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September’s Stillicidious Sausage

This post goes to Patronizers in September and becomes public in October. Not a Patronizer? You could be! $12 a year gets you my latest updates, occasional free tidbits, and the completely pointless MWL Footnote Fortune File.

Operation Acclimate To Mac proceeds apace.

So does Project Math The Networking for System Administrators Kickstarter.

The Mac has has certainly fulfilled the promise of Rage Different. I’d like to set a list of particular folders in the Finder sidebar. Not an option. Instead, I’ve set up symlinks in the Documents directory. If I SSH using the Remote Connection terminal and the connection terminates, the terminal window hangs there without exiting and non-restartable. The only option seems to be open a new Remote Connection terminal, resize the new terminal appropriately on the correct monitor, and close the old window. I’m using terminal windows so I can reboot a host, get a command prompt back, and reconnect with an up arrow. I still have to set up Time Machine to point at my home freenas. Wait, I should go do that before finishing this post. (3 days pass.) Okay, done. The functionality of the CTRL key is split between the COMMAND and CTRL keys, which requires remapping my fancy keyboards and retraining my fingers.

Many little annoyances. Nothing insurmountable, merely irritating. It’ll pass.

Shipping prices have increased, as have print prices. I had to double-check every price for the N4SA2e Kickstarter. This prompted me to build a spreadsheet of costs, so that the next time this happens I’ll have a convenient list of everything that needs updating. And prices will go up. US food prices are about to increase even more, which will drag everything else upward. This compels me to consider raising prices in advance of everybody else’s price increase. That feels wrong, so I’m not going to do that. The prices of my print books are largely dictated by manufacturing costs. Ebooks are more about the market and my innate sense of fairness. N4SA2e is a hefty 55,000 words so I’m going to price the ebook at $12.99. For now. We’ll see what happens.

Eventually I’ll have to raise the price of all my ebooks. This will mean pulling most of the tech books from Amazon’s Kindle store. I want to hold that off as long as I can, out of some vestigial hope that Amazon will increase their $9.99 limit. They won’t raise the limit. Raising the limit is not in their interest. But like a hostage during a bank robbery, I hold out as long as I can before accepting that nobody’s coming to save me. 1

Anyway, if you’re curious, I have a private preview of the Kickstarter up. You can’t back it yet, and please don’t share the link. Any benefits that Kickstarter backers get as a result of stretch goals will also go to sponsors. Why? Sponsors supported this book early, and I won’t penalize them for that. I successfully recorded and edited the video on my Mac without triggering another apocalypse, so that’s a plus.

The manuscript is due back from copyedit at the end of September. I should be able to make the corrections and get a print proof ordered before the campaign ends on 9 October. By the time the Kickstarter money arrives, I’ll be able to order the print books for fulfillment.

I made the first real words on the next book, OpenZFS Mastery. I’m cowriting this with Allan Jude. It’s basically a second edition of the two existing ZFS books, but adds Linux material. This will be the biggest Mastery book by far, and the most expensive, dang it. Just the initial “slam two manuscripts together and mark places to add new information” draft breaks 100,000 words. Fortunately, print-on-demand tech has improved enough to support manufacturing such a book in durable form. Sponsorships won’t open until I ship the N4SA2e sponsor gifts. I must fulfill one sponsorship before I start another! (Yeah, I know, stupid ethics, but still.)

I really want to finish this book before BSDCan 2026. Will I? That depends on a whole bunch of factors beyond my control, but I’m gonna try.

My other big thing this month is EuroBSDCon. I’m going over my slides for the TLS and SMTP tutorials, making sure everything is up-to-date. In theory the slides from BSDCan 2024 should still be good but in practice there’s always something. (Remember, “in theory there’s no difference between theory and practice.” Whenever practice hears this cliche it laughs until it soils itself.) I also want to talk to some folks about what it would take to build my business in the EU, and possibly setting up a parallel company there to help shield my family from US political stupidity.

Oh, well. At least I’m not teaching Shoggothic Network Management Protocol.

Running a Kickstarter from a foreign country that’s six hours ahead of home is going to be… interesting. It launches before the conference starts so I can post the mailing list announcements while not jet lagged. I have to post something about it on social media every day, however, preferably something clever. While some folks can easily adapt to time zone changes, I am not among them. I did a six hour shift for EuroBSDCon 2013 on Malta, and felt sick for days. I arrive on Tuesday the 23rd, so I’ll have a couple days to try to shift my schedule. Shift my schedule before leaving? Great idea! My flight leaves Detroit at 10PM, so I have to stay up late that day anyway. It’s gonna be ugly. Much like my other trips to Europe, I suspect that only the power of caffeine can sustain me. A vat of hot black tea upon waking, followed by mainlining Coke Zero throughout the sessions. My biggest regret from EuroBSDCon 2017 is that I didn’t use enough caffeine to remain awake until dinner, which meant I missed out on nifty Parisian dining. No, upon second thought, my biggest regret was getting my pocket picked on the subway on the last day, leaving me without cash or ID as I tried to get home. Fortunately I had my passport in a different pocket. This time, I have a money belt. The only thing that I’ll have in my wallet is a sticker saying EBOLA SAMPLES DO NOT TOUCH.

Anyway, I’ll not only have to remain conscious throughout the con, I will need to be creative. My social media posts might be a little less connected to reality than usual. Yes, I know, high bar. Maybe sleeplessness will improve my connection to consensual reality? Dunno.

Anyway. OpenZFS Mastery. N4SA2e launch. EuroBSDCon. This is what you’re supporting. Thank you.

102: My Chief Goon

I’m at EuroBSDCon in Croatia teaching TLS and SMTP, so here’s a snippet from my TLS tutorial.

Let’s say I create a public key pair. I keep one key of the pair. The other key I give to my chief goon, Vizzini, before I dispatch him out into the world. Nobody else has either of these keys. My goon and I can use these keys to exchange messages that can be read only with the other key in the pair. I use my half to encrypt my messages to my goon. Hopefully I remember what I said, because once the message is encrypted, my key cannot decrypt my message. Fortunately, “Start a war and frame Guilder for it” is short enough that even I can remember it. Only the other key in the pair can decrypt that message. I mail my message. Anyone who snoops on that message sees only indecipherable gibberish.

When my message reaches my goons, they use their key to decrypt it. They can then use their key to encrypt a response, like “How about we kidnap the princess?” and send the encrypted message back to me. Only my half of the key can decrypt this message.

So far, so good.

Yes, the tutorial is based on TLS Mastery, which features the most apropos cover art of any book I have written.

101: The Hearing’s Gonna Be Lit

The Networking for System Administrators Kickstarter is running full steam ahead, so I’m making words on OpenZFS Mastery. It’s a second edition of FreeBSD Mastery: ZFS and FreeBSD Mastery: Advanced ZFS, but a single large volume also covering Linux.

ZFS support in Linux distributions varies. The broader Linux community questions the compatibility between the GPL and the CDDL and in response, distributions have added and removed installer ZFS support. Intellectual property attorneys who have considered CDDL/GPL compatibility often say “it’s an interesting question,” which is lawyerese for “$500 an hour and the hearing’s gonna be lit.” This doesn’t matter to users, but operating system vendors are risk-adverse. The result? OpenZFS considers Linux a top-tier platform. Most Linux distributions do not consider ZFS a top-tier filesystem. Check your Linux documentation for installation and upgrade instructions.

We have chosen to believe that some Linux will adopt ZFS as a preferred filesystem and integrate all its features the way FreeBSD and Illumos have. Until then, Linux users often compromise to make their lives easier.

License wars are the worst.

Before you ask, I won’t open sponsorships on OpenZFS Mastery until I ship the N4SA2e sponsor gifts.

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“Networking for System Administrators, 2nd ed” Kickstarter is live

The silly thing funded in fifteen minutes, and has gone high enough that all backers get a bonus ebook of FreeBSD Mastery: ZFS.

Yes, Allan and I are working on a new edition of the ZFS book. But the old one is still good, and applies to OpenZFS on any Unixy system.

Anyway, it’s there if you want it. The higher the Kickstarter goes, the more books I will give away.

The truth is, I don’t expect the current trajectory to continue. I made a point of asking folks to back the first day, in the hope that Kickstarter would notice momentum and slap “Project We Love” on it, blessing me with front page exposure. They still might. We’ll see.

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Launching tomorrow: “Networking for System Administrators, 2nd edition”

The N4SA2e Kickstarter opens tomorrow, about 8AM EDT. Why “about?” The launch is manual. I must log in and hit a button. The first 512 bytes of my brainstem are barely enough to hold the instructions for obtaining caffeine, so it won’t be first thing.

This one feels weird. With 232 sponsors, 170 of them print sponsors, it’s my most sponsored book, which makes me think that I’ve already taken a good chunk out of my market. But the Kickstarter pre-launch page has 380 followers, more than I’ve ever had before. Maybe that’s great? Maybe they’re interested sponsors? Who knows?

What’s gonna happen? Not a damn clue.

I do know that getting a Kickstarter “Project We Love” badge means that KS gives the project an algorithmic boost. I also know that they choose PWL, in part, based on first day backer momentum. If the book interests you, please consider backing it the first day. Of course, I’d welcome your support any day!

Once the book ships to sponsors and Kickstarter backers it will be exclusive in my store for 30 days, the I will release it to retailers. I expect it to retail for $12.99, which means it will not be in Amazon’s Kindle store. Kindle users can buy it from other stores, but not Amazon’s.

100: The First Rule of System Administration

I can’t believe I’ve done 100 of these silly things. Anyway, here’s a tidbit from my next FreeBSD Journal Letters column.

Don’t give me that look. All computers increase pain.

The purpose of a system is what it does, and a computer does pain.

We cope with the pain by adding more computers.

The first Rule of System Administration declares “computers were a mistake” and examining the mental health impact of the teetering cataclysm of systems inside your computer proves it, let alone the systems in your car. Don’t get me started on your car. Requiring everyone in the United States to borrow, purchase, or otherwise “acquire” a multi-ton kinetic energy weapon was bad enough, but add in separate computers for the brakes and the accelerator and the climate control and congratulations! You’ve built a Rolling Debacle. When your drive-by-wire steering catches a SIGABRT the only question is who gets debacled, you or bystanders. I would say “innocent bystanders” but nowadays everybody uses a computer so nobody is innocent. Even folks who want to remain unsoiled are compelled to use a website or an app because the guilty make themselves feel better by dragging everyone down to their sewer. (“Come to my party! It’ll be great! Never mind the floaters!”)

Yes, I have a list of the Rules of System Administration. No, it’s not published. They’re scattered throughout the books, articles, columns, and whatever. One will get written on a bathroom wall at EuroBSDCon 2025.

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August’s Anaitiological Sausage

This post goes to Patronizers in August and becomes public in September. Not a Patronizer? You could be! $12 a year gets you my latest updates, occasional free tidbits, and the completely pointless MWL Footnote Fortune File. Also: am I choosing See The Sausage Being Made post titles by picking words out of my 1933 Oxford English Dictionary that do not appear online? Moi? Would I do that?

Long-time Patronizers know that I’m stuck using a commercial operating system for publishing books. Choosing between commercial operating systems is like choosing between Catholic Hell and Evangelical Hell. My last real job was a Windows shop, so I stuck with it. Microsoft wants all of its users to 1) use their Copilot generative LLM and 2) store all their documents in their OneDrive cloud so they can feed their LLM. I cannot use any generative LLM for writing. The purpose of an LLM is to produce minimally acceptable text, even if that text is not factual. My purpose is to produce easily readable and factual text infused with character and experience. These goals are incompatible. Legally, I run two businesses. I produce and license intellectual property, and I provide bundles of ink-stained paper to customers all over the world. The output of an LLM is not copyrightable, and thus not intellectual property. I could produce ink-stained paper of LLM output, but why bother? Plus, I don’t want to deal with accusations of using an LLM. I worked for decades to get this job, why would I stop doing it?

Microsoft has grown increasingly heavy-handed in pushing people towards Copilot and OneDrive. Every time they update Windows or Office they turn them back on, and I must resort to increasingly arcane hacks to disable them. Microsoft Office and Microsoft Windows reinforce one another in re-enabling Copilot. Last week, the hacks to disable it and various TPM shenanigans cost me a week. Given that I’m still dealing with family matters, that’s a week I didn’t have. This problem will only grow worse.

Microsoft’s insistence on forcing me to use an LLM has compelled me to switch from Microsoft Hell to Apple Hell. Did I want to spend the money? No. Between the two options, which do I prefer? BSD, but that’ll get my books pulled from IngramSpark and keep me from distributing lumps of ink-stained paper outside the Amazon ecosystem. I still have my OpenBSD desktop for daily work.

Why? The OS and the word processor do not reinforce each other. MacOS has a single switch for enabling and disabling Apple Intelligence and doesn’t automatically stuff your home directory into their cloud. I use Dropbox for cloud work, because they make money off of me and aren’t so desperate to pillage my work to feed an LLM.

MacOS. It’s like Windows, but like an iPhone, except it has a functional command line. You WILL store your files the way MacOS says, although I have symlinks so it’s not too bad. I’ve spent less time adjusting to the differences than I would have wasted on stopping Microsoft from pillaging my files and poisoning my intellectual property. It’s just as annoying as Windows, but as their motto says: “Rage Different.” Or something like that.

If you’re in a similar position, Apple offers a “one year same as cash” deal.

On the plus side, the bottom of my standing desk is now much less crowded.

The Mac Studio is mounted under the shelf. I could fit my printer under there now, except then I’d have to get down on my knees to access it. Never go to your knees before computers, it gives them ideas.

In other news, the print sales system in my bookstore is working. People are ordering books. The big surprise for folks is that US Media Mail is not insured. I’m trying to figure out how to put that as a warning on the ordering page in a place folks will see it.

Since the store works, and folks are getting books, and the fees I have to pay are in line with my expectations, I’ve implemented a permanent coupon. The code MWL gets you 10% off. Folks need to pay shipping, but if you order a couple books that should mostly cover the shipping expenses. It’s not valid on sponsorships, gift cards, or discounted bundles. I make more on direct sales, and want to give a cut back to folks. I might raise the cut, I might lower it. Depends on the ever-varying fees I have to pay, world politics, and other elements I can’t control. Running a business during a national collapse presents challenges, so I’m hedging a bit.

I am engrossed in tech edits on Networking for System Administrators. I really, really want to finish this book, get it copyedited, and get a test print before I launch the Kickstarter. I don’t know that this will explode the way Run Your Own Mail Server did, but I think it’ll do better than Laserblasted. (Note to self: don’t launch a crowdfunding campaign two days before your country’s leader unexpectedly destabilizes international commerce.) My tech reviewers are making me double-check everything, which is both good and a real pain. (“What do you mean, there’s no standard for Ethernet jumbo frames? Sure there is!” “Oh? Where? But I better triple-check to prove this negative…“)

My web site redesign is underway. On the finished pages, clicking on a book description takes you to a separate page with buy links, all generated by spreadsheet as described last month. I still have a couple pages left to do. The new problem is that folks see the book description twice, once on the catalog page on my site and then again on the individual page. Once I have all the pages converted to have individual pages, I’m thinking that I’ll reduce the catalog pages to a gallery of book covers and titles. Clicking on a book will take you to the full description. That might help. I am actively soliciting suggestions for what folks would find useful, however.

Building a spreadsheet containing all the store links, tag lines, and descriptions for each book shows just how inconsistent I’ve been on all of that. Once I have everything converted, I get to go through the spreadsheet and fill in missing data. Oh joy. Oh rapture.

But at least I won’t be doing it in Microsoft Hell. Apple Hell is still Hell, but it shows a minimal concern for my future.

Thank you for your support.

99: An Absence of Moral Fiber

I’m swamped doing math for the networking book kickstarter, trying to compensate for the recent political stupidity that’s kicking small business when it’s down, so here’s a tidbit from an older work.

Let me be very clear here: ed(1) is the standard Unix text editor.

Dennis Ritchie, co-creator of Unix, declared it so. Who are you to argue with someone who can write a complete operating system without using a glass teletype?1

Many younger sysadmins naively hoist their pennants to defend overblown, overwrought, overdesigned text editors like ex, vi, or even the impossibly bloated nvi. A few are so lost as to devote themselves to turgid editors meant for mere users, such as vim and Emacs. This way lies not only appalling sysadmin skills, but an absence of moral fiber. As a sysadmin, you must have enough brain power to remember what you typed, to hold your own context in your head, and to truly commune with the machine on a deep and personal level.

1 You know, a glass teletype. That toy that kids keep calling a “monitor,” even though we all know monitors are reference speakers used in audio production.

Why read this today? Because this crossed my feed…

98: Suffering Builds Character

The new edition of Networking for System Administrators just went to copyedit, so I can forget about it for a few weeks.

The people who most deserve credit for this book are the folks who struggled through me learning networking as I stood between them and their goals. Every one of you brought me a horrible issue that educated me even as you ranted and cried and begged me to end your pain. I learn slowly. You suffered for it. Thank you. Fortunately suffering builds character, so you got something out of it and I don’t have to feel too bad.

This book had a crew of excellent technical reviewers. Some of them have an understanding of networking that crushes mine. Others knew nothing about networking, but were able to tell me when I confused them. Both are invaluable. Georg Kilzer, Alessandro Lenzen, John W. O’Brien, Jeff Root, Neil Roza, Grant Taylor, and Bryan D. Thomas loaned their expertise to making this book suck less and I am forever grateful. You all had excellent advice and recommendations. Taking all those recommendations would have made this book four times longer and utterly overwhelmed my target audience, but they were excellent.

No, wait, I can’t forget it. I must set up the Kickstarter. Turns out it’s not enough to write the book, I have to convince people to buy it too? Stupid bloody capitalism!

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“Networking for System Administrators, 2nd edition” sent to copyedit

The title basically says it all. Now I’ll start working on the new OpenZFS Mastery with Allan Jude. That work, of course, will stop once those copyedits return and I have to produce the book.

I’m tentatively scheduling the N4SA2e Kickstarter to start 16 September and run through 7 October. Three weeks is a long time for a Kickstarter, but it worked well for the mail book. If you’re interested in getting the book before the general public can, go to the Kickstarter page and click “Notify me now.”

Once the book is released, it’ll be exclusive to my store for a month before hitting retailers.