Trip Preparation Update - The Day Before My Flight

Super short update. Tomorrow is the big day I fly out. Between flight time, layovers, and time zone changes I will be traveling for 26 hours straight. Leaving 8AM from San Antonio, Texas, USA to arrive in Prague, Czech Republic at 10:30AM (or thereabouts) local time. 7 hour layover in JFK, 8 hours to time zones, and the rest is in the air.

Illness Update

I’ve basically fully recovered at this point. I do have a bit of lingering congestion and an occasional throat clearing or cough, but I’m doing pretty well. My ENT has prescribed me additional round of anti-fungals so that I can definitively get rid of the infection. I’ll probably try to find an ENT in Prague and follow-up while I’m there just to confirm that the infection is gone.

L2TP VPN Update

Well, I did actually write the article and get the router setup. However, I ran into a hitch. I can connect to the VPN but not route traffic. It’s definitely not any low-hanging fruit, and while I’m sure I can figure it out given enough time, I have unfortunately run out of time. What this means is that my previous OpenVPN config will be my primary (and only) VPN for the trip abroad. Luckily I have several ways of adding an additional endpoint on the fly if such a need arises. I may at some point move forward with publishing the article, but at this time I’m holding off until I’ve figured out all the gotchas (and there were several).

OS X OpSec Dev Update

I am still planning to continue writing this series as I travel. I apologize that it’s taken me so long to complete, since the actual tasks involved have already been performed. It’s a pretty time-consuming thing to research and write anything suitably extensive, and between work and the trip preparation, I just haven’t had the time. I know some folks have emailed me about it. I am hoping maybe if the jet lag isn’t too awful I can spend Memorial Day sitting in a café somewhere in Prague and at least get Part 3 banged out.

To-Do List

  • Get my Hepatitis B vaccine booster (30 day out dose, now late because of illness)
  • Configure my ER3L on my home office connection to do L2TP over IPSEC VPN and add all my devices. [Postponed]
  • Finish the blog post series on setting up a Macbook Pro for OpSec-focused developers.
  • Finalize my will and trust paperwork with my attorney (and update the beneficiaries on my insurance)
  • Fix the leak in the roof near the chimney
  • Prepare a travel packet of information, ship one copy out-of-state to my parents, and give the other copy to my long-time housemate
  • Get out of jury duty
  • Pack my bags and weigh them.
    • Checked bag cannot exceed 50 pounds (23 KG) [22.1KG]
    • Carry-On bags cannot exceed 23 pounds (10 KG) [10.9KG but otherwise good]

See You On the Other Side!

Without further ado, I’m powering off my computer and packing up the backpack I’m taking as my personal item. If all goes as planned I should have a nice arrival update posted on Monday from Prague :)

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