node815

node815 , 18 days ago

You can always use something like SSHwifty It retains your logins through your browser's session data and never on your server, but it will allow you to remote into your local system from anywhere on the WWW if you desire to do so. With Tailscale, once you are connected into your Tailnet, you can pretty much SSH into any of your devices as long as the subnet sharing flag is turned on I believe. I've never had any issues with mine not allowing any SSH connections.

node815 , 2 months ago

In one way, I'm happy this is happening, in another way, I'm not - I've given well over 2 decades of my life to the call center way of living. Let me give you a sneak peak into what really happens in the daily life of a call center worker.

• You live by the time on your telephone, it's your punch in and punch out system in most centers. Don't clock in more than 8 or 15 or whatever insane metrics they set past your clock in time else you will be considered tardy. This includes all breaks and clocking out.

• If you are a first contact person and taking phone orders, your 'talk time' is measured. Anything more than the standardized 5 or 6 minutes is considered excessive and they tell you to move the calls along faster.
  If you are customer service, your talk time is loosened but you are also the first and last contact the customer should have for the issue.

• Your phone calls are monitored and/or recorded (For Real!). If you are like me and hate to your your voice, woe be it to you when they play back your last call or two so you can hear yourself talking to the customer. If not recorded, then it is up to the monitoring person to be nice. You are then told what you need to do to speed up your talk time, or increase sales etc..

Telemarketing

Oh dear God, this is a life sucker and has the highest turnover on jobs. You quickly learn more about human nature in an odd sense. The sheer pressure on booking that next sale is insanely high and if you don't meet the sales minimums for the day or even hour, you are sent home without pay. I worked for a company which sold HR Manual trials, I was never more relieved and happy to be fired when I was for not making the per-requisite sales quotas for the half day.

TIPS

I don't think I've encountered a single call center rep in my years of service where a CSR decided that today, they would be a jerk. All we ever want to do is get through the day and earn our wages and go home.

One thing I will say with confidence, is everyone you work with has something in common, you aren't there necessarily because you enjoy it, you are there because it puts food on the table and beats living off of unemployment benefits. It's a thankless job.

If you receive great service from a call center rep (CSR) and are happy, politely ask to speak with their supervisor and when you do, be sure to leave them a good review. It doesn't always help to do this after a bad call, but sometimes rebounding to a new agent by calling the company back and asking for a supervisor will make a big difference if you take issue with them about the poor quality of service you received.

Remember, if you can't resolve an issue with a CSR, It's not always that they don't want to resolve the issue for you, their hands are probably tied and in fear of losing their job or being reprimanded, they simply won't budge.

Kindness goes a long way with us as well, if you are respectful and kind, we reflect the same back to you and often have tools at our disposal to grant you an extra discount and/or savings. We genuinely want to see you happy!

ON THE OTHER HAND

If putting AI in front of the call centers will help screen out the most common issues, then by all means do it. Also, if the stupid bean counters out there which insist of outsourcing to third world countries as it's cheaper, can find it to be more cost effective to use AI, and keep the jobs local to their country of operation, then I'm in favor of it.

node815 , 2 months ago

Homebox - before we relocate - whenever that is, I will be printing labels and putting them under and behind my stuff, scanning it into there and then will use that to keep track of our items after the move to know what is in which box etc.

NocoDB Self Hosted (I use this for a few things) - started out with my network ip's I have on my servers and ports for my containers and most recently a sleep log.

Just a couple there.

node815 , 2 months ago

Grafana + Prometheus dashboards can be quite addicting or useful. Noted.lol put together a nice tutorial for getting started.

For most of my services though, I simply use Uptime Kuma which then sends an alert to Gotify when my services go down or whatnot, Gotify then instantly notifies my phone so I can be aware. It helps keep the spouse happy when their go to service for some reason crashed. :)

node815 , 2 months ago

Looks nice! I set mine up and have it as an Iframe in Home Assistant. The app is a fork from https://github.com/vbguyny/ws4kp with his demo site here: https://battaglia.ddns.net/twc That version has the music we all came to know and love from back then.

node815 , 2 months ago

From their readme. I asked about that last night and he replied an pointed me to it. :)

Kiosk mode

Kiosk mode can be activated by a checkbox on the page. Note that there is no way out of kiosk mode (except refresh or closing the browser), and the play/pause and other controls will not be available. This is deliberate as a browser's kiosk mode it intended not to be exited or significantly modified.

It's also possible to enter kiosk mode using a permalink. First generate a Permalink, then to the end of it add &kiosk=true. Opening this link will load all of the selected displays included in the Permalink, enter kiosk mode immediately upon loading and start playing the forecast.

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I didn't see IIS mentioned, but I didn't take a close look at the code. They give you a docker run command to set it up, so I converted it to a docker compose file so I can run it later. All of this is running on a Debian 12 system, so if IIS is needed, I'd wager that is if you are running a Windows setup.

I have mine embedded in Home Assistant now as an iframe using the Kiosk mode setting which works.

node815 , 2 months ago

With that, I use Pomerium for apps which accept a HTTP Headers, for example, my Fresh Tomato firmware flashed router, it has a HTTP dialog. This allows me to login from the road if I need to manage something like rebooting it or updating firewall rules etc.

My access flow is this :

router.example.com ---> Cloudflare Tunnel ---> Pomerium IP --->Authentik ---> Router's Gui.

It works flawlessly. I don't often use it, but when I do, it helps. I also had it enabled for AdguardHome but moved to Technitium DNS which I prefer and that doesn't have the HTTP Headers so it's not fully compatible with Pomerium that I'm aware of.

node815 , 2 months ago

Authentik is my IDP provider so I put it in front of all my publicly facing Apps which support OIDC login. For example, I can log into my Portainer instance from an external network, but to do so, I log into Authentik First which sends it to my service.

For the apps which support HTTP headers, like I said, Pomerium acts as the service which passes my credentials to the device. I admit - Authentik does this also without the need for Pomerium, (through their flow settings) but I found Pomerium to be much easier to set up for this than Authentik and haven't looked back or felt the need to change it.

node815 , 3 months ago

https://www.youtube.com/@cooptonian
His Authentik videos are top notch and they (Authentik) have also had him make some for them. One of those videos, I can't recall shows you how to do this, I think it may be the 2FA/MFA one. I use Authentik and can login with fingerprint login without using my UN/PW first. It's pretty slick.

node815 , 3 months ago

I am testing it and it seems to run every 5 minutes to sync. Handles standard IMAP and POP inboxes. No auth for main page, so they caution appropriately to avoid public facing web exposure. They are planning on adding more support for Gmail and the like:

https://github.com/bandundu/email-archiver/issues/6

It installs by default in debug mode which may or may not be a red flag depending on your security model.

The email search is fast, but could use work, I will say it is VERY early in development. But for downloading email for later storage, it should do. It stores your e-mails in a SQLite database in the same directory as the installer, so if you want to manipulate the compose file a bit, it should be able to point to your desired storage directory. With that said, I also was able to add a TZ= directive so my logs at least are a bit cleaner with timestamps to match my timezone, something they have not added.

If you wish to access this remotely before they add a public facing login, protect it with a SSO solution or other front facing login setup so it would not be accessible. Or securely access it via Wireguard, TailScale, or Headscale.

node815 , 3 months ago

I am a former IT Desktop drone..er...support worker.. I used to swap towers for my local municipality back when Windows XP was being replaced with 7. I saw passwords on post-its attached to the monitor, mouse pad, and even under the keyboard or keyboard drawer (I had to get under desks to do the swap). Our policy was to remove those whenever we saw them and trash them in a different can across the building or a different one. They have a standard 90 day password cycle and most people couldn't handle that. I would answer the phone often to 'unlock" their account after 3 attempts. My all time favorite when I would help an end user with software was when I would encounter someone's "God Mode" icon for some of the registry hacks that used to float around. Everyone had Admin privileges (ironically), so it wasn't really needed anyway.

Their primary server admins and IT folks in the main office were Top notch though. Never any downtime and the main security guy was very strong in making sure everything was adhered to. We, as desktop support didn't have the master password to decrypt a laptop which was GPG protected and had to bring it to him if we had a user which locked themselves out. With great consternation, only a few machines would be allowed to XP and those were VLAN'd and isolated from the outside world.

The rest of the server admins handled everything with ease seemingly. The fun part was when they had a third party come in and do a security audit. No problems on the server side, but it wasn't a success. They did the 'ol drop a flash drive randomly in different locations test. Knowing human nature, they knew someone would pick it up, plug it in and be baited with an excel file which looked like it had financials. Unbeknownst to the user, it sent a ping to their reporting server and the drive ID. Which was later reported back. They also did physical security penetration tests - walk in behind you type of thing. I remember seeing a group of guys non company ID badges try to follow me into the main IT office. I stopped them and asked who they were and what they wanted (this was a Govt building), and the look of confusion mixed with satisfaction from them that I stopped them was priceless. I let the head IT guy know who was at the door and left it up to them to unlock it for them.

I now work in a help desk position for a software company and miss those days of desktop support. But, I know for a fact that I.T. Guys an Gals don't get enough recognition. They are the understated backbone of a company's well-being especially when holidays and weekends are prime time for systems to fail and they are practically on call no matter what.

node815 , 3 months ago

I use Proxmox and don't use Truenas. My setup is basically to install Cockpit on the host server via apt-get and then the 45 Drives cockpit-sharing plugin. This provides the NFS and Samba sharing I need and use. I host Home Assistant in a VM and Docker containers in a few LXC containers which host about 10 containers each. Then, in combination with https://tteck.github.io/Proxmox/ you can set up pretty much anything you need from there.

This is on in computer terms, ancient; a 13 year old Dell Optiplex 990 with 16gb Ram and software such as Authentik and Vaultwarden from different dedicated LXC containers. Never have any issues with overload of the system resources or running out of memory. It's pretty much rock solid.

node815 , 4 months ago

If behind CGNAT and forwarding is not an option, Headscale, Tailscale or ZeroTier may be an option. I use Tailscale and it have ZERO forwarding on and can access anything on my network when connected through it. Think of these as Wireguard on Steroids. :)

node815 , 4 months ago

Tailscale is but since you already tried them, maybe headscale that's supposed to be the self hosted version of Tailscale that someone wrote, so you have better odds at less latency! https://headscale.net/

Zerotier? Not sure -https://www.zerotier.com/ can speak more to this.

node815 , 4 months ago

As Another Proxmox user - I've been doing well with it. I use these scripts for the LXC's which has been fantastic:

https://tteck.github.io/Proxmox/

I also can log into it from the web as it's secured by Authentik, SSO OIDC login when Away from home and need to manage it. Rare! But the option is there! :)

node815 , 4 months ago

Mine are where they are stationed:

Front Door Lamp, Patio Door Lamp, Desk Lamp and Bedroom Lamp. We don't have many obviously:)

So, left of couch as you look at it is next to front door so light there, other side, by patio, you guessed it patio light. And the rest are pretty much bland like that.

node815 , 4 months ago

Mine are where they are stationed:

Front Door Lamp, Patio Door Lamp, Desk Lamp and Bedroom Lamp. We don't have many obviously:)

So, left of couch as you look at it is next to front door so light there, other side, by patio, you guessed it patio light. And the rest are pretty much bland like that.

node815 , 5 months ago

The older IDE drives with the 5.25" platters and smaller ones make great wind chimes. The laptop ones are a bit .ore fragile due to thinner material. Years ago, we used to do this with a few of them.

node815 , 5 months ago

If the app supports SSO and allows user creation, then it's just a matter of passing the user claims such as username or email which the app expects from your provider.

I use Authentik as my solution, which uses a GUI for user management and supports all major SSO options, from MFA, to OIDC, SAML, LDAP and more.

node815 , 5 months ago

Xpipe https://xpipe.io/ is an alternative it runs and stores your data locally on your machine and not web based. I've been playing with that a bit, it does auto discover Containerized apps and you can sort of exec into them to run commands and also browse the directories of your containerized apps with a simple click in a File type GUI. It uses your OS's default Terminal application so it won't bring any extra with you so it's more native to your OS.

I've been a Konsole user on KDE for a few years now and it's pretty much what I've been used to. Trying out Xpipe now and Termius about a year ago, I can say that Xpipe is stronger in it's ability to interface with my containerized apps (Docker), but lacks the polish that Termius has visually. They both get the job done, but at the end of the day, I still reflexively just hit my Ctrl+Alt+T key combo to log into my machines.

Then, for a whole different take, SSWifty! https://github.com/nirui/sshwifty - Instead of launching an app, deploy this on your server, and then use your browser's session to securely access your sites.

node815 , 5 months ago

I got lost with setting up a nice inbox downloader to store all my emails on a HDD attached to my RPI4, but haven't quite mastered the SMTP server part or found the right software to run on it. It's currently powered off waiting for a reflash of the SD Card so I can try again. The end goal for mine is to set up fetchmail and have it grab from my inboxes then imap capabilities so I can read it in Thunderbird. (Don't talk to me about webmail, I know it's the way but I'm older than Star Wars (Original one) and am stuck in my ways. Now get off of my lawn!

Seriously though, I have tinkered with it before as an AdguardHome Server, but somehow, my latency increased so I dropped that. Most of it's life was spent hosting Home Assistant on it until I moved that to the umm...more controversial Proxmox VM method. I'm also on the fence about setting up the Raspberry Pi Nextcloud on it. (Maybe).

Here is a good resource for 36 different things you could possibly do with yours.

node815 , 5 months ago

It needs to be self hosted - no docker containers that I can find.

https://github.com/streetwriters/notesnook-sync-server

Based on this, it's not yet available. I use Joplin server for my stuff and have been wanting to move away to a web based platform as I tend to reinstall my OS every few months and like to be able to dial in my self hosted instance and reference for what I need.

node815 , 5 months ago

Anytype is amazing, but when they give you these super long passkeys to decrpyt? That makes having to either memorize the something like 12 short words, and keep them in the exact order they tell you, you sort of have to put them in a notebook (ironically), password manager or whatever you choose to store it.

node815 , 5 months ago

Since you didn't include a link to the source for your recommendation:

https://github.com/canonical/lxd

I've been on Proxmox for 6 or so months with very few issues and have found it to work well in my instance, I do appreciate seeing another alternative and learning about it too! I very specifically like Proxmox as it gives me an actual IP on my router's subnet for my machines such as Home Assistant. So instead of the 192.168.122.1 it rolls a nice 192.168.1.X/24 IP which fits my range which makes it easier for me to direct my outside traffic to it. Does this also do this? Based on your screenshots, maybe not, IDK.