Category: Web

Recently my script stopped working to connect to vCloudDirector. I consume vCloudDirector from a managed service company and sometimes the version changes without me knowing or having a simple way to check it. Just now this happened to me again, usually this then means my PowerCLI script starts failing.

Connect-CIServer : 30.04.2025 10:17:40	Connect-CIServer		NOT_ACCEPTABLE: The request has invalid accept header: Invalid API version requested. Supported API versions are: [38.0.0-alpha, 37.3, 37.2, 37.1, 37.0, 36.3, 
36.2, 36.1, 36.0, 35.2 [D], 35.0 [D], 34.0 [D], 33.0 [D]] ([D] indicates deprecated versions)	
At line:25 char:1
+ Connect-CIServer -Server ("https://{0}" -f $vcd) -SessionId “Bearer $ ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [Connect-CIServer], CIServerException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : Cloud_ConnectivityServiceImpl_ConnectCloudServer_BySessionId_ConnectError,VMware.VimAutomation.Cloud.Commands.Cmdlets.ConnectCIServer

I regularly need to consume the latest user agents. I was looking for an API but couldn’t find anything dependable. I came across a self-updating list of the latest and most common user agents seen on the web across all device types, operating systems, and browsers. The data is mostly fresh, theoretically updating weekly.

Cloudflare is a global technology company that provides a wide range of internet services and security solutions. Their core offerings include:

1. Content Delivery Network (CDN) services that help websites load faster by distributing content across a global network of data centers
2. DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) protection to defend websites against malicious attacks
3. Web security features including a Web Application Firewall (WAF), SSL/TLS encryption, and bot management
4. DNS (Domain Name System) services that help route internet traffic efficiently
5. Zero Trust security solutions that help organizations secure their networks and applications

Cloudflare has great offerings, a strong API, and many tools. I’m not super familiar with all of Cloudflare’s offerings because I am a free user who has been using it for many years, but I was never much involved in business or enterprise deployments.

I recently came across Team Cymru’s website in the Swiss CTI git repository. The Swiss National Cyber Security Centre NCSC did mention them in the disclaimer for the ASN lookups.

Recently, I was implementing a machine that does automatic labeling of images in my Piwigo. I used OpenAI gpt-4o-mini for this purpose, and every two hours, the folder is scanned for images without titles and descriptions. If some are found, it will automatically add a title and description.

Once I started with my endeavor, I was surprised that there is no “online reference” for the API.

A common task for an administrator is to check the public IP addresses of the current system they are on or the current system they are using. This is important both in day-to-day work and while working with cloud providers. There are many services available, but not all are created equal.

This is a topic that really threw me for a loop – I have an application which displays a receipt, but it was unable to display it properly. The issue was that my application is running on Domain A (mia.web-performance.ch) and the store that created the receipt is running on Domain B (pia.web-performance.ch). Whenever you clicked the link to view the PDF, you got a blocked page instead.

I spent quite some time searching for answers online, but unfortunately, most of the results I found were unhelpful and didn’t provide any real solutions.

The need did arise to have my own URL shortener like bit.ly. I was even so simple to use bit.ly, but they do not offer “branded domain” on the free tier.

So, I was researching using Claude AI to see what self-hosted options are available that best case can run on inexpensive shared hosting. My needs are minimal. I need redirects, a UI, a simple API, and statistics on how much this is used.

I recently updated my Piwigo instance to version 15. Not out of a real need, but rather just because it’s good to stay current with software updates. This is the first time I ran into an issue, which I caused but didn’t expect.

I deactivated and deleted most languages, and I also switched my default from “English [GB]” to “English [US]. A mistake as I later found out.

YAML is used in a wide array of applications, whether in Ansible scripts or elsewhere. In general, it is easier to write YAML than to write correct JSON on your keyboard. If you need to read and parse YAML on your Windows computer, you may find it necessary to install LibYAML to have access to useful functions like yaml_parse().

Uncaught Error: Call to undefined function yaml_parse() in yml2xml.php:5

This post will explain how you can add LibYAML to your Windows XAMPP installation. This will also resolve the error in case the function is not yet present on your system. However, this is not limited to XAMPP, as the process is similar if you run a Windows server with PHP.