tech

Simple vlmcsd systemd service definition

Tested on Ubuntu 18.04 and 20.04. [Unit] Description=vlmcsd After=network.target [Service] ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/vlmcsd -D -d -t 3 -e -v User=nobody Restart=on-failure Type=simple [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target

tech

Getting the Lenovo Smart Clock Essential to play nice with Ubiquiti UniFi wireless access points

As an owner of the original Lenovo Smart Clock, I liked it so much that I figured I would also pick up its cheaper and more barebones brother, the Lenovo Smart Clock Essential. While it obviously lacks the full-fledged touchscreen display of its more

diy

Berry-on-a-bush, router-on-a-stick: using the Raspberry Pi 4 as an inter-VLAN OPENWRT router

When the Raspberry Pi 4 was released in June 2019, it represented a huge generational performance jump from its predecessor - a substantially beefier BCM2711 quad core Cortex-A72 CPU, USB

audio

Aiyima A04 TPA3251 Class D Mini Amplifier Review

IntroductionHaving owned a relatively large Yamaha R-S202 stereo receiver for some time, I was looking to downsize my audio setup without compromising on quality. Over the years I had read

vps

BuyVM Las Vegas Ryzen KVM VPS Mini-Review

With the annual contract about to expire on a VPS on the East Coast that I was using as a personal VPN node, I decided to shake things up and see what else was out there in terms of hosting options. BuyVM always seems

django

Getting the admin URL of a model instance in Django

If your Django project makes heavy use of the built-in Django admin, you've likely encountered a situation where you need to render a link to the Django change form for a particular model instance. For example, I currently have a project that uses the

emergency medicine

Emergency Medicine in the 2020 Match: How competitive was it?

Historically, Emergency Medicine has been regarded as a competitive specialty, nowadays more and more so as medical students gravitate toward fields of medicine that offer what they perceive to be a good balance between work and play. For these reasons, EM - with its

tech

The T620 Plus dies: the search for replacement pfSense/OPNsense x86 hardware on the cheap

An older Dell SFF PC from eBay makes a fine replacement for my old pfSense box.

email

Bypassing Exchange/Office 365 email forwarding restrictions or: How I learned to stop worrying and love fetchmail and msmtp

Once upon a time, my school migrated all of its students and staff from a self-hosted email system to Microsoft Office 365 in the cloud. I used Outlook Web Access and its forwarding feature to redirect all mail to my personal Gmail account. Everything

tech

TTL modification for outgoing traffic with OpenWRT

Introduction Do you often find yourself in the position of having to access the internet by tethering your 4G/LTE smartphone? I sure do, because my local cable ISP sucks ass. Unfortunately, however, cellular carriers have a number of tricks up their sleeve to

openvpn

An extra layer of privacy: setting up a private, in-tunnel DNS-over-TLS proxy for your OpenVPN clients

As concerns over privacy and government surveillance become more and more relevant, the use of VPNs have become increasingly popular. While VPN software such as OpenVPN encrypts and protects "first-hop" client traffic from the prying eyes of ISPs and the increasingly widespread use of

usmle

How to (potentially) find out your USMLE Step 2 CS score early

A quick walkthrough of a method to (potentially) find out your USMLE Step 2 CS score early.

python

Download all emails from Exchange or Office 365 with Python and exchangelib

Need to import your emails into a local email client? Getting fired from your job and need your old emails for legal proceedings? Just want a backup of all your emails? Whatever the reason, it's not difficult to do in Python with the excellent

vps

ServerCheap Pure SSD KVM VPS (2GB) Mini-Review

I recently decided to move most of my personal/non-production sites and services to ServerCheap due to their very competitive pricing - $3.60/month (after applying their 20% off coupon) for their entry-level KVM 1 VPS, which comes with the following specs: 2

hardware

The HP T620 Plus Thin Client: A hidden gem in the world of pfSense hardware

Build a low-power, quad-core, AES-NI capable pfSense machine with recycled hardware for less than $100.

hardware

TP-Link TL-PA7010 AV1000 Powerline Adapter Mini-Review

Introduction The TL-PA7010 is one of several offerings in TP-Link's portfolio of Powerline adapters. This particular model complies with the HomePlug AV2 standard and advertises a theoretical maximum speed of 1000 Mbps with gigabit Ethernet support. It can be found widely in the US

hardware

High Speed, Low Drag: Building a home pfSense/OPNsense box on a budget

Putting together a DIY pfSense/OPNsense box for less than $200.

nbme

Cracking the NBME Shelf Exam: Neurology

For many, if not most medical students, neurology is perceived as a difficult subject due to the combination of anatomical minutiae regarding the brain and the nervous system and the challenge of localizing lesions. Make no mistake, I headed into the clerkship with this

vps

Linode Nanode 1GB VPS Performance

I recently signed up for a Linode VPS for the purpose of hosting an IPv4+IPv6 dual-stack capable OpenVPN server. Linode currently offers eight locations - in the interest of geographical proximity, I went with Newark. Since this server will be used only by

openvpn

Windows 10 and Microsoft Office Weirdness When OpenVPN is Connected

In order to maximize my personal privacy and security and prevent my ISP from interfering with or redirecting my HTTP requests, I usually run all my traffic through a personal OpenVPN setup I have running on a VPS. For the longest time, I was

nbme

Cracking the NBME Shelf Exam: Family Medicine

Medical students across the US often like to rag on Family Medicine as an "easy" specialty, but the NBME shelf exam for FM is anything but. The challenge lies in its breadth, covering mostly ambulatory/outpatient topics from internal medicine, OB/GYN,

ucpd

Violence is Violence

By now, the police shooting of fourth-year University of Chicago student Charles Thomas after Thomas charged at a UCPD officer with a metal pipe has been covered extensively in the

ssd

Inland Professional (Microcenter) 240GB 2.5" SATA SSD Review

If you've been to Microcenter recently, you might have noticed SSDs for sale under their Inland house brand. These Inland Professional SSDs come in 120GB and 240GB capacities and are sold for $39.99 and $59.99, respectively, in-store only. I recently had the

nbme

Cracking the NBME Shelf Exam: Internal Medicine

The most challenging aspect of the Internal Medicine shelf is its breadth. From cardiology to nephrology to gastroenterology, the rule of thumb is that if there's a fellowship for it, there's almost certainly going to be a few shelf questions on it. Since most

vps

VirMach Black Friday Elite+ OpenVZ VPS Benchmark

For Black Friday 2017, VirMach is offering their Elite+ OpenVZ VPS for 80% off, which translates to the amazing price of only $8 per year. (They have an even cheaper 384MB RAM plan for only $4/year!) Specifications 1GB RAM 2x vCPU @ 2GHz 30GB