New video: Ganeti: Your Private Virtualization Cloud "the Way Google Does It"
My 60-minute talk on Ganeti from the Usenix LISA '12 conference has been posted: https://www.usenix.org/conference/lisa12/ganeti-your-private-virtualization-cloud-way-google-does-it Ganeti is a cluster...
View ArticleWhat does Stack Exchange do when disaster strikes?
Find out at LOPSA-East (formerly PICC) May 3-4, 2013, New Brunswick, NJ (Early Bird Registration ends April 1st! http://lopsa-east.org Space is limited!) In late October of 2012, Hurricane Sandy was...
View ArticleThe perfect April Fools gift for the geek you love?
There are still a few copies left of the book of April Fools RFCs. http://www.rfc-humor.com They say if you have to explain a joke it wasn't funny. Well, this makes The Complete April Fools RFCs the...
View ArticleToday is my last day at Google.
Today is my last day at Google. After 7 years I'm looking forward to doing nothing for a while, writing a book or two (oh yeah, I have a big announcement: I've signed 2 book contracts! More info...
View ArticleHow the Maker of TurboTax Fought Free, Simple Tax Filing
This investigative report by propublica.org is what I thought was going on but had no proof. Basically I've always said that since the IRS gets all the data from our employers and financial...
View ArticleCan you make the speed of light faster?
One technical issue that often plagues me is that you can't make the speed of light any faster. Network latency from NYC to Sydney is going to suck no matter what. Helping users understand this is...
View ArticleStop. Take 5 minutes to save the internet
Hey fellow sysadmins! Please take 5 minutes to make sure your DNS servers aren't open to the world for recursive queries. They can be used as amplifiers in DDOS attacks....
View ArticleBoston Area Sysadmins: BBLISA Looking for Lightning Talks!
Would you like to do a lightning talk at the next BBLISA meeting? [ This message comes from Matt Simmons at the Standalone Sysadmin blog. ] Do you love lightning talks? Because I love lightning talks....
View ArticleSheeri Cabral's "When I Moved Abroad"
Over at the Mozilla IT blog is a new post by Sheeri Cabral that every sysadmin in our community should read. Blog post: When I Moved Abroad
View ArticleTesla accidentally leaks their secret business plan
Read it before they realize what they've done and take it off their website.
View ArticleMy LOPSA-East tutorial: Evil Genius 101
You want to innovate: deploy new technologies such as configuration management (CfEngine, Puppet, Chef), a wiki, or standardized configurations. Your coworkers don't want change. They like it the way...
View ArticleDesign Considerations for Faster-Than-Light (FTL) Communication
RFC 6921 has been published today: Abstract We are approaching the time when we will be able to communicate faster than the speed of light. It is well known that as we approach the speed of light, time...
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Running ChromeOS District Wide
[ This is a guest post from Dan O’Boyle, who I met at a LOPSA-NJ meeting. I asked him to do a guest post about this subject because I thought the project was something other schools would find useful ]...
View ArticleInterview with Chris St. Pierre, UCMS '13 Program Chair
The 2013 USENIX Configuration Management Summit (UCMS '13) call for participation closes Friday, April 5, at 11:59p.m. PDT. In this interview, Chris St. Pierre, UCMS '13 Program Chair, answers...
View ArticleBad Tech Job Interview Questions (and How To Answer Them)
Andy Lester, author of "Land the Tech Job You Love", has an excellent blog post up called Bad Tech Job Interview Questions (and How To Answer Them). It is a good read whether or not you are...
View ArticleFor-profit universities are a scam
I’m frustrated with DeVry University, Kaplan University, Walden University, Ashford University, Colorado Technical University, Strayer University, University of Phoenix, Capella University, American...
View ArticleThe mental model mismatch
Humans think in terms of mental models. In IT it is our responsibility to help them form accurate models as well as deal with inaccurate models that exist. Humans use mental models of how things work...
View ArticleReminder: LISA '13 Call for Participation deadline (and a request)
Remember that the submission deadline is Tuesday, April 30. Get those proposals in now! If you are submitting a paper, it can be the full (draft) paper or it can be an extended abstract, 4-8 pages in...
View ArticleGet starting with Puppet in 50 pages
My friend Jo Rhett's new book is called "Instant Puppet 3 Starter". In 50 pages he gets you up and running with Puppet3. I haven't read it yet, but if it isn't good let me know and I'll kick his ass....
View ArticleLOPSA-East (formerly PICC) registration time!
If you haven’t registered for LOPSA-East yet, what are you waiting for? LOPSA-East (May 3-4, 2013) is the best regional conference for sysadmins this side of the Mississippi. It is much less expensive...
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