A blog of rants, screeds, and other nonsense

When I was in 8th grade I got a job working for a small company that was a reseller of electronic drilling and measuring equipment. I was just the office boy… mostly doing paperwork, shipping, and occasional data-entry.

Increasingly, vendors understand that the inability to rapidly deploy their products affects the customers’ ability to rapidly purchase their products.

(quoted from Page 152 of The Practice of System and Network Administration, Third Edition)

I believe I first wrote that quote in 1999 when the first edition was still in draft form. That was 20 years ago. I’m embarrassed to say that in the last month I’ve had to remind two different vendors of this fact.

Any vendor that thinks automated installation is a new concept… sigh.

So what does that have to do with Chocolately?

Today’s CNN headline is “Trump economic advisers dismiss fears of a brewing recession” (link).

What crap.

If they were honest they’d be saying:

Question: What would be the impact on your organization if the CA/Browser Forum approves a ballot reducing the maximum validity period for SSL/TLS server certificates from the current 825 days (27 months) at present to 397 days (13 months), effective for new certificates issued on or after March 1, 2020? (Existing certificates will remain valid for their full term).

My reply to:

I’m building my “Requiem for a Google” talk this weekend.

When you think about Google, what disappoints you the most?

— Corey Quinn (@QuinnyPig) August 10, 2019

wrote:

My answer was a 17-part megatweet. I’ve collected them here and done a little editing.

When did the word “Ask” become a noun and how do we stop this butchering of language?

Did you know that DST was first proposed by socialists?

Reporters say that NY Gov Cuomo is calling Jeff Bezos begging him to reconsider.

I’m sure he’s offering even MORE concessions.

Here’s what I would do as governor:

Have you been asked to generate data for a demo system? Here’s some advice.

Creating a software demo is like creating a TV commercial. You should structure the project that way.

When I worked at Bell Labs, there was a door that slammed really loudly when it closed. This wouldn’t be a big deal except that it was right near me. Oh, and it was in the middle of my team’s offices so when it slammed, nearly everyone on the team would jump.

Let’s put this “AT&T could have owned the entire internet” idea to rest. No f—ing way it could have happened.

As “software eats the world” executives need to “understand software”. If you were an executive that was old-school and wanted to “understand software”, what would you teach them?

I just made it a LOT easier to write letters to my representatives.

I can’t believe my health insurance makes me fax certain forms. What year is this?

Well, anyway… that reminds me of something that happened to me many years ago back when fax machines were more common.

This was a draft. The final version is now available as a pay-what-you-want self-published book called Tom’s Finance Guide: Retire Rich!

This was a draft. The final version is now available as a pay-what-you-want self-published book called Tom’s Finance Guide: Retire Rich!

This was a draft. The final version is now available as a pay-what-you-want self-published book called Tom’s Finance Guide: Retire Rich!

This was a draft. The final version is now available as a pay-what-you-want self-published book called Tom’s Finance Guide: Retire Rich!

This was a draft. The final version is now available as a pay-what-you-want self-published book called Tom’s Finance Guide: Retire Rich!

This was a draft. The final version is now available as a pay-what-you-want self-published book called Tom’s Finance Guide: Retire Rich!

This was a draft. The final version is now available as a pay-what-you-want self-published book called Tom’s Finance Guide: Retire Rich!

This was a draft. The final version is now available as a pay-what-you-want self-published book called Tom’s Finance Guide: Retire Rich!

This was a draft. The final version is now available as a pay-what-you-want self-published book called Tom’s Finance Guide: Retire Rich!

Q: How do cryptographic hashes like MD5 and SHA work?

A few years ago I saw a group of guys with jackets that all had a patch that said, “Safety Third”.

I thought it was hilarious. I’ve heard the phrase “Safety First” since I can remember and this seemed hilariously contrarian.

Review:

• Aloft Charlotte Uptown at the EpiCentre
• 210 E Trade St, Charlotte, NC 28202

The Aloft Charlotte Uptown at the EpiCentre is an upscale boutique hotel with helpful staff, beautiful decor, and a unique theme that will surprise and delight the most jaded traveler!

Please don’t call me if you are selling a monitoring project that uses AI to do amazing things.

Since 1991 I have been contacted by sales people from startups that use AI to make their monitoring system awesome.

The first couple times I took their call and set up a demo. I was always disappointed.

Now I just ignore these phone calls and emails.

Here are the four most important reasons: