Matt Zaske Online Blog
Breaking the Chain: An Edge Case of Let's Encrypt Root Certificate Expiration
- September 27, 2021
- 6 minutes
- automation, inspiration, mistakes, security, tech
It's been written about and announced for some time—the forthcoming expiration of the DST Root CA X3 certificate. The good news for most folks is that it's not a big deal. And that, I thought, also included me. For the most part, this has panned out to be true.
Read MoreA DMARC Follow-Up: Nine Months In
- September 13, 2021
- 3 minutes
- inspiration, security, tech
It's been a full nine months since I first wrote about implementing DMARC controls, and over six months since I last wrote about fiddling with DMARC settings, so it's time to provide another quick update.
Read MoreUndo the Undo -- A Short Tale of a Git Mistake
![Gif with "Abort the mission" text.](/sites/default/files/2021-08/giphy%5B1%5D_0.gif)
I had one of those "Oh shit, Git!" moments this past weekend...
Mine was that I made a necessary change, and since it was pretty minor (really a typo fix of sorts) I just went ahead and did it in the main
branch. NBD. Commit
, push
, and pull
on the remote host, and all is good.
Whoops! Cleaning up Mistakes via API
![Gif with "I've made a huge mistake" as caption.](/sites/default/files/2021-08/giphy%5B1%5D.gif)
- August 09, 2021
- 5 minutes
- automation, inspiration, mistakes, php, tech
Posting again after kind of a lengthy break. It's summertime, and for lots of disparate reasons I've queued up topics but haven't had the ambition or taken the time to write them all out. So today we get a tale of automation mistakes and the subsequent cleanup.
Read MoreReinstalling reCAPTCHA
In the last post I wrote about finally cutting off the comments feature due to an abundance of spam.
For about two days, this was successful...
Read MoreCleaning Up Old Mistakes Part Deux: Leveraging Includes
- May 10, 2021
- 4 minutes
- inspiration, mistakes, security, tech
This post is the second of a two-part miniseries identifying and correcting old mistakes. Part one discusses cleaning up Git repos based on permissions faux pas.
Today's atonement for old mistakes: Using centralized/standard "includes" for path variables and eliminating passwords from committed code.
Read MoreCleaning Up Old Mistakes: Git Repos With Nested Accounts
- April 26, 2021
- 6 minutes
- inspiration, mistakes, tech
This post is the first of a two-part miniseries identifying and correcting old mistakes. Part Deux is also available.
Today's atonement for old mistakes: Git repos used in production in which nested/disparate accounts run code.
Read MoreA Twitter Bot for Dad Jokes
- April 12, 2021
- 5 minutes
- automation, bots, inspiration, php, tech
About a month ago, I discovered this gem of a tweet:
Read MoreTIL fatherhood dot gov has a dad joke API pic.twitter.com/fZi4rRSQS8
My Personal Git Cheat Sheet
- March 29, 2021
- 3 minutes
- inspiration, tech
I've used a number of various Git cheatsheets over the years, usually duing a moment of "how do I do __ again?" and sometimes during a moment of panic like "Shit! Undo that commit!"
Recently, I (finally) "removed my training wheels" and uninstalled the UI client I had for Git, for two reasons:
Read MoreGit-ting the hang of Hooks
- March 15, 2021
- 8 minutes
- automation, inspiration, tech
Several months ago I made the decision to finally use Git to manage a more complex "legacy" web application project that I inherited over a decade ago and continue to maintain. Years ago when migrating the web application to a new hosting stack, I ported the development/test and production sites into their own Git repositories.
Read MoreSigning Git Commits: Chasing the "Verified" Stamp
- March 01, 2021
- 6 minutes
- inspiration, tech
I've been working on projects lately that actually involve writing more code than I have in a while...and so I'm using Git/GitHub with greater frequency than I have in some time.
Read MoreImplementing DMARC: Adjusting SPF Records
- February 15, 2021
- 5 minutes
- inspiration, security, tech
It's been a couple of months since I last wrote about implementing DMARC and what comes next (review and adjustment). So I figured this would be a good time to document a few changes I've made based on the reporting data received so far.
Read More2020: An Energy Year in Review
- February 08, 2021
- 6 minutes
- finance, inspiration, lifestyle, personal
Now that I've had a chance to really look at the data from our 2020 electric use, in a modified format from what I've written about before, I thought I'd wrap up with an overview of our overall electric use during a most unusual year.
Read MoreMy First Twitter Bot: A Journey into Twitter's API
![Dancing Robot](/sites/default/files/2021-01/giphy-downsized%5B1%5D.gif)
- February 01, 2021
- 7 minutes
- automation, bots, inspiration, php, tech
Sometime around Thanksgiving/November 2020, I formalized the idea that I would actually build a Twitter bot for the sake of novelty and as an experiment/learning exercise. One night at suppertime, we discussed what might be cool as a bot and those ideas are still on the list as possibilities for the future.
Read MoreExporting Legacy/Archival Emails with Google Apps
- January 18, 2021
- 4 minutes
- automation, inspiration, tech
At work, we've had a number of folks retire over the last 18 months, and a number of those folks are holders of some significant institutional knowledge and memories. Recently I had the opportunity to work with one of these individuals as they prepared to both hand off information to others, which led me to recall several conversations I've had with my Libraries/archives friends about preserving the "right" subsets of digital messages such as email.
Read MoreMy Incremental Certbot Panacea
- January 04, 2021
- 5 minutes
- automation, certbot, inspiration, security, tech, website
I've written about Certbot more than any other topic in the last 24 months or so, in part because it's been an interesting adventure for me both in helping to demystify SSL certificates, but also because it's been an evolving and incremental process to Make It Better.
Read MoreInterruptions and Intentionality
![Snip of cartoon saying 'Hey, so I just sent you an email about that thing.'](/sites/default/files/2020-03/InterruptedSnip.png)
- December 28, 2020
- 5 minutes
- inspiration, tech
Interruptions: they're everywhere.
Read MoreImplementing DMARC for Active Domains: Policy & Review
- December 21, 2020
- 6 minutes
- inspiration, security, tech
This is the second post in a two-part series to implement DMARC controls for actively-used domains, where this post focuses on creating and reviewing/adjusting your DMARC policy and controls.
Read MoreImplementing DMARC for Active Domains: Configuring Prerequisites
- December 14, 2020
- 3 minutes
- inspiration, security, tech
As a follow-up from my previous post about implementing DMARC controls for unused/alias domains (those not used for actively sending messages), I wanted to write a bit about how to implement basic DMARC controls for those domains actively used to send emails.
Read MoreArmchair Pair Programming
- December 07, 2020
- 2 minutes
- inspiration, lifestyle, personal
This past Friday, somewhat out of the blue, I was pinged by a friend about helping him work through implementing what I'd done to date with Certbot...with the additional twist of his own unique configuration challenges.
Read MoreImplementing DMARC on Alias Domains
- November 30, 2020
- 6 minutes
- inspiration, security, tech
A few weeks ago I crossed a tweet with some simple instructions for securing your "unused" email domains, specifically the few bits required to implement DMARC controls to prevent Bad Folks from using your domains to send spam emails.
Read MoreThat's a [House] Wrap!
![Charlie the cat enjoying the outdoor smells.](/sites/default/files/2020-11/CharlieWindow_0.jpg)
As I'd eluded in a post earlier this summer, we had some major home projects completed this year. As of the end of October, 2020, they're all functionally complete. We only await the delivery and installation of a few missing pieces of window jamb extensions and casing, and a "rainy day" for the contractor to spend a couple quick hours installing.
Read MoreAutomating Certbot: A Recap of My Journey
![Long winding road](/sites/default/files/2020-11/WindingRoad.jpg)
- November 16, 2020
- 3 minutes
- automation, certbot, inspiration, security, tech, website
Over the last two months, I've shared what amounts to a four-part "series" of posts walking through my journey of using Certbot for SSL certificate management, with the primary challenge being not having the traditional root-level access on the web server. Those posts are, in order:
Read MoreCertbot in Manual Mode with Script Hooks
- November 02, 2020
- 4 minutes
- automation, certbot, inspiration, security, tech, website
If you've been following along in the mini series, I've gone over the details of using Certbot in manual mode, then bolting some simple scripts together to improve the process of generating and managing certs, all done with a bit of magic thanks to our old friend
Read More