How to disable Kali Linux auto-update

This is something admins might want to detect, so best practice is to disable it before getting onto a network.

1. Open dconf-editor.
2. Go to org -> gnome -> software.
3. Select 'download-updates'.
4. At bottom, move the slider for "use default value" and change the setting to "false".

Ta-da, apt-get update is all yours now.

Taken from https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/240303/kali-linux-disable-automatic-package-updates/327497.

Quick update post

The last few weeks have been pretty busy, what with a wrapping up of two projects and starting another one, on night shift for a week. What a strange schedule, working from about 8 PM till 6 AM, going home in the glaring bright lights of the public transportation, avoiding starting at the sun, and going to bed between 9 AM and 12 PM, depending on the days. Fortunately, I discovered that a previously-purchased blackout shade could be taped over the window frame to block out all light and even heat, making it many times easier to sleep even during the heat of the day (trying to channel S.Y. Agnon whom I really should read to understand a recent NYRB article). It also makes the room darker at night and blocks out some noise, too.

The same night shift schedule will be needed for the first week of May (plus a day) for a week of third shift testing, on site in an area around Sioux Falls in South Dakota. Should be interesting.

On the technological front I've been lazy. Beyond implementing part of my planned network with a new US-8 Ubiquiti Switch, physically wired and placed behind my desk with a network cable (finally learned how to cut and strip Ethernet/RJ-45), not much has been done. Ran a wire between the new switch and the router, and finally realized how something might be physically distributed but still in the same logical grouping (or Vlan for instance). The next step would be to get a Ubiquiti Cloud Key, or Security Gateway, or just an edgerouter, and redo the whole gateway router.

Recently I also updated a beloved flash drive (outer shell at top, guts at bottom):

It was a parental gift in 2007, when 512 MB was plenty of space. There's an activity light that actually bears no relation to the activity of the usb, and a whopper of a flash module. To this day it is still in use, now used to transfer small files during my pentesting work. However, at long last, when I grew tired of waiting a minute for 20 MB to transfer, I switched the original flash drive for a 16 GB Sandisc Cruzer Fit drive, that's much smaller and faster, and stuck some extra stuff behind it to prevent it from falling out. Now 20 MB transfers in less than a second, and what's old is new again.

You can still buy USB drives on ebay in the exact same case, incredibly overpriced.

P.S.

Google Adwords

I'm currently very busy with monkey work, but have time to discuss a recent thing I tried, namely, an attempt to use Google Adwords to track when people are searching for my name. However, it failed because my home site is "under construction", and Adwords Customer Support advised me to clean up my act, make it nicer, and then they'd approve the ad or something.

Converting youtube videos to mp3 in Plex Raspberry Pi

See title.That was the goal.

Solution? Youtube-dl. But, there was some fiddling to do. I used pip.

sudo apt-get install pip python-pip
sudo pip install -U pip setuptools ##just in case
sudo pip install --upgrade youtube-dl
sudo apt-get install avconv
sudo apt-get install libavcodec-extra-56 #or libavcodec-extra- - tab for it
sudo apt-get install libav-tools

Then you can use youtube-dl:

sudo youtube-dl --extract-audio --audio-format mp3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyguBEc2dw4

As I mostly only stream music over the Pi, the new 128 GB USB key is ample space. It is mounted automatically at boot to /mnt/usb, so I change to that directory and download mp3 files directly to the proper folder and change the tags in Plex.

Weekly Post - New Raspberry Pi

Somehow it's been 10 days since the last post. I'll put it down to lots of work, and also to the fact that my next project is a bit bigger than a media server.

After consulting with colleagues, I will try to successfully install VMWare ESXi on my new laptop. There may be issues with removable devices getting recognized. However, the biggest roadblock I encountered was that small-capacity USB devices (e.g. 1 GB) can't be used to install ESXi, so I had to wait until a small 16-GB USB device would arrive (plus this one has FAT32 like all sub-32 GB devices so it can be used for random systems that can't handle exFAT for instance). I'll place ESXi on this one and go from there.

Along with the USB device above I got another USB device of 128 GB size for about $35, with a smaller form factor. This should be enough for all my music and whatever videos I'd like to be wifi-streamable. I will try to combine this Plex server with bluetooth functionality to try to stream it to a bluetooth speaker, but most likely a DLNA solution would be needed, plus a "remote control" by phone probably, so I might just hold off on this whole idea. Although perhaps I could stream from Plex over wifi on a phone then send that to a bluetooth speaker.....?

In other news, I've begun to make sauerkraut. The first batch was interesting. This next batch will take more time to get through:

Somehow I missed the recent release of the Raspberry Pi Zero with wifi. It's out of stock of course, but does give one an idea of how small can you make a usable pentesting platform. Could also be useful to make an even smaller Plex server. Or you could just get a Bash Bunny.

Below, the one reason why I keep several pots of Hippeastrum bulb with nothing but some leaves most of the year: