See you at QCon NYC next week!
I'll be speaking at QCon in their "Architecting for Failure" track. My talk is titled "Fail Better: Radical Ideas from the Practice of Cloud Computing". This conference has a vendor area. I'll be at...
View ArticleThanks, QCon New York!
I had a great time at QCon New York last week. It was my first time there and my first time speaking too. The audience was engaged and had great questions. I did a book-signing at the Pearson booth and...
View ArticleSome of my proposals have been accepted at Usenix LISA '15!
My talk and 2 tutorial proposals have been accepted at Usenix LISA LISA Conference! Talk: Transactional system administration is killing us and must be stopped Tutorials: How To Not Get Paged: Managing...
View ArticleIf you change the file format, change the file name
Recently we were having the most difficult time planning what should have been a simple upgrade. There is a service we use to collect monitoring information (scollector, part of Bosun). We were making...
View ArticleMarriage Equality becomes the law of the land in the US
I literally never thought I'd see this day arrive. In 1991/1992 I was involved in passing the LGB anti-discrimination law in New Jersey. When it passed in January 1992, I remember a reporter quoting...
View ArticleTOML vs. JSON
[This is still only draft quality but I think it is worth publishing at this point.] Internally at Stack Exchange, Inc. we've been debating the value of certain file formats: YAML, JSON, INI and the...
View ArticleGoogle's "Labs" features are DevOps Third Way
Someone on Quora recently asked, Why did Google include the 'undo send' feature on Gmail?. They felt that adding the 30-second delay to email delivery was inefficient. However rather than answering the...
View ArticleIntroducing: LISA Conversations
Step 1: Watch a video from a past Usenix LISA conference. Step 2: Join the Hangout On Air and watch Lee Damon and Tom Limoncelli interview the speaker. Send Q&A during the show. Step 3: Watch and...
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Usenix Container Management Summit Announced!
The Call for Participation for the new 2015 USENIX Container Management Summit is now online.UCMS '15 will take place November 9, 2015, during LISA15 in Washington, D.C.
View ArticleSchyntax: A DSL for specifying recurring events
There are many ways to specify scheduled items. Cron has 10 8,20 * 8 1-5 and iCalendar has RRULE and Roaring Penguin brings us REMIND. There's a new cross-platform DSL called Schyntax, created by my...
View ArticleSysAdmin Appreciation Day in New York City
If you are in NYC, there is a SysAdmin Appreciation day event at The Gingerman, 11 E 36th Ave, New York City, NY, on Friday, July 31, 2015, 6:00 PM. This event usually has a big turn-out and is a great...
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Save on The Practice of Cloud System Administration
Pearson / InformIT.com is running a promotion through August 11th on many open-source related books, including Volume 2, The Practice of Cloud System Administration. Use discount code OPEN2015 during...
View ArticleLISA Conversations premieres on Tuesday!
Yes, I've started a video podcast that has a homework assignment built-in. Watch a famous talk from a past LISA conference (that's the homework) then watch Tom and Lee interview the speaker. What's new...
View ArticleHappy SysAdmin Day! (July 31)
I hope you are fully appreciated today and every day. For more info about SysAdmin Day, visit http://sysadminday.com/ If you are in the NYC area, please come to SysDrink's SysAd Day event tonight at...
View ArticleEpisode 1 of LISA Conversations
Episode 1 of "LISA Conversations" is up. In our first episode, we spoke with Todd Underwood about his LISA'13 talk about a Post-Ops World. What's next? The next episode will be with Ben Rockwood, where...
View ArticleEthical Obligations in Internet Operations - Questionnaire
[Guest post by Jan Schaumann) Actually, it's about Ethics in Internet Operations. No, seriously, it actually is. As mentioned elsewhere, somehow Velocity NY accepted my talk on 'Ethical Obligations in...
View ArticleWhy are logs called logs?
Q: Why are logs called logs? A: The name refers to the fact that they are like entries in ship's logbook. Q: Why is it called a logbook? A: Because of an amazing bit of nautical history uncovered by...
View ArticleNext week's LISA Conversations guest: Ben Rockwood
We'll be recording Episode 2 of Usenix LISA Conversations on Tuesday (6 days from today). Our next conversation will be with Ben Rockwood who presented "I Am SysAdmin (And So Can You!)" at LISA14....
View ArticleLISA Schedule published!
This year's committee has done a bang-up job! See the entire schedule! Register today!
View ArticleUsenix LISA Conversations: Episode 2 is up!
Ben Rockwood was the guest of Episode 2. He gave a great talk at LISA'14 and we invited him to discuss it, the reaction it got, and what's new in his thinking since. Ben's a funny guy and had a lot of...
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