Neologism: Smoke and mirrors system administration
smoke and mirrors system administration - noun phrase - When you bring a problem to your support team and they go silent for hours to days at a time. No amount of poking and prodding is sufficient to...
View ArticleNeologism: 90/10 rule
90/10 rule - phenomenon - When 90% of all the stuff management tells you to deploy is monitoring and orchestration software. The remaining 10% is actual make-us-money software.
View ArticleNifty things to do with Searx.
Not too long ago I was noodling over a problem: I wanted to break up the scheduling queues in Huginn to make my fleets of agents a little more efficient when the execute. The best way I could think...
View ArticleQuarantine life.
We're rapidly nearing the end of our first month of quarantine due to the covid-19 pandemic. I've been working from home since the last week of February, which isn't anything particularly new to me...
View ArticleEverybody knows.
Originally by Leonard Cohen. Covered by Concrete Blonde for the soundtrack of Pump Up the Volume.
View ArticleStill on lockdown.
All of March and most of February were spent in lockdown in the Bay Area. I've no idea what's still open or not because the last time I was able to go anywhere outside of the house was two weeks ago....
View ArticleMigrating to Restic for offsite backups.
A couple of years back I did a how-to about using a data backup utility called Duplicity to make offsite backups of Leandra to Backblaze B2. (referrer link) It worked just fine; it was stable, it was...
View ArticleA little preparation is not a bad thing: Getting Narcan.
Obligatory disclaimer: I AM NOT A MEDICAL DOCTOR. SEEK PROFESSIONAL ADVICE AND TRAINING. There's really no good way to start an article about the epidemic of opiate overdoses and deaths in the United...
View ArticleTunneling across networks with Nebula.
Longtime readers have no doubt observed that I plug a lot weird shit into my exocortex - from bookmark managers to card catalogues to just about anything that has an API. Sometimes this is fairly...
View ArticleNeologism: Discourse analysis
discourse analysis - verb phrase -The act of accusing someone of being a terrorist/communist/infiltrator/whatever because the analyst never learned that you can disagree with someone without wanting...
View ArticleNeologism: Software installation roulette
software installation roulette - The practice of piping the output of a web browser or other HTTP tool directly through a system shell, usually as root to install something important. The danger is...
View ArticleNeologism: Cave diving
cave diving - noun phrase - The act of tunneling through multiple VPNs, bastion hosts, and chokepoints to access some network assets, usually production infrastructure in a more restricted network....
View ArticleAdventures in retrocomputing: Restoring a vintage Commodore 64.
You've probably been wondering where I've been since my last update in the latter half of April. I mean, where would I reasonably go right now when most of the country is locked down and only a...
View ArticleMontage: Restoring a C64 and 1541 drive.
A couple of days back I posted a writeup of how I restored my old Commodore 64, from taking it apart to putting it back together and firing it up for the first time in over 30 years. As I am wont to...
View ArticleFaking a telnet server with netcat.
Let's say that you need to be able to access a server somewhere on your network. This is a pretty common thing to do if you've got a fair amount of infrastructure at home. But let's say that your...
View ArticleReprint: Making your own superconductor.
Disclaimer: Times have changed since this article was written so seek legal and scientific advice from qualified personnel if you plan to try making your own superconducting materials. I am not...
View ArticleGetting a C64 online in 2020.
As you might have seen in previous posts, my stuck-in-quarantine project has been restoring my C64 so I can play around with it. Part of that involves figuring out what you can reasonably use such a...
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An in-depth discussion of tear gas.
Before I repost this Twitter thread in toto, I'd like to say a few things. First, Zander is an old friend of mine (pushing 20 years at this point). Second, while he might bill himself as "an amateur...
View ArticleExtending a wireless network with OpenWRT.
One of my earliest covid-19 lockdown projects was doing a little work on my home wireless network. I have a fairly nice wireless access point upstairs running OpenWRT, sitting behind the...
View Article.plan update: covid-19 edition
I've been updating my .plan file periodically while stuck at home due to covid-19. All of the usual warnings apply.
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