A very common problem one has if one has enough files stacked up in one place, is whether or not those files have been copied to another system already. Have they already been copied off? To where on the other system were they copied? Sure, you can deduplicate them through various means but that tends to be kind of a sledgehammer thing to do, especially when one of the things with files is a mobile device. You could always upload the files to a provider's cloud1 storage, like Google Drive or iCloud or something.
shark mode - noun phrase - The state in which a given piece of software is sufficiently developed that it doesn't really need any additional work, save to keep it working in more modern environments. Comes from the idea that sharks haven't evolved notably in millions of years because they haven't had to. They're so perfectly suited to their environment that any changes are minimal at best.
In the last couple of weeks, a meme has been going around the blogging community where people talk about the stuff they use on an everyday basis. So, I figured, why not. I write about everything else, right?
Hardware-wise you're probably already familiar with Windbringer's specs because I document all of my laptops. It's also no surprise that I run Arch Linux everywhere I can get away with it. Not a whole lot has changed on that front. I'm running the MATE Desktop Environment as my daily user interface, I'm trying to get used to neoVIM as my go-to text …
code puce - noun phrase - An IT or ops situation in which the software installed in production is one version and the management system expects a different version. This results in a situation in which everything is running more or less smoothly, and at the same time everything in the monitoring system is going bonkers. Compare with code red, code blue, and so forth.
software installation roulette - The practice of piping the output of a web browser or other HTTP tool directly through a system shell, usually as root to install something important. The danger is that you don't know if the shell script has anything nefarious in it (such as rm -rf / or the installation of a rootkit) and by the time you find out it's far too late.
For example: sudo bash -c "$(wget -q -O- https://totally.legit.example.com/install.sh)"
90/10 rule - phenomenon - When 90% of all the stuff management tells you to deploy is monitoring and orchestration software. The remaining 10% is actual make-us-money software.
Disclaimer: The content of this post does not reflect my current employer, or any of my clients at present. I've pulled details from my work history dating back about 20 years and stitched them into a more-or-less coherent narrative without being specific about any one company or client because, as unfashionable as it may be, I take my NDAs seriously. If you want to get into an IT genitalia measuring contest please close this tab, I don't care and have no interest.
Time was, back in the days of the home 8-bit computers, we were very limited in what we …
A fact of life in the twenty-first century are data breaches - some site or other gets pwned and tends to hundreds of gigabytes of data get stolen. If you're lucky just the usernames and passwords for the service have been taken; if you're not, credit card and banking information has been exfiltrated. Good times.
You've probably wondered why stolen passwords are dangerous. There are a few reasons for this: The first is that people tend to re-use passwords on multiple sites or services. Coupled with the fact that many online services use e-mail addresses as usernames, this means that all …
