https://www.chrismurton.uk/post/ Recent content in Post on Chris Murton Hugo -- gohugo.io Fri, 07 Apr 2017 20:00:00 +0000 https://www.chrismurton.uk/2017/04/07/cloudwatch-isnt-just-for-the-cloud/ Fri, 07 Apr 2017 20:00:00 +0000 https://www.chrismurton.uk/2017/04/07/cloudwatch-isnt-just-for-the-cloud/ Amazon CloudWatch is an inexpensive way to monitor your solution in AWS and due to the extensive set of metrics provided for every AWS service out of the box, it’s easy and quick to adopt. Granted it’s not going to replace your enterprise monitoring solution overnight, but for those who haven’t got the time or justification to spin up their own Nagios/Zabbix/OpsView solution it can do basic event monitoring and alerting. https://www.chrismurton.uk/2017/02/22/how-to-rid-yourself-of-aws-api-access-keys/ Wed, 22 Feb 2017 18:00:00 +0000 https://www.chrismurton.uk/2017/02/22/how-to-rid-yourself-of-aws-api-access-keys/ It’s fairly legacy these days to use hardcoded IAM Access Key ID and Secret Access Key values to call the AWS API, which has spawned a variety of different ways to obtain and utilise IAM credentials. Wait, what’s wrong with hardcoded credentials? The issues are numerous, some of which have come to the surface because of data breaches. Dev put AWS keys on Github or leaked access keys resulting in a $6,000 bill for starters. https://www.chrismurton.uk/2017/02/18/who-needs-a-homelab-anyway/ Sat, 18 Feb 2017 13:40:00 +0000 https://www.chrismurton.uk/2017/02/18/who-needs-a-homelab-anyway/ I’ll start this post by setting out my stall - I’m a self confessed geek. I tinker, tweak and enjoy experimenting with new technologies. The arrival of my daughter a couple of years ago did reduce my tinkering time drastically but I digress. There was a time a few years ago that the keen IT hobbyist would have to invest serious time and money to feed their habit, namely in: https://www.chrismurton.uk/2017/01/01/potted-history-tvam/ Sun, 01 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.chrismurton.uk/2017/01/01/potted-history-tvam/ In the 1980s, I have vivid memories of waking up early in the morning and watching ‘Good Morning Britain’. TV-am, the first commercial breakfast show in the UK, was broadcast from Hawley Crescent in Camden Town, London. The only building in London with eggcups on it’s roof was built from scratch. TV-am started off life unsuccessfully as around the time it was due to launch, the BBC launched a rival service. https://www.chrismurton.uk/2017/01/01/all-about-the-big-breakfast/ Sun, 01 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.chrismurton.uk/2017/01/01/all-about-the-big-breakfast/ The Big Breakfast first hit our TV screens on September 28th 1992 with a completely alternative style of breakfast show. It was ground-breaking television. The Big Breakfast was to be beamed to us daily between 7am and 9am from Lock Keepers Cottages, Old Ford Lock, London. Channel 4 had purchased these cottages which had stood disused for a long period of time and had significant amounts of graffiti and internal damage. https://www.chrismurton.uk/2016/07/27/a-misspent-youth/ Wed, 27 Jul 2016 13:25:00 +0100 https://www.chrismurton.uk/2016/07/27/a-misspent-youth/ Once upon a time when I was at secondary school, the computers in the library were protected with a program called Applock. Very Windows ‘95 it was too. The utility was written by Anaplastic Software in 1994 and was available as Shareware with an option to buy for $12.50, which my school had done. The company seems to be long since gone, but you can still download the application from some places on the Internet. https://www.chrismurton.uk/2016/07/27/plexpy-for-the-curious/ Wed, 27 Jul 2016 13:25:00 +0100 https://www.chrismurton.uk/2016/07/27/plexpy-for-the-curious/ Well before Netflix, Amazon Prime Video et al. were a thing, I’ve been running Plex Media Server at home to ship media of all types (photos, music, TV shows and movies) to various devices around the house. I got so fed up with physical DVDs chewing up space in the lounge I went through and ripped every DVD we own to digital and subsequently cleared out two drawers worth of plastic and shiny discs - so I’m fairly invested.