Opinions, mostly my own, on the importance of being and other things. http://www.netmeister.org/blog/ The 'nvd2sqlite3' utility will populate and sync NIST's Vulnerability Database into a local sqlite3 database to allow you to map public CVEs to internal tickets, packages, or otherwise keep track of the known vulnerabilities. http://www.netmeister.org/blog/nvd2sqlite3.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/nvd2sqlite3.html Fri, Apr 26 2013 22:58:53 EDT Many organizations already use SSH keys for access to their hosts. Most engineers are familiar with ssh(1) and the usej of ssh keys for authentication, but what not everybody might be aware of is that by their very nature these keys can also be used for encryption of non-SSH related data. http://www.netmeister.org/blog/jass.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/jass.html Mon, Apr 22 2013 12:23:10 EDT Many conferences are more positive feedback loop than presentation of new ideas. http://www.netmeister.org/blog/conference-echo-chamber.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/conference-echo-chamber.html Fri, Mar 29 2013 12:40:42 EDT Marissa Mayer's decision to mandate that Yahoos no longer work from home is a big mistake, and it bugged me enough to actually sit down and write about it, like so many other people. http://www.netmeister.org/blog/yahoo-wfh.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/yahoo-wfh.html Sat, Mar 2 2013 11:32:57 EST I'm in search of real -life data sets to use in teaching system administration. http://www.netmeister.org/blog/got-logs.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/got-logs.html Mon, Feb 18 2013 10:24:37 EST A table of status messages that might be returned by Kerberos v5 in the minor_status argument. Unlike some other tables found on the internet, I've also added the decimal code, to facilitate the lookup of, for example, sshd(8) error messages. http://www.netmeister.org/blog/krb5-error-codes-table.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/krb5-error-codes-table.html Thu, Feb 14 2013 22:54:37 EST Troubleshooting ssh authentication via kerberos. http://www.netmeister.org/blog/krb5-error-codes.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/krb5-error-codes.html Thu, Feb 14 2013 22:54:37 EST I created a new twitter account for "interesting" commands. http://www.netmeister.org/blog/rtfmsh.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/rtfmsh.html Fri, Feb 8 2013 10:27:35 EST A loose collection of thoughts on how companies can help enable remote employment. http://www.netmeister.org/blog/remote-employmenthtml http://www.netmeister.org/blog/remote-employment.html Thu, Jan 31 2013 10:08:57 EST A few thoughts on users, groups, and trust models in different environment. http://www.netmeister.org/blog/of-users-and-groups.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/of-users-and-groups.html Fri, Jan 25 2013 10:52:38 EST A list of apps I've found for my kids. http://www.netmeister.org/blog/ipad-kids-apps.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/ipad-kids-apps.html Mon, Dec 31 2012 11:29:15 EST An incomplete list of things and events I remember http://www.netmeister.org/blog/memories.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/memories.html Fri, Dec 28 2012 16:04:24 EST A very brief summary of how to set up NetBSD on EC2 using an IPv6 tunnelbroker http://www.netmeister.org/blog/netbsd-ipv6-ec2.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/netbsd-ipv6-ec2.html Sun, Dec 02 2012 20:57:21 EST Your peeps don't grok PGP? Don't fret - use SSH keys. http://www.netmeister.org/blog/sharing-secrets-using-ssh-keys.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/sharing-secrets-using-ssh-keys.html Mon, Nov 19 2012 13:03:10 EST How I experienced hurricane Sandy http://www.netmeister.org/blog/sandy.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/sandy.html Wed, Nov 7 2012 11:07:35 EST Musings on the meaning of "System Administration" versus "Operations" versus "Ops" and "DevOps" http://www.netmeister.org/blog/defining-operations.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/defining-operations.html Mon, Oct 15 2012 11:18:25 EDT Why asking about the signal(3) function prototype is a useful interview question. http://www.netmeister.org/blog/we-get-signal.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/we-get-signal.html Wed, Oct 10 2012 10:34:18 EDT Some thoughts on the uselessness of licensing minor illustrations using a viral license. http://www.netmeister.org/blog/of-illustrations-and-licenses.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/of-illustrations-and-licenses.html Sun, Sep 26 2012 13:08:32 EDT How I had two file systems simultaneously write data to a RAID disk... and lost. http://www.netmeister.org/blog/spectacular-file-system-confusion.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/spectacular-file-system-confusion.html Sun, Sep 23 2012 15:08:42 EDT I wrote a simple reverse mail filter to update Jira via mail. http://www.netmeister.org/blog/jiramail.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/jiramail.html Wed, Aug 22 2012 22:23:44 EDT Over the last couple of days, I've been working on integrating Duo Security's Two-Factor Authentication with OpenVPN. While the instructions on Duo's website are great, Here are a few notes that may be helpful if you're doing the same. http://www.netmeister.org/blog/duo-openvpn.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/duo-openvpn.html Wed, Aug 15 2012 15:49:20 EDT Open Sourcing code involves more than dumping your code onto GitHub. http://www.netmeister.org/blog/open-sourcing.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/open-sourcing.html Wed, Aug 14 2012 13:19:31 EDT Writing software is hard. Avoiding the scripting trap when writing system tools is even harder. http://www.netmeister.org/blog/writing-tools.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/writing-tools.html Sat, Jul 16 2012 18:53:02 EDT Self-perception and reality http://www.netmeister.org/blog/software-engineers.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/software-engineers.html Sat, Jul 14 2012 10:28:35 EDT Using my twistory archive to answer exciting questions such as "when does Jan sleep".. http://www.netmeister.org/blog/twitter-stats.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/twitter-stats.html Sun, Jun 10 2012 22:25:23 EDT I think Gmail is stupid. http://www.netmeister.org/blog/gmail-annoyances.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/gmail-annoyances.html Thu, Jun 7 2012 21:57:59 EDT I think cables are stupid. http://www.netmeister.org/blog/kabelsalat.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/kabelsalat.html Tue, May 22 2012 18:47:44 EDT I've switched jobs. Again. Since April 24th 2012, I work as a "Senior Network Security Engineer" at Etsy, and here are a few first impressions. http://www.netmeister.org/blog/this-way-to-awesome.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/this-way-to-awesome.html Tue, May 08 2012 10:38:24 EDT Sometimes I have ideas. I know, happens to the best of us. Most of the time, these ideas have been had by others before me. This is probably one of those. If it's not, remember you heard it here first and if you turn it into a million dollar business, make sure to cut me a check. http://www.netmeister.org/blog/beerware.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/beerware.html Tue, Apr 10 2012 23:34:17 EDT A modified excerpt and summary of a draft of what will become the third chapter my book "An Introduction to Design for Professional System Administration". http://www.netmeister.org/blog/writing-about-writing.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/writing-about-writing.html Mon, Apr 02 2012 22:55:31 EDT I recently used the Wayback Machine to access snapshots of my very first website, created around 1996 or so. It was truly awful: terrible colors, frames, a javascript ticker, juvenile content, the whole chalupa. [...] http://www.netmeister.org/blog/deutsch.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/deutsch.html Wed, Mar 21 2012 17:45:52 EDT Becoming Untumbled http://www.netmeister.org/blog/becoming-untumbled.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/becoming-untumbled.html Down With The Fancy Pants With^WAt Velocity http://www.netmeister.org/blog/down-with-the-fancy-pants.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/down-with-the-fancy-pants.html Unix? What Unix? This is Linux! http://www.netmeister.org/blog/what-unix.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/what-unix.html Unpatch (!= patch -R) http://www.netmeister.org/blog/unpatch.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/unpatch.html Just-in-time translation of user-provided LESS via NodeJS - Yikes! http://www.netmeister.org/blog/jit-less.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/jit-less.html ...And They're Both Probably Right http://www.netmeister.org/blog/both-right.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/both-right.html (Some) Recruiters are People, too! http://www.netmeister.org/blog/recruiters-are-people-too.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/recruiters-are-people-too.html Metamatter http://www.netmeister.org/blog/metamatter.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/metamatter.html Why I left Yahoo! http://www.netmeister.org/blog/why-i-left-yahoo.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/why-i-left-yahoo.html All Good Things... http://www.netmeister.org/blog/all-good-things.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/all-good-things.html iCal, iPhone and iCloud - iVey! http://www.netmeister.org/blog/ical-iphone-icloud.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/ical-iphone-icloud.html Leaving Yahoo! http://www.netmeister.org/blog/leaving-yahoo.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/leaving-yahoo.html sudo: unable to execute <command>: success http://www.netmeister.org/blog/sudo-unable-to-execute.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/sudo-unable-to-execute.html Of Headless User Accounts and Restricted Shells http://www.netmeister.org/blog/of-headless-user-accounts-and-restricted-shells.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/of-headless-user-accounts-and-restricted-shells.html Parental Math http://www.netmeister.org/blog/parental-math.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/parental-math.html No tratheroute for you! http://www.netmeister.org/blog/no-tratheroute-for-you.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/no-tratheroute-for-you.html Migration is hard... http://www.netmeister.org/blog/migration-is-hard.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/migration-is-hard.html It's a Book! http://www.netmeister.org/blog/its-a-book.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/its-a-book.html Marbles in my Underpants http://www.netmeister.org/blog/marbles-in-my-underpants.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/marbles-in-my-underpants.html Go Lisp! http://www.netmeister.org/blog/go-lisp.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/go-lisp.html Learning Programming Languages for Fun and Profit http://www.netmeister.org/blog/learning-programming-languages-for-fun-and-profit.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/learning-programming-languages-for-fun-and-profit.html Teaching "Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment" http://www.netmeister.org/blog/teaching-apue.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/teaching-apue.html Ever wonder why they're called "asswords"? http://www.netmeister.org/blog/asswords.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/asswords.html Ye Olde TLS/SSL Renegotiation Vulnerability http://www.netmeister.org/blog/ye-olde-tls-ssl-renegotiation-vulnerability.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/ye-olde-tls-ssl-renegotiation-vulnerability.html A Tale of Two Exploits http://www.netmeister.org/blog/tale-of-two-exploits.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/tale-of-two-exploits.html Jan's Blog Episode IV -- A New Hope http://www.netmeister.org/blog/episodeIV.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/episodeIV.html Why I won't get Speakeasy DSL again http://www.netmeister.org/blog/goodbye-speakeasy.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/goodbye-speakeasy.html Bouncing mails due to relays.ordb.org http://www.netmeister.org/blog/bouncing-mails-relays.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/bouncing-mails-relays.html Google blocking certain User-Agents http://www.netmeister.org/blog/google-blocking-agents.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/google-blocking-agents.html Solaris pxeboot with pxelinux http://www.netmeister.org/blog/solaris-pxeboot-with-pxelinux.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/solaris-pxeboot-with-pxelinux.html Brilliant Ideas (I) http://www.netmeister.org/blog/brilliant-ideas-i.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/brilliant-ideas-i.html Nested SSH Tunnels http://www.netmeister.org/blog/nested-ssh-tunnels.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/nested-ssh-tunnels.html Of course it runs NetBSD! http://www.netmeister.org/blog/of-course-it-runs-netbsd.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/of-course-it-runs-netbsd.html Migrating Quotas http://www.netmeister.org/blog/migrating-quotas.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/migrating-quotas.html More on Solaris 10 ZFS vs. Apple XRaid http://www.netmeister.org/blog/more-on-solaris-10-zfs-vs-apple-xraid.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/more-on-solaris-10-zfs-vs-apple-xraid.html Solaris UFS >1TB vs. inodes http://www.netmeister.org/blog/solaris-ufs-1tb-vs-inodes.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/solaris-ufs-1tb-vs-inodes.html Solaris 10 ZFS vs. Apple XRaid http://www.netmeister.org/blog/solaris-10-zfs-vs-apple-xraid.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/solaris-10-zfs-vs-apple-xraid.html Moving License Managers http://www.netmeister.org/blog/moving-license-managers.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/moving-license-managers.html Ride down Williamsburg Bridge http://www.netmeister.org/blog/ride-down-williamsburg-bridge.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/ride-down-williamsburg-bridge.html Solaris 10: libstdc++.la empty http://www.netmeister.org/blog/solaris-10-libstdc.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/solaris-10-libstdc.html Solaris 10: svcadm rquotad http://www.netmeister.org/blog/solaris-10-svcadm-rquotad.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/solaris-10-svcadm-rquotad.html Solaris 10: Serial Console http://www.netmeister.org/blog/solaris-10-serial-console.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/solaris-10-serial-console.html Mac OS X: amanda vs. launchd http://www.netmeister.org/blog/mac-os-x-amanda-vs-launchd.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/mac-os-x-amanda-vs-launchd.html Mac OS X NFS share vs. Garritan Personal Orchestra http://www.netmeister.org/blog/mac-os-x-share-vs-garritan.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/mac-os-x-share-vs-garritan.html netbootingvsspanningtree http://www.netmeister.org/blog/netbooting-vs-spanning-tree.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/netbooting-vs-spanning-tree.html Mailman + HTTPS http://www.netmeister.org/blog/mailman-https.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/mailman-https.html So that's why they call it "rescue"... http://www.netmeister.org/blog/so-thats-why-they-call-it-rescue.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/so-thats-why-they-call-it-rescue.html Mac OS X: Remotely installing .dmg http://www.netmeister.org/blog/mac-os-x-remotely-installing-dmg.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/mac-os-x-remotely-installing-dmg.html Gigabit Cables http://www.netmeister.org/blog/gigabit-cables.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/gigabit-cables.html XServe and locking drives http://www.netmeister.org/blog/xserve-and-locking-drives.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/xserve-and-locking-drives.html Mac OS X: readlink(2) http://www.netmeister.org/blog/mac-os-x-readlink.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/mac-os-x-readlink.html Mac OS X: attaching drives http://www.netmeister.org/blog/mac-os-x-attaching-drives.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/mac-os-x-attaching-drives.html Save your config! http://www.netmeister.org/blog/save-your-config.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/save-your-config.html Don't lock yourself out http://www.netmeister.org/blog/dont-lock-yourself-out.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/dont-lock-yourself-out.html Extracting a file from a .deb http://www.netmeister.org/blog/files-from-a-deb.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/files-from-a-deb.html New York State of Mind http://www.netmeister.org/blog/new-york-state-of-mind-de.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/new-york-state-of-mind-de.html New York State of Mind http://www.netmeister.org/blog/new-york-state-of-mind.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/new-york-state-of-mind.html 09/11 http://www.netmeister.org/blog/9-11.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/9-11.html Contact - A Plead http://www.netmeister.org/blog/contact.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/contact.html "Ihr schon wieder..." Ich war wirklich genervt, als ich entdecken musste, dass sich direkt neben mir Gott und der Teufel auf einem Handtuch niederlassen wollten. [...] http://www.netmeister.org/blog/urlaub.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/urlaub.html Nachrichten!! Eine Vielzahl an Moeglichkeiten eroeffnet sich einem, wenn man ueber sie nachdenkt. Es gibt gute ("Freibier!") und schlechte Nachrichten ("Besetzt!").[...] http://www.netmeister.org/blog/tagesschau.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/tagesschau.html Ohne Zweifel laesst es sich behaupten, dass das Leben als solches hart ist, zumeist seiner Vereinfachung dient, die aber immer ein Stoehnen über seineHaerte und die Suche nach Wegen zum Ertragen derselben nach sich zieht.[...] http://www.netmeister.org/blog/sinnlos.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/sinnlos.html "Und Gott sprach: Es werde eine Feste zwischen den Wassern, die da scheide zwischen den Wassern. Da machte Gott die Feste und schied das Wasser unter der Feste von dem Wasser über der Feste. Und so geschah es." Ja, so war das damals. [...] http://www.netmeister.org/blog/grottenolm.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/grottenolm.html Vor ein paar Wochen hatte ich das Vergnuegen, dessen Zweifelhaftigkeit auf einer Skala von 1 bis 10 (wobei 1 "ja, normal" und 10 "unschnallbar" bedeutet) mit einer soliden 8,5 bewertet worden waere, haette jemand die Idee gehabt, diese Idee patentieren zu lassen, eine japanische Rollschuharena zu besuchen und den japanischen Ehrgeiz kennenzulernen. [...] http://www.netmeister.org/blog/ei-eboshi.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/ei-eboshi.html Von allen Menschen auf dieser Welt, die etwas bekanntgeben oder schlichtweg den Ueberblick haben, gelingt es doch keinem, mich immer wieder so in freudige Hochstimmung zu versetzen, wie meinen Lieblingen, den Statistikern. http://www.netmeister.org/blog/statistiken.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/statistiken.html Zwei grossee Fehler waren es, die ich in letzter Zeit gemacht habe. Zum einen habe ich mir im Fernsehen aus Versehen eine Sendung im ZDF angesehen.[...] http://www.netmeister.org/blog/zdf.html http://www.netmeister.org/blog/zdf.html