A blog of rants, screeds, and other nonsense

…hastily written with love…

  • It's time for Chocolately

    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?

    read more

  • This is crap: Trump Economic Advisers Dismiss Fears of a Brewing Recession

    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:

    read more

  • Reduce the maximum validity period for TLS/SSL server certificates

    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).

    read more

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

    My reply to:

    wrote:

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

    read more

    tags
  • The Ask

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

    read more

  • Daylight Savings Time is a socialist plot!

    Did you know that DST was first proposed by socialists?

    read more

    tags
  • My offer to Jeff Bezos to bring HQ2 back to NYC

    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:

    read more

  • Demo Data as Code

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

    read more

  • Creating The Demo Disk

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

    read more

  • The Slightly Broken Door Problem

    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.

    read more

  • AT&T Fails At Internet

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

    read more

  • What Should Executives Know About Software?

    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?

    read more

  • A template for sending letters to Congress

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

    read more

  • Fax Machines Arent Magic

    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.

    read more

  • Tom's Finance Guide Part 8: More soon!

    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!

    read more

  • Tom's Finance Guide Part 7: 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!

    read more

  • Tom's Finance Guide Part 6: Interlude about 401(k)

    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!

    read more

  • Tom's Finance Guide Part 5: Bonus material: Loan sharks

    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!

    read more

  • Tom's Finance Guide Part 4: Get Out of Debt

    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!

    read more

  • Tom's Finance Guide Part 3: The Destination

    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!

    read more

  • Tom's Finance Guide Part 2: The principles

    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!

    read more

  • Tom's Finance Guide Part 1: The Plan

    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!

    read more

  • Tom's Finance Guide Part 0: Summary

    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!

    read more

  • Cryptographic Hashes

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

    read more

  • Safety Third!

    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.

    read more

  • Hotel Review: Aloft Charlotte

    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!

    read more

  • Why your AI-based monitoring startup will fail

    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.

    read more

  • Why I Don't Talk To Third Party Recruiters

    Here are the four most important reasons:

    read more

  • This Web Site Uses Cookies

    Ok, Europe. We get it. You want every website to tell people if they use cookies. Here’s the problem. ALL WEBSITES USE COOKIES. Cookies are how websites allow you to “stay logged in” or have a shopping cart, or just about anything that a website does now a days. Yes, cookies can be used to track what you do, but there are plenty of other ways to do it too. read more

    tags
  • The Naming of Talks and Papers

    I’m reviewing a LOT of talk proposals, draft papers, draft chapters, etc. I’ve noticed that people’s titles tend to rarely be plainspoken descriptions of the topic.

    read more

Tom Limoncelli

Tom Limoncelli

Recent Posts


  1. Usenix LISA is no more. Here’s my retrospective
  2. My new ACM Queue column: Operations and Life
  3. In memory of Dr. Erwin False
  4. George Mack’s Razors
  5. Have a f***ing sales person call me!

Archive


Categories


Tags


I agree that this website may store my data to personalize my journey in accordance with their Terms & conditions

Powered by Hugo | Theme - YesThatTheme © 2017 - 2023 Tom Limoncelli