How to Manually Update Bash to Patch Shellshock Bug on Older Fedora-Based...
With the announcement of the Shellshock Bash Bug, Linux admins around the world have been scrambling to patch their Bash shells so that they’re no longer vulnerable to the exploit. If you have a...
View ArticleIs DD-WRT Vulnerable to the Shellshock Bash Bug?
Because I publish a lot of articles on DD-WRT router firmware, and I also recently published an article on patching the Shellshock bug on older Fedora-based Linux systems, I’ve been receiving a lot of...
View ArticleShellshock Warning: Even after patching, your old vulnerable bash binary...
I received an email today from a friend and fellow Linux sysadmin, Todd Lyons, informing me of a very sneaky way to exploit the Shellshock vulnerability under what he calls “just the wrong conditions.”...
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What’s the “Best” Whole-House Surge Protection?
You probably haven’t stopped and really thought about exactly how many devices you have in your home that plug into a power outlet. So do it now. Go ahead. I’ll wait…. Now, think about how many of...
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Using FreeDNS.Afraid.org with DD-WRT when you lose your Free DynDns or D-Link...
The Problem In the “early” days of the internet, you could find free Dynamic DNS (DDNS) accounts everywhere. The providers of those free services, such as DynDns, hoped that by giving you a freebie,...
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Fix Your Furnace If It’s Not Blowing Warm Air
You wake up in the morning, or come home from work, and you can instantly tell something is wrong. The house is cold. You can hear the furnace running, and you can even feel air coming out of the...
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TPMS Warning Light? Replace your TPMS Sensors for Cheap
Last month, I noticed the Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) warning light turn on in my 2007 GMC Yukon Denali. When I pressed the button on the dash to see my tire pressures, the left-front tire...
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Upgrade Install Guide: ecobee original Smart Thermostat to ecobee3
When I first received an ecobee3 smart thermostat for review, I wrote a guide to installing an ecobee3 for first-time ecobee users. This post, by contrast, is for ecobee old-timers. I’ll walk through...
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First Look: ecobee3 Web-based Home IQ Charts
Sir Francis Bacon is commonly credited for coining the phrase “scientia potentia est” — Latin for “knowledge is power.” Though one might argue that, instead, control is power, particularly in the...
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Product Review: KOHLER Touchless Toilet Flush Kit
Remember when you were a little kid, and your mother would take you to the supermarket, and as you approached the glass doors you’d wave your hand at them… causing them to open… with… The Force? It was...
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ecobee3 Review Followup: Two Month Update
My original ecobee3 review is now two months old, so I decided a “here’s how things are going two months later” post might be in order. Over the past two months, I’ve received numerous questions (both...
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Product Review & How-To: Using MeteoBridge to Connect your Weather Station to...
I’ve been a weather geek (or as weather geeks would write it: “Wx geek”) since 2001, when I bought an Oregon Scientific WMR968 weather station. Within a couple of years, I’d connected my weather...
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Storing Weather Station Data in MySQL from MeteoBridge
In my initial review of the MeteoBridge weather station interface device, I discussed its basic features, and briefly mentioned that it also included more advanced functionality, including the ability...
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How to Fix Rotten Egg Smell in your Water
If your hot water smells like rotten eggs, don’t panic. It’s almost certainly something you can fix on your own, and there are a few different ways you can try to fix it. First, to make sure your hot...
View ArticleVideo: Installing Magpul MOE 1911 Grip Panels on a Sig Sauer 1911 Tac Ops
In this video, I walk through replacing the stock grips on a Sig Sauer 1911 Tac Ops with replacement Magpul MOE 1911 Grip Panels, and discuss whether this modification should be considered an...
View ArticleVideo: Field stripping a Ruger Mark I with the GunsmitherTools Pistol Pal
Like I say in the video, if you own a Ruger MK I, MK II, or MK III but don’t spend $15 on a Gunsmither Tools Pistol Pal… you need to get your head checked. This tool will save your finish, as well as...
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Upgrade your Bath Tub Trim – Fast, Easy, and Cheap
Something had been bothering me at the Utah house for a few years, so I finally got around to doing something about it this week. Take a peek at the photo below and see if you can find it: Bathtub trim...
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Adding Heat Sinks and Overclocking a Belkin F7D3302 / F7D7302 v1 Router with...
For a few years now, I’ve been using a Linksys E4200 v1 router (running DD-WRT) as the main router at my house. However, because the WiFi signal from the router isn’t strong enough to reliably reach...
View ArticleInstalling OpenDMARC RPM via Yum with Postfix or Sendmail (for RHEL / CentOS...
If you’re looking for the fastest and easiest way to get DMARC verification working on a RedHat (Fedora, RHEL or CentOS) mail server, I highly recommend OpenDMARC. I’m a bit biased, as I currently...
View ArticleProduct Update: KOHLER Touchless Toilet Flush Kit Parts Upgrade
My initial review of the KOHLER Touchless Toilet Flush Kit was positive… except for the part where the unit started to magically flush the toilet all by itself in the middle of the night. I called it...
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