Author Archives: Warren Cross

About Warren Cross

A contract IT professional that has been in the technology industry a number of years at various blue chip companies. During his career he has been a successful application developer, analyst, project manager, IT manager and system administrator, and performed in both global and local roles. For contract opportunities feel free to contact Warren through this site.

Security Websites

Posted on June 25, 2020 by Warren Cross

Some useful links to security related online checking tools: Trackback an IP address – https://ipinfo.ioRun an application through a sandbox check – https://www.joesandbox.comOnline check a file/url/IP – https://www.virustotal.com/gui/home/search

Posted in Security | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Telegram Bot API

Posted on March 14, 2020 by Warren Cross

The Telegram Bot API can be found here! The web hooks look interesting for two way communication between bot and user(s), and looks simple enough to implement so possibly a future activity.  

Posted in Code | Tagged | Leave a comment

Bot Notifications using Telegram

Posted on March 14, 2020 by Warren Cross

This PHP setup is based off of the excellent Python article provided by Man Hay Hong. To get started you need to download/install Telegram and set yourself up as a user. Once it is installed you need to setup a … Continue reading →

Posted in Code, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

ESP8266 – Getting Started with MicroPython

Posted on August 10, 2019 by Warren Cross

For a couple of pounds I purchased a couple of ESP8266 NodeMCU WEMOS development boards to play with. Decided to go with the NodeMCU versions so that they come with a micro USB and 3.3 regulator onboard. As I’ve been … Continue reading →

Posted in Electronics | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Creating an Alexa Skill to work with your Synology

Posted on January 28, 2018 by Warren Cross

I found this excellent article on creating a basic Alexa skill. Follow this tutorial to get a basic skill and use the php code below instead of the shell script in the tutorial as the Synology does not like non-PHP … Continue reading →

Posted in Code, Home Automation | Leave a comment

Broadlink RM IR control via Python

Posted on January 28, 2018 by Warren Cross

Christmas I received the Broadlink RM device for controlling IR devices with the intention of using it with Amazon Alexa. It turns out that the service is not available in the UK so the only way to control the device … Continue reading →

Posted in Code, Home Automation | Leave a comment

Synology Certificates and Alexa Skills

Posted on January 28, 2018 by Warren Cross

If you want to host Alexa skills on your Synology you will need to use Let’s Encrypt certificates as the default one will not authenticate for the skill. To check if your certificate is okay use SSLChecker to validate the certificate from … Continue reading →

Posted in Code, Home Automation | Leave a comment

Installing Screen on Synology

Posted on December 22, 2017 by Warren Cross

Home page for screen To install on synology you need to have ipkg installed. Mine is located in /opt/bin. sudo /opt/bin/ipkg install screen If you just run /opt/bin/screen you will get a terminal error as you may not have a … Continue reading →

Posted in Code, Software | Leave a comment

Finding devices on local network

Posted on September 24, 2017 by Warren Cross

Run the following command on a UNIX based machine: ping -c 3 192.168.1.255 > /dev/null; arp -a The first command pools devices and the second outputs the known devices on the network

Posted in Code | Tagged | Leave a comment

git & Synology

Posted on April 1, 2017 by Warren Cross

Setting up Synology with git A great article here with screenshots – How to install Git Server Some git commands now to use: Creating working store: cd git_repo mkdir project.git cd project.git git –bare init cd .. chown -R git:users … Continue reading →

Posted in Code, Software | Tagged , , | Leave a comment