ElderUsr's Blog

Worldbuilding is difficult. It is great for the imagination but depending on the complexity it can be hard on the head. The intent with this post is to share a few items that may make your worldbuilding experience a bit easier in the event of trying to build an open-world concept in DND 5E. 1. Create a Map. If its colored, even better. If its labelled with numbers or city/village names that is even more beneficial for the players. 2. Create a thought web. This is similar to when you are writing a story or wanting to hit certain main plot points, get that out first and then fill in the blanks between. 3. Involve the players. Figure out what makes their story archs tick. Get them to give you something that you can use, whether that is a tragic backstory, what makes them tick or even where they are from. Let the players fill your environment and help develop it. 4. Take some time to develop your story. It doesnt all happen overnight. If it does, congrats but from what I have seen in t

Hey Google, how much wood a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? "I don't have an answer, but I'm always learning." Of course it is always learning, which leads me to the discussion on Security and Home Automation. I think Home Automation is wonderful, it is the way of the future and may make Mankind a bit more lazier in the process. With that comes the risks, risks of people and organizations listening into what was once considered private conversations within your own home,(Alexa, Google Home) and being able to control certain aspects of your lives (Chromecast, Nest, Hue..etc). With all of this new data and a new way for corporations to interact with consumers it leads a new methodology for what is allowed or not and what is considered true privacy or invasion of privacy with these devices. I own many Home Automation devices and enjoy the added functionality of literally telling a small box to turn on or off my TV or Lights. What a wonderful time to

The book "Adventures of an IT Leader" was honestly a quick and informative read. It reminded me of similar books that I have read in the past, specifically around the feels of Pheonix Project. It leads you on a journey of an Accountant Manager that takes the role of CIO and leads a team of IT folks, he goes through the initial struggles of coping with existing products and expectations of managers prior and then going ahead and trying to forge out the best options and solutions that he can through his group of specialists and experts along the way. It is meant for someone that is not technical but meant to be managing technical resources. For me it was a quick but understandable read and I would definately keep in my bookshelf to read as a refresher in a year to come. The book can be found here .

Hello World, See what I did there? So back on this band wagon again hoping that this will continue to be an alternative outlet for my note keeping and just general output of knowledge that I run into on a case-by-case basis through the years. 2019 will be a challenging one I think with new family additions and lots of interesting projects at work it should be something to hopefully write home about.

As a recent user of the SecurityIQ products (PhishIO and a few other products) I do have to say that I am enjoying the bang for the buck functionality that I have gotten out of their product. The simplicity of setting the product up and then releasing out to the people you want to test from for the aspect of PhishIO, to the security training that you can provide them. The company itself provides great technical assistance in the event of any failures or setup with their product and overall comparatively to other vendors selling similar product they were also the most cost effective per user over multiple years. I would highly recommend SecurityIQ and their products at this time.

As with all mass deployment of products, make sure that there is no RMA equipment or DOA equipment from the vendor. Surprisingly enough it can happen but once that is confirmed use a simple checklist to provide standardization for your deployment. One would simply think why not use a common deployment script or copy the configuration but when deploying Fortigate's en-masse you cannot properly copy the full configuration as they are unique to the hardware, software version And also have unique identifiers within the codes. It is recommended if you are going to do this that you just use specific chunks. *Rant* I recently had an odd issue where Debit Machine would not function after a DNS change where 3 DNS options was provided through DHCP scope, come to find out that the Debit Machine's network stack does not support 3 DNS Servers which was causing it not to pick up the DHCP options at all. */rant*