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.

Homebridge on Synology NAS

Posted on October 22, 2020 by Warren Cross

The following article shows a step-by-step process for setting up Homebridge on a Synology NAS – worked for me first time! https://mariushosting.com/how-to-install-homebridge-on-your-synology-nas/ Page content saved off in case the link dies (beauty of the internet) To access homebridge (internal only) … Continue reading →

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Website Bookmarks

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Warren Cross

General PostIt Board – http://ideabordz.comIcebreaker questions – http://icebreakers.equalexperts.com Training Sitesdatacamp.comhttps://www.cybrary.it/course/cism/https://www.pluralsight.com/ Other PostIt type boards     Jamboard (Google)     Funretro     Mentimeter     Miro

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Free Conference Bridge

Posted on July 15, 2020 by Warren Cross

Saving this link here for when I need a free conference bridge in the future.. https://www.freeconferencecall.com/

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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

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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.  

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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