Saul Sutherland

This guide will help you setup content blocking using the Unbound DNS resolver in OPNsense, and assumes you are already using Unbound.

First, navigate to Services > Unbound DNS > Blocklist.

• In the top left corner, enable advanced mode.
• Check Enable.
• Under URLs of Blocklists, enter one of the two following URLs…
  • small.oisd.nl/domains (Blocks Ads)
  • big.oisd.nl/domains (Blocks Ads, Tracking, and Malware)
• Additionally, this URL can be added to block content that is inappropriate for children…
  • nsfw.oisd.nl/domains (Blocks adult websites)
• Click Apply.

You can visit this ad block test website to verify the blocklists are working. When using the big list I score 86%.

I suggest pairing a network-wide DNS blocklist with on-device content blockers as well. The latter can specifically help in removing whitespace on websites where ads may have otherwise been sitting. You should now notice a reduction in your internet usage, and faster loading of websites and apps.

Credits to https://oisd.nl for maintaining the lists of domains. You can report domains that should be included in the lists.

In this brief guide I will show you how to setup the shaper in OPNsense using the minimal number of settings and configuration. We will be using the modern fq_codel (Fair/Flow Queueing + COntrolled DELay) packet scheduler. The idea here is to maximize compatibility, however you may need to research further than this guide to tailor the settings for your network.

Connect a wired computer as close in your network topology to your modem or ONT as you can, and run an internet speedtest. Note the results from this test (it is wise to perform several tests, then work out the average). Here are my personal results we will use in this guide.

First, start by navigating to Firewall > Shaper > Pipes.

• Select the + icon to create a new pipe.
• Enable advanced mode in the top left corner.
• Under Bandwidth enter in your measured download throughput, rounded down.
• Under Bandwidth Metric select Mbps.
• Under Scheduler type select FlowQueue-CoDel.
• Under Description enter PipeDown.
• Save.

Add another, but this time enter the upstream bandwidth and name it PipeUp.

Second, navigate to Firewall > Shaper > Queues.

• Select the + icon to create a new queue.
• Under Pipe select PipeDown.
• Under Mask select Destination.
• Under Description enter DownQueue.
• Save.

Add another, but this time select UpPipe, Source, and enter QueueUp.

Third, navigate to Firewall > Shaper > Rules.

• Select the + icon to create a new rule.
• Under Direction select in.
• Under Target select QueueDown.
• Under Description enter RuleDown.
• Save.

Add another, but this time select out, QueueUp, and enter RuleUp.

Click on Apply for the changes to take effect. You can navigate to Firewall > Shaper > Status to confirm your settings have been enabled.

On a computer that is within your local network, re-run the internet speedtest. You will notice you lose some throughput — in my case about 7-8% — in favour of consistently low latency. Here are my results.

After whats been a five-month or so hiatus from being consistently active, today I crushed an 11 km run like it I have been doing it weekly all along. Running has never been my favourite activity, but it is definitely one where I can end up in a bit of a high if I settle into the right routine and pace.

Losing my consistency wasn’t necessarily planned, and I cannot blame it on the seasons either. It was around February this year when I broke a long streak of closing my rings daily. Throughout Winter I maintained my activity, rowing and HIIT with some outdoor activities as the weather allowed.

Sometimes I feel like I need friends to help keep my motivation up, but I am trying to remember that I am doing this for myself. To stay healthy, reach my goals (and set new ones), and to be more social. I will update this blog weekly with a recap of my week, a public journal of my progess for others to enjoy and get motivated by!

🏃🏼‍♂️

Not sure if Jens Voigt was the first to say it, but this has been the motto for most of my physical activity in the last year. Whether I am running, rowing, cycling, or HIIT-ing, I just repeat this saying to myself until I get it done.

I have planned some new cycling routes to explore this year, and will try my best to document them to some capacity to share here on the blog. You can find the first one below.

Yesterday I donated blood for the first time. I saw a news article noting the shortage in donations during the winter weather fiasco in BC a few weeks ago. In the middle of last year a colleague also sent a friendly email to remind staff at my work about the need for blood donations in Canada. I figured what better way for me to start the year than to go and donate some blood.

Canadian Blood Services has a convenient app to help you book an appointment. It seems like the mobile clinics put up in a gynasium or similar for a single day—quite the feat I think—which allows them to offer donation centres nearby to where you live, but not necessarily every day of the week. This time, the donor centre was about a 10-minute drive from home, not so bad.

Upon entering you go through some identification, surveying, and screening. This is all to make sure you are who you say you are and that you are fully eligible to donate your blood. I was told some of the identification and surveying can be done in advance via the app next time, something I plan to do.

After that, they walked me over to an area of about 8 or so bleeding stations, and sat me down. The staff were extremely polite—especially since I had to wear a 1st-time-donor sticker on my shirt—and explained what they were doing and why throughout the process. I totalled about 13 minutes of bleed time, losing about 551mL of blood.

I took it easy for the rest of the day, and drank plenty of water like they suggested. Overall I was pleasantly surprised with how easy it went. I have already booked my next appointment via the app, and will aim to make 5 out of the maximum of 6 allowed visits this year.

I forgot I had an old mid 2011 Mac mini sitting in storage, and thought I might still be able to put it to some use on my network at home as a headless server. I wanted to share some tips about how I set this machine up so far, and I also plan to update this guide as I make changes to it going forward.

Step 1: Start fresh

To do this, reboot your Mac to Internet Recovery. Note this is only possible when there is a keyboard and monitor connected, a mouse also makes things a bit easier. This is the best method to start fresh on the latest release of macOS. Once there navigate to Disk Utility. You may have to select the drop–down in the top left corner to select Show all devices, then select the internal drive of your Mac. Then, erase it!

Once that has completed, close Disk Utility and proceed to “Re-install macOS”. Follow that through until it reboots to your fresh install.

Step 2: Onboarding

During onboarding, you can choose whether or not this Mac is added to your iCloud account, or simply setup with a local account only. I opted for the former, since then I can recover the login via my Apple ID in case I ever forget/lose the credentials in the future.

Step 3: Enable Screen Sharing

Inside System Preferences, under Sharing, enable Screen Sharing. Once this step is completed, you should be able to proceed without the monitor and keyboard, although you might as well complete the setup before unplugging those.

Step 4: Setup Automatic login

Inside System Preferences, under Users & Groups, select Login Options and then select the user you created under Automatic Login. This is a necessary evil if you are planning to use the Mac headless (sans monitor). Anytime the Mac reboots, maybe due to an update or loss of power, it won’t get stuck at the lock screen after starting up (the Screen Sharing service only starts after a successful login).

Step 5 (Bonus): Configure Time Machine

If you’d like to use your newly setup server as a Time Machine backup location for your other Macs, it is simple enough to do. First, under the same Sharing menu as step three, enable File Sharing. Next, create a folder on the Mac using Finder in a location where you want the backups to exist. Then in the File Sharing preferences, add that folder to the list. Right click on the folder and select Advanced Options, then enable Share as a Time Machine backup destination. On another Mac on the same network, navigate to System Settings, General, Time Machine, and your newly shared folder will appear in the list.

Extra tips…

• Use an ethernet cable to wire in your Mac server to your network.
• Under the Sharing menu you can rename your Mac so it will be more recognizable on your network.
• Setting up a static IP in Network preferences can make it easier to find on your network, but is not mandatory.
• Make sure your Mac server is placed somewhere it still gets airflow.

Well, I am back to share my recent boot–buying experience. About a month ago I posted about my plans to purchase some Chelsea boots that were a bit less fancy and a bit more thrashable. Several brands were considered, but in the end I think I found the best option for me.

First up is Blundstone. These boots are wildy popular—I saw no fewer than 20 people wearing them while I was at the grand opening of the new Apple Pacific Centre—thus driving me to at least consider them as an option. One of the largest drawbacks is that Blundstone no longer make all of their boots in Australia (now making them in Vietnam, India, China, Mexico and Thailand). They do offer quite a large catalogue of boots with the same general style, but varying qualities such as CSA–rated steel–toe workboots, active runner–esque outsoles, Vegan uppers, all–terrain models featuring Vibram outsoles, and also thermal models with 3M insulation. Like most products, I think there is a sweet spot for how many options a company should offer, and Blundstone definitely errs on the too–many–damn–options side of things. It’s a tad overwhelming.

The next brand I discovered is RedBack Boots. I found these after watching a boot teardown video on YouTube from Rose Anvil, where he claims they are significantly comfier and use a thicker leather for their upper compared to Blundstone. They also have a notably luggier outsole, and way fewer options in their catalogue. One standout difference is that RedBack make their boots in Australia.

As always, I like to consider Canadian–made products wherever I can. The next brand I looked at is Canada West Boots. Based in Winnipeg, they have a considerably large catalogue of several styles. Their Chelsea boots range from dressy to workwear, and they are even available in a local retailler.

So with all of this research, which am I to buy? I did try ordering the RedBacks online during their Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale—as they are not available from any local retailers—but was quickly halted by their website’s inability to parse my home address in the shipping field. I tried on several devices and was never able to checkout. Canada West is a great option, but their models do not come in narrower sizes than EEE. When it comes to Chelsea boots, you can never re–tighten them, they almost have to be a little uncomfortable when you try them on, because as you wear them the leather stretches to a point where they’re as comfortable as socks.

This leaves me with the fan-favourite, Blundstone. Vancouver was hit with its first snowstorm of the season last week, and I quickly realized my trail runners I bought last winter wouldn’t hold up in the snow the same way this year that they did last year. The tread is almost completely gone on them, making my already risky choice of running in sub-zero temperatures a potentially fatal one. Although not ideal, I was under some pressure to get my feet into some footwear that I could rely on, and well I will let this photo speak for itself…

Well, I passed my CWNA exam. I took the time to study thoroughly for this one since, yenno, it might be some of the most useful and relevant knowledge related to what I am doing day-to-day at work.

Up next will be CWSP, I really need to start getting familiar with Enterprise authentication.

Today I had the opportunity to be at the opening of Apple’s newest flagship store, Apple Pacific Centre. The two-storey store is unlike any retail experience I have ever seen in person prior, and the energy at a store launch day was even greater than I remember for past iPhone launches. While the lineup wasn’t around the block, security did zig-zag us quite tightly into the side of the exterior. It was a very brisk 0° C outside and we were all eager to get inside.

The clock ticked past 10am and the lineup of fans flowed into the store. There was lots of smiling, cheering, clapping, and high fives as I made my way in and uptairs to the mezzanine. The main floor is very product and accessory focused, the second floor has a few services displays (Arcade, Fitness+) but is clearly meant as a creative space for Apple to host Today at Apple sessions in. The massive front glass panels of the store allow people outside to see just about the whole store, with the exception of the stunning staircase in behind that has a fully open skylight above.

I have been toying with the thought of upgrading my Apple Watch to the newer, more… Ultra model. In fact today I unlocked the 365 Move Goals achievement in the Activity app, representing my near-perfect effort at closing all my rings for the last year. This new watch will be a great reminder of this achievement, and push me to try more this year to improve my wellbeing(s) — fitness, mindfulness, digital.

Focus modes launched last year in 2021 with the release of iOS 15. At the time, the feature felt incomplete to me. Only being able to create allow lists for people and apps to be let through the notifications filter was going to require too much maintenance on my part. After all, the whole point of focus modes is for me to be able to focus on the physical thing I am doing in that moment, not think about how I might miss that important call from the car dealer to deliver some unexpected news…

Fast forward to today, and the public releases of iOS 16, iPadOS 16, watchOS 9, and macOS Ventura are now installed on all my devices. The significance here is that all the improvements brought to the feature are available to me no matter my use context. Below I will highlight some of the tricks I discovered that make this feature work for me. As usual, please do not read this as though I am suggesting this should work for you as well. I will work through the list in the order they appear in the Settings app (alphabetical)

First up, plain old Do Not Disturb

This one is unchanged from how it worked before Focus modes were introduced. Some notable settings are Allow Repeated Calls is enabled but Time Sensitive Notifications are disabled.

Second, Fitness

Same as above, except Time Sensitive Notifications are enabled. This Focus is also scheduled to turn on anytime I start a workout on my Apple Watch or Fitness+ workout on my iPhone.

Lucky number Three, Personal

Lets get fancy. This Focus mode has no people silenced (this will make more sense shortly), and work apps are silenced (Teams, Duo). This is scheduled for all times that are not Work or Sleep. Additionally, I have Focus Filters configured so I do not see work mail or calendar events.

Fourth, Reading

Identical to Fitness, except this is enabled when I am in the Apple Books app (with the exception of using said app in CarPlay).

Fifth, Sleep

Zzzzzz

Sixth, Work

This took a while to get right. I did have to build quite a list of regular contacts to silence while in my work focus. Family members and friends. The list is not comprehensive, but it does consist of people who message me on a regular weekly basis. When it comes to apps, I have set an allow list for all my work-related apps on iOS and macOS. Interestingly, this is the only focus that has a custom Home and Lock Screen set, with some work-related calendar and reminders widgets. This Focus is scheduled to turn on during my regular work hours, or if I am at our office. When it comes to Filters I found only filtering to my work inbox worked best. Filtering out personal calendar events did not allow me to mentally plan for after-work plans.

I hope this isn’t too much, but what I was hoping to highlight in this post was my realization that despite all of the options being available in all the different default Focus modes, you do not have to configure every single one. I don’t have a Lock/Home screen tied to my personal, because if I did then it wouldn’t be allowed to be the same for any other Focus modes. I realized the only time I need such a strict context switch was when I was at work.

One last little note I wanted to mention was about using DND on a Mac. Since Apple fixed the keyboards, they replaced three of the function row keys with the Spotlight, Dictation, and DND buttons. For a few years now I have had this new keyboard, but only month or so ago have I started to use them (I honestly forgot they were there). Now when I jump into a Teams meeting or a call, I smash that F5 key to drop myself into DND so I can give the other person/people my full attention. Dictation on my Mac is also really fast. I might actually use that for drafting these posts more in the future.

Today Apple launched the Emergency SOS via satellite feature that was announced back in September for the iPhones 14.

While outside for a break from work, I noticed a red “1” badge on my iPhone’s Settings app, and sure enough it was to introduce this new feature. I was not expecting more than a few sentences to announce the launch, but instead was invited to demo the feature.

It took ~10s to find my location, ~5s to lock onto a satellite, and 10-15s to send some test messages (I presume it varies based on message length).

Overall, this was an excellent way to familiarize myself with how this feature works, so that in the hopefully unlikely event I ever have to use it, I am not having to read all the instructions carefully and go through the experience under a stressful situation.

Disclaimer: I am not experienced when it comes to boots or footwear in general. If anything, this collection of thoughts and research is just for my own reference. If this benefits at least one other person, that makes it worth being a public blogpost.

I’ve recently aquired a pair of Chelsea-style boots (specifically, a pair from Dayton in Vancouver, BC). They are easy to slip on, are quite comfortable, and stylish enough to yield the occasional compliment. Although I am not questioning the quality or durability of my existing boots, they do err on the dressier side. This has me wishing for something very similar, but less expensive and more… thrashable. Something where I can wade through some shallow water or go on a community hike without cringing as I think about the price tag on them.

The first brand name to come to mind is Blundstone. I personally know several people who own these boots, and they all sing high praise for their durability and comfort. They have several different styles with the following qualities;

• non-insulated
• insulated
• regular outsole
• all-terrain outsole
• waterproof

I am instantly met with Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD) about what the best combination of traits might be best for me. We haven’t even considered colours or materials of the upper yet!

Hence, the needing for this collection of some research, to follow in an upcoming post.

I wanted to write a few words to remind myself why I am studying for this certification. In September ‘21 I completed the online exam to become a Certified Wireless Specialist. I started down the learning path by the Certified Wireless Network Professionals group in order to - in parts - complete my understanding of the many components of wireless networking. Prior to reading their study guides, everything I had learned was from talking to people online, reading vendor documentation, experimenting with labbing, and discussions with colleagues at work. Completing the CWS exam was quite easy, I expect most people who can read a short study guide and take an exam could pass it. Moving onto the Certified Wireless Network Administrator, upon receiving the study guide I instantly knew this would be a lot more detailed and take more time before I would be comfortable attempting the exam.

I have certainly taken too long to begin really digging into the topics I have a hard time retaining. Study blocks in my calendar and motivating myself to study by walking to nearby cafes has helped keep me focused. Most importantly, someone special motivated me to schedule my exam. CWS was a less intimidating online exam, but the CWNA exam must be taken at a Pearon VUE testing centre. So my exam is booked for the 25th, and I am rounding out my knowledge by revisiting the rough spots from the study guide, and using the online practise tests. Expect a (hopefully happy) post here after then with an update…