Reilly Chase reillychase

Don't use VPN services.

No, seriously, don't. You're probably reading this because you've asked what VPN service to use, and this is the answer.

Note: The content in this post does not apply to using VPN for their intended purpose; that is, as a virtual private (internal) network. It only applies to using it as a glorified proxy, which is what every third-party "VPN provider" does.

A Russian translation of this article can be found here, contributed by Timur Demin.
A Turkish translation can be found here, contributed by agyild.
There's also this article about VPN services, which is honestly better written (and has more cat pictures!) than my article.

⚠️ this is now stupidly out of date

Computers

13" Macbook Pro 3.3 GHz i7 (late 2016)
Microsoft Surface Book (2016)

Peripherals

Dell up3216q 32" monitor

Exporting your 2FA tokens from Authy to transfer them into another 2FA application

IMPORTANT - Update regarding deprecation of Authy desktop apps

Past August 2024, Authy stopped supported the desktop version of their apps:
See Authy is shutting down its desktop app | The 2FA app Authy will only be available on Android and iOS starting in August for details.

And indeed, after a while, Authy changed something in their backend which now prevents the old desktop app from logging in. If you are already logged in, then you are in luck, and you can follow the instructions below to export to tokens.

If you are not logged in anymore, but can find a backup of the necessary files, then restore those files, and re-install Authy 2.2.3 following the instructions below, and it should work as expected.

	#!/usr/bin/env python
	"""
	Very simple HTTP server in python (Updated for Python 3.7)

	Usage:

	./dummy-web-server.py -h
	./dummy-web-server.py -l localhost -p 8000

	Send a GET request:

	#!/bin/bash
	#
	# This script configures WordPress file permissions based on recommendations
	# from http://codex.wordpress.org/Hardening_WordPress#File_permissions
	#
	# Author: Michael Conigliaro <mike [at] conigliaro [dot] org>
	#
	WP_OWNER=www-data # <-- wordpress owner
	WP_GROUP=www-data # <-- wordpress group
	WP_ROOT=$1 # <-- wordpress root directory

	/*
	* Arduino Serial Bypass - use an Arduino as a dumb USB 2 Serial Converter
	*
	* This code makes the Arduino not interfere with pins 0 and 1
	* which are connected to RX and TX on the FTDI chip. This allows
	* the data coming from the FTDI USB 2 Serial chip to flow directly
	* to another device. Since RX and TX are labeled from the Arduino's
	* point of view, don't cross the wires, but plug the device's
	* RX wire into the RX pin 0 and the TX wire into the TX pin 0.
	*

	#!/bin/bash

	# Cache sudo password
	sudo -v

	# Get latest OpenSSL 1.0.2 version from https://openssl.org/source/
	# v1.1.0 seems to have removed SSLv2/3 support
	openssl_version=1.0.2k

	# Install build dependencies

	import csv
	import threading
	from Queue import Queue
	from getpass import getpass
	from netmiko import ConnectHandler
	from datetime import datetime

	USER = 'pyclass'
	PASSWORD = getpass()