• Feb 9, 2018

    Setting up a UniFi Security Gateway for an On Demand iOS VPN

    [UPDATE - 18 May 2020] In some recent iOS update (not sure which), certificates are no longer required to have an on demand VPN work. So I switched to using the built in L2TP VPN in the USG which requires very little configuration. My VPN profile has also changed and can be found here. This profile does on demand like before, but also automatically connects if something on my phone tries to access certain internal resources (I have AdGuard setup to handle DNS on my network). I use this for connecting to Home Assistant without port forwarding or anything like that.

  • Dec 19, 2017

    Preserving Metadata in Photos

    During my recent task of scanning the rest of the photos that I had lying around, I found a CD that my parents had made with some photos on it. They burned it using iPhoto 6 (burning a CD was a feature of iPhoto years ago). I thought that I'd just be able to put the CD in and open the library in Photos with all the metadata preserved. Unfortunately Photos couldn't read the library, so I was stuck with a bunch of JPEGs that had no metadata on them and the file dates aren't the actual dates of the pictures. While I was able to drag all the pictures into Photos, I really would have preferred that the metadata be attached to the photos.

  • Dec 18, 2017

    A year with my Impreza

    It's hard to believe that I bought my Subaru Impreza a year ago! My initial impressions of the car were pretty good. Now that I've put about 10,000 miles on it, I am convinced that I made the right choice with the car. We've taken it on a few road trips pushing, but mostly I've driven it around town.

  • Dec 15, 2017

    Digitally Preparing for an Emergency

    The recent fires in Southern California have me thinking about what would I do if I had to evacuate. I'd grab the family and the dog, but what else? While I have a collection of personal mementos such as product boxes from my career, I'd probably just take my Eagle Scout award which is sitting on a shelf in my office. What about all the documents in my file cabinet? They could be important in the future.