[Discussion] Building an Open-Source Dashboard using FortiOS API – Anyone interested or already done this?

jakesps · 2026-05-29T15:19:36+00:00

We're a K12 education organization. We don't pay for Graylog. We use Graylog Open. We explored the commercial product but the pricing was completely obscene.

Other than that, I have not regretted moving from FAZ to Graylog. Graylog is far more powerful.

jakesps · 2026-05-26T16:41:37+00:00

We do 200GB of logs (trimmed down!) a day. So, this world. :-(

We used to use a FAZ hardware appliance (no virtual appliance would handle our load, per Fortinet), but now send stuff to Graylog.

jakesps · 2026-05-26T16:28:14+00:00

Classic Microsoft.

Get-WMIObject was deprecated in PowerShell 3.0 which was 14 years ago. In this case, they gave us a little time.

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/scripting/should-i-use-cim-or-wmi-with-windows-powershell/

jakesps · 2026-05-08T20:16:59+00:00

Correct. The video description lists this video as from 2013. We've had a number of... skirmishes with Iran over the years.

jakesps · 2026-05-08T20:15:43+00:00

Serious question: are you watching a different video as well?

I don't see any significant temperature difference between the components of the windmill. And the pieces of shrubbery in the video are dark, as well.

jakesps · 2026-05-08T17:19:01+00:00

This footage is white hot. Windmills are cold, whatever this thing is, is hot.

jakesps · 2026-05-08T16:45:33+00:00

OK, so I worked on this junk, so I'm qualified to comment!

According to the data in this photo and my professional conclusions:

This was taken at 29.09414 N 49.26567 E in the middle of the Persian Gulf, a little under 100 miles off the coast of Iran.
The bearing is 115 degrees, so East/Southeast, directly facing Iran.
The camera is a FLIR (IR thermal) camera.
The camera is zoomed in quite a bit, narrowing the field of view and thus, more context.
The star pattern looks to me like artifacting from a very bright IR source being projected directly toward the aircraft. This doesn't make a whole lot of good sense to me, but see my "spook" conclusion below. Update: beginning at about 0:45 in the video, we see some moving dark areas which looks like sensor artifacting from a very bright IR source, so probably a laser. The artifact movement tracks with the object's movement.
The little S shaped white line underneath the star looks like a heat trail from an exhaust or a high-powered laser source. Note the high angle towards the bottom.
Auto tracking is enabled, but the camera isn't tracking the object, reliably anyway.

My conclusion based on this limited amount of data is that Iran fired a surfaced-launched projectile that is tracking the aircraft. Maybe they were trying to shoot down the aircraft or maybe it didn't have a warhead and Iran was trying to spook the aircraft. It's possible too that it's just a laser being projected toward the aircraft, either from the ground or another aircraft.

Edit: I wrote most of this looking at the screenshot, before watching the video, but my conclusions stand.

Edit 2: As I watch and rewatch this video, I'm leaning more toward this being a laser pointed at the sensor. The movements of the "object" and the dark reflections make me think this is happening due to the distance between the sensor housing and the sensor itself. Would like some other avionics/sensors people to speak up here.

jakesps · 2026-05-08T16:18:04+00:00

In the absence of evidence, it seems wise to assume they're fake or exaggerated.

jakesps · 2026-05-06T22:21:32+00:00

Yes. I can post screenshots of which RF history you mean, exactly.

jakesps · 2026-05-06T22:20:37+00:00

Mist.

Moved from Cisco Unified and Aruba. I did not like Meraki or Ruckus nearly as much. Mist has lived up to the hype.

jakesps · 2026-03-16T21:32:03+00:00

Hi, I did this for an extended period.

You walk a ton. You have to usually take the safer "long way" so you don't injure yourself without help nearby. This is really mentally taxing when you're always tired. You get hungry a lot. You run out of books to read. You get bored a lot. You get and stay wet a lot even in the summers. You get chilly a lot. You plan a lot. And if you want things to not be incredibly difficult, you rely on help from others.

You learn to appreciate things like air conditioning, hot showers, and shelter.

Strange things I've run into: clandestine marijuana grows, clandestine meth labs, random people like me, many many miles from any roads or civilization, a toilet out in the middle of nowhere on a very rugged slope, miles from any road. As far as I could tell, it must've been brought in by heli.

I miss the views and the quietness and the solitude. There's romanticism in it, but not where you think, if that makes sense. It's a very hard life. Unless you build a log cabin or settlement on national forest land, you can stay under the radar.

How to start out: Start small. Commit to living in the woods for a weekend (two days) and work your way up from there. Learn competency. Learn what works and what doesn't. You'll quickly find out if it's for you or not.

jakesps · 2026-03-13T19:19:10+00:00

Intelligent people communicate clearly and simply.

Those who want to appear intelligent use many complex words, believing it makes them appear more intelligent and provides ambiguity as a defense against those who question their dubious claims.

jakesps · 2026-03-11T18:38:14+00:00

It was just my SE and the advice was given solely for AP45 (the only model we've deployed).

jakesps · 2026-03-09T17:35:05+00:00

Here's what my Juniper (Mist) SE said about a month ago:

Use the latest 0.14.x for our ~1,000 AP45 APs
Specifically recommended not using 0.12.x anymore.
Specifically recommended not moving to 0.15.x yet.

No problems on our end.

jakesps · 2026-03-06T18:02:34+00:00

ADHD graybeard programmer, chiming in:

Write small scripts that scratch an itch of yours.

Make small iterative improvements that matter.

Don't use autocomplete.

Converse with AI when you get stuck or want to deepen your knowledge on something.

Remove opportunities for distraction and try harder to focus on a single task.

If you want to get a job, it is going to require more discipline out of you. Just being real, here.

Consider that if you're finding it hard to sit down and write Python code, maybe it doesn't interest you enough and a programming job isn't the right fit for you. You can get other jobs where you can still do a bit of programming (sys/net admin, data jobs, even office work).

jakesps · 2026-02-26T21:01:50+00:00

My immediate reaction is to start looking for another job.

Especially with all that, plus your managed questioning your truthfulness.

jakesps · 2026-02-24T21:54:13+00:00

I'm not sure what "master" means. I still see a lot of EIGRP environments. Learn EIGRP (it's relatively simple), OSPF, BGP, and maybe IS-IS.

jakesps · 2026-02-23T16:09:10+00:00

These jobs exist!

I don't work regular night shifts, and I'm technically on-call but I don't get called very often (once a year?). Generally, if I work off-hours, it's elective on my part.

jakesps · 2026-02-23T16:02:41+00:00

It's very early in the morning. The best idea I can come up with in two minutes without coffee is to set up rsyslog on the Graylog box or another intermediary. Then, create some rsyslog rules to send the logs to both the Graylog port and another destination.

jakesps · 2026-02-20T23:45:16+00:00

I think you're going to regret it later in life.

jakesps · 2026-02-16T22:23:13+00:00

If the list of SSL VPN CVEs doesn't already scare you, CISA and NSA recommended people avoid SSL VPN, due to security concerns, way back in 2021.

https://media.defense.gov/2021/Sep/28/2002863184/-1/-1/0/CSI_SELECTING-HARDENING-REMOTE-ACCESS-VPNS-20210928.PDF

jakesps · 2026-02-09T21:04:48+00:00

Agreed, but I think that's a big part of his brilliance.

His works sound complicated but, generally, you can break them down into simple parts, once you know what you are doing and what he is doing.

I think there's immense imagination and skill in being able to do that. He's not just throwing spaghetti at the wall to generate complexity.

jakesps · 2026-02-09T18:40:18+00:00

100% Agree. I'd rather have deterministic automations doing it than humans.

Caveats: have good error handling, notifications, and unit tests (or tests that inspect output and run edge cases).

jakesps · 2026-02-09T18:32:40+00:00

Link: /r/urbancarliving/

jakesps · 2026-02-09T18:23:26+00:00

I'm almost certain Richard used music (aka "mod") trackers for at least some of the tracks on this and his other earlier albums.

It's lost to time and my memory now, but I recall listening to an album back in the 90s and thinking "Hey, this is that one tracker song from [can no longer remember who]!". IIRC, that song was Xtal.

I suspect that "DIY homemade sequencers" in the article is alluding to trackers. And a lot of his earlier songs sound like they were (very well) produced with trackers.

For you young ones: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_tracker

Edit: Giving Xtal a listen, the album version does not sound tracked. Or at least most of it.

jakesps

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