From in-person questions. Summarizing in tweets and images.

Feel free to apply plenty of salt, as this and much of my humor, follows my default sense of humor.

Mentality a Year Ago

Mentality on the Morning of Nov. 8th, 2016

Mentality Today

Thoughts on the Candidates

DJT

...but we have a few things we could work on. Things like common courtesy, respect of each other, proper and informed debate both in private and especially in public.

HRC

She's not him.

I periodically get asked a form of this question over the year. As is my usual default, I mostly inform people about either security or privacy settings, assuming I know they have backups enabled and that sort of initial thing. Being mostly an Apple user, with my friends and family generally in the same category, I recommend the following (ca. iOS 11):

• set a passcode — preferably a password with longer length, but some is better than none
• set up Two Factor Authentication (2FA), and maybe set a second trusted phone # for your account to your spouse/SO — some think it's a PITA (Pain In The *Backside), but it's worthwhile
  • 2FA/MFA (multi-factor auth) is a good idea to enable most places, especially for banks, social media accounts, or anything with access to your other accounts
• enable "emergency sos" — be sure to set whether you want "auto call" to kick in or not; not only will this give you an option of clicking your lock button 5 times to enable for medical and/or auto-call (if configured), but it also requires your full passcode to unlock
• enable Do Not Disturb While Driving — I don't care how careful you think you are, you're better off not touching your phone while driving; Siri can more than do enough when connected to bluetooth, and aftermarket setups are plentiful and inexpensive, like this one
• enable iCloud backup — most people should be able to work within the free iCloud account storage space of 5GB
• enable find my iPhone — otherwise you won't know you need it until it's too late; should you find yourself in a pickle, you can use the icloud.com website
• set your AirDrop settings to "contacts only" — there's a risk these days of getting unsolicited content, on our most personal device(s); especially with white supremacists attempting to ruin life for people
• install an ad blocker — I've gone with adblock plus
• install a caller id & blocking app — I use hiya

Hi Eric, I basically saw that you commented on a few of the issues regarding html2pdf.it. It's probably a longshot but I checked your website and saw you have this ask me anything, so what the hell eh?

I am using html2pdf.it (h2p) on my development server and everything worked perfectly, styling, images, etc. but that server is http. When I moved the updates of the project to the live server https, h2p gave me the error message Unable to load the address (null): {url} fail. My web project redirects everything through index.php and lets that file decide where to go. All of the files referenced throughout the project are https and I notice that the url for h2p is http://www.html2pdf.it; is that the issue? Do you think my project doesn't like that the website converting my page to pdf is non ssl? Is there something I can do in my .htaccess file to get this working? I'm not exactly sure the issue at this point.

Sorry for bothering you and thank you for your time!
Daniel Speer

First thanks for your service. I was in OIF as well. I was in Iraq in 2004.

Now for my question. Here is the situation: I run a Windows Server 2012 R2 with a domain. I am now adding Home Assistant running on a Raspberry Pi (and running Raspbian).

I want to be able to log into the Home Assistant when we are away from home to monitor things. I have registered my own domain on Amazon Route 53, and have it set up so that it tracks my external IP address, just like DDNS programs such as DuckDNS would do. I initially set up port forwarding on my router to forward port 443 to the Pi and it all worked, so I know it is all set up correctly up to that point.

Unfortunately, I also have some other programs that require https access so I can't just leave it set up to do the port forwarding on my router.

All that said I am now trying to set up Nginx on the Windows Server. I have got that done, and I have it set up to run as a service. But I am struggling with getting the nginx.conf file written correctly. I cant get it to start, now that it is a service. it keeps giving an error 1067, which I think means there is a problem with the nginx.conf file. What would the nginx.conf file look like to get the Windows server to listen on port 443 and if it sees a call for my Home Assistant domain, it forwards to the Raspberry Pi, otherwise it just lets the 443 traffic go on to the PC that is trying to pass traffic on port 443?

I hope this all makes sense, and that I have explained it all correctly. I am into new territory for me and I am a little lost on what to do next.

Thanks, Mike

Prefix

This really depends on what ports are available to use on:

• your laptop
• the intended receiving device (monitor, TV, projector, etc.)

Newer ports (and devices) are preferable.

Single Monitor Destination

This is the all-in-one option, since it has the most versatility. A while back I purchased and have subsequently used heavily, an adapter that goes from my laptop's Thunderbolt (Apple's powered version of Display Port) to one of many ports.

Here's a current example on Amazon. It works with either Thunderbolt (Apple) or Mini Display Port (for non-Apple devices) and will put out to VGA, DVI, or HDMI (including audio).

Multiple Monitor Destination

This is the tricky end of things, as it relies on more knowledge of display ports and types. Ultimately, you're looking to achieve one of:

• split a signal across multiple displays (splitters)
• replicate ports to be able to connect to multiple displays ("dock" or port replicators)
• connect or adapt multiple existing ports to multiple displays (separate cables and/or adapters for existing ports, more cables to plug in)

Unless you have a specific requirement based on your laptop (see my notes below), you're effectively looking for a port replicator with simplicity in mind. Here's one on Amazon that looks pretty decent, but note: I've not purchased or used it myself. What it looks to be doing right is:

• it connects to the laptop via single USB 3.0 connection
• supports multiple display output, with different port types
• replicates more USB ports
• ethernet port

Notes: My MacBook Pro's "Dock"

My "dock" for my MBP is the Thunderbolt 2 dock by Belkin. I have one complaint and that is that while I can connect multiple ports on the dock unit to multiple displays, it only supports one at a time, meaning I have to plug in a second cable (with adapter) to get it to talk to my second external monitor. It's not a big deal, but seeing how docks exist to reduce (down to one) the number of external connections the laptop needs for "desktop mode", this is a little silly.

What Ports? Help?!

You should probably familiarize yourself with what sorts of ports are common on a laptop. A fairly recent guide that looks to be both accurate and have lots of pictures can be found here.

It was the silly sort of thing a high schooler might adopt at the dawn of the ubiquity of the Internet. Since then, it has been used enough places so as to be difficult to switch, and carries with it the benefit of being short. That last bit, the brevity, is something I value as usernames are only increasing in length and complexity, compounding by the number of additional users over time; this makes it more valuable than how odd it is to start with.

One I've been asked a surprising amount, usually with family with less exposure to software development roles.

I regard myself professionally as: a developer. I could substitute "software engineer" here for all intents and purposes, IMO, but I appreciate brevity and "developer" does the job. I would call myself a "web developer", since I primarily work for the web as the delivery mechanism and/or platform, but I'm also "full-stack" in that I work with my database, ACL, server settings and configurations, reverse proxies, configurations, and things like HTTPS/SSL certificates.

The long-winded version is I'm a "software developer", with an emphasis on certain portions of my stack(s), but I'm a developer first, who works with users/customers, reads documentation, learns and adapts to APIs, along with best practices, and uses the tools at his hands or, as the case may be, writes a tool to do what I need.

Aside: some people in the C.S. field put a stigma on "web development" like it's a horrible beast we should never discuss, but based on the results from the 2017 StackOverflow Developer Survey (developer type) results, I'd say that 72% of development being for the web is a pretty significant portion.

From a conversation in-person, I was asked by a fellow developer how I "have time" for "all that stuff"; such as StackOverflow answers, blogging, trying out different frameworks and other side projects. I felt this was a great seed question, as the answer is counter-intuitive.

I don't "have time" for it all, I only ever have time for a bit of it. This is precisely the reason go in bursts of blogging like crazy while ramping up a series on a given topic, then it quiets down for a while and the posts become far more self-contained.

As for StackOverflow, I haven't even hit 2k rep yet (I joined in 2013), so it's not like I'm being overly ambitious. When it comes to my answers, I try my best to stick to things I know, have a pretty good idea about, or if I have at least part of an answer on an older question, with no other answers; I hate to see people struggle, especially if I have at least part of a solution.

Gen. George S. Patton is quoted as having said:

"A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week."

My re-interpretation, at least so far as it comes to troubleshooting, is that "a well stated question, with a partial solution, can lead to an enlightening result."