Wandering Thoughts: Recent Entries For 2011

Categories: links, linux, programming, python, snark, solaris, spam, sysadmin, tech, unix, web.

2011-12-31:	Why CA-based SSL is not likely to be replaced any time soon My thoughts on the mockist versus classicalist testing approaches
2011-12-30:	Why I don't like Python 3 dropping the comparison function for sorting
2011-12-29:	An empirical exploration of whether spammers take Christmas off
2011-12-28:	Blog entries should have visible dates (usually)
2011-12-27:	Python 3 from the perspective of someone writing new Python code
2011-12-26:	Labs versus offices for sysadmins (or at least us) More wiring for sysadmins: sysadmins and gigabit networking
2011-12-25:	Why office switches plus VLANs aren't the answer for sysadmins
2011-12-24:	Wiring offices for sysadmins
2011-12-23:	Disk space in the modern world
2011-12-21:	Python 3 from the perspective of someone with existing Python code
2011-12-20:	SSH, man in the middle attacks, and public key authentication A little script: `nssh`
2011-12-19:	An advance fee fraud spam aphorism
2011-12-18:	Understanding the `close()` and `EINTR` situation
2011-12-17:	Python 3 from the perspective of a Unix sysadmin
2011-12-16:	Avoiding the classic C quoting bug in your language
2011-12-14:	Practical issues with REST's use of the Accept header What makes backups real Shell functions versus shell scripts
2011-12-13:	I'm on Twitter now DWiki's code is now on Github (among other things)
2011-12-12:	How not to improve your package updater application What debugging info I want from things like SMF and `systemd`
2011-12-11:	`head` versus `sed`
2011-12-10:	ZFS pool activation and iSCSI (part II)
2011-12-09:	A quiet advantage of the systemd approach to service management
2011-12-08:	Another reason sysadmins should program
2011-12-07:	Understanding the Solaris iSCSI initiator (a bit)
2011-12-06:	What I know about boot time ZFS pool activation (part I)
2011-12-05:	Debuggers and two sorts of bugs
2011-12-04:	The current state of GPT, EFI, and Linux
2011-12-03:	Why I have comments here Link: Russ Cox's articles on regular expressions
2011-12-02:	The many ways PCs can dual boot multiple OSes
2011-11-30:	On how PCs boot and hard disk partitioning My mouse button bindings in fvwm, my window manager
2011-11-29:	The alternate screen terminal emulator plague
2011-11-28:	The login name problem
2011-11-27:	Why processing things in inode order is a good idea
2011-11-26:	About the order that `readdir()` returns entries in
2011-11-25:	Python instance dictionaries, attribute names, and memory use
2011-11-24:	About SATA port multipliers
2011-11-23:	The many names of Linux SATA devices
2011-11-21:	A cheap caching trick with a preforking server in Python Mouse scroll wheels versus buttons that you actually want to use The likely cause of my IPSec dropped packet mystery
2011-11-20:	Google Groups fails both anti-spam and basic mailing list management
2011-11-19:	My Liferea crashes are not Liferea's fault
2011-11-17:	The drawback of modern X font handling A classic and standard C quoting bug
2011-11-16:	Solaris is not an enterprise operating system
2011-11-15:	A scroll wheel experiment
2011-11-13:	Thinking about how to test our UPSes A confession about our ZFS configuration
2011-11-12:	(Not) parsing wikitext
2011-11-11:	My view of the right way to copy lists in Python
2011-11-10:	Praise for systemd
2011-11-09:	The disappearance of separate filesystems for `/usr` and `/var`
2011-11-08:	Files and fundamental filesystem activities (on Unix)
2011-11-07:	An IPSec mystery with dropped packets
2011-11-06:	Ubuntu does system disk mirroring right
2011-11-05:	Understanding Apache's Allow, Deny, and Order directives
2011-11-04:	More on my Firefox 7 extensions
2011-11-03:	My Firefox 7 extensions
2011-11-02:	Attention marketers: blog comments are not email
2011-10-31:	Why 'quiet' options to programs aren't as useful as you think Deduplication is always going to be expensive
2011-10-30:	Why we have a VPN
2011-10-29:	Why ZFS dedup is not something we can use
2011-10-28:	ZFS features that could entice us to upgrade Solaris versions
2011-10-27:	A Wikitext formatting mistake that I made here
2011-10-26:	How to fail at useful cryptography: bad error messages
2011-10-25:	A reason not to automate: policy flexibility
2011-10-24:	Salting passwords compared to slow password hashing
2011-10-23:	Boiling frogs and PC performance
2011-10-22:	Fedora 15 versus me
2011-10-21:	How I'm capturing only the last portion of standard error
2011-10-20:	The kind of computer usage I think Gnome 3 is targeting
2011-10-19:	Defending Berkeley's forced choice in network device naming
2011-10-18:	The Ethernet device naming mistake (or one part of it)
2011-10-17:	What I want out of stable device names
2011-10-15:	Why I say Fedora 15 could get my machine's Ethernet's name right The problem with Fedora 15's consistent network device naming
2011-10-14:	Power consumption numbers for my 2011 home machine
2011-10-13:	The problem with event loops
2011-10-12:	The true cost of sysadmin time (actually, of anyone's time)
2011-10-11:	Why people are attracted to minimal language cores
2011-10-10:	Arranging scopes for `for` loops
2011-10-09:	My view of the state of graphics cards for Linux (in fall 2011)
2011-10-08:	My new Linux machine for fall 2011 (planned)
2011-10-07:	Python's philosophy of what closures close over
2011-10-06:	Thinking about event loops versus threads
2011-10-05:	Understanding the motivations of mail service vendors
2011-10-03:	On CPython, cell objects, and closures My idea of how a modern mailing service should work
2011-10-02:	Another comment spam precaution that no longer works out
2011-10-01:	Understanding a tricky bit of Python generators
2011-09-30:	Some thoughts from a close view of catastrophe Unit testing by analogy to scientific hypotheses
2011-09-28:	A multilevel view of DevOps (with more balance) Oracle shows its appreciation for long-term Sun customers again
2011-09-26:	DevOps and the blame problem: an outsider's view
2011-09-25:	How we handle iSCSI device names in Solaris Danger signs for mail senders in SMTP conversations
2011-09-24:	Some recent Google spam problems
2011-09-23:	Python's attribute lookup order
2011-09-22:	An operational explanation of Python types
2011-09-21:	I've surrendered on utm_* query parameters in URLs
2011-09-20:	Why I still comment out code even with a VCS
2011-09-19:	An operational explanation of Python metaclasses (part 4)
2011-09-18:	An operational explanation of Python metaclasses (part 3)
2011-09-17:	An operational explanation of Python metaclasses (part 2)
2011-09-16:	Setting the character encoding for HTML form input
2011-09-15:	How your Linux installer should help you set up filesystems
2011-09-14:	Graphs are not enough (for your monitoring system)
2011-09-13:	'Web of trust' is a security failure
2011-09-12:	An operational explanation of Python metaclasses (part 1)
2011-09-11:	The weakness of the certificate authority model, illustrated
2011-09-09:	You really want to put your switches in server racks Things that could happen to your archives
2011-09-08:	Archival storage in the modern world
2011-09-06:	How not to set up your DNS (part 21)
2011-09-05:	The real reason why true asynchronous file IO is hard
2011-09-04:	Why true asynchronous file IO is hard, at least for reads How some Unixes did shared libraries in the old days
2011-09-03:	The core of modern Unix shared libraries
2011-09-01:	Things I will do differently in the next building power shutdown
2011-08-31:	An interesting debugging experience (another tale from long ago) Who is the audience for a trouble ticket update?
2011-08-29:	Devirtualization Designing services for disengagement
2011-08-28:	The problem with busy sysadmins
2011-08-26:	Why we don't use a trouble ticketing system The problem for WSGI middleware
2011-08-25:	Trouble ticketing systems and the future
2011-08-24:	Why we have a problem with Oracle's Solaris support pricing
2011-08-23:	Reading the tea leaves about Oracle, Solaris, and universities
2011-08-22:	V8's neat encoding trick for type tracking
2011-08-21:	The conflict between caching and tracking on the web
2011-08-20:	Why browsers can't really change or validate `Last-Modified`
2011-08-19:	Visibility: an advantage of automation
2011-08-18:	You should always use `super()`
2011-08-17:	MH is an iceberg
2011-08-16:	An interesting way to shoot yourself in the foot and a limitation of `super()`
2011-08-15:	A bit about what life was like on Unix before shared libraries
2011-08-14:	The tragedy of MH
2011-08-12:	A Gnome 3 shell extensions failure One reason we install machines from checklists instead of via automation
2011-08-11:	Friendly 'noreply' email addresses
2011-08-10:	The 'key plus authenticator' pattern in web apps
2011-08-08:	You need to hash web app session IDs An incomplete list of the ways around MAC address blocking
2011-08-07:	What I want out a Symbol type in Python
2011-08-06:	Gnome 3: I'm out
2011-08-05:	Why sysadmins don't just notify users about compromised machines
2011-08-04:	On banning MAC addresses
2011-08-03:	How I encode and decode the milter protocol (or, how to write a codec for a sane binary protocol)
2011-08-02:	How to make yourself look bad: broken bounce addresses
2011-07-31:	Reference counting and multiple inheritance in (C)Python One of my testing little dirty secrets
2011-07-29:	Deciding the meaning of 'disabling' an account (and the value of procedures)
2011-07-28:	A directory service doesn't make it easy to disable user accounts Another reason why version control systems should support history rewriting
2011-07-27:	Why not YP, er, NIS
2011-07-26:	Disabling an account can be kind of complex
2011-07-25:	The risks of using CentOS are split A little thing that irritates me about common WSGI implementations
2011-07-24:	On documenting (or not documenting) binary protocols
2011-07-23:	What good secure string expansion on Unix should look like
2011-07-22:	String expansion and securely running programs on Unix
2011-07-20:	Why I would like my mailer to have a real programming language (part 2) Our ZFS spares handling system (part 3)
2011-07-18:	Thinking about when SQL normalization can improve performance My view on ORMs
2011-07-17:	Another reason to reject spam at SMTP time: as a signal
2011-07-15:	Ubuntu, illustrating how to utterly fail at kernel security updates Something to remember: HTML forms are anonymous
2011-07-14:	Ramblings on handling optional arguments in Python
2011-07-12:	Why I'm going to be skipping Fedora 15 Some thoughts on creating simple and sane binary protocols
2011-07-11:	`mxiostat`: second generation better Linux disk IO statistics Some things to think about when doing polymorphic WSGI
2011-07-10:	Exploiting polymorphic WSGI again to create `cat`
2011-07-08:	My view on iSCSI performance troubleshooting
2011-07-07:	An interesting gotcha with Exim and `.forward` processing How Exim makes traditional .forward semantics work
2011-07-06:	Our solution to the spam forwarding problem
2011-07-05:	Another reason to allow mail origin address forgery
2011-07-04:	Our ZFS spares handling system (part 2)
2011-07-03:	Why Ubuntu's PAM versioning failure matters
2011-07-02:	Dear Googlebot: SMTP is not HTTP
2011-06-30:	Some ways to test if a program securely runs other programs Please have symmetric option negotiations in your protocols
2011-06-29:	Our ZFS spares handling system (part 1)
2011-06-28:	How to securely run programs from inside your program on Unix
2011-06-27:	Formatting information output to make it easy to manage
2011-06-26:	Design systems to be managed
2011-06-25:	A small wish about parked and squatted domains
2011-06-23:	Milter tools for Python and an experiment with coding in public The ZFS opacity problem and its effect on manageability
2011-06-22:	A basic Namespace metaclass for Python Abusing Python classes as namespaces
2011-06-20:	It's long since time for languages to provide sensible network IO What I need for stream decoding and encoding binary protocols
2011-06-19:	The Unix shell initialization problem and how shells should work
2011-06-18:	My `xdm` heresy
2011-06-17:	cgroups: so close and yet so far away from per-user fair scheduling
2011-06-16:	My three sorts of (Linux) desktops
2011-06-15:	The persistence of spammers, illustrated
2011-06-14:	A package dependency failure in Fedora 15
2011-06-13:	An example of the evolution of a real network
2011-06-12:	Noting some wandering thoughts on the occasion of an anniversary Why `[]`, `{}`, and `()` are cheap in Python
2011-06-11:	Some notes on `__slots__` and class hierarchies
2011-06-10:	What `__slots__` are good for (or, how to use slots to save memory)
2011-06-09:	My issues with Chrome's handling of extensions More impressions of Google Chrome
2011-06-08:	OpenBSD pf rule numbers and tcpdump filtering
2011-06-07:	Databases as a compromise damage limiter in web applications
2011-06-06:	How much space a Python dictionary entry uses
2011-06-05:	A subtle difference between tuples and lists in CPython
2011-06-04:	Sometimes having a system programmer around is the right answer
2011-06-03:	Ints, `__slots__`, and Python 3
2011-06-02:	My understanding of SQL normalization
2011-05-31:	The programmer's problem with WikiText systems How to fail at versioning
2011-05-30:	My recent experience with Firefox's speed
2011-05-29:	Getting the stages of the class namespace straight
2011-05-28:	The stickyness of Fedora 8 (despite my better intentions)
2011-05-26:	You can get 'stale filehandle' errors for local files on extN filesystems
2011-05-25:	More not supporting random query parameters in URLs How Django's form field ordering works
2011-05-24:	Proper SQL database design versus the real world
2011-05-23:	An aside on RAID-5/RAID-6 and disk failures
2011-05-22:	Why losing part of a striped RAID is fatal even on smart filesystems
2011-05-21:	One of my irritations: outgoing email that was scored as spam
2011-05-20:	Why the kernel does `mmap()` (beyond efficiency)
2011-05-19:	One limitation of simple bisection searches in version control systems
2011-05-18:	Why open source projects should use '`git rebase`' or the equivalent
2011-05-17:	What we could use 10G Ethernet for in the near future
2011-05-16:	How our network is implemented (as of May 2011)
2011-05-15:	The most interesting reason for an unrouted sandbox network
2011-05-14:	Our environment illustrated: what network cable colours mean what
2011-05-13:	Our network layout (as of May 2011)
2011-05-11:	How ZFS lets you recover from damaged metadata, and what the limitations are
2011-05-10:	An important way to get ZFS metadata corruption A brief summary of how ZFS updates (top-level) metadata The different ways that you can lose a ZFS pool
2011-05-09:	X and the misleading claim of 'mechanisms not policy'
2011-05-08:	Fvwm as a window manager construction kit
2011-05-07:	Email has two faces today
2011-05-06:	A realization about cache entry lifetime and validation
2011-05-05:	Thinking about when not disabling iSCSI's InitialR2T matters
2011-05-04:	Why `xterm`'s cut and paste model is non-standard and limited
2011-05-03:	The importance of `xterm` for X Windows
2011-05-02:	The apparent origins of some odd limitations in the iSCSI protocol
2011-04-30:	Our likely iSCSI parameter tuning
2011-04-29:	Understanding the iSCSI protocol for performance tuning
2011-04-28:	How CPython implements `__slots__` (part 2): access
2011-04-27:	Mail rejection stats for our external mail gateway Some notes on what `__dictoffset__` on types means in CPython
2011-04-26:	A quick look at some spam filtering stats from our system
2011-04-25:	An important note about multi-line log message formats
2011-04-24:	Notes to myself on the priorities of Linux routing policy rules
2011-04-23:	The Upstart dependency problem
2011-04-21:	Nailing down new-style classes and types in Python How CPython implements `__slots__` (part 1): storage
2011-04-19:	Another reason to avoid using `__slots__` in your Python classes A difference between Python 'structs' and C structs
2011-04-18:	What made X Windows so special
2011-04-17:	The ultimate (for now) answer for our ZFS ARC size problem
2011-04-16:	Cache validators versus cache invalidation
2011-04-15:	Why a dynamic website with caching is simpler than a baked site
2011-04-14:	More on baking websites to static files and speed
2011-04-13:	Some common caching techniques for dynamic websites
2011-04-11:	You don't need to bake your site to static files to be fast The importance of test suites for standards
2011-04-10:	The evolution of the git tree format
2011-04-08:	An example of modifying a Firefox extension
2011-04-07:	Why I don't like Solaris boot archives, illustrated
2011-04-06:	Monkey subclassing for fun and profit
2011-04-05:	The story of leaving N% of your filesystem unused for performance
2011-04-04:	Why logging to syslog is different than logging to standard error Logs are not just streams
2011-04-03:	Please don't alert based on percentages
2011-04-02:	How to use `gdb` to call `getpeername()`
2011-03-31:	A slightly unobvious trap with '`from module import *`' A really annoying gap in system observability
2011-03-30:	A realization about code complexity and clarity
2011-03-28:	Why you should avoid '`from module import whatever`' The problem with contributing documentation to projects
2011-03-27:	Some thinking on proliferating web standards
2011-03-26:	How not to issue Linux kernel security update notices
2011-03-25:	Sending email via a SMTP connection considered harmful
2011-03-24:	XHTML and web authoring folklore
2011-03-22:	How to add and use additional fields on Django model formsets Some notes on doing things with Django model formsets
2011-03-21:	Why XHTML was doomed from the beginning
2011-03-20:	The devil's advocate argument against paying attention to web standards
2011-03-19:	The two sides of (PPPoE) DSL service
2011-03-18:	How to configure a (PPPoE) DSL connection on a normal Fedora 14 Gnome desktop
2011-03-17:	The timing of production Linux deployments
2011-03-16:	Thinking about our alternatives to Solaris
2011-03-15:	Our uncertain future with Solaris 11
2011-03-14:	Why growing IPv6 usage is going to be fun, especially for sysadmins
2011-03-13:	Why programs traditionally used spares files on Unix
2011-03-12:	Trust betrayed: a story of modern email
2011-03-11:	What tools I use to deal with email
2011-03-10:	What we did to get iSCSI multipathing working on Solaris 10 update 8
2011-03-09:	Why feed readers have been a geek flash in the pan
2011-03-08:	My personal hard drive capacity curve inflection point
2011-03-07:	What terminal emulators I use when
2011-03-06:	A fun Linux kernel pty problem, or maybe it's not a problem
2011-03-05:	FastCGI's encoding mistakes and how not to design a wire protocol
2011-03-04:	Why I call FastCGI complex and SCGI much simpler
2011-03-02:	The POSIX shell and the three sorts of Unixes Filtering, email, and differences from Usenet
2011-02-28:	The evolution of filtering (a story from the Usenet era) The slowdown of Solaris here
2011-02-27:	Django's forms are security-smart the way you want them to be
2011-02-26:	A belated realization about web spiders and your page cache
2011-02-25:	Why I am not enthused about ZFS for my root filesystem
2011-02-23:	Handling variations of a page (or, the revenge of REST) A quick tour of my desktop
2011-02-22:	Why I want read-only form fields in Django
2011-02-21:	How to get automatic volume management on Fedora 14 without Gnome
2011-02-20:	What windows I use window titlebars on
2011-02-19:	My view on window titlebars and when they are good and bad
2011-02-18:	Another building block of my environment: `xrun`
2011-02-17:	My latest crazy plan to upgrade my home Linux machine
2011-02-16:	The myth of isolated, independent sysadmins
2011-02-15:	More on an advantage of the blog approach to web writing
2011-02-14:	Thinking about misunderstandings (in systems)
2011-02-13:	A humbling experience with '`#`' characters in filenames
2011-02-12:	An advantage of the blog approach to web writing versus the wiki approach
2011-02-11:	The letdown
2011-02-10:	Using Django forms with HTTP GETs
2011-02-09:	On flow (a digression)
2011-02-08:	Thinking realistically about SQL database field sizes
2011-02-07:	My brute force email archive
2011-02-06:	Dear Unix mailers: please allow more forgery
2011-02-05:	A side note on Google Chrome and the future of HTML
2011-02-04:	Why people put NFS mounts in subdirectories
2011-02-03:	The real lesson of XHTML
2011-02-02:	Django and primary keys versus surrogate keys My issues with primary keys are not Django specific
2011-01-31:	There are two sorts of standards in the world A little advantage of Django's automatic primary keys
2011-01-30:	An obvious realization about SQL foreign keys
2011-01-29:	Two things I have discovered about Django schema design The amusement of minimalist spam
2011-01-28:	On programming (and me)
2011-01-27:	Not very much about Solaris NFS filehandles
2011-01-26:	The various ways of writing a modern Python web app
2011-01-25:	The modern Python web application stack (as I understand it)
2011-01-24:	Poison pills, a tale of interrupts versus highly structured systems
2011-01-23:	The question of how long our greylisting interval should be
2011-01-22:	The clash between wikis and blogging
2011-01-21:	A bit more on listing file locks on Solaris 10
2011-01-20:	Something I've worked out about Django's admin interface
2011-01-18:	What I am trying to do with Django
2011-01-17:	Wrestling with how to design a schema for a Django app
2011-01-16:	More on Linux FHS and `/var` Why I don't use either a thin client or a fat client
2011-01-15:	Linux's FHS is not the right answer for where to put data directories
2011-01-14:	Wikis are not a simple solution for blogging
2011-01-13:	One of SELinux's problems is that it's a backup mechanism
2011-01-11:	My problem with SELinux The optimistic view of SELinux's real purpose
2011-01-10:	Why really high computer security is not interesting to most people
2011-01-09:	What would be nice for SSL is out-of-band certificate binding
2011-01-08:	Finding out if you've been hit by careful, clever spammers
2011-01-07:	More modest suggestions for bug trackers
2011-01-06:	An appreciation for the Posix `$( )` command substitution syntax
2011-01-05:	An actual use for the CSS overflow property
2011-01-04:	A new building block of my environment: dmenu
2011-01-03:	On improved but less functional versions of things
2011-01-02:	Why there is a gulf between shells and scripting languages

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