Author Archives: Kirk Kosinski
Revisiting Two-Factor Authentication on PayPal
I’ve been using 2FA on PayPal since 2007, when they introduced the feature with a modestly priced physical token. I later switched to a free soft token, specifically the Symantec VIP app, which I wrote about back in 2013. But … Continue reading
Porting out a Skype Number
Number portability is not a new thing, but what about porting out a Skype Number? This is an optional (paid) feature available to personal Skype accounts that makes it possible to receive telephone calls via the Skype app. I recently … Continue reading
Implementing an IP blocklist with firewalld
In 2013 I wrote about using IP sets and iptables to block IP addresses from a blocklist provided by organizations such as OpenBL. The Bash script I wrote for that was usable at the time, but in the intervening years many Linux distributions (including … Continue reading
Fixing High CPU Usage for Windows Update
Recently I had an issue with Windows Update on a newly deployed Windows 7 VM. I’ve been using the same template to deploy Windows 7 VMs for a couple years, so it was strange that suddenly there was a problem. … Continue reading
Fixing a blank screen in KDE
I have Fedora 21 installed on my laptop (a ThinkPad) and use the KDE window manager. Recently (today, actually) I ran into a bizarre problem with it: after undocking it, the screen went blank. Or technically, it stayed blank instead … Continue reading
VMware VCP5-DCV recertification success
So the other day I took and passed the VMware VCP5-DCV Delta exam (VCP550D) to renew my VCP5-DCV cert. Originally I had no plan to blog about this since I took the exam on the very last day it was … Continue reading