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97: Tortuous Negotiations

I’m buried in tech edits for Networking for System Administrators, but this bit explains why I wrote the book.

I’ve been in more than one IT organization where the various groups feel frustrated or full-out angry with one other. Conflicting priorities and overly rigid or excessively porous boundaries lead to conflict, which causes bad feelings or, worse, lots and lots of meetings where tortuous negotiations pile still more processes on everyone until all progress chokes on hideous paperwork.
Who’s responsible for fixing or, better still, preventing this mess?

You are.

So is your coworker.

So is the person down the hall whom you’ve sworn an unbreakable blood oath of eternal vengeance against.

Managers cannot improve interpersonal reactions. Managers can impose formal structure and bad management can escalate feuds into open warfare, but even the best manager can’t make two clashing personalities work together without imposing structure.

When arguments keep looping over the same ground, it’s time to change the rules.

This book is on target to launch in September.

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Permanent Discount on Books at My Store

TLDR: The coupon code MWL gives you 10% off all titles at my bookstore. It’s not valid for discounted bundles, sponsorships, or gift cards; just existing regular titles, ebook and/or print. If you buy the print, you still get the ebook free. I intend to keep this coupon live indefinitely, barring debacles.

Why?

When you cut out middlemen like Amazon, I make more. This code lets me split the difference with you. (No it’s not an exact 50/50 split, but the amount varies by title and I have to pay constantly-changing fees.) If I just discount the books Amazon will price match and cut what they pay me, so a blatantly advertised coupon it is.

Why do this right after the Sysadmin Appreciation Day coupon? That was a test. My estimates said that the math worked, but I needed a series of actual discounted sales to prove to myself that unexpected stupidity wouldn’t ruin me. It should be fine.

You have to pay shipping at my store, but the discount helps. If you buy multiple books from me, you come out better than Amazon.

The coupon isn’t valid on discounted bundles. Yes, you can buy The Full Michael and get all my indie titles in print, but that’s already discounted $150. That’s a better deal than the coupon.

You might notice that publishers like No Starch Press occasionally offer 30% coupons. How can they do that while I’m stuck at 10%? They use different printing methods and have both a warehouse and a staff. I use print-on-demand, which exchanges smaller margins for nonexistent overhead.

Yes, of course I’m hoping this will boost sales. I need a commercial OS for publishing, and Microsoft’s constant connivery to get generative AI into my system requires increasingly intrusive hackery to evade. Apple is still commercial, but at least I can turn off their generative AI garbage with a single button. So I’m hoping to raise enough to purchase a Mac Studio. (Why a Studio? InDesign is freaking huge, and I need something that will last 8-10 years.)

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Sysadmin Appreciation Day Sale

It’s Sysadmin Appreciation Day, an annual holiday where one befuddles computer folks by being kind to them.

Today and tomorrow, Tilted Windmill Press is offering 10% off all titles with coupon code YIKES.

Yes, you need to pay shipping on paperbacks, but you get the ebook free with the paper copy. Buy a couple and you’ll break even. Buy a heap and you’ll do better than Amazon.

Coupon is not valid for gift cards or bundles.

Now go confuse a sysadmin.

96: Enough Coal for All the Children in Des Moines

The Twisted Presents Kickstarter is delayed for stupid logistical reasons. It will launch, but not on time. Still, here’s a chunk from Heart of Coal in that collection.

Glitter’d been in the Pit for longer than I’ve been alive, and he’d loved every day of it. He was shorter than me, but his muscles had grown muscles and he didn’t bother trying to wear a shirt even off-shift. He had his own pickaxe that he sharpened himself, this monstrous thing with a giant head and a long handle that he whirled into each seam like it had personally affronted him. I liked his snarl—no. I admired it. He didn’t seem angry, but he had no trouble showing the world his fire by whacking out enough coal for all the children in Des Moines in a single shift. Not that the Pit could handle that much. We don’t even have a real train to carry our harvest back to the Workshop. If the choo-choo hits a strong headwind, the passengers have to get out and push. But the swelling heap around his feet testified that Glitter didn’t care. He lived to sweat.

If you can’t wait for the collection, you can get Heart of Coal standalone in my store.

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June’s Juffled Sausage

This post goes to Patronizers at the beginning of June and becomes public at the beginning of July. 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.

I set some ambitious goals at the beginning of last month. How did that work out for me?

Finished first draft of the new Networking for System Administrators and get it out to technical reviewers by the end of May? A couple days late, but I’ll call it done. Huzzah! I even got the Kickstarter page up so I can point folks somewhere and even a release schedule! (Holy crap! Glory and the Saints be Praised!)

Finish an orc story for Twisted Presents by 26 May? Pffft. Nope.

In three days I leave for BSDCan. While I’m not taking books with me, I am the con chair and a sponsor. (“The RYOMS kickstarter went rabid? Sure I’ll be the BSDCan reception sponsor! Getting people drunk might improve sales! Wait, Trump did WHAT???“)

Anyway. I owe BSDCan folks a cake, and cookies, and a stern instruction to keep their damn masks on. (Sadly, the closing session video doesn’t show the bit where I enforced the policy, but I understand why; no long-term purpose is served in showing that.) If you’re wondering why BSDCan has a mask policy, I’ve got an informal statement on my blog.

In between all this, I need to cram in writing an orc Christmas story. There are folks who will back a collection just because it has a new orc story, and a collection should have some original content so it might as well be orcish. Besides, an orcish take on Christmas fits the theme.

So I’ll probably assemble the collection and send it to copyedit with a note that says INSERT ORC TALE HERE, and send the orc tale near the end of the month.

Reading last month’s post, I just realized that I put the wrong dates on the Twisted Presents Kickstarter. It should start July 25th, not end. That’ll buy me an extra 12 days. Yes, a Christmas collection Kickstarter should last 12 days. Obviously. 12 Days of “Christmas For the Rest Of Us.”

With any luck, I’ll come back from BSDCan ready to start on the next projects. Allan Jude and I are set up to start work on the new edition of the ZFS books. The two books will become one, called OpenZFS Mastery. We’ll include some Linux content. A few folks have told me that they already want to sponsor it already, but I’m hesitant to open sponsorships until I’ve fulfilled the previous sponsorships. A few people have told me that doesn’t matter, but taking even money when I haven’t delivered the last thing feels rude. Perhaps even gauche. I also plan to finish Skybreach. It’s halfway done, but I got distracted by writing an orc novel. And Laserblasted.

Oooh, right. That’s the other news. Laserblasted is the first book that’ll go through my new release windowing system.

Now that I can sell every independently published title in both print and ebook from my web site, I’ll be releasing everything exclusively on http://www.tiltedwindmillpress.com for thirty days. Afterwards it’ll go to other retailers. Big book platforms have been increasingly tightening their terms of service for years, so I feel no need to prioritize them. My sponsorship of BSDCan allows me to put a flyer in the swag bag, so I’m going to beta test book sales by offering con attendees a coupon code for 20% off retail on all print books. I’ve tested everything to the best of my abilities, but that’s not the same thing as a broad real-world test.

You know what? Now that I write that, I should also offer that coupon code to Patronizers. It works only on print books, not ebooks or bundles. (Bundles are already discounted.)

 

BSDCanTest

 

Coupon expires at the end of June, before this post goes public. Sorry, wider public.

I don’t know that anyone will actually order The Full Michael in print. I mean, look at this. Look at it.

Nobody in their right mind is gonna want all that to show up as a single lump unless we have another bathroom tissue shortage. But the fact that I can provide all that in a single lump means a lot to me.

I need to finish my BSDCan flyer and get packed. Oh, wait–packing means I need clean clothes, right? Uh… see you in Ottawa, or next month.

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I’m teaching at EuroBSDCon

I will be at EuroBSDCon this September, teaching courses on TLS and email. Yes, they’re based on TLS Mastery and Run Your Own Mail Server. This means you can sign up for the classes and buy the books on your employer’s dime, read the books on the flight to Zagreb, and skip listening to my tedious droning in favor of touring Croatia.

Do attend the EuroBSDCon social events though. They’re always cool.

I haven’t been to Europe since 2017, so I’m looking forward to seeing folks.

Someone’s going to point out that this con doesn’t fit the health part of my travel policy. Yep. Recent events have demonstrated that I must strengthen my European contacts, so I’m choosing to accept the risk.

95: He’s Gonna Get It Anyhow

It’s so hot my face is melting, so let’s do a bit of my forthcoming Christmas collection.

Today. It has to be today. A year ago, Mister Armand ruined Little Jake’s Christmas Eve, and today I was gonna ruin someone else’s. He’s got a wife and three kids in that fancy house of his, and she don’t even gotta work. Mom’s got Little Jake today, she’d got some thoughts on how they can spend the day, so I can do some Christmas shopping. He’s just old enough that he sorta remembers last Christmas morning and is getting excited for it again. Santa already got him that action figure he wanted, and a big coat that’ll fit him proper the rest of this winter, and even a Nintendo 64 with a stack of cartridges I got at Freddy’s Famous Fine Furniture so he can have a video game like the rest of the kids.

Plus, I got him new socks and underwear, just like Mom did for me. The good gifts come from Santa.

Little Jake won’t ever know about his big present. But he’s gonna get it anyhow.

Twisted Presents hits Kickstarter 25 July and runs for twelve days. As it should.

94: I’d Derailed Her

Reading Christmas tales while the AC is going full blast is kind of weird, but here’s a bit of The Last Multivariable Differential Christmas, from the forthcoming Twisted Presents collection.

“So,” Gillian said. “Any plans for Christmas?”

“Nope,” I said. “Just another Sunday.”

Puzzlement flashed across her face.

Idiot. She’d offered a social pleasantry, not an actual question, and I’d derailed her. I could guess her next question.

“You’ve got family somewhere, don’t you?”

“My grandma.” And my folks, back at the house I still hadn’t burned down. “But she’s busy.” Tabby was in town for the first time in years. Grandma had made it clear we were both welcome at Christmas, but our parents had constantly played Tabby and I and even Harry Junior against each other. Grandma had the only honest Christmas I’d ever known and I’d miss it, but I didn’t feel like eating turkey and waiting for a metaphorical knife between my ribs.

Not Tabby’s fault. Not mine. Just how it was.

Gillian arranged her plate, putting one of the slices of cake to the side. Yep. Another bribe. “That’s rough.”

I shrugged and reached for the pizza. “Lots of folks have it rougher.” Some parents hurt their kids bad. We’d been lucky.

Twisted Presents lands on Kickstarter next month.

93: Our Voluminous Chef

Sorry I missed last week. BSDCan ate me alive, but I escaped before I got digested. Here’s a bit from a Rats’ Man’s Lackey tale appearing in Twisted Presents.

The kitchens were spacious, from the days when the manor would have a dozen family members and a staff of thirty, with fancy copper-bottomed pots hanging from ceiling racks and a big central island topped in pricey red-veined white granite. Basil and oregano and garlic saturated the air, some from the indoor herb garden, others from hanging bundles, laced through with cinnamon and peppermint. Most of the windows showed the sprawling back yard and the surrounding Georgian forest beneath pregnant gray clouds, but the one on the left still insisted it was midsummer. Our voluminous chef, Sardines, stood in front of a six foot tall steaming chemical processing plant disguised as a coffee maker, meticulously measuring grounds into a pull-out wire basket. He claimed to have hand-built the monstrosity.

I let him ease the basket in place before saying “Hi, Sardines. What’s with the peppermint?”

You can open your Twisted Present on Kickstarter in July.

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BSDCan Gifts

This was my last year as BSDCan chair. The committee worked hard make the con happen. That’s not to my credit, though I am slightly proud of myself in selecting as potential members “people likely to complete tasks” and persuading them to volunteer. I am notably proud of arranging matters so that Kristof Provost felt compelled to scream my name in rage during the closing auction. I’d link to the video, but the sound of everyone else laughing drowns him out. KP is no Bob Beck.

But this post isn’t about that.

Two people gave me gifts. Gifts that I had no idea existed.

From Patrick McEvoy, assistant con chair, video lead, and next year’s con chair: a Laserblast alien figurine. If you’ve read the book, this closely resembles Bert.

Tiny? Yes. Silly? Absolutely? Surprisingly motivational? Yep! I’ve added Bert to my Inspirational Triptych, to remind myself that anything goes. (For the youthful, the others are Rosebud the basselope, Bullwinkle’s Fearless Leader, and the Big Man himself, Cthulhu.) I have no idea where my ideas come from, but these are my literary moral compass. I guess it’s a quadtych now?

The second gift was presented a little more publicly, at the very end of the closing session (video). Warner Losh commissioned my portrait from Frank Pryor. Warner didn’t merely hand him a photo of me to work from. Pryor went through my publicly available media and assembled a complete inventory of my public persona.

Beaver Tails? What do Beaver Tails have to do with anything? There’s a photo from a BSDCan maybe ten, eleven years ago where about twenty of us converged on the Ottawa Beaver Tail hut for deep-fried sweet bread covered in Nutella or peanut butter and chocolate or cinnamon sugar or any other decadence you can imagine. (It’s basically an Instant Diabetes Kit, and it’s fantastic.)

Warner liked the look so much, he even made me a one-of-a-kind T-shirt.

In keeping with BSDCan tradition of course, immediately after this unique T-shirt was presented to me, they proceeded to auction off three more just like it.

I am left with one question, though. You see, right when I was starting to write $ git commit murder Warner joked that he wished someone would write fanfiction about him. That gave me a name, although I changed it slightly to maintain plausible deniability for when in case the real Warner gets killed at a Unix con. (If you’ve ever met Warner, you’d understand this is a legitimate risk.) I am wondering how he knew about the tombstone, though? I mean, mine has an ending date on it, but still, it’s a stunningly good guess.