Year: 2015

Categories
Development Operations Web

SSL to the people

I have lost count of how many hours, days and even weeks I’ve wasted because of un-trusted self-signed/generated certificates in my time as a developer. Some util always trips up, makes me add a flag and then still fails. Trying to install custom root certificates works for some software, not all. It’s a complete mess and I long for the day it will be over.

Now, there is a solution: Let’s encrypt. Just get trusted certificates everywhere. Free, quick and easy. This will not give you all the levels of verification and trust that you can get from an SSL certificate; but it gives you an encrypted connection to every server out there. It’s way better than just HTTP, and it’s quick and easy.

Still beta, but took me about 10 minutes to set it up for this blog. Run, answer a question, check something and answer another. Bam! Encrypted! 🙂

Some thoughts and further links from Schneier.

Categories
Architecture Operations

Microservices reading list – part II

A little while ago I summarized some great articles and experiences with microservices. As it continues it’s travel along the hype cycle new excellent (and balanced) stuff is coming out, so I just thought I would add some of them.

I think these articles go more in depth about the trade offs and reasons behind choosing to build a microservices architecture. So read this post before you go back and review the ones in the first part. 🙂

These are the guys that had videos in my first post. Go there to see them. 🙂

Categories
General OS tricks

Powerpoint presenters mode in VirtualBox

After switching to Linux as my main operating system I was expecting problems. Even though it has come far, it’s not really your granny’s operating system. 😉 I don’t use much Windows only software, but one of the problems was definitely going to be working with Powerpoint.

So I figured VirtualBox with Windows and Powerpoint would be a decent solution. And it has worked like a charm.

But I did miss presenters mode when doing the talks, and never really thought it would be possible. Until I discovered that you can change the number of displays associated with your VM. 🙂

It’s not without it’s quirks, but doable if you get used to it. So you can do:

  • Plug in your external monitor
  • Make sure the Linux settings are correct with resolution and placement
  • Make sure the VM isn’t started
  • Go into settings > Display on you VirtualBox VM
  • Set the VM to have 2 displays
  • Boot the VM
  • Go full screen with the VM
  • Configure windows settings to reflect multiple displays and resolution and position
  • Start PowerPoint and do F5 for presentation

It should work now. 🙂 Good luck with your presentation… 😉