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  • How to Use Yubikey on Linux

    How to Use Yubikey on Linux

    Initial Setup:

    1. Download the YubiKey Manager. This will allow you to modify specific properties of your key, and turn certain features on or off.
    2. Once you’ve installed the manager, you’ll need to make sure that you have U2F mode enabled on your key.
    3. Next, download or create a copy of a special rules file provided by Yubico. It can be found on their Github repository: https://github.com/Yubico/libu2f-host/blob/master/70-u2f.rules. Once you have the file, copy it to /etc/udev/rules.d/. If you already have a file in that directory named 70-u2f.rules, make sure that the content looks like the file from the Github repo.
    4. NOTE: If your version of UDEV is lower than 188, you’ll need the old rules file instead. If you’re unsure of your UDEV version, simply run sudo udevadm --version in a terminal.
    5. Save your file, then reboot your system.
    6. Make sure you’re running Google Chrome version 38 or later. You can use your YubiKey in U2F+HID mode starting in Google Chrome version 39.

    Additional Tools:

    Yubico provides a proprietary 2FA authentication tool that enables use of the key with services such as Protonmail. It can be downloaded from their site.

    Another tip:

    If you’re having trouble getting your YubiKey to show up on Linux (I’m running Manjaro), you’ll want to make sure you’re running a service called pcscd. To run it, just open a terminal and run sudo systemctl start pcscd. Keep in mind, that will only start the daemon running. If you reboot your computer and stick your YubiKey in later, it won’t be recognized unless you start the pcscd daemon on boot. You can do this by running sudo systemctl enable pcscd. This will create a symlink to the pcscd.socket file, and it should start the daemon on boot. Once you’ve done that, you’re good to go!

    June 2023 update:

    Running a fresh install of Xubuntu on an Acer Chromebook, I was able to use Yubikey at Google sign-in on Firefox with zero Yubikey-specific package installs, no drivers, and largely out-of-the box. It would seem that none of the work described above is required anymore

    matt

    March 31, 2020
    General Computing, Lifestyle, Linux
    2FA, cybersecurity, lifestyle, linux, security, yubico, yubikey
  • [VIDEO] 1 Year Later: Aventon Mataro Review

    Aventon Mataro Review

    This is technically my second Aventon Mataro review. I made a ‘first impressions’ video about a year ago describing my experience clipping into a fixed gear bike for the first time. Overall, this bike has been great to ride for commuting and short errands. I rode the bike with stock everything for nearly a complete year until I absolutely had to replace the chain. And after replacing the chain, I realized that I had actually worn down the teeth on the rear sprocket, so I ended up replacing that as well.

    I road the stock Kenda tires for most of the year and I feel like they held up very well. I only had to repair flats about 5 or so times during the course of the year. After I had worn the tread fairly thin, I ended up swapping them for WTB Thickslick tires that feature a thicker, puncture-resistant composition. So far, I’ve been riding Thickslicks for about 2 months or so, and haven’t had a single flat (knock on wood!).

    I’ve even had some close calls where I’ve been riding in a dirty bike like with loads of broken glass and twisted metal bits, ended up hitting something, hearing it rattle behind me, and braced for the impeding “Psssssssttt”… but it never came! So here’s to another 3000 miles. Happy riding, and stay safe out there.

    matt

    December 22, 2019
    Cycling, Lifestyle
    aventon, cycling, fixed gear, mataro
  • [VIDEO] How To Make An Outdoor Fogger

    So in summary…

    Danny says there was a guy who posted a video on YouTube a while back featuring this same method for creating an outdoor fogger. (food-grade mineral oil inside a propane-powered outdoor fogger), but for whatever reason, it was taken down. So this video is an attempt to keep the idea alive, and mostly just stick it here for me to reference when I forget, or hopefully help others along the way.

    Let’s make an outdoor fogger

    All you’ll need for this job is:

    • insect fogger (approx $70 at Home Depot, but I’ve seen them as low as $50 on Amazon)
    • propane (a pack of 3 runs about $25) on Amazon
    • food-grade mineral oil (about $21 per gallon on Amazon)

    Hopefully this will help someone down the road. Happy filmmaking, have fun, and don’t burn down your neighborhood. Propane is dangerous. Please fog your movie scene responsibly, I’m not responsible for anything.

    If any of these links quit working, please let me know so I can update them. Thanks!

    Also, just a heads up- keep an eye out for a future video (it will be linked here when it goes live) where you can see me and Danny using this exact fogger setup for a short film shot in just 48 hours… It was pretty wild.

    matt

    December 15, 2019
    Filmmaking, Lifestyle, Tutorial
    DIY, filmmaking, fog, haze, movies, special effects
  • Finally Writing Down A 3 Year Old Idea

    I’m just not a person who writes things down. I never carry pens or paper. Even if I do happen to have a pen an paper with me, I rarely use them. I carried a Moleskine for a year or so, but was always nervous to write ideas in it for some reason. One day, I accidentally ended up washing my Moleskine and never replaced it. I’ve tried writing journal entries in my Moleskine, in .txt files on my computer, and even in personal Google Drive documents, but I’ve never been consistent with it.

    Biggest Roadblocks to Writing

    I’ve started a good handful of scripts, but for whatever reason, I’ve never been satisfied with where they end up. I’ll start with one idea and work it and develop different ideas for conflicts and story arches, but I never feel like I really arrive at, “Oh yeah. THAT’S my story.”

    It could be just me on this, but that has been the biggest roadblock for me. I rarely actually follow through with projects because I can never get past the writing part of it. Writing is definitely my weak spot, and I certainly wouldn’t classify myself as a writer.

    Another roadblock is just inconsistency. I’ll start an idea, maybe spend a weekend or so developing an idea, reach a stopping point, shelve it, and never look at that script ever again. I don’t make a plan to revisit the script. Now that I’m taking on this project, I’m going to HAVE to dedicate some time every single day to making at least a little progress or it will never get done.

    And finally, I’m just not confident as a writer, simply because I don’t write. It sounds stupid because it’s one of those ping pong, back-and-forth arguments. I don’t write because I’m not confident, yet I’m not confident because I don’t write. So the cure for this is consistency, and getting over the fact that your writing is gonna suck. Your first script will suck. Your first film will suck. Your first animation will suck. Everybody’s first thing sucks because it’s their first thing. Glad we got that out of the way.

    Finally On Paper After 3 Years

    I cannot express the overwhelming satisfaction of having an idea over 3 years ago, starting to play with it 3 years ago, then life happening, taking a break, more life happening, having kids, moving, changing jobs, and all the stuff that easily take priority over writing a script. But! To come back to this idea that’s been shelved for so long, and to finally get the complete short story down on paper feels amazing.

    I’ve got big plans for this little short film! It will actually be my 3rd personal short film ever. I made my first two in college and learned a ton, and started doing professional videos from there on out. I haven’t had much time for personal or passion projects, but I feel like I’ve built up enough passion to make this one happen in spite of whatever happens along the way.

    This also kinda marks a turning point in the ol’ blog here, as I’ve been posting a lot of nerdy terminal-based developer stuff as of late. All that stuff is fine, and I think it’s pretty cool, but in the future, I’m going to post as many updates as I can on the progress of this short film project. I want to learn as much as I can from the project, and I want everyone else to have the opportunity to learn along with me.

    This will be my first animated short film project. The previous two shorts in college were live action shot with zero budget and friends. I’ll have a micro budget for this one, but the biggest difference is that, because it’s animated, I’ll be doing the entire film almost completely solo.

    matt

    July 9, 2019
    Lifestyle, Screenwriting
    brainstorming, concept, development, habits, ideas, preproduction, screenwriting
  • Turning my Chromebook into an N64

    Chromebook N64

    I hadn’t planned on turning my Chromebook into an N64 over the weekend, but it’s what happened. Turned out working pretty well, so I thought I’d share my victory with everyone!

    Prerequisites:

    1. Chromebook (or any laptop)
    2. a real operating system (not Chrome OS, but preferrably Linux)
    3. a controller of gamepad of some sort. I used my brother’s old PS3 controller.

    I thought I wrote a post on how I hacked my Chromebook to run GalliumOS, but It may have gotten deleted. If you’re interested, just drop a message in my contact for and I’ll get on it!

    Step 1: Find an Emulator

    This is how you’re gonna play your favorite games. There’s a bunch of them out there for all different operating systems. I’m running GalliumOS, so I went with Mupen64Plus. You can either build it yourself, or you can find some precompiled versions out there. Once you’ve got an emulator, you’re nearly there!

    Step 2: Grab a Controller

    Pretty much any controller will work. The only tricky thing will be finding a driver to work with your controller. I dug around and found a driver called QtSixA. After installing it, I realized I didn’t actually need it because GalliumOS just recognized my PS3 controller right out of the box. Awesome!

    Step 3: Get some ROMS

    A quick internet search for “N64 ROMS” should definitely get you pointed in the right direction. Grab whatever ROM you want, but just keep in mind, if you’ve set up a N64 emulator on your laptop, you’re gonna want to use N64 roms with that.

    Yo, that’s pretty much it. It took me about 3 hours to set everything up, but it’s mostly because I started off trying to install Emulation Station and RetroArch with no luck. Those emulator front ends pretty much launched and immediately froze for whatever reason. Eventually I just decided to download just an N64 emulator and a GUI launcher (Mupen64Plus-QT found in synaptic package manager, I think). Once I launched it and pointed it to my ROM library, I was off and running.

    Step 4: Profit

    Happy gaming!

    matt

    June 18, 2019
    General Computing, Lifestyle, Linux
  • Blender, Linux, and R3D

    Convert with FFMPEG?

    If you’re wondering how to edit r3d on linux, you’ve come to the right place. This post is inspired by an official, yet very under-the-radar release of something called REDline Linux released back in mid 2018. As a fan of Linux as well as continuing my quest to discover a complete replacement for the Adobe Creative Cloud, I ran into this question: Can Linux handle R3D raw? After just a little bit of research, I discovered that ffmpeg can actually decode an early version of the R3D codec! The downside is, as of the writing of this article, ffmpeg isn’t capable of decoding the latest version of the R3D codec. However, this could change if someone comes along and reverse engineers the new R3D codec.

    Yet the question still remains. How can I work with RED footage and use Linux at the same time? Enter Resolve. (Opinion alert!) Blackmagic Design has positioned themselves in a way that could completely dethrone the current king of postproduction software, Adobe. Adobe makes a great suite of programs. One of the biggest advantages they have is that their software can not only ingest and work with project files from other software within the suite, but it also does this seamlessly across Mac and Windows. For example, I can save a Photoshop project on a Mac, and open that same Photoshop file inside of After Effects on Windows (and still have access to all of the Photoshop layers). The biggest disadvantages of Adobe CC is that it’s a fairly expensive monthly subscription model that doesn’t support Linux.

    Blackmagic Resolve

    Blackmagic Resolve has been the industry standard for color correction for a very long time. Recently, Blackmagic Design revamped Resolve to be able to handle much more than just color correction. In a lot of situations, Resolve can be a sort of one-stop-shop for all you postproduction needs, providing basic edits, basic audio workflow, and some basic VFX. The biggest news is that Resolve is free to download, and upgradable to the full version for a one-time purchase of $300. So after your first 6 months, you’re already saving money over the standard Adobe CC subscription.

    Anyway, point being, Resolve is quickly becoming the powerhouse one-stop solution for professional post video. Handling R3D files is as simple as importing them off your RED mini mag, opening up Resolve, and grabbing them from inside the Media Pool tab. Pretty much like using the Media Browser inside Premiere Pro. Except better.

    R3D in, TIFF out

    From there, you can make the edits you need and export to whatever format you want, even image sequences like TIFF and others. What’s more, is that you don’t have to convert your footage with FFMPEG or something similar before importing. You can just import raw R3D without a hitch. Happy editing and Blendering!

    matt

    May 21, 2019
    Lifestyle, Linux, Video Editing
    Blender, compatability, linux, postproduction, r3d, red digital cinema, sequences, vfx
  • Earning BAT on Brave’s Ad Network

    What’s a BAT? What’s Brave? How does all this work?

    Brave is an internet browser built off Google’s Chrome browser. So what makes it different? Brave’s mission is to solve the ever-growing problem of ads that track you and follow you around wherever you go. Brave’s goal is to pay its users every time they view an ad. Seriously? Yes, seriously. They also want to give users the opportunity to pay their favorite internet publishers directly in exchange for an ad-free experience online. It comes with a built-in ad blocker as well as a built-in wallet to keep all your loot when you browse. Why not try out Brave for yourself?

    What’s BAT?

    BAT stands for Basic Attention Token. It’s a cryptocurrency used to pay Brave’s users and Brave’s publishers. When you first download Brave, it’ll ask you if you want to create a wallet. As a promotional effort aimed at early adopters, for a limited time Brave would fill your wallet with as much as 25 BAT (about $12 at the time of this writing)! You may not get a wallet full of BAT now, but as a normal user, Brave keeps track of how many HTTPS upgrades, ads and trackers blocked. Every now and again you’ll see an ad while using Brave, but odds are they are ads that verified on Brave’s network. In other words, these are ads that clients pay the users (through Brave) to see. So check your wallet every now and again!

    How Do I earn BAT?

    As previously mentioned, BAT can be earned simply by viewing ads on Brave’s network. However there’s even more opportunity as a verified Brave publisher. As a content creator working with Brave, you can create your stuff like normal (YouTube videos, Twitch streams, blogs, etc), but if another Brave user stumbles across your content, Brave allows those users to pay you directly! Users can make one-time tips to your favorite publishers, or schedule monthly contributions at any amount you like.

    As a user, you feed your wallet using an external crypto account using BTC, ETH, LTC, or BAT. As a publisher, your earned BAT tokens end up in an account managed by Uphold. If you don’t have an account with Uphold, you will be required to create one when signing up for the Brave publisher rewards program. Once the coins are in your Uphold account, you can do with them whatever you like. Either spend them, invest them, or put them into your own Brave wallet.

    matt

    May 14, 2019
    General Computing, Lifestyle, Web Development
    ad block, ad-blocking, advertising, BAT, brave, browser, cryptocurrency, web
  • How To Set Up a Raspberry Pi 3 B+

    Prerequisites

    For this tutorial, I’m going to assume that you’ve got enough hardware to get started. And if you got your Raspberry Pi as part of a kit, then you should be good to go. You should have the following:

    • Raspberry Pi board
    • Raspberry Pi power supply (micro USB Output 5V DC 2.5A Regulated, Input 100V to 240V AC)
    • Raspberry Pi case (not technically required, but I definitely want to protect my pi!)
    • Micro SD card (at least a class 10)
    • HDMI cable (full size, male to male)
    • Monitor or television capable of displaying output from a full HDMI port
    • USB-A mouse
    • USB-A keyboard
    • A computer
    • A micro SD card reader

    Download your OS

    You can run tons of different operating systems on your Raspberry Pi, but for this demo, we’ll go with the OS officially supported by the Raspberry Pi Foundation called Raspian (based on Linux Debian). You can download the operating system here. Once you have the operating system downloaded, you’ll want to head over and download the latest version of Etcher.

    Etcher is a great, simple, open source software used to create bootable media. Use Etcher to select your downloaded copy of Raspian. Next, select your micro SD card as the volume to burn to. Then click go! It will take several minutes to write the OS to the micro SD and then validate the burn. Once it’s complete, eject your SD card and you’re ready for the next step.

    Boot your new Raspberry Pi

    With your freshly burned SD card inserted into your Pi, connect the keyboard, mouse, and monitor, and plug power into your pi. There isn’t a power button on the pi, so as soon as power starts running through the board, it will automatically start the boot process. You should be greeted with a simple setup wizard to help you configure some settings that will be applied every time you boot your pi in the future.

    That’s it! Enjoy your new Pi!

    matt

    April 30, 2019
    Lifestyle, Linux, Raspberry Pi
    debian, DIY, linux, pi, raspberry pi, raspberry pi 3, raspberry pi 3 b+, raspian, setup
  • Why The Breeze Cursor Theme is The Best

    Themes

    So basically, there are themes.

    Themes can do a lot to change the look and feel of your computing experience. If you’re a Linux user, there’s a good chance you like things customized. Just have a Google for “linux themes” and you’ll see what I mean. You can take this to whatever level you want. You can change the look and feel of literally everything, or you can do a subtle cursor change like me.

    Breeze Theme

    Lately I’ve been a fan of the Breeze cursor theme. To get that theme and a selection of other themes to choose from later, open a terminal and install the unity tweak tool and a few theme libraries:

    $ sudo apt install breeze-cursor-theme oxygen-cursor-theme oxygen-cursor-theme-extra unity-tweek-tool

    Once you install the themes and the unity tweak tool, you can open the tweak tool and head over to Appearance > Cursors. Click through the list until you find one you like. Make note of the name. Once you’ve got one, open your terminal again and type:

    $ sudo update-alternatives --config x-cursor-theme

    This will bring up a list of all the themes you’ve installed on your system. Look through the list and find the theme you liked. Type in the number of your selected theme to confirm your changes. To make sure your changes remain changed, simply run:

    $ compiz --replace

    and you can either reboot or log out and log back in to make your changes. That’s it! Enjoy your new look!

    matt

    April 16, 2019
    Lifestyle, Linux, Ubuntu
    breeze, computing, cursor, linux, pc, theme, ubuntu, windows
  • Is It Okay To Blog About Different Topics?

    For the last several years, I’ve had lots of ideas for various blog posts and videos, but there’s been a lot of stuff stopping me from ever making that video or writing that blog post. Early in my career as a video professional, I was blessed with the opportunity to work with several wealthy entrepreneurs who seemed to know a lot on the topic of branding. They pretty much instilled in me that it’s not okay to post about different topics.

    Of course, this is a giant ocean of a topic with numerous books, articles, and videos about making a brand for yourself. Lots of people said you needed to have a blog, you needed to have a YouTube channel, you needed to have this, you needed to have that… The biggest theme I saw across all of them is they all had a pretty solid focus on everything they ever posted. It was always about entrepreneurship, business, getting more clients, and making more money.

    That’s all great, and probably a good idea for running a business. But I always struggled with “my brand”. I felt like it was this made up version of myself that I didn’t even know. And the biggest rule this person had to follow was “consistency”. Always post about the same stuff on a regular basis. This ground my entire creative process to a screeching halt.

    Don’t let a ‘brand’ stop you from doing what you want

    I’m not a single-minded person. I have tons of different interests, likes and dislikes. I want to share a lot of it. In January, I’m into motorcycles. Suppose in April, I’m into airplanes. In August, I’m into kitesurfing. In November, I’m into computers. There are, however, a small group of interests that hold my attention for long periods of time. But I could never focus on one topic forever and post about that one thing on a regular basis. That’s way too robotic for me.

    So all this makes me take a step back. Why am I doing this blog? Why am I making this video? Do I have an audience? Do I even want an audience? Should I do this to make money? Is there any money in it? Is this worth pursuing? I have no idea how to answer pretty much all of these questions. But after trying to figure out the answers for over 3 years, I realized I wasn’t actually creating anything.

    I never made videos, I never wrote posts because 98% of the time, they didn’t fit into one particular category of content. Sometimes I wanted to share tutorials. Other times, I wanted to make a comedy skit. Other times I just wanted to share my experiences. But because all those things were never “focused,” I could never figure out how to include them in a social media feed or post them on my website or upload them to my YouTube channel.

    SEO is great, but don’t let it restrict you

    I am focused. Just not on the same content, all day, every day. I don’t know how to fit that into a plan or a channel. Should I always “give the people what they want”? I don’t really have a niche. I don’t really have a focus. But I am sick of feeling restricted by having to follow the mountains of rules that ensure great SEO and conversion, and profit, and whatever.

    If you’re like me and you feel constricted by the idea of sticking to a specific topic for your vlog/blog channel/feed, do yourself a favor and experience the freedom to post about different topics. Don’t let some made up guidelines for ‘success’ define whether or not you should do something that you want to do. I would just suggest posting content because you love it and are genuinely interested in it. Don’t post because you think you might make a fortune off a viral video. It could happen, but it’s like trying to hit the lottery.

    Anyway, that’s all I’ve got! Hope this helped you answer a few questions on posting about different topics or straying from a specific topic. Yeah, you may lose some followers, but just be you.

    matt

    February 5, 2019
    Blogging, Lifestyle, Vlogging
    blog, blogging, branding, lifestyle, personal brand, social media, vlog, vlogging
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Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. 1 Thess 5:21