently a waiting room for viewers while technical checks were run. When it did not start on time, tweets began to flow in confusion -- and jokes. Netflix tried to play along and soothe impatient fans: Love is ... late #LoveIsBlindLIVE will be on in 15 minutes! — Netflix (@netflix) April 17, 2023 Even (the last existing) Blockbuster took to the stage to fire shots: Remember renting vhs’ from us. You could start it on time no problem… This is what we get. — Blockbuster (@blockbuster) April 17, 2023 Apparently, the internet at the venue had issues :   That's Vanes

There's no need to buy new technology just for the sake of having new technology, in my opinion. I will use things until they wear out to the ground. I held onto my LG phone a year after they stopped manufacturing phones entirely. I still use a laptop from 2019 that I got refurbished from Best Buy despite it literally having pieces falling off of it. And I do have other computers that I use (Thank you, you know who you are) but technically, that laptop still works so why not use it for personal stuff? Two, count 'em, two FitBits. This (Yellow one) is the Fitbit Inspire 3. I have the Fitbit Versa 2 (Blue one) from 2018 or so, which means it was probably made in 2017 and just sat on the shelf. I was a bit due for a wearable technology upgrade. It took a lot of thought to spend the 99$ to buy this watch, when my old one was, while failing, still doing the basics. I don't like to throw things out if they can still be used.  Maybe I'll put it on my dog. This recent FitBit w

 I like no- or low-code solutions to things. I've often wanted to simply push a button or move some GUI around and have the code implement itself.  I've thought about building something that's like a customer relationship management (CRM) system for keeping up with my network better than my little spreadsheet where I click links and then go like something. The general idea in this CRM Development is:  To have a GUI to add people to a NRM (Network Relationship Management).       Attach it to a database (MySQL is what I went with eventually using Amazon Relational Database service, but you can use PostGRES, and probably others).     Make sure components are connected to each other in the retool interface. This video is a good start. Watching the tutorial video, heard some SQL commands and went 'Oh no 😳" before going "Wait I know basic SQL", which is good, because you'll see.  When you get set up, there's a plethora of resources you can use -- Incl

 Ergonomic wireless mice! They look funny, but allegedly they help your hand and wrist not hurt so much. I use this wireless mouse for my laptop since about 2021. They don't come in a nice variety of colors and patterns like tiny Logitech mice, but they also don't break when I drop them. My previous ergonomic mouse was a random shape with the company name Jelly Roll slapped on it. Now, the company name it bears is iClever , giving more credence to the theory of the glorified dropshipping warehouse that is Amazon. To its credit, so far, I like it a more than the Anker, at least physically.  They may also be called vertical mice, although they look a bit more like Alienware towers than these.  The Jelly Comb (Right) is a little bigger, with back and forward buttons are placed more naturally for a thumb to click. The clicks are not as loud. Anker is on the left. However, the JellyComb would randomly stop working, despite having batteries and lights indicating all systems go. The

    Having multiple pairs of headphones and earbuds are important to me. I still use my Galaxy Buds on walks or at the gym, but I prefer wired, over ear for at home, and it was time to get a new pair, moving to Sony . These replace my Sennheisers from about 2017 -- While they were uncomfortable for a long period of time, the sound quality was unmatched. I couldn't find a pair that looked comfortable and were hovering around 120$. One of the ear cups has broken off, and I can't super glue and rubber-band it back forever 😥 (Maybe I could use sugru ? It's held up my car windows for 5 years. #NotAnAd)  I had 5 criteria for a new set of wired over the ear headphones; Colorful Wired Reasonable sound quality Under 100$ Made in the past 3 years (No earlier than 2019)   I managed to get 4.5/5 -- The headphones are a nice blue (albeit darker than I'd like -- A lot of my furniture is dark, and I have lost tech for days because my cases are also dark.), they have both wired a