The Psychotic Network Ferret

https://mastodon.bsd.cafe/@nuintari

Level 0x2F, Neutral Evil, Technomage. I love UNIX systems, especially FreeBSD, and build carrier grade networks for fun and profit. I'm also a musician, historian, and a pretty decent cook. Lover of fuzzy animals of all sorts, but especially the kleptomaniacal, tube shaped ones. I have a dog named Hazard Dax of whom I will share a near endless supply of pics.

This account periodically generates automated posts brought to you by fortune(6), perl(1), cron(8), and the emotion of rage(42).

Blog: <pending>
DMs: Use Signal Instead: nuintari.69
Give Me Money: https://ko-fi.com/nuintari
Motto: Sic Semper, Insania

Public Key

npub16nwm4vygenxvu6t682fhn8r6u0k366z82ha20xdc4er2x43a5p5synwp6g

NIP-05 Address

nuintari_at_mastodon.bsd.cafe@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsdfhd6kzyvenxwd9ar4ymen3aw8mgadpr4t748nxu2u34r2c76q6gpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsavq8qu

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub16nwm4vygenxvu6t682fhn8r6u0k366z82ha20xdc4er2x43a5p5synwp6g

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Last Notes

2026-04-05 13:32:31 UTC

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Cue someone pointing out the code I am talking about may be running multithreaded and be faster than grep.....
Congratulations, you reinvented grep with xargs.

2026-04-05 12:41:54 UTC

Some AI coder: "I" wrote this new thing that searches for hidden strings in files.
Most youngins: Oh wow, that is so useful, I wish I had this years ago!
Us greybeards: Congratulations, you reinvented grep.
This is absolutely a subtoot.

2026-03-28 09:29:20 UTC

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FreeBSD vi has this feature as well.
u for undo has been in vi for freaking ever.
. for multi-step undo? that is a TIL for me.

2026-03-11 17:32:00 UTC

nuintari's rules of networking 0x0e:
Mikrotik: Not even once.
1st Corollary:
No Fortinet, either.
2nd Corollary:
Huawei is out of the question as well.

2026-02-16 20:47:21 UTC

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Yeap, this.
Also, voting is mandatory.
You can abstain all you want, but you HAVE to show up and cast a ballot as such.

2026-02-16 20:31:29 UTC

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I think voting needs to be a two day affair, with a mandated time off for everyone.
So places like hospitals can schedule.

2026-01-27 12:44:02 UTC

Okay UNIX/BSD/Linux People, which do you prefer?

2026-01-17 13:00:33 UTC

I'm not an Apple user, but I am genuinely curious. Does _anybody_ like Liquid Glass?

2026-01-12 14:06:12 UTC

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It's like the Google Play Store, A search for almost any app will always put an ad for a competing app in the first position.

2026-01-03 14:12:37 UTC

#Enshitification is everywhere these days. I had to get new tires on my car, the old ones were not that old, but they had worn down to a depth of 5 (as in 5/32 in), which is nearly replacement depth. It turns out, they don't make the tread depth on tires nearly as deep as they used to. My "brand new" tires that I had installed last Monday are at an 8. New tires for most non-truck vehicles used to start at 11 or 12. You are supposed to change them when they are at a 4.
My wife works in auto damage, and she has been seeing this trend for the last several years. Tires are manufactured to have less longevity, but the prices haven't come down to match. Accidents that destroy tires that still have a depth higher than 8 are fun, as insurance is required to replace with like kind quality. But this is nearly impossible now, so they have to pay out an allotment for the shittier "new" tires they are forced to install.
For reference, a tread depth of 7 is only considered "Okay" as far as traction is concerned. So brand new tires starting at an 8 quickly degrade below optimal traction.
It's all about the Benjamins.
Cc: @npub1fdr…lvhs

2025-12-28 12:22:43 UTC

Remember, when people say something stupid, don't engage them. You can't unstupid them with any amount of rational discussion.

2025-12-10 12:05:55 UTC

It is time for another important question.
How do you make popcorn?

2025-12-06 15:39:21 UTC

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I have to do the jails next, and uhhhhh.... I don't wanna. Not today.

2025-12-06 15:36:30 UTC

There we go, boom goes the dynamite:
#FreeBSD #FreeBSD15
https://media.bsd.cafe/bsdmmedia01/media_attachments/files/115/673/357/598/446/574/original/de47a5b996ff81af.png

2025-12-06 15:02:38 UTC

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Here are two good ones, although I suspect only one is talk eligible.
https://media.bsd.cafe/bsdmmedia01/media_attachments/files/115/673/222/454/137/521/original/2dc4f765a111ad98.jpg
https://media.bsd.cafe/bsdmmedia01/media_attachments/files/115/673/222/455/562/744/original/abb5f7329f2822a0.jpeg

2025-12-03 01:03:42 UTC

Shit that I miss from the "old school" Internet:
Ultima Online
There were the built in cities, and they were safe zones. If you wanted to PK (player Kill), your only real city was Buccaneer's Den. Most of the player built towns were patrolled by players, and were often nearly as safe as the eight cities of virtue.
But that was it for rules. The eight cities of virtue were auto death to murderers. Outside of that, the entire game was essentially a free fire zone.
And it was fucking awesome. The players patrolled against griefers. The guilds were all about helping new players and shutting down PK'ers.
Somewhere along the way, we lost all of that, and the entire concept of PVP servers became a thing.
UO was an amazing MMORPG game. Every game since has sucked.

2025-12-02 22:14:17 UTC

Fucking stigmata, biotch!
https://media.bsd.cafe/bsdmmedia01/media_attachments/files/115/652/273/063/064/456/original/827a35ff778c1442.jpg

2025-12-02 19:29:40 UTC

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So, freebsd-update still works for 15.0. It is an option for now, but it is going away in favor of pkgbase in 16.0. Don't feel pressured to jump now, even if you do decide to rev to 15.0 now. I recomend testing small right now.
As for 15.0 vs 14.4? How critical is this, and how comfortable dealing with issues?
Me? My home stuff is going to 15.0.
My work shit may rev to 14.4 while I wait for a few patches to 15.0 to emerge. But I always prefer to run the most recent -RELEASE. That is just me.
Adopting .0 releases close to day zero is always a bit risky, but so far, I have not had any issues that could not be mitigated by installing compat14-${ARCH} and the occasional `pkg upgrade -f <pkgname>`
And that last bit is likely only necessary because my home network relies on a local poudriere repo for packages. I am existing in a hybrid state while I build packages for 15.0. If you aren't running a local pkg repo, you likely don't have this issue.

2025-11-15 09:52:16 UTC

nuintari's rules of networking 0x42:
MTU can get complicated when you are dealing with multiple overlay technologies. Map out all your connection scenarios and establish a well defined and consistent policy for MTUs.
https://media.bsd.cafe/bsdmmedia01/media_attachments/files/115/553/097/176/138/872/original/908d941110637329.png

2025-11-06 13:51:46 UTC

https://media.bsd.cafe/bsdmmedia01/media_attachments/files/115/503/077/591/791/398/original/efe1fb4a8bba61aa.png

2025-11-01 19:41:59 UTC

Obligatory #DST
https://media.bsd.cafe/bsdmmedia01/media_attachments/files/115/476/142/661/965/904/original/e492a0d843d6d629.png

2025-10-02 20:11:07 UTC

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Lest we all forget.
Masks protect other people from you, far more than the other direction.
This is also why they failed long term. "I wore a mask and still got sick!" was an easy replacement for, "I can't breathe in this constitution violating mask!"

2025-09-25 22:22:15 UTC

nuintari's rules of networking 0x05:
A proper recursive name server is local to your network. Never use any of the commercial providers that really want your DNS traffic. They really want your DNS traffic for a reason. That reason does not have your best interests at heart.
DNS is not hard.
https://media.bsd.cafe/bsdmmedia01/media_attachments/files/115/267/268/428/159/440/original/d21bb7896d5c755b.png

2025-09-12 08:42:13 UTC

nuintari's rules of networking 0x35:
The network engineer is guilty until they identify the real culprit. Said culprit is then presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond any shadow of a doubt by the network engineer. It's not fair, get used to it, this is your life now.
https://media.bsd.cafe/bsdmmedia01/media_attachments/files/115/190/433/908/716/417/original/4f52acfb59a7d471.png

2025-09-11 11:28:02 UTC

nuintari's rules of networking 0x3a:
Problems that mysteriously go away all by themselves, tend to mysteriously reappear all by themselves.
1st Corollary:
If you rebooted it and the problem went away, the problem has not really gone away.
https://media.bsd.cafe/bsdmmedia01/media_attachments/files/115/185/423/566/548/349/original/9d77d4e592d8dcb5.png

2025-09-06 12:38:31 UTC

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Thank you for not recommending changing the SSH port!
Pet peeve of mine, it achieves nothing useful.
One point I would change.
Instead of aliasing your SSH commands in the shell, I would use the ~/.ssh/config file
Per your example:
Host server
host 138.197.69.146
user brohrer
then, you can just run
%ssh server
Also..... resolve things in DNS! You are right that remembering IPs is flawed, this is why DNS was invented. I don't even want to put IP addresses in config files, I would rather everything use a FQDN. DNS is one hell of a lot less fragile than most people seem to believe.
Edit: Oh, and you should really not use public IP addresses in documentation, and instead use from a range reserved for documentation. Such as 192.0.2.0/24, as described in RFC 5737.

2025-08-19 01:37:00 UTC

People often ask me, "how did you learn all of this stuff?"
And quite frankly, at one point in my life, I did, " ls /usr/bin"
and then read the man page for every single fucking thing in there.
and that attitude never stopped. Hell, that attitude existed for years before that moment. I read everything I can get my hands on.
But, I digress.
A few years later, I knew a thing or two about UNIX.
I read the fucking manual.
When I buy a new refrigerator, I read the fucking manual.
When I get a new stove, I read the fucking manual.
When my home's furnace stopped working on Dec 24 2012, I blew the technician on the phone's mind away because I had already read the fucking manual and knew what the flashing lights meant. I didn't have a fix from the manual, but based on my description, he lead me to a basic short term solution, got my house warm again, and saved me about $700 in emergency repairs.
Before I ever touched a computer, I was reading the fucking instructions.
I realize it is now high and mighty to place ourselves above end users who.... don't know how to RTFM.
But seriously.... don't sell yourself short.
RTFM will always pay out.

2025-08-11 22:25:53 UTC

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I'm hostile because you are not listening, and I am done with this conversation because you are dumb. You clearly do not understand basic English, let alone data science. I can always forgive a language barrier for the former, but never for the latter case.
I didn't ask if you could load your bullshit data into Excel. I asked if you understood the underlying data format of CSV, including how it horribly handles escape sequences. I asked you to provide an example of MS CSV data, in a valid format, where at least one data field contained a comma that required escaping. You have failed to do so, you have failed the basic assignment. You are the most pathetic link. Get fucked.

2025-08-11 22:04:12 UTC

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Ummmmm I think you are missing the problem description here boy oh.
You have just changed the field delimiter to a semi colon. That is not what I assigned.
Show me a valid example of MS CSV format, where at least one of the data fields contains a comma.

2025-08-11 21:50:15 UTC

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1) You are operating under the assumption that I am advocating for XML, or JSON, etc..... I am absolutely not.
2) You read the spec for CSV, and didn't say to yourself, "ZOMGWTFBBQ?!?!?!"
Nothing like having an entire field escaped with parenthesis because it contains a comma......
Please give us your sample data in MS CSV format.... but include a comma in one of the fields. I assure you there is a way to do it, and it is fucking horrible to write a parser for.
I already gave you a hint as to how it is done.
Now, write a parser for it.
Now understand that CSV has several versions.
Write a parser for all of those versions, understanding that all of those versions are problematic.
Do you see the problems, yet?

2025-08-11 20:49:46 UTC

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I assume by TSV you mean tab separated values?
That would make it a form of DSV(Delimiter separated values), probably the second most common form behind colons as a field separator.
Read the actual spec for CSV before you pass judgement. CSV is a very specific, and HORRIBLY designed file format. It has been described as a perfect example of what not to do when it comes to data interchange formats.
Seriously, look at how escape sequences are handled in a typical UNIX DSV vs how they are handled in a Windows CSV, because yes, it is a Microsoft format. CSV is a fucking dumpster fire specifically because of how it is designed.
It is popular because of Excel, and the money and force Microsoft put behind it. Parsing it is a computational nightmare. There are easier ways to do exactly what it does...... but it caught on.

2025-08-11 18:51:00 UTC

Text file metaformats, which one is your favorite?
I mean FAVORITE here people. Not which one you think is best, not which one you use the most. For example, I have a special love for Cookie Jar format because I think fortune(6) is awesome and fun, so that would be my vote. But it is hardly the superior data interchange format. I just think its neat.
Which file format tickles you just right?
Dig deep here, people.

2025-08-06 19:53:57 UTC

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1) self hosted has been the way of UNIX and UNIX like OS since the late 1980s. A fracking truckload of projects have packages that work on multiple OS of multiple lineages.
Home Assistants abandonment of this trend is just another example of how "modern" developers think that Linux is the only option.
2) I have some deep moral and environmental ethical issues with AI. Simply ignoring AI features in a project is not an option for me. Sorry, but I'm not willing to just ignore this problem until it goes away.
3) Openhab exists in FreeBSD ports, hass does not, and will not because they made their distribution so much, "do it this way or not at all."
Home Assistant used to rock, now it sucks ass.

2025-08-06 19:32:58 UTC

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Yeah no.... they have removed self install options and doubled down on AI features.
They are contributing to Linux monoculture, and AI hegemony.
I'm exploring other options after being a hass user of many, many years.

2025-07-22 23:21:18 UTC

Dear developers, when it comes to DEBUG mode, I have two very GIANT requests.
1) STDERR
2) \t - gratuitous use of \t

2025-07-16 17:37:08 UTC

nuintari's rules of networking 0x38:
Never go anywhere without a serial cable.
1st Corollary:
In the modern era, this generally means a USB to serial adaptor, and probably a DE9 to RJ45 adaptor and a standard patch cable.

2025-06-29 18:29:44 UTC

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1)The goal is to de-Google myself. Less cellular connectivity is not a concern one way or the other.
2) I am hardly a user of a typical desktop OS.
Will say I do not wish own even a used Pixel, just on principle alone. So, Graphene is probably not in my future.

2025-06-29 12:21:03 UTC

Argh. I really want to get rid of my smart phone. Three things are really stopping me from downgrading to something simpler.
1) Portable SSH client. I would be content to carry around a small Cyberdeck so long as the phone can still be a wireless hotspot.
2) Maps/Navigation, again, Cyberdeck can do the job assuming I can get it connectivity.
3) MFA. I've stopped adding accounts to Google Authenticator and started using DUO's auth, but neither option is going to be available if I switch to something like the Light Phone. I'm seriously considering downgrading everything to SMS 2FA, just to get away from needing a smart phone in my pocket.
Someone is about to respond that I should just take control by running @npub1kwa…e0nj - which would be fine by me. Assuming my phone would even run it. I seriously doubt my non-flagshop phone has any chance in hell of running it. (Moto 5G -2024).

2025-06-13 12:51:55 UTC

Welp, it's tight. But #FreeBSD running on a tiny host with 384 MB of memory can run nsd with 13 DNS zones loaded, each containing roughly 20 records.
I'm sitting at 16 MB core free, and swap is untouched.
God I love efficiency.
https://media.bsd.cafe/bsdmmedia01/media_attachments/files/114/676/159/796/363/112/original/c4d0f6f75d3d0b37.png

2025-06-10 14:45:09 UTC

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I nuked my LinkedIn account, it was just so completely useless.

2025-06-02 22:45:22 UTC

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eh, fuck this fucking industry.
I think I'm gonna go get a job pushing a broom.
25 plus years of experience, and no one fucking listens to me. It wears you down after a while.

2025-06-02 22:23:24 UTC

Well..... I just quit my job.
I'm fucking tired of this entire industry.

2025-05-25 22:19:17 UTC

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I have actually seen shorts in a run turn PoE into a magic smoke generator.

2025-05-25 22:12:45 UTC

And now for something completely different: the Etherkiller.
https://media.bsd.cafe/bsdmmedia01/media_attachments/files/114/570/765/257/431/100/original/122f720b9e6a974d.jpg

2025-05-25 21:52:09 UTC

https://media.bsd.cafe/bsdmmedia01/media_attachments/files/114/570/685/577/160/864/original/883ceae05833c860.jpg

2025-05-24 19:13:34 UTC

https://media.bsd.cafe/bsdmmedia01/media_attachments/files/114/564/399/736/993/519/original/92bbb2598d9ece3b.jpg

2025-05-23 21:17:19 UTC

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The color and font made me think for a second that this was a Cards Against Humanity expansion.
Then I realized how completely redundant such a thing would be.

2025-05-19 21:24:35 UTC

nuintari's rules of networking 0x0c:
Never use VLAN ID 1. Vendors can't agree how it should appear on the wire.

2025-05-19 16:40:29 UTC

hey #FreeBSD fam, what is the current recommended FTP server for anonymous only connections? It has been so long since I needed such a beast.
And now for the standard Fediverse disclaimer:
Anyone who wants to helpfully lecture me on how insecure FTP is and how I shouldn't use it: keep it to yourself. It's a requirement of the project imposed on us by the vendor, I have isolated the host as much as I can without breaking anything, this is as good as it gets. I know FTP is plaintext, I know we should all stop using it. The rest of the world has yet to get your memo.
Can you tell I am really tired of unsolicited advice?

2025-05-15 17:13:15 UTC

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Decent first step) Rule 0x4c:
https://mastodon.bsd.cafe/@nuintari/114506349550528378

2025-05-12 14:08:05 UTC

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Yeah, it's the nature of the beast of a globally distributed hierarchical database.
But I believe that the paranoia over intercepted DNS queries to be greatly inflated. Just because you are querying on the public Internet doesn't mean your traffic will be intercepted by a malicious actor(s), In order to intercept, they have to be in a position geographically and/or virtually where they can actually see the traffic go past. When you send all of your recursive queries through a provider such as Google or Cloudflare, you are handing them 100% of that metadata, and they are known to use it. When you run your own and query the root as needed, you aren't sending any single entity 100% of that metadata. You are spreading out the risk. This is unfortunately as good as a lot of thinsg get on the public Internet, for all protocols, not just DNS.
Even your ISP's name servers are likely more trustworthy, with a few notorious exceptions that probably lead to the rise of 8.8.8.8 being found fracking everywhere in configurations.
As for simply knowing where the query went being enough to likely know what the query was. Same problem exists for the https connection. Just because its encrypted doesn't mean an external observer can't see the source and destination addresses involved. If you hit an IP associated with cnn.com, we probably can assume you hit cnn.com
My ultimate point is that using DoH takes a possible metadata leak from multiple potential threat actors, and turns it into a complete metadata leak handed to a single entity known to not have your best interests at heart.
DoH is one of the more excellent examples of, "you can't just throw encryption at something and call it secure."

2025-05-12 02:14:53 UTC

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Sorry, thought you were responding to an ongoing anti DoH thread, hence the malicious protocol bit.
DNS is awesome, DoH is an abomination.

2025-05-11 23:20:24 UTC

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it is always a possibility, but I trust them a lot more than companies explicitly trying to monetize DNS data who also support a protocol whose very design is ill conceived, reckless, and downright malicious.

2025-05-11 13:15:52 UTC

2025-05-03 12:23:54 UTC

Important question, please boost for reach.
Does anyone know if those bird of prey silhouette stickers actually work to keep smaller birds away from large windows? I had two run into my sunroom windows yesterday alone. One was dead by the time it hit the ground, and the other had to be mercifully put down, it's neck was clearly broken, but it was still alive. Lord knows how many impact when I'm not over there to notice the bonk.
Currently have the curtains drawn to keep the body count down, but it's not a very good sunroom like that.
Other suggestions welcome as well.

2025-05-02 14:33:35 UTC

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As the son of a US Marine who grew up surrounded by vets, fuck isn't even a word anymore for me, it's a comma.

2025-05-01 21:32:34 UTC

https://www.pcworld.com/article/2651749/office-is-too-slow-so-microsoft-is-making-it-load-at-windows-startup.html
I'm at a loss for words. I propose an alternative: DEAR MICROFUCK, HOW ABOUT YOU UNFUCK YOUR HEAD FROM YOUR OWN ANUS AND WRITE SOME NOT TERRIBLE SOFTWARE FOR A CHANGE?!?!

2025-05-01 21:24:44 UTC

ISP has a /32 of #IPv6 space.
So, naturally, they fear running out of addresses and use /127s out of fc00::/7 for public facing PTP links, because apparently, 4.29 billion /64s wasn't enough space.
Seriously, people _suck_ at thinking about big numbers.
**Edit:** It's 2025, v6 address space is in zero danger of running out anytime soon, and yet here we are, breaking PMTUD for all the worst reasons.

2025-04-27 17:39:13 UTC

nuintari's rules of networking 0x3b:
When changing production, change one thing at a time and test frequently.

2025-04-25 00:43:27 UTC

https://media.bsd.cafe/bsdmmedia01/media_attachments/files/114/395/827/584/714/696/original/993f7eebe07d8f04.jpg

2025-04-17 12:38:48 UTC

Windows 11 installer:
Get to the account creation, step.
Press SHIFT + F10 to get a command prompt.
Enter: start ms-cxh:localonly
Create a local user instead of a fucking Microsoft account.
You're welcome
Fuck you Microsoft.

2025-04-12 13:28:14 UTC

https://media.bsd.cafe/bsdmmedia01/media_attachments/files/114/325/224/919/420/299/original/7e46390a59560510.jpg

2025-03-22 21:19:18 UTC

nuintari's rules of networking 0x15:
Protocols other than HTTP exist.
1st Corollary:
DNS over HTTPS is an abomination.

2025-02-20 17:41:55 UTC

Welp, got fired yesterday.
Have a new job today, and it's a way better job!

2025-02-05 17:52:56 UTC

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I really miss CDE.

2025-02-02 02:30:28 UTC

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I don't mind the sun sometimes
The images it shows
I can taste you on my lips
And smell you in my clothes
Cinnamon and sugary
And softly spoken lies
You never know just how to look
Through other people's eyes

2025-01-20 12:15:37 UTC

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Sounds like my brand new, a week old, work issued surface pro. The fan isn't terribly loud, but it definitely pumps enough hot air out the back that you don't want it anywhere near your skin.
And since we are completely zero trust on the windows side of things, and my boss the control freak has zero trust in me, I can't install anything to turn it down from operating at maximum press all the time.

2025-01-19 16:03:51 UTC

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I swear to all that is right and holy, installing Fortinet products should be considered criminally negligent at this point.
I would rather deploy Mikrotik than Fortinet at this point, and anyone who knows me, knows how much contempt I hold for Mikrotik

2025-01-12 14:14:57 UTC

nuintari's rules of networking 0x2e:
IPv6 is not more complicated than IPv4, nor does it suffer from compatibility problems. People who still believe these myths are simply being obstinate.

2025-01-03 16:32:05 UTC

#IPv6 addresses are such a pain on the eyes, it is probably one of the biggest reasons why adoption has been so terrible, because spotting off by one errors is about 100 times harder in v6 than it ever was in IPv4.
Then try spotting one in a fucking reverse IPv6 zone file.
I just spent an hour debugging why SOA wasn't working, only to discover I needed to change a 1, to a 2.

2024-12-28 18:48:57 UTC

I really love my e-reader, but holy shit, dealing with DRM encumbered books is fucking bullshit. My e-reader doesn't speak DRM, which is awesome from a privacy and consumer rights standpoint.
It's fucking hell from a convenience standpoint.
i don't want to steal from authors, I just want to read from a device of my own fucking choosing.

2024-12-26 17:34:54 UTC

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I think I just found a new hobby!

2024-12-24 15:12:19 UTC

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I really want to work for an ISP that people know they can trust with such fundamentally important service provider functions.
At my last ISP job, the DNS servers only logged daemon errors, we never logged a single query.
The sales ID10Ts asked once if we could analyze it, or monetize it in any way, I shot them down hard.