Wandering in Wondering

Code, Coffee, Photography, and Travel

Trip Preparation Update - Insect Precautions

Howdy all. This will be a mixed post today. The first part will cover a quick update to all the things I previously had in flight preparing for my trip, and the second part will be a summary of the intensive research I’ve done on insect and mosquito repellents and other precautions. Several folks on the RY Facebook groups have been asking questions about what to do for mosquitos while in South America, and I have also fielded some direct questions from folks about the Permethrin-embedded clothing that I bought.

Michigan Trip Report

I apologize for how belated this trip report is. Several people have been clamoring for a more complete write-up of the trip than I gave on Facebook. We’ll start with the beer and end with some interesting photos and a story about one forlorn Camaro and a fragmented wild turkey. Beer During the course of my trip, myself and my buddy Jon Kelley managed to hit several breweries and get t-shirts from the tourism folks in Grand Rapids, which apparently styles itself as “Beer City”.

OpenVPN + Google Authenticator + SELinux on CentOS 7

Just a quick post to share this with anyone else that needs it. I spent hours using Google and reading posts from random people on the net, including bug comments from Dan Walsh on a never solved Fedora bug specifically related to this. The conclusion I came to was that hardly anyone uses SELinux and the ones that do just hack around the problem rather than solving it. In this particular case, the fault is really with the terrible implementation of Google Authenticator, which I found out during the course of this by reading through the source code.

Setting Up a Macbook for an OpSec Focused Developer - Part 2

Introduction My apologies for the delay in posting part 2. I encountered a few chicken-and-egg problems in that I wanted to write this update from my new Macbook but needed complete the remainder of the setup in order to have a comfortable and secure environment to do so from. Without further ado, on to the meat of it. Organization I’m breaking this article up into several parts to both assist me in the process of writing it and to make it easier to digest.

Trip Preparation Update - Deux

I apologize I haven’t posted the later parts of my Macbook setup instructions yet. I ran into the chicken-and-egg problem of wanting to use my new Macbook to write my posts. I am happy to report that I am now writing this post on my new Macbook and it’s to a point where I can start writing the rest of the article. I will do that later on. First though, a quick update regarding trip preparations.

Setting Up a Macbook for an OpSec Focused Developer - Part 1

Introduction That time has come again, and I have acquired a new Macbook Pro. In this case its primarily in preparation for my trip so that I can edit photos effectively on the go. It replaces my aged 2011 Macbook Air (which has served me well). It seems an opportune time then to write up my process for setting up a Macbook, and with a particular focus on security. Organization I’m breaking this article up into several parts to both assist me in the process of writing it and to make it easier to digest.

The Ops Approach to Linux Server Security

This post was originally a response to a question I received from a friend via email, with some additions. I’m not going to try to get very in-depth here, this is more of a high-level overview of what you should be doing to secure a server running Linux. This is mainly focused on a business environment where you have multiple users and multiple servers (and are hopefully using configuration management software).

Trip Preparation Update

Itinerary Update First, before I get into the rest of what I’ve got sorted out this week for my trip, the itinerary has changed for Darién. The Remote Year staff reached out to everyone who has been accepted to Darién to notify us of the change earlier this week, citing safety concerns about Turkey and Bolivia. The new itinerary is below: Prague, Czech Republic Belgrade, Serbia London, UK Lisbon, Portugal Rabat, Morocco Valencia, Spain Mexico City, Mexico Bogotá, Colombia Medellin, Colombia Lima, Peru Córdoba, Argentina Buenos Aires, Argentina Preparing to Travel When I left you last week I was still figuring out insurance, waiting on my US Passport to be sent to me from renewal, and considering my options for some other essential items for travel.

I have been accepted to Remote Year

I’m in! I’m pleased to announce that I’ve been accepted to join Remote Year as part of the Darién cohort starting on June 1st, 2016 in Prague, Czech Republic, and returning to the US in June of 2017. I’ve been looking forward to doing international travel and participating in the digital nomad lifestyle for many years, and since I now work remotely its presented the opportunity to make that dream a reality.

Five Colorado Photo Faves

In October 2014 I moved from Texas to Longmont, CO in order to experience the amazing beer culture in Colorado. While there, I fell in love with the mountains and natural beauty of the state and rekindled my interest in photography. These are just five of my favorite photos I took while in Colorado. I hope you enjoy. 1. Reflections of a Mountain Morning This photo was taken in Longmont, CO near at Golden Ponds Park and Nature Area around 10AM one weekend morning.