Paul Begley Blog

UPDATE – added to the list.

Like everyone else, I’ve been working remotely since March 2020.

Ergonomics is a huge issue for me, and something everyone should consider. In my home office, I have the following setup:

1. Chair – I have a Staples brand chair, and I upgraded the wheels from a Reading, PA based company
2. Desks – I have old Steelcase desks that are circa 1960’s (think Mad Men) and I think my father purchased them from RCA at some point. They work well for me, they are deep, lots of storage, and they are very sturdy.
3. (2) 24″ monitors – for now, 24″ monitors are my sweet spot, your mileage may vary. I recommend getting identical monitors so you don’t hang your mouse as you move from screen to screen which can happen with different resolution monitors and it’s maddening.
4. Desk mat – think of it as a giant mousepad, but you can put you keyboard and mouse. It covers up any imperfections in the desk surface, and I find it more comfortable in warm weather.
5. Keyboard – I use a mechanical keyboard. Personal preference, I don’t judge, but I started computing on one of the original IBM PC metal keyboards (which I still have), and I’m a touch typist, and it works for me.
6. Mouse – Logitech wireless mouse and buy the Unify USB dongle which allows you to switch mice any time you want. I own many wireless mice. MX Revolution, Performance MX, M705 or M720 (battery lasts for *years*).
7. Headphones – Plantronics. My BIL Mitch gifted me with a headset when he worked for Plantronics “back in the day”, and it continues to be my go-to headset.
8. Camera – I’m using an old Microsoft HD camera, but any of the Microsoft or Logitech cameras should work. I work with my laptop closed, so I can’t use the built-in camera, and using a USB camera means I can unplug it when it’s not in use. Also, 720p is more than enough resolution for personal and business video conferencing.
9. Network – this is a huge issue for work-at-home. ISP’s are scare mongering you to upgrade to Gigabit speeds. After analysis, our home subscription is 100 Mbps/6Mbps down/upload speeds. This is more than enough to support two of us working concurrently on video calls while someone is watching Netflix or YouTube TV.
10. Printer – get a laser printer. Period. They are fast, inexpensive, and toner lasts forever. If you need to print in color, take it to Kinkos, CVS, or similar. After you print your draft in grayscale. I’ve used Brother multi-function laser printers since 2007. Also, get duplex capabilities, it’s easier for scanning, and saves paper when printing. Third party, high-capacity toners is both inexpensive and high quality.
    I have an older model that includes FAX, so the link below is for the equivalent, but without FAX.
11. USB charging block – for my office I have an Anker six port, 60W USB charger. It’s a monster that can charge six devices at a time and it has a permanent location in my office with every type of charging cable I use already plugged in and fed through a cable organizer to keep things (relatively) neat. I charge lights for my bike, headphones, cell phones, fitness devices, anything and everything that charges with a USB cable.
12. Password manager – if you don’t already use one, get one. I use LastPass, but 1Password and similar products are quite good. I recommend selecting one that works well with your platform (Windows, Mac), your browsers (Firefox, Microsoft, Chrome, and derivatives), and your phone. Make sure it works well with your phone.
    Import all the passwords from your browsers, then disable password save feature of the browsers.
    Check your accounts for re-used passwords – start with critical accounts like financial services
    Next, review all your accounts and update passwords using the password manager to generate secure, unique passwords.

Reference links

Microsoft LifeCam HD-3000, Retail
https://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-3364820-LifeCam-HD-3000/dp/B008ZVRAQS

CM Storm QuickFire Rapid – Tenkeyless, red switches
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007VDLVD4

Brother MFCL2750DW Monochrome All-in-One Wireless Laser Printer, Duplex Copy & Scan
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0763X6TCW

Home Network description and recommendations
https://paulbegley.com/?p=749

USB Wall Charger, Anker 60W 6 Port USB Charging Station
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00P936188

UPDATE – there was a widespread two hour (or so) outage for YouTube and YouTube TV when I posted the original article. After further research, there *is* an issue streaming CBS All Access with PiHole active. The work around for this is to whitelist the two FQDN’s below. Once this is in place, content streams normally.

cbsinteractive.hb.omtrdc.net
pubads.g.doubleclick.net

===========
I’m using PiHole to block ads on my home network. I’ll post more about my PiHole setup later, but tonight I realized that “CBS All Access” and YouTube TV apps on our Roku weren’t streaming content with PiHole enabled.

I didn’t have time to narrow down the root cause, but I’ll investigate this over the weekend. I will note the issue probably started last week, but tonight it was a non-starter when we attempted to stream “CBS Sunday Morning”, Jeopardy, and “Chasing Classic Cars” (Motor Trend).

Our engineers ran into an issue attempting to update Microsoft Teams through the Admin Center. The engineers opened a ticket with Microsoft Support, and they hadn’t run into this before and thought it was a proxy error. Well, we are working from home and none of us were using any standard proxy. We also weren’t using a VPN and testing with ‘all the standard browsers’ (Firefox, Chrome, Edge, and a few others). No joy.

We *were* able to connect if we used Fiddler. Which is strange because Fiddler is a proxy, right?

Anyhow, we resolved the issue. Super easy. We manually changed our local system DNS to Google DNS (8.8.8.8). Can’t really explain that one. I’m using PiHole locally, the other engineer was using Comcast. Both our systems are using commercial network gear with no filtering.

Screen shot and error string below for reference.

Hope this helps someone, because when I searched for the string below (in quotes), I got exactly one unique result that wasn’t very helpful.

Error String:
“We can’t get the effective dial plan so the dial plan can’t be tested.”

Screen Shot:

Summary

We have been testing streaming services off and on for the past several years. We were early adopters for various streaming devices (Roku, Chromecast) and many streaming services, including Netflix (DVD, now streaming), Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu, Britbox, DirecTV Now, and YouTube TV.

Recently we had our roof replaced. In doing so, our DirecTV dish was removed, and after review, we decided to cancel our DirecTV subscription.

Details

Prior to YouTube TV, other ‘cable replacement’ options that provided local TV as well as the non-network content we wanted were almost unusable from an interface standpoint.

Cable replacement requirements

1. Roku device support
2. Local channels, BBC America, and short list of cable stations we like
3. Usable User Interface – high priority
4. Cloud DVR capability – minimum of 200 – 300 hours (record Olympics)

Throughout these experiments, DirecTV has been our cable provider of choice. DirecTV offered the content we wanted as well as innovative technology, such as the DirecTiVo. I was able to pick up used DirecTiVo’s for <$50 and upgrade them with large hard drives to get ~300 hours of recording time. This was great because we had three school age daughters and I dedicated one unit to record just about the entire Olympics coverage circa 2004.

5 Very Common Cord Cutting Mistakes & How You Can Avoid Them

https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/5-very-common-cord-cutting-mistakes-how-you-can-avoid-them/

1. Rushing into cord cutting – before we cut the cord, we used the Roku and at least a dozen streaming services for several years. This was not something new for us, so when the time came, it was easy for us to make a joint decision.
2. Cord cutting does NOT work like cable – we determined we required a streaming service that provided local channels, some cable channels, and had at least a 200-hour DVR capability, ideally cloud based. YouTube TV has an unlimited DVR capability.
3. Cost – we tracked costs of cable and streaming services
4. Content – you can’t have everything. For example, we do NOT care about sports, but we DO care about Olympic coverage, BBC America, and some channels like Hallmark that our family likes to binge during winter holidays.
5. Robust Internet provider – we aren’t huge fans of Comcast/Xfinity cable, but they have provided a robust, broadband Internet service. They are also the ONLY broadband option in our area. DSL is available, but not broadband. We are half way between two CO’s, and FIOS doesn’t have a contract with our township

Cons – we live in an imperfect world…

• No Hallmark Channel. I don’t care, but my wife and daughters (who don’t even live with us) are relentlessly nagging campaigning to subscribe to the Hallmark Channel for holiday movies.
• CBS DVR shows are actually “CBS On Demand” and have commercials that you can’t skip. Also, until the software was upgraded, it didn’t handle the transition to/from commercials properly which caused some shows to hang. Credit to YouTube/CBS for fixing this.
• Bandwidth to the TCL TV – we have experienced some buffering issues and sluggish interface behavior with Roku TV. This isn’t a show stopper, and I have been making it a “priority device” for Google WiFi. Next step is to configure an Ethernet connection.
• That’s it! We are very happy with the cord cutting.

Cost

Subscriptions (monthly)
YouTube TV        $49.99
Hulu w/no ads        $11.99
Netflix            $13.85
Total            $75.83

AT&T DirecTV was $96.91 – $102 for two TV’s, the least expensive package available, and DVR with whole home viewing

Hardware

• Network
  • Internet Provider – Comcast Performance Plus Internet – 200/12 Mbps
    • Testing with lower speed Internet tiers showed the 200 Mbps speed offered double the uplink speed (for VoIP performance) and better overall performance. This is probably overkill, but the difference between <100 Mbps and 200 Mbps was about $10/month.
    • There is no data cap for residents of New Jersey. Other states have a monthly, 1TB data cap.
  • Arris SB6183 Cable Modem
  • Google Mesh Wifi – NLS-1304-25
  • Meraki Security Appliance
  • Meraki 8 Port Switch
• Video
  • TV – TCL 65R615
    • Roku TV 9.2.x
    • Roku Wireless speakers
  • Panasonic VIERA TC-L42E50 (7 years old)
    • Roku Stick+
  • Visio 32″ 1080i TV
    • Roku 2
• Voice
  • ObiHai 201 device
  • Google Voice Service
  • Panasonic cordless phones

Reference

DirecTV and TiVo History
https://www.tivopedia.com/directv-and-tivo-history.php

XFINITY Terabyte Internet Data Usage Plan
https://dataplan.xfinity.com/faq/

Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election Volume I of II Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller, III

I haven’t reviewed Venmo security in a long time.  Originally I took a look when my middle daughter was looking for an electronic payment service to sort out payments to roommates and friends in college.  At that time (2010?), Venmo appeared to be one of the best options.

That has changed – By default, all peer-to-peer Venmo transactions are public (except transaction amount).  Wired article, “Public By Default”, Hang Do Thi Duc’s site walks through the problem and example API output links are below.

I’m not sure what to recommend to replace Venmo, but I’m going to do a lot of testing over the weekend and post some recommendations.

Click here to see the last 100 transactions posted to Venmo (seriously).
https://venmo.com/api/v5/public?limit=100

It’s Time to Stop Sending Money on Venmo
https://www.wired.com/story/venmo-alternatives/

Public By Default
https://publicbydefault.fyi/