I recently bought an SSD for my old Apple computer. I updated the system from Snow Leopard to Yosemite as some applications required a newer system.

Two weeks after I found that my FTDI chip (serial to USB converter) was faulty. Tried another, same problem. After a quick loop with an oscilloscope, the reset signal was not good… I search on the Internet and found that Apple now develops its own drivers but they are faulty :/

The workaround is following.

I just picked up a mini PC (Fujitsu Q5030) and tried to install Linux on it but the CD reader is not to be reliable. So I used the boot over Ethernet function. As my DHCP server is on the modem of my internet provider, I had to plug directly the computer into my laptop and setup a PXE server.

I am using a lot of web services on several servers, and I was bored to remember all ports and change my firewall rules each time. So I use HAProxy to redirect all incoming HTPP traffic to the right server/port by checking the requested URL.

Moreover, I configured it as an SSL endpoint, so every communication between a browser and HAProxy is encrypted, even if the service I am using is not able to support it. The other pro of this solution is to be able to use basic HTTP authentication whenever I want to restrict access to some services.