Hoy Manor

Automatable

Eric Hoy — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 13:28:41 +0000

It came to my attention that "automatable" is not a word. I've been using this word to describe something that does not require human intervention and thus can be automated.

"Automation-ready" just doesn't cut it. The term suggests that some automation capability has been built and just needs to be plugged into.

It's time to put this word out into the zeitgeist. I'd like to see it in common use. Lexicographers (the folks who create and update dictionaries) rely on a word being commonly used in print before adding it to the dictionary. A couple of dictionaries have already caught on to this one:

Collins dictionary lists it as 'British English'. https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/automatable
Oxford English Dictionary lists is as both British and American English. Way to go OED! Yes, we are using this word across the pond! https://www.oed.com/dictionary/automatable_adj?tl=true

Folks at dictionary.com, Merriam-Webster, American Heritage Dictionary, and Cambridge English Dictionary I hope you catch on soon and create a full entry for the word automatable.

automatable [aw-tuh-mey-tuh-buhl]

Adjective

a laborious process, chore, or set of tasks performed by a human without explicitly requiring human intervention
computational task that is being performed by a human but capable of being done by currently available technology which simply needs to be programmed appropriately.
work considered to be dull and not requiring any particular skills.
labor performed by a human which could be done less expensively by a mechanical process
capable of being operated, controlled, or conducted by automation
work that is being considered for displacement or obsolescence by automation

Current innovation in the industry will ensure that these automatable tasks will no longer be done by human laborers in the future.

People of America, Get Your Heads On Straight!

Eric Hoy — Wed, 19 Feb 2025 18:04:00 +0000

According to NBC News, Trump called Ukraine President Zelenskyy a dictator in a social media post: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/zelenskyy-trump-putin-war-ukraine-russia-started-rcna192765

I don’t see this as a mere rude, off the cuff comment. This is an attack on congressionally supported assistance to a foreign country which is being invaded. When will the people of America stop accepting this kind of daily misbehavior? I keep thinking there will be a breaking point and it should have happened already.

When will the people of the US, the Republican congress or the Supreme Court muster enough courage to push back against the relentless disinformation campaign, the undermining of the US Constitution with unlawful executive orders, the undermining of Congress and Federal courts?

In my opinion the Supreme Court has mostly stayed in its lane. Its Justices know their role and their decisions have been in line with the intention of our country’s Founding Fathers. However, lately they have been weak in defending Federal Judges. This is the responsibiity of the Supreme Court and their failure to take action against oversteps of the exective branch. My advice to the Supreme Court, which is essentially comments from the peanut gallery, is to turn things around before your unacceptable job performance becomes a persistent issue.

Congress has been weak and ineffectual for most of my adult life. It’s disappointing but nothing new.

Same goes for the American people. We have never been great at analysis or critical thinking. So, again, a disappointment but not a shock as far as I am concerned.

It seems like the entire country has given up on defending some of the core principles behind the founding of the United States:

Equality. All individuals have the same claim to natural rights and equal treatment under the law.
Justice. Ensuring a political order that protects the rights of all individuals equally.
Separation of powers. Prevent any one branch from becoming too powerful
Checks and Balances. Each branch (executive, legislative, and judicial) has the ability to limit the abuse of powers by any other branch.

Stop Silencing Science

Eric Hoy — Tue, 11 Feb 2025 20:00:42 +0000

Ok look, so I know I owe you all an analysis of my 2024 predictions and that is forthcoming. I want to set that aside for a moment and bring up what is happening with Science nowadays.

First, check out this site: https://climate.law.columbia.edu/Silencing-Science-Tracker

Looking at 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, there is a lot of State-level nonsense, some issues with various organizations and government departments, problems with left over Trump appointees that were still hanging around, and a couple of Congressional initiatives. The ding against Biden on reducing NOAA funding is not great… But the point is that there is no pattern of Biden’s White House administration squashing information.

Going back to 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 the amount of White House censorship was appalling. See for yourself the website I linked above just in case you have forgotten or were unaware of what was happening during that time.

Not surprisingly, we are already seeing a surge of censorship within the first two months of Trump’s second Presidency. Is this where we are headed as a nation? How could the people of our country take such an aggressive stance toward evidence-backed publications, statements, and policies?

I think we need to be clear and honest about what we’re dealing with here. Let’s frame what is happening in the context of a specific historical example.

Have you ever wondered what could possibly have led Germany to a Nazi-controlled regime? Let’s list out the tools used by Hitler to gaslight quite a few countries into following him with an almost religious zeal:

Media Control. The Nazi’s took over the press and radio to ensure the people of Germany could only hear or see the Nazi narrative. The Trump administration is doing exactly this, with many executive orders silencing information from being disseminated to the press as well as orders halting the news media from releasing information.
Censorship. The Nazi party banned publications that opposed their ideology. The Trump administration apparently takes their playbook from the Nazi party by controlling the messaging around climate change, COVID-19 and immigration.
Repression. The Nazis arrested, tortured, and killed people to maintain their control. The Trump Administration is not doing this exactly. To avoid getting their hands dirty, Trump labels his opponents as “enemies of the people”. This includes media and election officials who were doing their jobs properly. Trump left it up to his followers to read between the lines in his messaging and did not discourage them from using violence against his opponents.

Take a look at yourselves, America! We should not have to repeat historical mistakes on this level.

Predictions for 2025

Eric Hoy — Tue, 31 Dec 2024 21:12:29 +0000

The President will arrest at least one top-level politician (e.g. congressman, Supreme Court, cabinet member)

One or more goggle-based 3D movie experiences will be sold to audiences. There will be no screen.

The superbowl halftime show will be mostly rap. Karens and Kens everywhere will complain. The conservative backlash will be divisive.

The military action from Russia into Ukraine will continue throughout the entire year. Much to the heartbreak of the Ukraine citizens and the rest of the free world the conflict does not end this year.

Old Predictions Reviewed, and New Predictions for 2024

Eric Hoy — Sun, 07 Jan 2024 18:08:47 +0000

It seems that I missed playing the predictions game last year. 2021 was somewhat hit-and miss with seven of my fourteen predictions coming true. My predictions for 2022 also carried a 50% success rate. I believe this is fairly good considering the specificity of the predictions and the level of global shock they delivered.

https://wordpress.com/post/hoymanor.com/675

Prediction 2022-1: No points for me. Bitcoin, instead of surging to at least $70k USD, dropped significantly in value. It stayed in the ballpark of $20k most of the year. If I had carried over this prediction into 2023, I would have missed the mark by a huge margin again! BTC to USD had a high point of about $44k in the year 2023.

Prediction 2022-2: Extra credit on this one! 2022 was a huge year for cyber attacks and breaches. Over four thousand publicly disclosed data breaches with 22 billion records being exposed. That said, my prediction was for a single breach affecting at least 300 million people. That happened with the leak of personal information of 487 million WhatsApp users.

As I stated above, I have nothing in writing for 2023. So here are my predictions for 2024:

Prediction 2024-1: The old adage that rising energy prices lead to rising costs of goods and services will be flipped upside-down. There will be a brief rise in energy prices (e.g. gasoline, natural gas, electric) that does not contribute to the CPI or PCE . Given that the Fed’s elevated interest rates has created significant inertia in driving down the inflation rate, and that consumers have spent their savings (or burned up their credit), when fuel prices bump up it will cause a crunch in consumer’s money so significant that the prices for goods will actually go down! My advice is to prepare yourselves for some amazing sale prices at some point in 2024.

Prediction 2024-2: Privacy concerns over AI will spur organizations into rapidly creating their own LLM-based chatbots. Currently, there are privacy concerns with organizational workers feeding personal or proprietary information into LLMs such as ChatGPT, Bard, and Bing. ChatGPT is even banned in some countries. My super-specific prediction is that 50% of Fortune 500 companies will spend exorbitant sums of money in a rush to create their own private LLM-based chatbots and that they will outright ban their employees from using the AI chatbots hosted by 3rd party companies such as OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google.

Hang in there and wait until the end of 2024 to call me crazy. I have been right about a lot of things that defied expert predictions in the past. I can’t wait to see how the year plays out!

Congratulations are in order!

Eric Hoy — Sun, 07 Jan 2024 16:58:57 +0000

A big shout-out to someone pivotal in my career journey!

Back in 2004, I kicked off my IT venture in the Hospitality Industry at the Sheraton Grand Chicago (formerly Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers). Fresh out of college and lacking hospitality know-how, I was a bit raw. Christy played a crucial role in refining my professionalism and instilling pride in delivering top-notch experiences to guests and convention attendees. Grateful for the impactful guidance! 🌟

Since then, I have moved on to research support in higher education, but the lessons learned will stay with me for life!

https://www.minneapolis.org/media/news-releases/christy-loy-new-svp-of-destination-sales/

ChatGPT Has Quite an Imagination

Eric Hoy — Fri, 31 Mar 2023 13:08:46 +0000

It took me a little while to confirm that ChatGPT doesn’t have a clue when it comes to giving me a hand with my work

The trouble is that the answers are so plausible and so well-explained. It’s really convincing, but when you look more closely you’ll find that ChatGPT is just MAKING SHIT UP!

The funniest part of this is that ChatGPT knows it’s wrong and it admits to the mistake. But then it keeps MAKING SHIT UP over and over.

Check out this conversation where ChatGPT strikes out 9 times, and then quits with an error. I have written the real solution for anyone who is interested in interacting with AWS Lightsail instances all the way at the bottom of this page.

ME: ansible task to configure the firewall on a lightsail aws instance

Here’s an example Ansible playbook that configures the firewall on a Lightsail AWS instance using the ufw firewall tool:

---
- name: Configure firewall on Lightsail AWS instance
  hosts: my-lightsail-instance
  become: yes
  tasks:
    - name: Ensure ufw is installed
      apt:
        name: ufw
        state: present
    - name: Allow SSH traffic
      ufw:
        rule: allow
        port: 22
    - name: Allow HTTP traffic
      ufw:
        rule: allow
        port: 80
        proto: tcp
    - name: Allow HTTPS traffic
      ufw:
        rule: allow
        port: 443
        proto: tcp
    - name: Enable firewall
      ufw:
        state: enabled

In this playbook, we first ensure that the ufw firewall tool is installed on the instance using the apt module. Then we allow traffic to the SSH, HTTP, and HTTPS ports using the ufw module. Finally, we enable the firewall using the ufw module.

Note that you may need to modify the hosts line to specify the correct host or group of hosts to target with this playbook. You may also need to modify the ports and protocols specified in the ufw rules to match the needs of your specific application.

ME: can you perform the same task using the community.aws.lightsail module?

Yes, you can use the community.aws.lightsail module to configure the firewall on a Lightsail AWS instance as well. Here’s an example Ansible playbook that uses this module:

---
- name: Configure firewall on Lightsail AWS instance
  hosts: my-lightsail-instance
  become: yes
  tasks:
    - name: Allow SSH traffic
      community.aws.lightsail_firewall_rule:
        instance_name: my-lightsail-instance
        protocol: tcp
        port: 22
        cidr_blocks: 0.0.0.0/0
    - name: Allow HTTP traffic
      community.aws.lightsail_firewall_rule:
        instance_name: my-lightsail-instance
        protocol: tcp
        port: 80
        cidr_blocks: 0.0.0.0/0
    - name: Allow HTTPS traffic
      community.aws.lightsail_firewall_rule:
        instance_name: my-lightsail-instance
        protocol: tcp
        port: 443
        cidr_blocks: 0.0.0.0/0

In this playbook, we use the community.aws.lightsail_firewall_rule module to allow traffic to the SSH, HTTP, and HTTPS ports. We specify the instance_name parameter to identify the instance we want to configure, and then use the protocol, port, and cidr_blocks parameters to define the firewall rules. Note that the cidr_blocks parameter specifies the source IP address range that is allowed to access the port. In this example, we allow traffic from any IP address (0.0.0.0/0).

You may need to modify the hosts line to specify the correct host or group of hosts to target with this playbook. You may also need to modify the ports and IP address ranges specified in the firewall rules to match the needs of your specific application.

ME: The community.aws.lightsail_firewall_rule module does not seem to exist. Where did you find out about it?

I apologize for the confusion in my previous response. The community.aws.lightsail_firewall_rule module does not exist, and I provided incorrect information.

To manage the firewall on an Amazon Lightsail instance using Ansible, you can use the community.aws.aws_ec2_group module, which can manage security group rules for both EC2 instances and Lightsail instances. Here’s an example playbook that allows traffic to port 22 from two different CIDR blocks:

---
- name: Configure firewall on Lightsail AWS instance
  hosts: my-lightsail-instance
  become: yes
  tasks:
    - name: Allow SSH traffic from multiple CIDR blocks
      community.aws.aws_ec2_group:
        name: allow_ssh
        description: “Allow SSH access from multiple CIDR blocks”
        region: us-west-2
        vpc_id: vpc-1234567890abcdef
        rules:
          - proto: tcp
            from_port: 22
            to_port: 22
            cidr_ip: 10.0.0.0/8
          - proto: tcp
            from_port: 22
            to_port: 22
            cidr_ip: 192.168.0.0/16

In this example, we use the aws_ec2_group module to manage the allow_ssh security group, which allows traffic to port 22 from two different CIDR blocks (10.0.0.0/8 and 192.168.0.0/16). The vpc_id parameter specifies the ID of the VPC that the Lightsail instance is associated with.

Again, I apologize for the incorrect information in my previous response.

ME: Are you sure that response is valid for an AWS lightsail instance?

You are correct, I apologize for the confusion. The aws_ec2_group module that I mentioned in my previous response is not applicable to Amazon Lightsail instances as it is intended for Amazon EC2 instances.

To manage the firewall on an Amazon Lightsail instance using Ansible, you can use the community.aws.lightsail_instance module with the firewall_rules parameter to specify the rules for inbound traffic. Here’s an example playbook that allows traffic to port 22 from two different CIDR blocks:

---
- name: Configure firewall on Lightsail AWS instance
  hosts: my-lightsail-instance
  become: yes
  tasks:
    - name: Allow SSH traffic from multiple CIDR blocks
      community.aws.lightsail_instance:
        name: my-lightsail-instance
        firewall_rules:
          - protocol: tcp
            from_port: 22
            to_port: 22
            cidr_block: 10.0.0.0/8
          - protocol: tcp
            from_port: 22
            to_port: 22
            cidr_block: 192.168.0.0/16

In this example, we use the lightsail_instance module to manage the firewall_rules of the my-lightsail-instance instance. The firewall_rules parameter is a list of rules that allows traffic to port 22 from two different CIDR blocks (10.0.0.0/8 and 192.168.0.0/16).

Again, I apologize for the confusion in my previous response.

ME: Are you sure the lightsail_instance module exists?

I apologize for the confusion in my previous responses. The community.aws.lightsail_instance module does not exist as of my knowledge cutoff in September 2021. The correct module to manage Amazon Lightsail instances in Ansible is community.aws.aws_lightsail_instance.

To manage the firewall on an Amazon Lightsail instance using Ansible and the community.aws.aws_lightsail_instance module, you can use the firewall_rules parameter to specify the rules for inbound traffic. Here’s an example playbook that allows traffic to port 22 from two different CIDR blocks:

---
- name: Configure firewall on Lightsail AWS instance
  hosts: my-lightsail-instance
  become: yes
  tasks:
    - name: Allow SSH traffic from multiple CIDR blocks
      community.aws.aws_lightsail_instance:
        name: my-lightsail-instance
        region: us-west-2
        firewall_rules:
          - protocol: tcp
            from_port: 22
            to_port: 22
            cidr_block: 10.0.0.0/8
          - protocol: tcp
            from_port: 22
            to_port: 22
            cidr_block: 192.168.0.0/16

In this example, we use the aws_lightsail_instance module to manage the firewall_rules of the my-lightsail-instance instance. The firewall_rules parameter is a list of rules that allows traffic to port 22 from two different CIDR blocks (10.0.0.0/8 and 192.168.0.0/16). The region parameter specifies the region in which the instance is located.

Again, I apologize for any confusion my previous responses may have caused.

ME: That module also seems to not exist. Where are you getting this information?

I apologize for any confusion. You are correct that the community.aws.aws_lightsail_instance module does not exist.

To manage the firewall rules on an Amazon Lightsail instance, you can use the uri module in Ansible to make API calls to the Amazon Lightsail API. Here is an example playbook that allows traffic to port 22 from two different CIDR blocks:

---
- name: Configure firewall on Lightsail AWS instance
  hosts: my-lightsail-instance
  become: yes
  vars:
    aws_access_key: YOUR_AWS_ACCESS_KEY
    aws_secret_key: YOUR_AWS_SECRET_KEY
  tasks:
    - name: Allow SSH traffic from multiple CIDR blocks
      uri:
        url: https://lightsail.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/
        method: POST
        body_format: json
        headers:
          Authorization: “AWS4-HMAC-SHA256 Credential={{ aws_access_key }}/{{ lookup(‘env’, ‘AWS_SESSION_TOKEN’) }}/{{ ansible_date_time.iso8601_basic_short }}/{{ aws_region }}/lightsail/aws4_request, SignedHeaders=content-type;host;x-amz-date, Signature={{ aws_signature }}”
          Content-Type: “application/x-amz-json-1.1”
          X-Amz-Date: “{{ ansible_date_time.iso8601_basic_short }}”
          X-Amz-Security-Token: “{{ lookup(‘env’, ‘AWS_SESSION_TOKEN’) }}”
        body:
          operation: “CreateInstanceSnapshot”
          instanceName: “my-lightsail-instance”
          instanceSnapshotName: “my-lightsail-instance-snapshot”
          regionName: “us-west-2”
        status_code: 200
        return_content: yes
        validate_certs: yes
      vars:
        aws_region: us-west-2
        aws_signature: “{{ lookup(‘pipe’, ‘echo -n \”CreateInstanceSnapshot\\n{{ ansible_date_time.iso8601_basic_short }}\\n{{ ansible_date_time.iso8601_basic_short[0:8] }}/{{ aws_region }}/lightsail/aws4_request\\n{{ lookup(‘\”file\”, \”private.pem\”‘) }}\\n\” | openssl dgst -sha256 -sign \”private.pem\” | openssl enc -base64 -A’) }}”

In this example, we use the uri module to make a request to the Lightsail API to create an instance snapshot. However, you can modify the body parameter to include the firewall rules that you want to add to the instance. The headers parameter includes the necessary authorization headers to authenticate with the API using your AWS access key and secret key.

I apologize again for any confusion my previous responses may have caused.

ME: can I use the community.aws.lightsail module to perform this task?

I apologize for the confusion. As I mentioned earlier, the community.aws.lightsail_firewall_rule module does not exist, and the community.aws.lightsail_instance module is not suitable for configuring the firewall on an Amazon Lightsail instance.

However, there is another module in the community.aws.lightsail collection that can be used to manage the firewall rules on a Lightsail instance, and that is the community.aws.lightsail_static_ip module. This module can be used to manage static IPs associated with a Lightsail instance, and it includes a firewall_rules parameter that allows you to specify the rules for inbound traffic.

Here is an example playbook that allows traffic to port 22 from two different CIDR blocks using the community.aws.lightsail_static_ip module:

---
- name: Configure firewall on Lightsail AWS instance
  hosts: my-lightsail-instance
  become: yes
  vars:
    aws_access_key: YOUR_AWS_ACCESS_KEY
    aws_secret_key: YOUR_AWS_SECRET_KEY
  tasks:
    - name: Allow SSH traffic from multiple CIDR blocks
      community.aws.lightsail_static_ip:
        name: my-lightsail-static-ip
        region: us-west-2
        instance_name: my-lightsail-instance
        firewall_rules:
          - protocol: tcp
            from_port: 22
            to_port: 22
            cidr_block: 10.0.0.0/8
          - protocol: tcp
            from_port: 22
            to_port: 22
            cidr_block: 192.168.0.0/16
        aws_access_key: “{{ aws_access_key }}”
        aws_secret_key: “{{ aws_secret_key }}”

In this example, we use the community.aws.lightsail_static_ip module to manage the static IP associated with the my-lightsail-instance instance. The firewall_rules parameter is a list of rules that allows traffic to port 22 from two different CIDR blocks (10.0.0.0/8 and 192.168.0.0/16). The region parameter specifies the region in which the instance is located, and the aws_access_key and aws_secret_key parameters are used to authenticate with the AWS API.

I hope this helps clarify things, and I apologize for any confusion my previous responses may have caused.

ME: The firewall_rules parameter is not valid for that module

I apologize for the confusion. You are correct that the firewall_rules parameter is not valid for the community.aws.lightsail_static_ip module.

To configure the firewall on an Amazon Lightsail instance using Ansible, you can use the community.aws.ec2_instance_facts module to get the instance’s group_name and ip_address, and then use the community.aws.ec2_group module to add a rule to the instance’s security group. Here’s an example playbook:

---
- name: Configure firewall on Lightsail AWS instance
  hosts: my-lightsail-instance
  become: yes
  vars:
    aws_access_key: YOUR_AWS_ACCESS_KEY
    aws_secret_key: YOUR_AWS_SECRET_KEY
  tasks:
    - name: Get instance facts
      community.aws.ec2_instance_facts:
        filters:
          “tag:Name”: “my-lightsail-instance”
        aws_access_key: “{{ aws_access_key }}”
        aws_secret_key: “{{ aws_secret_key }}”
      register: ec2_instance
    - name: Add firewall rule
      community.aws.ec2_group:
        name: “{{ ec2_instance.instances[0].group_name }}”
        rules:
          - proto: tcp
            from_port: 22
            to_port: 22
            cidr_ip: 10.0.0.0/8
          - proto: tcp
            from_port: 22
            to_port: 22
            cidr_ip: 192.168.0.0/16
        aws_access_key: “{{ aws_access_key }}”
        aws_secret_key: “{{ aws_secret_key }}”

In this example, we use the community.aws.ec2_instance_facts module to get the facts for the my-lightsail-instance instance, and then register the output to the ec2_instance variable. We then use the community.aws.ec2_group module to add a rule to the instance’s security group that allows traffic to port 22 from two different CIDR blocks (10.0.0.0/8 and 192.168.0.0/16). The name parameter is set to the group_name of the instance’s security group, which we obtained from the ec2_instance variable. Finally, the aws_access_key and aws_secret_key parameters are used to authenticate with the AWS API.

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any further questions.

ME: I need to interact with a lightsail instance. Your example interacts with ec2. Lightsail and EC2 are different resources.

I apologize for the confusion. You are correct that Amazon Lightsail and Amazon EC2 are different resources in AWS, and they have different modules in the community.aws collection.

To configure the firewall on an Amazon Lightsail instance using Ansible, you can use the community.aws.lightsail_static_ip module to create a static IP and attach it to the instance, and then use the community.aws.lightsail_firewall module to add a rule to the instance’s firewall. Here’s an example playbook:

---
- name: Configure firewall on Lightsail AWS instance
  hosts: my-lightsail-instance
  become: yes
  vars:
    aws_access_key: YOUR_AWS_ACCESS_KEY
    aws_secret_key: YOUR_AWS_SECRET_KEY
  tasks:
    - name: Create static IP
      community.aws.lightsail_static_ip:
        instance_name: my-lightsail-instance
        aws_access_key: “{{ aws_access_key }}”
        aws_secret_key: “{{ aws_secret_key }}”
      register: static_ip
    - name: Add firewall rule
      community.aws.lightsail_firewall:
        instance_name: my-lightsail-instance
        ports: “22”
        protocol: tcp
        cidr: “10.0.0.0/8,192.168.0.0/16”
        aws_access_key: “{{ aws_access_key }}”
        aws_secret_key: “{{ aws_secret_key }}”
      register: firewall_rule

In this example, we use the community.aws.lightsail_static_ip module to create a static IP and attach it to the my-lightsail-instance instance, and register the output to the static_ip variable. We then use the community.aws.lightsail_firewall module to add a rule to the instance’s firewall that allows traffic to port 22 from two different CIDR blocks (10.0.0.0/8 and 192.168.0.0/16). The instance_name parameter is set to the name of the Lightsail instance, and the aws_access_key and aws_secret_key parameters are used to authenticate with the AWS API.

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any further questions.

ME: The community.aws.lightsail_firewall does not exist

I apologize for the confusion. You are correct that the community.aws.lightsail_firewall module does not exist.

To configure the firewall on an Amazon Lightsail instance using Ansible, you can use the community.aws.ec2_group module to create a security group and add rules to it. Here’s an example playbook:

---
- name: Configure firewall on Lightsail AWS instance
  hosts: my-lightsail-instance
  become: yes
  vars:
    aws_access_key: YOUR_AWS_ACCESS_KEY
    aws_secret_key: YOUR_AWS_SECRET_KEY
  tasks:
    - name: Create security group
      community.aws.ec2_group:
        name: my-lightsail-security-group
        description: “My Lightsail security group”
        region: us-east-1
        aws_access_key: “{{ aws_access_key }}”
        aws_secret_key: “{{ aws_secret_key }}”
      register: security_group
    - name: Add inbound rule to security group
      community.aws.ec2_group:
        name: “{{ security_group.group_id }}”
        region: us-east-1
        rules:
          - proto: tcp
            from_port: 22
            to_port: 22
            cidr_ip: “10.0.0.0/8,192.168.0.0/16”
        aws_access_key: “{{ aws_access_key }}”
        aws_secret_key: “{{ aws_secret_key }}”

In this example, we use the community.aws.ec2_group module to create a security group called my-lightsail-security-group, and register the output to the security_group variable. We then use the same module to add an inbound rule to the security group that allows traffic to port 22 from two different CIDR blocks (10.0.0.0/8 and 192.168.0.0/16). The name parameter is set to the ID of the security group, which is returned by the community.aws.ec2_group module when the group is created. The region parameter is set to the region where the Lightsail instance is located, and the aws_access_key and aws_secret_key parameters are used to authenticate with the AWS API.

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any further questions.

Security groups do not apply to aws lightsail instances.

You are correct. I apologize for my mistake. Security groups are not used in Amazon Lightsail, and they cannot be managed with the community.aws.ec2_group module.

To configure the firewall on an Amazon Lightsail instance, you can use the community.general.script module to execute shell commands on the instance. Here’s an example playbook:

---
- name: Configure firewall on Lightsail AWS instance
  hosts: my-lightsail-instance
  become: yes
  vars:
    ssh_port: 22
    cidr_blocks:
      - 10.0.0.0/8
      - 192.168.0.0/16
  tasks:
    - name: Add firewall rules
      community.general.script:
        interpreter: /bin/bash
        chdir: /tmp
        script: |
          # Flush all existing rules
          iptables -F
          # Allow incoming SSH traffic
          iptables -A INPUT -p tcp –dport {{ ssh_port }} -j ACCEPT
          # Allow incoming traffic from specified CIDR blocks
          {% for cidr_block in cidr_blocks %}
          iptables -A INPUT -s {{ cidr_block }} -j ACCEPT
          {% endfor %}
          # Drop all other incoming traffic
          iptables -A INPUT -j DROP
      register: firewall_rules

In this example, we use the community.general.script module to execute shell commands on the Lightsail instance. The script parameter contains a shell script that configures the firewall rules using the iptables command. We first flush all existing rules using iptables -F, then allow incoming SSH traffic to the specified port using iptables -A INPUT -p tcp –dport {{ ssh_port }} -j ACCEPT. We then add rules to allow incoming traffic from the specified CIDR blocks using a for loop, and finally drop all other incoming traffic using iptables -A INPUT -j DROP.

Note that this example only opens SSH and the specified CIDR blocks, and drops all other incoming traffic. You may need to modify the script to allow traffic for other services and protocols as required by your application.

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any further questions.

ME: Your last example interacts with the OS in the instance. I will not be using host-based firewalls. I need to apply the firewall to the lightsail instance, not its guest OS

Something went wrong. If this issue persists please contact us through our help center at help.openai.com.

Here is a solution that works:

name: Close HTTPS firewall ports to prepare for firewall config
shell: >
aws lightsail close-instance-public-ports \
–instance-name “{{ aws_instance_name }}” \
–port-info “fromPort=443,protocol=tcp,toPort=443,cidrs=0.0.0.0/0”
name: Close HTTP firewall ports to prepare for firewall config
shell: >
aws lightsail close-instance-public-ports \
–instance-name “{{ aws_instance_name }}” \
–port-info “fromPort=80,protocol=tcp,toPort=80,cidrs=0.0.0.0/0”
name: Close SSH firewall ports to prepare for firewall config
shell: >
aws lightsail close-instance-public-ports \
–instance-name “{{ aws_instance_name }}” \
–port-info “fromPort=22,protocol=tcp,toPort=22,cidrs=0.0.0.0/0”
name: Configure HTTPS on the firewall
shell: >
aws lightsail open-instance-public-ports \
–instance-name “{{ aws_instance_name }}” \
–port-info “fromPort=443,protocol=TCP,toPort=443,cidrs={{ aws_https_allowed_networks }}”
name: Configure HTTP on the firewall
shell: >
aws lightsail open-instance-public-ports \
–instance-name “{{ aws_instance_name }}” \
–port-info “fromPort=80,protocol=TCP,toPort=80,cidrs={{ aws_http_allowed_networks }}”
name: Configure SSH on the firewall
shell: >
aws lightsail open-instance-public-ports \
–instance-name “{{ aws_instance_name }}” \
–port-info “fromPort=22,protocol=TCP,toPort=22,cidrs={{ aws_ssh_allowed_networks }},cidrListAliases=lightsail-connect”

Vote to Win with Sean Flynn

Eric Hoy — Thu, 23 Feb 2023 19:53:53 +0000

Embedded page: https://www.youtube.com/embed/FPyJvsBv9lw?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en&autohide=2&wmode=transparent

My wife is amazing

Eric Hoy — Sun, 25 Dec 2022 15:18:35 +0000

Basically every day Princess asks me what I would like for dinner. Awesome!

The problem is that I never know what I want to eat until I’m so hungry that I can’t focus on what I’m doing. So Princess has no idea what to cook. Unless there is something she is craving, she has to take a wild guess.

Solution: Menu. I can spot what I want quickly and order, just like in a restaurant.

Dinner Options for Hoy Manor

Appetizers

Bruschetta

Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeños

Main Courses

Princess Signature Dishes

Stuffed Chicken Breast

Apricot Chicken

Enchiladas

American

Pizza

Zucchini Boats

Meatloaf

Sloppy Joes

Chili

Stuffed Peppers

Burgers

Chicken Pot Pie

Stuffed Chicken Breast

Chicken or Small Bird (smoked, beer-can grilled, or braised)

Turkey (smoked, fried, or braised)

Pot Roast

Beef Brisket

Pasta

Spaghetti

Spaghetti Casserole

Chicken Alfredo

Lasagna

Mexican

Quesadillas

Enchiladas

Nachos

Side Dishes

Veg Sides

Side Salad

Smoked Cabbage

Brussels Sprouts

Asparagus

Green Beans

Corn

Cauliflower

Broccoli

Carb sides

Fries

Roasted Quartered Potatoes

Mashed Potatoes

Garlic Bread

Who needs a Fitbit? Not me.

Eric Hoy — Thu, 01 Dec 2022 19:06:18 +0000

I’ve been through a few generations of the Fitbit Charge (2,3,4). This goes for myself as well as my friends and relatives. These things are honestly are not constructed very well, the watchbands are expensive, the messaging/notifications rarely if ever work, and the basic watches typically have costed around $150. The higher-priced Fitbits look nice, but my friends with the Versa can barely make it through a full day without needing to recharge the battery.

I also have a really nice Samsung Galaxy Watch Active2 that my dad left to me when he passed away. The watch is great and I love it. I love it so much, in fact, that I am afraid to wear it. I dropped it in a rain puddle and it was fine but I was in a panic about finding it. I believe that price started out around $400 when it was new. There are listings for less now, somewhere in the ballpark of $225 to $250.

When my FitBit Charge 3 started having big problems with the lcd display fading to invisible at the same time my wife’s Fitbit Charge 4 fell apart. I was fed up with Fitbit, so I started looking into alternatives.

I saw this watch on Walmart’s website: https://www.walmart.com/ip/HONOR-Band-6-1-47-Inch-AMOLED-Screen-BT5-0-Smart-Bracelet-10-Sport-Modes-Health-Monitor-Stress-Test-Breathing-Exercise-5ATM-Waterproof-Black/384127942

Low and behold, a watch that looks like it is in the same ballpark as a Fitbit Charge 5. I figured, why not give it a try? If I’m going to buy a piece of junk that doesn’t last, I might as well only spend $42 which included tax and shipping.

Let me tell you folks, this watch is great! The text messaging is totally reliable, the step count is accurate, and it tracks stress, sleep, and oxygen levels. WAAAAY better than the Fitbit product line, at about 1/4 the price.

When folks catch on, the prices will probably go up and the company will get swallowed up by one of the tech giants like Google or Meta. Until then, buy one and enjoy.

Webservers

Eric Hoy — Thu, 01 Dec 2022 18:45:22 +0000

Webserver

Webserver webserver webserver webserver webserver

Anyone curious why I keep typing the word ‘webserver’?

I noticed today that the word ‘webserver’ keeps getting flagged by spell checks in various applications. Let me be clear that ‘webserver’ is a word. However, it is not in the dictionary!

This is what the dictionary entry should look like: Webserver: `web·serv·er : a computer on a network that is used to host one or more websites for access by other computers on a connected network using a browser application.

Please help me out by using the word ‘webserver’ as much as possible so Oxford and Merriam-Webster will finally put it in the dictionary.

Another plug for a great product (Bitwarden)

Eric Hoy — Thu, 09 Jun 2022 19:23:46 +0000

If you’re not using a password manager, what the heck are you doing? Writing down your passwords on a sticky note? Like a Caveman???!!!

Be a proper lady/gentleman of the 21st century. Use a password manager. And never look back.

Password Manager 1: LastPass. Verdict: it’s okay. Fine for some people I guess. It’s a bit annoying that I have to create a whole separate record for different URLs that use the same sign-on. Actually, I take that back. It’s an extremely frustrating issue which can be black hole for your time and productivity.

Password Manager 2: Bitwarden. It’s awesome. The free version is fine for most people. I use the paid version, which is useful for sharing. It allowed me to create a separate container for an organization that I can share. I have it on my smartphone as well as a browser plug-in on my computers.

The moral of the story is that you need to use a unique password for all websites. If possible, even a unique username – which Bitwarden facilitates nicely.

Or you can stay in the Stone Age and get your stuff hacked into occasionally and spend days dealing with the fallout. Your choice!

Virtualization Performance with Ubuntu

Eric Hoy — Thu, 09 Jun 2022 19:12:31 +0000

After rebuilding my Ubuntu VM on 22.04 I started having lots of problems with stability. Also, it was not performing very well and the GUI was not responsive enough to meet my needs.

I thought about maybe switching graphical desktop environments, but didn’t want to be bothered with all the configuration and tuning that goes along with doing that.

I considered other Linux distros also, but I’m running packages that I would have had to compile on other distros. Yuck! And then how am I supposed to keep those packages up to date? Recompiling them constantly? Double yuck! The built-in support for snap packages in Ubuntu is also nice, as well as my familiarity with apt and the huge community that Ubuntu has.

Q: But wait, aren’t you a Linux Sysadmin? Like professionally?

A: Yes, but that doesn’t mean I hate myself! I’m perfectly happy to bang my head against the wall with RHEL or RHEL-derivatives at work, where I have colleagues to bat ideas back and forth, but I don’t have a lot of free time to burn on my home computers.

Anyway, I gave Lubuntu (a lightweight derivative of Ubuntu) a try and I LOVE it! Check it out: https://lubuntu.me/

The performance and stability is there for sure. It has a smaller footprint on my system, and the LXQt desktop environment is snappy, responsive, and a joy to use.

Lubuntu is a community-developed distribution, so don’t forget to give them a bit of financial support if you love their project as much as I do: https://www.paypal.me/LubuntuAssociation

Mandela Effect

Eric Hoy — Wed, 01 Jun 2022 17:51:00 +0000

I have not seen this movie yet, but I just added it to my watchlist: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mandela_Effect_(film)

The premise of this movie strikes a chord with me. Apparently, as residents of the multiverse or whatever computer simulation we are living in, we are divided into two camps on various historical events.

Fiction aside, something weird happened with the universe. I think it was probably at some point in late 2018. As far as I’m concerned, it is a matter of fact that reality is busted. This is probably not the only glitch, but I’ll stick to this example.

This is what happened in “my” universe: Nelson Mandela died in prison in late 1987 from tuberculosis. He was 69 years old. I was a child at the time. Mandela became a martyr for the cause to end Apartheid. Apartheid ended with a new constitution in South Africa in 1999, almost 12 years after his death. I was in college taking summer courses. I almost got hit by a car that day and fell in the street. It was a big deal; not the kind of thing one would forget or easily mistake. Mandela never received the Nobel Peace Prize. There was a lot of talk about changing the rules to award the prize posthumously to Mandela in 2018, but it never came to fruition.

This is making me feel like the entire world is gaslighting me.

At this moment, if you are reading this, the universe in which we are currently residing has a historical record which shows the following extremely significant things which did NOT happen in my universe:

Nelson Mandela suffered from tuberculosis in prison, but recovered.
He was released from prison in 1990 and lived on to influence the negotiation of a new constitution, which went into effect in 1995.
He received a Nobel Peace Price in 1993.
Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999.
During his presidency, he received a piece of the Berlin Wall as a gift.
He denounced George W. Bush and the military action in Iraq.
Despite failing health, he continued political activism against HIV/AIDS and human rights as much as he possibly could up until his death in 2013, at the age of 95.

Clearly, a lot of things happened in this universe which, sadly, I did not experience. But I am glad they happened. Maybe at some point I will develop false memories so that my experience will fall into line with the historical record of this universe.

This all leads me to the question: Which universe are you from?

Miscellaneous Rant on Chicagoland Corruption

Eric Hoy — Mon, 30 May 2022 21:45:24 +0000

Illinois Cook County Residents – is anyone following the sheriff race?

Apparently, the incumbent sheriff Tom Dart isn’t facing any serious opposition. He was. But not anymore. His significant rival, Carmen Navarro Gercone, was stricken from the Democratic ballot. The reason: “anyone running for sheriff must be a certified law enforcement officer”

Law enforcement creds for Navarro Gercone:

Executive Clerk for the Circuit Court of Cook (managing 1000 out of the 1300 employees in the office of the Circuit Court)
Graduate and current BOARD MEMBER of the FBI National Academy in Northern Illinois. Just in case it’s not clear, this is a certification of being a law enforcement officer.
DEPUTY SHERIFF for the Cook County Sheriff’s Office
SERGEANT at the sheriff’s office
LIEUTENANT at the Sheriff’s Office
ASSISTANT CHIEF at the sheriff’s office.

Law enforcement creds for Tom Dart prior to being elected Sheriff:

LOL.
LMAO.
ROFL.
He was a lawyer.
He was a legislator.

“Cop” was not on his resume. We clearly have a problem here. Does anyone else smell what’s cooking?

Is Tom Dart’s administration corrupt? It’s difficult to be certain. There are a lot of Cook County residents wondering what happened to $182 million for labor costs during the pandemic, when the Sheriff’s office staff shrank, and the jail population had dipped significantly for at least 7 months of the pandemic. It’s not an accusation, it’s just a matter of curiosity. It doesn’t compute. This is not pocket change that fell into a couch cushion.

Who is serving us this heap of voter suppression with a little topping of voter disenchantment?

Who of the three officials in charge of this decision are to blame?

No blame goes to Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Iris Martinez. She stood up for Cook County, our democracy, and for common sense by voting in favor of allowing Carmen Navarro Gercone on the ballot. Graduating from, and sitting on the Board of the FBI National Academy, as well as working in various capacities (some in uniform!) in the Cook County Sheriff’s office meet the legal criteria. As a voter, I appreciate the wise decision as well as the explanation her office provided. Transparency = Good. Fairness = Good. Consistency = Good.
DEFINITELY blame State’s Attorney Kim Foxx. Foxx shot Navarro Gercone down. This is the same Kim Foxx who has let us down in a big way by failing to prosecute murderers and child rapists. All while running a witch hunt against cops (even the good ones) and throwing hundreds of millions of desperately needed tax dollars to murderers and their families. Corruption = Bad. Lawyers Who Don’t Understand Law = Bad. Elected politicians who ignore their constituency = Bad. Prosecutors who don’t prosecute = Bad.
ABSOLUTELY blame Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough. A little bit corrupt? She’s certainly an expert at avoiding scrutiny and declining to comment or justify her decisions. On this issue, her office has predictably given no public comment, nor the statement that would traditionally accompany this type of decision. Secrecy = Bad. Lack of Accountability = Bad. Inability to Function Adequately at One’s Job = Bad.

Is the media to blame? As citizens, we essentially “vote” for media by deciding which sources receive our attention.

Fundamentally, we as voters are to blame. It is difficult to quantify a concept like “evil” but I can’t help but wonder – is the voter base itself a cesspool of dishonesty and depravity? (Clarification – this means YOU out there, odds are that if you are a resident of Cook County your status as an ethical human being is questionable. No offense, of course.)

Corruption as a concept is vague and perhaps difficult to align with. I can use some other concepts: transparency, equality, consistency. The best advice I can give is to pay attention to what is going on, listen, consider all sides of an issue, vote for legislators who prioritize equality, vote for judges who decide cases with consistency and fairness, and law enforcement officials who provide transparency and enforce the laws in an equal, consistent, and ethical fashion.

I’m not asking for a miracle (or maybe I am?). All I want is for people to act in a way that is representative of being a reasonable, functional human being with a brain. And that is unfortunately not happening right now.

2022 Primaries

Eric Hoy — Mon, 30 May 2022 19:24:42 +0000

The primary election in Chicago will be held on June 28th, 2022. Is anyone else having a tough time identifying the best candidates?

Believe me, the primaries are very important! Odds are that you live in an area which already leans politically one way or the other (left or right). For example, Chicago residents can bet that the Democrats will get the votes. The primary election in an area like this allows us to choose which Democrat will take the (congress, judicial, etc) seat.

Are you following me? If so, then you understand that the primary election is as important (possibly more important) than the general election. Most folks out there have it backwards!

If you’re like most normal people and you can’t recall from the top of your head which Congressional District, State Senate District, Representative, Judicial Sub-Circuit, etc and US district you reside in, check this page: https://chicagoelections.gov/en/your-voter-information.html. Even if you think you know, you should check anyway. This lookup also gives you the location of your polling place.

Note that I didn’t mention Wards. If you don’t know what Ward you are in, you should be ashamed. For Chicago residents, that’s basically like not knowing what City you live in. You can’t even get into Kindergarten without knowing where you live, right? But it’s never too late to find out!

Aside: For those of you in small towns the Alderman of a Ward in Chicago is basically the equivalent of a mayor in your neck of the woods. If you’re really out in the boonies and you don’t know exactly what a mayor does, bless your heart. Don’t worry about it.

Candidate list for Chicago: https://app.chicagoelections.com/Documents/general/Candidate%20List%20P2022.pdf

Judges are sometimes the most difficult to choose. These are folks that don’t necessarily have a direct impact on us. That is, until they do… However, they make difficult rulings that affect the community. It is probably more important than most voters understand. One site I like for information is https://www.injusticewatch.org/interactives/judicial-election-guide/2022-primary/en/

Some civil rights organizations and political interest groups publish scorecards that can help you choose candidates that reflect your values and priorities. If you are following any such organization you should check their website for helpful info. This especially applies to legislative candidates (i.e. US Senate, US Representative, State Senate, State Representative).

I am almost finished with the painstaking process of researching all the candidates for my area. If anyone knows of any other helpful sources of information (no specific endorsements please), share in the comments.

Chicago Residents, Pay Attention to Misinformation/Disinformation from City Officials

Eric Hoy — Wed, 18 May 2022 11:01:45 +0000

Firstly, check out this article: https://www.wbez.org/stories/uchicago-study-looks-at-whats-driving-citys-carjacking-surge/3c3aa99e-baf5-4343-8ccd-21152216ccf4

Now…. why is it that we’re being told that 80% of cars are recovered? City Officials are flipping the data entirely upside-down. Why?

In the January 2022 8th Ward Town Hall meeting (in which all of the following leaders listed below were present) one of the CPD Commanders stated that more than 80% of cars are recovered after a carjacking. Nobody on the call contradicted this, and it was simply accepted as a fact by everyone. They sure fooled me!

The stat was thrown out as a reply to another resident’s request for undercover police work to track the stolen cars. I wish I had a transcript of the session.

Hosts & Co-Hosts

Glen Brooks, Director of Community Policing for the Chicago Police Department
Michelle Evans – Deputy Chief of Staff, City of Chicago
Gregory Bell
Curtis Franklin – assistant to Ald Michelle Harris
Alvin Rider – this is the guy that basically runs the 8th Ward but under Michelle Harris

Participants:

Ald Michelle Harris
Judge John Lyke
Commander Roderick S. Watson
Commander Glen White
Joe Howard
Commander Senora Ben
Commander Keith Milmine
Gino Betts – state’s attorney
Matt Howard – Juvenile Justice
Ivan Capifali – dept of business affairs and consumer protection.
Amanda Wheeling – role in liquor licenses
Senator Elgie Sims
Kim Ward – deals with adult offenders in some capacity (state’s attorney?)
- ~600 residents of the 8th Ward

Inflation is getting serious

Eric Hoy — Sat, 14 May 2022 11:26:42 +0000

Just paid $12 for a sandwich and a fountain drink. Up from $10 two years ago.

A load of groceries that cost me $400 two years ago costs $500 now. For the same exact stuff.

No effing way inflation is 8.5 percent. More like 10 percent two years in a row. Or maybe 2.5 percent in one year and 17.5 percent the next.

Look at the Consumer Price Index. 10 percent increase year over year. That’s the real measure of inflation anyway. And even that is obviously a way too low estimate.

Let’s face the facts and all agree something is broken with the inflation stats we are getting from the bureau of labor statistics. How can the price of gas go up by 100 percent, the price of food up by 17.5 percent, electricity up by 45%, AND THE OVERALL “INFLATION” RATE ONLY REPORTED AS 8.5 PERCENT?

I mean, don’t get me wrong. 8.5 percent is tragic. But the real situation is even worse than what is being reported.

Best VPN Solution Ever

Eric Hoy — Thu, 07 Apr 2022 17:35:08 +0000

Once in a while, I like to post about a product or service that is either really impressive or really disappointing.

This VPN solution by Tailscale knocked my socks off.

https://tailscale.com

I think it works by some kind of magic. I have a cluster of servers that I was able move around between networks, and even tether one to a cellular network. They all connected together with no reconfiguration, no fuss, and no issues.

This is quite possibly the coolest thing to ever happen in the arena of remote access products. I am dazed at how ridiculously easy the setup process is. Nothing should ever be this easy. It is just wrong how easy this is.

Impressed with 5G Cellular Service

Eric Hoy — Wed, 23 Mar 2022 00:25:06 +0000

I got a new Samsung S21 FE 5G smartphone from T-Mobile a couple of months ago and I am impressed with the network speed.

At home I am getting a 90Mbps download speed and 12Mbps upload on this device!

About 15 years ago, I took over the IT management of a 500-room hotel. They had a single T1 connection for internet service. That means the entire building, including guest rooms, conference space, and the back offices were running off a 1.5Mbps internet connection.

If you had told me 15 years ago that today my cellphone would have an internet connection 60x faster than that hotel, I would have laughed you right out of the room.

Here’s where it gets crazy, folks: there is a building in Hyde Park where I work sometimes that barely had any Verizon service. It was a serious problem that affected my ability to work. My 5G connection with T-Mobile clocked at 300Mbps download at that location. That is 200x faster than a wired internet connection that a couple hundred people shared simultaneously only 15 years ago.

The battery life and overall responsiveness of this Samsung model are terrible, though. I have some regrets that I traded in a Samsung Galaxy S10+ for this device, but l will get over it.