Sometimes you just need valid-looking MAC addresses for documentation, test data, configs, or mock environments — not for changing real hardware addresses or spoofing interfaces.

This method is platform-agnostic and works on macOS, FreeBSD, Linux, and most Unix-like systems with OpenSSL installed.

Generate with a one-liner in terminal

You can generate a properly formatted 48-bit MAC address using standard shell tools:

# Generate a random MAC address (locally-administered, unicast)
openssl rand -hex 6 | fold -w2 | paste -sd: -

Date: 2026-02-12
Host: macOS
Goal: Convert normal text into Unicode Mathematical Sans-Serif Italic (e.g. Everything → 𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨)

This document shows how to create a small local script on macOS that converts normal text into Unicode Mathematical Sans‑Serif Italic. This is Unicode substitution (not font styling). It’s useful for headings or emphasis in posts and chats, but it’s not ideal for accessibility or searching.

What it looks like

Plain:

Everything looks cooler now

Converted:

This walkthrough documents the cleanest recovery path for Netgate appliances running pfSense CE or pfSense Plus using a MacBook and the serial console this way we may avoid config loss, performing a factory reset, or a whipe/reinstall.

This is written as a practical runbook you can keep around for the next time someone locks themselves out.

What This Fixes (and What It Doesn’t)

This procedure:

• Resets the admin webConfigurator password
• Preserves your full pfSense configuration
• Works even if the web UI is unreachable

This does not:

Date: 2026-02-11
Host: FreeBSD jail host
Component: RACCT/RCTL + node_exporter textfile collector
Outcome: Per-jail RAM/VMEM/SWAP metrics in Prometheus/Grafana

Making ZFS ARC Grafana Panels FreeBSD-Compatible

Steps taken to make an imported ZFS/Grafana dashboard work correctly on FreeBSD. Panels assumed Linux exporters and referenced metrics that do not exist on FreeBSD. The result was a dashboard full of empty panels. This walkthrough shows how the missing ARC kstats where identified, cleanly exported and refactored so that the panels reflect the real FreeBSD kernel state.

Host: clemente (10.10.0.1)
Stack: FreeBSD + node_exporter (textfile collector) + Prometheus + Grafana
Date: 2026-02-10

Overview (Context & Goal)

Date: 2026-02-10
Host: new Mac (macOS Tahoe)
Context: Migration Assistant clone from older Mac failed

Summary

First day using macOS Tahoe, immediately greeted with a broken Migration Assistant clone from an older Mac. The system failed to reach the login window due to a corrupted SecurityAgent authorization plugin left behind by TeamViewer. This caused login to fail and wedged Setup Assistant in a deadlock during post-migration initialization.

Date: 2026-02-08
Host: grafana
Component: Prometheus + Grafana + exporters +zfs
Scope: ZFS monitoring

ZFS / Zpool Metrics for Prometheus (node-exporter + textfile collector on FreeBSD)

This guide sets up zpool capacity metrics (zpool list) for Prometheus/Grafana using node-exporter’s textfile collector on FreeBSD.

This complements (not replaces) zfs_exporter, which provides ARC/internal ZFS metrics but not pool capacity.

What I Got Working

Metrics exposed to Prometheus:

• zpool_size_bytes{pool="zroot"}
• zpool_alloc_bytes{pool="zroot"}
• zpool_free_bytes{pool="zroot"}
• zpool_capacity_ratio{pool="zroot"}

These map directly to:

Date: 2026-02-08
Host: grafana
Component: Prometheus + Grafana + exporters
Scope: DNS monitoring

Date: 2026-02-08
Host: GhostBSD
Component: Ungoogled-Chrome

Chromey Installer

Note 2025-11-02 23:04:26

This document packages everything needed to install, back up, restore, and run Ungoogled Chromium inside a Bastille jail named chromey

in the JailFox style and more. After going through the process you have a jailed ungoogle-chromium with full video and audio support, emojis and fonts etc.

Just in case the chicken came before the egg, the process starts with a robust Home backup/restore flow so your profile/configs survive rebuilds. Then it walks through the templates, scripts, mounts, X11 fixes, and the launchers.

Introduction to Setting Up Unbound (Sinkhole) on a Mac

This guide walks you through the process of setting up Unbound, a validating, recursive, and caching DNS resolver, on your Mac using MacPorts. The primary goal is to create a DNS sinkhole, which is a security mechanism used to intercept and block malicious traffic. By configuring Unbound on your Mac, you can improve your network security, enhance privacy by using DNS over TLS, and block unwanted ads and trackers.