Author: Michael Lucas

Writer. Sysadmin. Owns this site.
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Sponsorships and Hot Water

My home is heated by a hot water boiler, a mysterious contraption of tanks and pipes all running to an aluminum-cased burner, the whole thing almost as old as I am. Boilers can last about as long as people, so the age isn’t really an issue. A few months ago, though, one of the mysterious tanks in this contraption developed a very people-like case of appendicitis. This tank was painted black to disappear into the rafters, and mounted right above a fluorescent shop light–so, also like an appendix, I had no idea the thing was there or what it was supposed to do. I discovered it only when it had to come out before it turned gangrenous and took the boiler thing down from septic shock.

The plumbing crew came in and replaced it with something half the size and a tenth as noisy.

My own appendix tried to kill me a few years ago, so I felt a certain sympathy for the boiler. Perhaps even kinship.

Less than a week ago, I announced I was falling back to the Middle Ages and soliciting patrons to support FreeBSD Mastery: Advanced ZFS. Now, don’t get me wrong: our bills are paid, and my family’s not going to get thrown out on the street. But after the boiler incident, the bank account was a little thinner than I liked.

I was surprised and touched by the number of people who responded. I’d planned post a followup and thanks a week after the announcement.

But yesterday turned into The Hot Water Strikes Back, or perhaps, Water Trek II: The Wrath of the Tank.

The hot water heater needs replacing.

I have a perfectly good hot water heater. It heats my house. Despite all I’ve done for the boiler, the ungrateful wretch stubbornly refuses to feed the shower.

The water heater came to about $50 more than I had raised in Advanced ZFS sponsorships.

Shortly after that, another print sponsorship came in. While I still owe taxes on that, I feel much better about the whole plumbing situation.

So, this post is to say three things.

1) Hot water hates me, and wants me to suffer.

2) Fixing this hot water heater will take much less time and attention than it would have a week ago. I will put that time towards watching the complete Patrick Troughton Doctor Who serials working on the book.

2) A very sincere thank you to the folks who have sponsored me.

The ebook sponsors:

  • Bruce Buskill (first sponsor ever)
  • Julien Vallée
  • Wim Wauters
  • Ollivier Robert
  • Henning Kessler
  • Geoffrey Garside
  • Theodore Durst
  • Georgiy Bulygin

    • The print sponsors:

  • Dan Langille
  • TransIP B.V./Johan Schuijt
  • Thomas Scott
  • Dirk Tol
  • Justin Holcomb, in memory of Mary Lou Malott

  • This water heater is dedicated to all of you. I really must get a little brass plaque for it.

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    Sponsorships for “FreeBSD Mastery: Advanced ZFS”

    I recently put up a post musing offering sponsorships for tech books. The reaction I got, both in blog comments and private email, was overwhelmingly positive.

    And people are eagerly awaiting FreeBSD Mastery: Advanced ZFS, by Allan Jude and yours truly.

    So, I’ve decided to try selling sponsorships for FM:AZ.

    Ebook sponsors ($20) get their name in the ebook. Print sponsors ($100) get their name in both the print and electronic versions. Other books will have other pricing levels.

    Some of the emails I got after that first post let me know that some people will happily pay a few dollars to get a link to their dodgy web site in a reputable location. For that reason, I won’t be linking to sponsors in the ebook. (As usual, it’s a handful of jackasses that ruin things for the rest of us.)

    You should know that the money from the sponsorships goes entirely to me. Allan both a) has a steady paycheck, and b) is too generous for his own good. (It’s, like, blatantly obvious he’s Canadian.) I intend to buy his beer at BSDCan.

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    FreeBSD Mastery: Specialty Filesystems now escaping

    Today, I ordered a physical print proof of FreeBSD Mastery: Specialty Filesystems.

    The ebook is now available on my site, and is infiltrating other bookstores as you read this. Each ebookstore has its own internal speed–while I uploaded to Amazon first, I expect it to make the books available last.

    I’ll keep the book page updated when FM:SF hits various stores.

    Print should be available next week, barring problems.

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    The Penguicon Lucas Tech Track

    I submitted several tech events to Penguicon, our local tech/SF/maker/assorted random WTF convention.

    They accepted six: five talks and one panel.

    So if you’re in Detroit on the weekend of 29 April-1 May, come by and see me bloviate about:

  • PAM: You’re Doing It Wrong
  • the ZFS File System
  • Networking for Systems Administrators
  • Encrypted Backups with Tarsnap
  • BSD Operating Systems in 2016
  • Senior Sysadmin Panel

    The last one, the Senior Sysadmin Panel, should be a lot of fun. I’m looking for 3-4 more people to sit on that panel. I was a pro sysadmin for 20 years at a variety of organizations. Ideally, while I’m moderating the panel, I’d like to be the junior sysadmin on it. Let me know if you’ll be at Penguicon and interested.

    I’ve also expressed strong interest in being on the self-publishing panel, but I haven’t heard back on that yet. That’ll be on the lit track.

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    September’s Publishing Workshop

    Other people have posted their thoughts on September’s 2015’s Oregon Coast writing workshop. Here’s mine.

    I want to expand my readership, so I submit writing to people who can pay me for it. Selling a piece to a pro market is not only income, it’s advertising.

    I’ve been using the same Word template for submitting for, oh, five years now. It has headers already set up, font size, paragraphing, and all that stuff. The first page starts with my name, meatspace address, phone number, and email address, some white space, and placeholders for title and first paragraph.

    The last day of the workshop, Kristine Kathryn Rusch​ hands back the a piece I’d given her the day before and says “Look at your address.”

    It’s fine. I mean, there’s my name, the house number and street, email address, and phone number.

    I look back at Kris.

    Kris says, “Look closely.”

    I study it carefully. There’s my name. The house number. The street. My email address. You could email me, or call, or even address an old-fashioned envelope with this–

    But there’s no city.

    Or state.

    Or zip code.

    I’ve used this template for five years. I haven’t sold anything I’ve submitted for, oh, five years. Gee, I wonder why?

    Hundreds of people have seen these manuscripts and did not notice that. Kris has seen that template dozens of times now, and didn’t notice it earlier.

    Mind you, if the New Yorker actually wanted to buy my work, the editor would drop me an email. (In reality, if the New Yorker wanted to buy my work, I’d probably drop a kidney.) But still.

    Check everything.

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    Patronage without Patreon

    I did my year-end accounting yesterday, double-checking bank statements and receipts and credit card statements and making sure everything was in the Expenses Spreadsheet of Doom. (Doom, I say!)

    My earlier financial predictions were wildly overblown, but we’re doing okay. Books take longer to write than I thought. Well, decent tech books, at least. I imagine crap books could be written pretty quickly.

    More than one person has offered to support me via Patreon. The models there don’t really fit with the way I work. Some could be made to fit, but would require extra time and attention from me.

    But people still want to offer me extra support. And when you’re working as a full time writer, the rule is that when someone offers you money for no good reason, you take it.

    I’m pondering a per-book sponsorship, sold through my site. There would be an ebook tier and a print tier.

    An ebook sponsor would get their name listed in the back of the ebook as a sponsor. They’d get a copy of the completed ebook, as well as access to in-progress drafts.

    A print sponsor would get their name listed in the back of the print book and the ebook. I’d send them a copy of the ebook and a signed copy of the print book.

    Sponsorship sales would remain open until the book goes to copyediting.

    The question is, what would people offer as sponsorship? (The voices in my head say to charge $25 ebook and $100 print.) And are enough people interested to make it worthwhile?

    I’m not entirely comfortable with this model. It shifts some risk to my sponsors. I might be attacked by a flock of rabid seagulls, or catch wheat rust, or succumb to gelato poisoning. But the sponsors know that risk.

    Why post this hypothetical? I want your opinion. Would you buy some kind of sponsorship, and if so, how much would you think is fair?

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    randi vs xmj

    I’ve gotten a bunch of emails asking me for my opinion on the Randi – xmj FreeBSD issue.

    Short short answer: I am withholding comment until we hear some kind of response from FreeBSD’s core team. Or until we don’t.

    Short answer: This looks really bad for FreeBSD’s leaders and the Foundation.

    If a volunteer project has a volunteer who is honestly so dysfunctional that he doesn’t understand why he is offensive, the project does not need him. And the volunteer needs to get help until he’s capable of behaving in a civilized manner.

    edit: your hate mail may be posted. Provided I find it worthy of such treatment, at my sole discretion.

    edit2: Moderating all comments on this post. Because I’m not interested in rehashing the arguments. Gamergaters are notoriously resistant to human decency.

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    “FreeBSD Mastery: Specialty Filesystems” disclaimer

    I’m going through the tech edits on FreeBSD Mastery: Specialty Filesystems, integrating them into the manuscript so that it can go to copyedit.

    As this book is available for early access purchase, without technical review, the manuscript starts with a disclaimer. The first step in prepping this manuscript is removing the disclaimer.

    In my opinion, the disclaimers are often the most useful part of my tech books. I’m preserving this one for posterity.

    FIRST DRAFT. NOT FOR PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION. FOR TECHNICAL REVIEW ONLY. NOT FACT-CHECKED. PROBABLY COMPLETELY CHECKED OUT. SOME INFORMATION HEREIN NOT ONLY INCORRECT BUT ACTIVELY MALICIOUS, NO IDEA WHICH IS WHICH. CHEMICALLY UNSTABLE. NON-ORGANIC. CONTAINS NASTY LEECHY PLASTICS. BEWARE OF DROP BEARS, GAMERGATERS, AND SEA WEASELS. BRIDGE OUT. ONE WAY NO RETURN. MANUSCRIPT IS MORALLY BANKRUPT AND ENGAGED IN KARMIC PANHANDLING.

    PLEASE SEND ANY CORRECTIONS TO THE AUTHOR. INCLUDE PAGE NUMBERS AND ENOUGH SURROUNDING CONTEXT SO HE KNOWS WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT. LUCAS IS ALREADY CONFUSED, PLEASE DON’T MAKE IT ANY WORSE.

    You can still get the early access version of FM:SF at my bookstore, at a 10% discount. When the book is finished, you’ll get access to the final version.

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    My SSH talk now on YouTube

    For some value of now, that is. I just realized I forgot to post this.

    My November 11, 2015 mug.org talk about SSH is now on YouTube. This is one way to lose 90 minutes.