Welcome back to IT Pro Tuesday!

In the latest episode of the Security Swarm Podcast: “Dissecting Microsoft’s Secure Future Initiative,” you’ll find part two about the Microsoft initiative that stems from the aftermath of last year’s Storm 0558 breach orchestrated by Chinese nation-state threat actors.

We’re looking for your favorite tips and tools we can share with the community… those that help you do your job better and more easily. Please share your suggestions on the IT Pro Tuesday subreddit, and we’ll be featuring them in the coming weeks.

Now on to this week’s list!

Security Cryptography Whatever delves into security topics from the specific angle of engineering and real-world events. You’ll hear interesting discussions among hosts David Adrian, Deirdre Connolly, and Thomas Ptacek, as well as with expert guests from the worlds of business, academia, and government. Appreciated by putacertonit.

Dada Mail is a mailing list manager that can be self-hosted to provide complete control over your mailing lists while allowing you to share news, announcements, events, and special offers directly from your website.

Ruptime gathers relevant data for multiple networks with encrypted traffic and client-server architecture. Provides instant list of hosts (up/down), inventory of hardware, software, and a comparable list of benchmark results. Output shows system uptime, current number of users, and load averages. Kindly shared by aieidotch.

Welcome back to IT Pro Tuesday!

In the latest episode of the Security Swarm Podcast: “Dissecting Microsoft’s Secure Future Initiative,” you’ll find part one of our discussion on Microsoft’s recently announced Secure Future Initiative, a multi-year commitment to revolutionize the design, building, testing and operation of technology for enhanced security standards in the age of AI.

We’re looking for your favorite tips and tools we can share with the community… those that help you do your job better and more easily. Please share your suggestions on the IT Pro Tuesday subreddit, and we’ll be featuring them in the coming weeks.

Now on to this week’s list!

GoTime features weekly, unscripted conversations within the Go community. Discussions cover a range of topics such as cloud infrastructure, distributed systems, microservices, Kubernetes, Docker, and of course, Go itself. Kindly shared by putacertonit.

BROMETH3U5 shares a handy shortcut: 

Control + Win + Shift + B to “restart” your GPU driver. Useful when your monitor stops working/responding or your screen acts up or doesn’t wake.

Flowpipe is a cloud scripting engine designed for easier automation and workflow integration. It facilitates connections between diverse cloud environments, essential personnel, and crucial data. Utilizing the standard DevOps configuration language, HCL, Flowpipe enables you to construct intricate and highly parallel workflows in a declarative style. You can learn more here.

Hackaday delivers a daily dose of the innovative reimagining of technology through technical expertise and ingenious problem-solving. You’ll find a diverse array of info on hacks through community contributions as well as in-house original content. whetu likes the feed as a means to keep up to date.

Linus Tech Tips is a popular YouTube channel featuring a dedicated team of enthusiasts committed to exploring and sharing insights on consumer technology. This active channel offers well-produced, entertaining videos with an educational focus on a broad array of fascinating tech topics. DeviousBeevious finds it a nice way to get informed “for general knowledge stuff.”

Baserow is an open-source, no-code database platform designed as a user-friendly alternative to Airtable. Enables users to easily create custom databases even without technical expertise and leverage developer capabilities from their browser. gorkemctin finds it “an intuitive way to organize and visualize data.”

etckeeper allows you to manage the configuration files in /etc via a Version Control System repository. Through automatic commits triggered by APT interactions, such as package installations or upgrades, it streamlines placing /etc under version control to simplify maintenance. unccvince appreciates it for internal IT documentation.

Welcome back to IT Pro Tuesday!

We’re looking for your favorite tips and tools we can share with the community… those that help you do your job better and more easily. Please share your suggestions on the IT Pro Tuesday subreddit, and we’ll be featuring them in the coming weeks.

Now on to this week’s list!

Last Week in AWS provides an efficient way to keep tabs on important news about Amazon’s cloud ecosystem. Chief cloud economist Corey Quinn consolidates key topics in amusing blog posts that are as enjoyable as they are informative. Kindly suggested by whetu.

Tasks is an open-source to-do list/reminder tool that integrates with popular platforms like Outlook, Thunderbird, and Apple Reminders. Features filters, tags, lists, infinite-depth subtasks and manual sorting and works with most productivity systems. Offers offline functionality, self-hosting, and end-to-end encryption for privacy. Our thanks go to Underknowledge for this one.

BloomerzUK shares a simple browser workaround that can sometimes come in handy:

In Google Chrome, if you get a https certificate error, you can bypass this by simply typing “thisisunsafe” without the quotes.

Cyberspatial is a YouTube channel dedicated to skill-building cybersecurity education and training offered by industry experts. Emphasis-Hungry particularly appreciates the “Security Certificates Guy.”

[BASH] Script to get system specs, including applications is a way to get system (and application) specs on macOS/Linux through a progressive enhancement for neofetch->archey->cat /etc/os-release->uname -a, with “a ton of extra stuff for popular programming languages and other system software (webdevs will probably know them, at least).” Author nebyoolae explains it here.

OpenZiti is an open-source programmable network overlay for implementing zero-trust networking within applications. It includes an overlay network, tunneling applications for various operating systems, and a range of SDKs. Enables the integration of zero-trust networking into your appllications to create a VPN-free solution for secure connectivity over the Internet. Appreciation for this suggestion goes to PhilipLGriffiths88.

OpenSearch offers flexibility and scalability in solution development for data-intensive applications. With built-in performance features, developer-friendly tools, and powerful integrations for tasks like machine learning and data processing, it provides an efficient environment for exploring, enriching, and visualizing data. Recommended by Evening-Ad1174.

Welcome back to IT Pro Tuesday!

We’re looking for your favorite tips and tools we can share with the community… those that help you do your job better and more easily. Please share your suggestions on the IT Pro Tuesday subreddit, and we’ll be featuring them in the coming weeks.

Now on to this week’s list!

Hierarchical Configuration is a Python library that can analyze the operational configuration of a network device, identify disparities from its designated configuration, and generate the remediation steps needed to bring it into spec with the intended configuration. Credit for this one goes to packetgeeknet.

Linux From Scratch is an interactive tool that walks you through the process of constructing a personalized Linux system directly from source code. You’ll also find the companion book available as a free download on the site. Appreciation for directing us to this one goes to Droppin_Bombadillos.

MartinZugec shares a fantastic trick: 

Show-Command <any cmdlet> 

(e.g. Show-Command Get-Process) will create an UI for any PowerShell command. 

And bike_piggy_bike adds that it works for scripted functions as well, not just builtin cmdlets.

The Zero Day Initiative offers a convenient window into what’s being identified by the world’s largest vendor-agnostic bug bounty program. It’s a nice way to stay current on the most-interesting happenings within the security space. Our thanks for the recommendation go to whetu.

HeidiSQL is a widely-used database solution designed to be easy to learn with straightforward data management and structure editing. It provides users the ability to view and modify data from popular database systems, including MariaDB, MySQL, Microsoft SQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite.

Docusaurus is designed to help with the creation, deployment, and maintenance of open-source project websites. This highly customizable tool requires minimal setup time, handes the website build process, and supports localization. Kindly suggested by Dangerous_Question15.

Service Credentials Manager efficiently identifies and manages Windows services and scheduled tasks associated with a designated account across your entire server domain to streamline the process of updating them with new credentials. Prevents disruptions related to -password changes, by making sure nothing slips through the net.

Welcome back to IT Pro Tuesday!

Reminder: We’ll be migrating the full list of tools to a new website starting on Jan. 12, so the old site will soon become unavailable. We expect the site build to take about 3 months… and will let you know when it’s ready for business.

Now on to this week’s list!

Apprise is a lightweight, versatile notification tool for popular platforms including Telegram, Discord, Slack, Amazon SNS, Gotify, and more. S_E_V_I explains, “I’m using apprise configured with my Telegram bot. I have a shell script which takes message as an argument, so I can easily call it from other scripts, as well as simple REST API proxy, so I can send messages through HTTP requests.”

Tailwind Cheatsheet is a well organized, searchable one-page reference guide designed to help you quickly find all the essential commands required when working with Tailwind. Kindly recommended by Extra_Discipline_644.

Tianji is an open-source application that seamlessly combines website analytics, uptime monitoring, and server status tracking into a single, lightweight tool. Author moonrailgun explains, “Now you can replace umami, uptime kuma, and server status… just need deploy once, and [what’s] more, less system usage.”

NDI Core Suite offers a comprehensive set of tools and plugins to set up, test, and manage NDI workflows, with intuitive simplicity for beginners and robust customization options for advanced users. Our thanks for the suggestion go to MurderingMurloc.

Mactelecom Networks is a YouTube channel dedicated to straightforward and informative tech content. You’ll find practical guides on IT-related topics, with a focus on Ubiquiti products, Cisco, and on-site job walkthroughs intended to demystify the implementation process. Suggested by spacemanwho.

SQLite is a compact, in-process, serverless, and self-contained SQL database engine that operates without the need for configuration. It reads and writes directly to disk files, containing a complete SQL database in a single file, making it a a great choice for various applications. synthdrunk recommends this powerful, no-cost database for software asset management.

FreeRADIUS offers a comprehensive suite that leverages this powerful, fundamental technology. Includes a server, client, development libraries, and various RADIUS and IP address-related utilities. pdp10 says it “should support everything RADIUS.”

Welcome back to IT Pro Tuesday and happy 2024!

One important note: we’re in the process of migrating the full list of tools to a brand-new website—which means it will be unavailable at the old link starting on Jan. 12. We’re expecting the site build to take about 3 months and will let you know just as soon as it’s back in action. In the meantime, you can browse through most of the previous lists on our IT Pro Tuesday subreddit.

And now on to the list!

Doxygen generates documentation from annotated C++ sources, including C, Objective-C, C#, PHP, Java, Python, IDL (Corba, Microsoft, and UNO/OpenOffice flavors), Fortran, and VHDL to some extent. Extracts documentation directly from source files, making it easy to maintain consistency between all your code and documentation. Automatically generates dependency graphs, inheritance diagrams, and collaboration diagrams. Indifferentchildren adds, “Doxygen does an amazing job, even if you don’t annotate your software.”

Net-SNMP is a comprehensive suite of applications designed to implement SNMP v1, v2c, and v3 across IPv4 and IPv6 networks. Offers command-line tools for retrieving, manipulating, and displaying information from SNMP-capable devices, a graphical MIB browser, a daemon for receiving SNMP notifications, and an extensible agent supporting a wide array of MIB information modules—plus a versatile library with C and Perl APIs for developing custom SNMP applications. Kindly suggested by OsmiumBalloon.

DomainMOD is a self-hosted, open-source PHP application for centralized management of domains and internet assets. It offers a Data Warehouse framework that’s compatible with servers running WHM/cPanel, enabling the import, analysis, and generation of reports on live web server data within the application. alyxmw explains, it “essentially functions as fancy asset tracking for your domain portfolio; it can keep track of renewal dates, cost to renew, and similar information. It’s also got importer functionality for a few major domain registrars.”

Low Level Learning is a YouTube channel dedicated to the world of code and cybersecurity. Features in-depth discussions on programming languages such as C, C++, and Rust, as well as cybersecurity and hacking tips that can help you become able to write better, safer code. DeviousBeevious appreciates it as a good source to learn about “various programming things.”

How to Sign an EXE With a Certificate (Easy Mode) is a nice tutorial on how you can use SignTool and SignGUI to simply address your code signing needs. shilezi explains, “I found this very useful after Microsoft refused our app on the app store because it was signed SHA1. Turns out DigiCert’s DigiCertUtil.exe is no longer recommended by DigiCert as the goto tool to sign apps. When i called them up, they said to go get the MS signtool sdk… anyway, this guy walks you through the steps of using a GUI to point to the right parameters to sign.”

D-ITG is a versatile platform for precise packet-level traffic generation that replicates various stochastic processes for IDT and PS random variables, including exponential, uniform, cauchy, normal, pareto, and more. Supports IPv4 and IPv6 and operates seamlessly across network, transport, and application layers. mschedrin recommends it for traffic automation for testing purposes.

XCP-ng is a user-friendly, open-source virtualization platform that ensures high performance and security by default, enabling the management of diverse virtualization workloads through a centralized administration console. It’s supported by an API and CLI and compatible with tools like Packer, Terraform, and Ansible. dustyaguas says, “XCP-NG + Xen Orchestra is the real deal. XO has a very active development cycle, a new release every month. Detailed YouTube videos and articles for each update. I ran it in production when I was in management at a small MSP.”