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.