Wandering Thoughts archives

2016-08-01:	My new key binding hack for `xcape` and dmenu
2016-07-31:	I've become mostly indifferent to what language something is written in (Not) changing the stop timeout for systemd login session scopes
2016-07-30:	The perils of having an ancient `$HOME` (a yak shaving story)
2016-07-29:	My surprise problem with considering a new PC: actually building it
2016-07-28:	A bit about what we use DTrace for (and when)
2016-07-27:	When 'simple' DNS blocklists work well for you
2016-07-25:	An irritating systemd behavior when you tell it to reboot the system I should learn more about Grub2
2016-07-24:	My view on people who are assholes on the Internet
2016-07-23:	My current set of Chrome extensions (as of July 2016)
2016-07-22:	Ubuntu 16.04's irritatingly broken MySQL updates
2016-07-21:	My current set of essential extensions for Firefox profiles
2016-07-20:	Official source release builds should not abort on (compilation) warnings
2016-07-19:	How not to set up your DNS (part 23) An interesting (and alarming) Grub2 error and its cause
2016-07-17:	A good solution to our Unbound caching problem that sadly won't work DNS resolution cannot be segmented (and what I mean by that)
2016-07-16:	A caching and zone refresh problem with Unbound
2016-07-15:	Sudo and changes in security expectations (and user behaviors)
2016-07-14:	Your C compiler's optimizer can make your bad programs compile
2016-07-13:	Our central web server, Apache, and slow downloads
2016-07-12:	How we do MIME attachment type logging with Exim
2016-07-11:	Why Python can't have a full equivalent of Go's `gofmt`
2016-07-10:	Some options for logging attachment information in an Exim environment
2016-07-09:	How Exim's `${run ...}` string expansion operator does quoting
2016-07-08:	Some notes on UID and GID remapping in the Illumos/OmniOS NFS server
2016-07-06:	Keeping around an index to the disk bays on our iSCSI backends It turns out that viruses do try to conceal their ZIP files
2016-07-04:	A feature I wish the Linux NFS client had: remapping UIDs and GIDs
2016-07-03:	An irritating little bug in the latest GNU Emacs Python autoindent code
2016-07-02:	`cal`'s unfortunate problem with argument handling
2016-07-01:	How backwards compatibility causes us pain with our IMAP servers
2016-06-30:	Some advantages of using argparse to handle arguments as well as options What makes a email MIME part an attachment?
2016-06-29:	Modern DNS servers (especially resolvers) should have query logging
2016-06-27:	Today's lesson on the value of commenting your configuration settings If you send email, don't expect people to help you with abuse handling
2016-06-26:	How not to maintain your DNS (part 22)
2016-06-25:	What Python 3 versions Django supports, and when this changes
2016-06-24:	Our new plan for creating our periodic long term backups
2016-06-22:	I need to cultivate some new coding habits for Python 3 ready code Moving from Python 2 to Python 3 calls for a code inventory
2016-06-20:	A tiny systemd convenience: it can reboot the system from RAM alone
2016-06-19:	A lesson to myself: know your emergency contact numbers Why ZFS can't really allow you to add disks to raidz vdevs
2016-06-18:	It's easier to shrink RAID disk volumes than to reshape them
2016-06-17:	Why you can't remove a device from a ZFS pool to shrink it
2016-06-15:	How (some) syndication feed readers deal with HTTP to HTTPS redirections ZFS on Linux has just fixed a long standing little annoyance
2016-06-14:	Some notes on how `xdg-open` picks which web browser to use How `xdg-mime` searches for MIME type handlers (more or less)
2016-06-12:	There are (at least) two sorts of DNS blocklists Some notes on adding exposed statistics to a (Go) program
2016-06-11:	I accept that someday I'll give up MH and move to IMAP mail clients
2016-06-10:	An email mistake I've made as a long-term university sysadmin
2016-06-09:	My concern about the potential dominance of the mobile web
2016-06-08:	How dominant is the mobile web (versus the desktop web)?
2016-06-06:	My views of Windows 10 (from the outside) I work in what is increasingly a pretty different sysadmin environment
2016-06-05:	My approach for inspecting Go error values
2016-06-04:	The (Unix) shell is not just for running programs
2016-06-03:	One thing that makes the Bourne shell an odd language
2016-06-02:	Spammers can abandon SMTP connections not infrequently
2016-05-31:	Understanding the modern view of security
2016-05-30:	The browser security dilemma 'Command line text editor' is not the same as 'terminal-based text editor'
2016-05-29:	What does 'success' mean for a research operating system?
2016-05-28:	A problem with using old OmniOS versions: disconnection from the community
2016-05-27:	Your overall anti-spam system should have manual emergency blocks
2016-05-26:	Why SELinux is inherently complex
2016-05-25:	SELinux is beyond saving at this point
2016-05-23:	How fast fileserver failover could matter to us
2016-05-22:	Our problem with OmniOS upgrades: we'll probably never do any more My view of Barracuda's public DNSBL
2016-05-21:	Please stop the Python 2 security scaremongering
2016-05-20:	Some notes on abusing the `pexpect` Python module
2016-05-19:	Some basic data on the hit rate of the Spamhaus DBL here
2016-05-18:	Go does not have atomic variables, only atomic access to variables
2016-05-16:	A quick trick: using Go `struct`s to create namespaces Discovering my personal limit on how much I care about security
2016-05-15:	It's time for me to upgrade my filtering HTTP proxy
2016-05-14:	IPv6 is the future of the Internet
2016-05-13:	You can call `bind()` on outgoing sockets, but you don't want to
2016-05-11:	We're never going to be able to have everyone use two factor authentication The difference between 'Delete' and 'Destroy' in X window managers
2016-05-09:	An Apache trick: using directories to create redirections You can't use `expvar.Func` to expose a bunch of expvar types
2016-05-08:	Issues in fair share scheduling of RAM via resident set sizes
2016-05-07:	'Fair share' scheduling pretty much requires a dynamic situation
2016-05-06:	A weird little Firefox glitch with cut and paste
2016-05-04:	My annoyance with Chrome's cut and paste support under X The better way to clear SMART disk complaints, with safety provided by ZFS
2016-05-02:	How I think you set up fair share scheduling under systemd The state of supporting many groups over NFS v3 in various Unixes
2016-04-30:	I should keep and check notes even on my own little problems A story of the gradual evolution of network speeds without me noticing
2016-04-29:	You should plan for your anti-spam scanner malfunctioning someday
2016-04-28:	You should probably track what types of files your users get in email
2016-04-26:	How 'there are no technical solutions to social problems' is wrong Bad slide navigation on the web and understanding why it's bad
2016-04-25:	Why you mostly don't want to do in-place Linux version upgrades
2016-04-24:	Why we have CentOS machines as well as Ubuntu ones
2016-04-23:	Why I think Illumos/OmniOS uses PCI subsystem IDs
2016-04-22:	What Illumos/OmniOS PCI device names seem to mean
2016-04-20:	A brief review of the HP three button USB optical mouse How to get Unbound to selectively add or override DNS records
2016-04-19:	Today's odd spammer behavior for sender addresses
2016-04-18:	Why your Apache should have mod_status configured somewhere
2016-04-17:	Why Unix needs a standard way to deal with the file durability problem
2016-04-16:	Why I think Let's Encrypt won't be a threat to commercial CAs for now
2016-04-15:	Unbound illustrates the Unix manpage mistake with its ratelimits documentation
2016-04-14:	Unix's file durability problem
2016-04-13:	How I'm trying to do durable disk writes here on Wandering Thoughts
2016-04-12:	There's a spectrum of 'pets versus cattle' in servers
2016-04-11:	Why I don't use HTTP Key Pinning and I'm not likely to any time soon
2016-04-10:	SPF is not a security feature, as it solves the wrong problem
2016-04-09:	Why your Ubuntu server stalls a while on boot if networking has problems
2016-04-08:	How to shoot yourself in the foot with `/etc/network/interfaces` on Ubuntu
2016-04-06:	What is behind Unix's 'Text file is busy' error How options in my programs conflict, and where argparse falls short
2016-04-05:	Some notes on Go's expvar package
2016-04-04:	The three types of challenges that Let's Encrypt currently supports
2016-04-03:	Let's Encrypt certificates can be used for more than HTTPS
2016-04-01:	A surprise to watch out for with Go's expvar package (in expvar.Var)
2016-03-31:	My initial experience of using NSD as a simple authoritative DNS server
2016-03-30:	I've now used Python's argparse module and I like it My view of Debian's behavior on package upgrades with new dependencies
2016-03-28:	An awkward confession and what we should do about it Why I don't think upgrading servers would save us much power
2016-03-27:	The limits of open source with Illumos and OmniOS
2016-03-26:	The sensible update for my vintage 2011 home machine
2016-03-25:	There's a relationship between server utilization and server lifetime
2016-03-23:	How old our servers are (as of 2016) Wayland and graphics card uncertainty
2016-03-21:	Current PC technology churn that makes me reluctant to think about a new PC When you want non-mutating methods in Go
2016-03-20:	What broad hit rate the Spamhaus DBL might get for us
2016-03-18:	The Spamhaus DBL does get hits even with basic checks Some things I believe about importance and web page design
2016-03-16:	How '`from module import ...`' is not doing what you may expect I wish I could split up code more easily in Python
2016-03-14:	An additional small detail of how writes work on ZFS raidzN pools How RPM handles configuration files, both technically and socially
2016-03-13:	I've started using the Firefox addon Self-Destructing Cookies for some stuff
2016-03-11:	Why it's irritating when Ubuntu packages don't include their configuration files I need to use `getopts` sooner (and more often) in Bourne shell scripts
2016-03-09:	A sensible surprise (to me) in the Bourne shell's expansion of `"$@"` Some thoughts on ways of choosing what TLS ciphers to support
2016-03-07:	Why it makes sense for `true` and `false` to ignore their arguments Apt-get and its irritating lack of easy selective upgrades
2016-03-06:	Firefox addons seem unfortunately prone to memory leaks
2016-03-05:	What happens when a modern Linux system boots without `/bin/sh`
2016-03-04:	Some notes on supporting readline (tab) completion in your Python program
2016-03-03:	My views on clients for Lets Encrypt
2016-03-02:	Some notes on OpenSSH's optional hostname canonicalization
2016-02-29:	Turning over a rock on some weird HTTP requests to our web server Sometimes, doing a bunch of programming can be the right answer
2016-02-28:	The status of null-sender spam from outlook.com
2016-02-27:	Link: A Short History Of Removable Media Behind The Iron Curtain Sometimes brute force is the answer, Samba edition
2016-02-26:	Our problem with iSCSI connections at boot on OmniOS
2016-02-24:	Mozilla, Symantec, SHA-1 certificates, and the balance of power I'm often an iterative and experimental programmer
2016-02-22:	We've permanently disabled overlayfs on our servers The university's coordination problem
2016-02-21:	Why the Ubuntu package update process makes me irritated
2016-02-20:	My two usage cases for Let's Encrypt certificates
2016-02-19:	We can't use Let's Encrypt on our production systems right now
2016-02-18:	Two models of dealing with cookies in Firefox with addons
2016-02-17:	The many load averages of Unix(es)
2016-02-16:	Whether or not to use cgo for Go packages, illustrated in a dilemma
2016-02-15:	SMTP submission ratelimits should have delays too
2016-02-14:	Your outgoing mail system should have a per-sender stop switch
2016-02-12:	We need to deploy anti-spam precautions even if they're a bit imperfect Adding a new template filter in Django 1.9, and a template tag annoyance
2016-02-11:	My current views on using OpenSSH with CA-based host and user authentication
2016-02-10:	The fundamental practical problem with the Certificate Authority model
2016-02-08:	Old Unix filesystems and byte order Clearing SMART disk complaints, with safety provided by ZFS
2016-02-07:	Your SSH keys are a (potential) information leak
2016-02-06:	You can have many matching stanzas in your `ssh_config`
2016-02-05:	Some notes on SMF manifests (on OmniOS) and what goes in them
2016-02-03:	Django, the `timesince` template filter, and non-breaking spaces You aren't entitled to good errors from someone else's web app
2016-02-02:	A justification for some odd Linux ARP behavior
2016-01-31:	One thing I don't like about Fedora is slow security updates The tradeoffs of having `ssh-agent` hold all of your SSH keys
2016-01-30:	Some good practices for handling OpenSSH keypairs
2016-01-29:	What SSH identities will be offered to a remote server and when
2016-01-28:	Modern Django makes me repeat myself in the name of something
2016-01-26:	Why my home backup situation is currently a bit awkward Low level issues can have quite odd high level symptoms (again)
2016-01-25:	A Python wish: an easy, widely supported way to turn a path into a module
2016-01-24:	Hostile HTTPS interception on the modern web is now increasingly costly and risky
2016-01-22:	Browsers are increasingly willing to say no to users over HTTPS issues Memory-safe languages and reading very sensitive files
2016-01-21:	One example of why I like ZFS on Linux
2016-01-20:	Illumos's ZFS prefetching has recently become less superintelligent than it used to be
2016-01-18:	Today I learned that a syslog server can be very silent on the network A limitation of `tcpdump` is that you can't tell in from out
2016-01-17:	My theory on how network loop caused the problem we observed
2016-01-15:	Network loops can have weird effects (at least sometimes) Things I learned from OpenSSH about reading very sensitive files
2016-01-13:	What I want out of backups for my home machine (in the abstract) Your system's performance is generally built up in layers
2016-01-11:	The drawback of setting an explicit mount point for ZFS filesystems The benefits of flexible space usage in filesystems
2016-01-10:	Updating software to IPv6 is often harder than you might think
2016-01-09:	The convenience of having keyboard controls for sound volume
2016-01-08:	Getting to watch a significant spam campaign recently
2016-01-07:	The format of strings in early (pre-C) Unix
2016-01-06:	A fun Bash buffering bug (apparently on Linux only)
2016-01-05:	Illumos's problem with its VCS commit messages
2016-01-04:	How I do per-address blocklists with Exim
2016-01-03:	One anti-spam thing I like is per-person (or per-address) blocklists
2016-01-02:	I've realized I need to change how I read Twitter

(Previous year)

By month for 2016: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug; before 2016.