Peter N. M. Hansteen

Occasional rants about IT with an OpenBSD slant at http://bsdly.blogspot.com

If you're new to the fediverse or Mastodon, please take a peek at https://fedi.tips/ for tips on fediverse netizenship.

I'm usually located in Bergen, Norway (AKA The Other West Coast)

Blog: https://bsdly.blogspot.com
The greytrap blocklist explained: https://nxdomain.no/~peter/nameandshame.html
The Book of PF: https://nostarch.com/book-of-pf-4e
Open Source in Enterprise environments: https://www.nxdomain.no/~peter/opensource_enterprise_notes.html

Public Key

npub1gar64hd8h8fpnkd2lzql0p4y3nq8l5wmqqrrj6c6jejt28m885zsanuee2

NIP-05 Address

pitrh_at_mastodon.social@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsyw3a2mknmn5semx403q0hs6jgesrl68dsqp3edvdfve94rann6pgpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsl0ga8r

Publishing to

nostr.mom

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1gar64hd8h8fpnkd2lzql0p4y3nq8l5wmqqrrj6c6jejt28m885zsanuee2

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Last Notes

2026-05-30 13:26:00 UTC

Achievement unlocked: Went to IKEA, bought the single item I intended, made it back on the same 60 minute bus ticket.

2026-05-19 07:34:07 UTC

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It sounds like you found a snapshot that was close enough that it would work.
But still not a *supported* way to do things (either sysupgrade -s to new snapshot, install clean 7.9 when available or of course go sysupgrade from 7.8).
I'm sure our friends and readers here will find https://nxdomain.no/~peter/openbsd_installed_now_for_the_daily_tasks.html useful

2026-05-18 05:25:50 UTC

We are very close to a new OpenBSD release. "You Have Installed OpenBSD. Now For The Daily Tasks." https://nxdomain.no/~peter/openbsd_installed_now_for_the_daily_tasks.html can help you prepare for the upgrade.
If you are using exim as your MTA (or any other non-base system MTA), "OpenSMTPD Is The Mail Server For The Future" https://nxdomain.no/~peter/time_for_opensmtpd.html contains useful pointers for a better mail future.
#openbsd #newrelease #openbsd79 #opensmtpd #email #smtp #rspamd #antispam #spam

2026-05-05 10:46:35 UTC

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"lux" means "light", so makes sense, kind of?

2026-04-26 21:07:14 UTC

BSDCan https://www.bsdcan.org/2026/ Talk Saturday 2026-06-20: 15:45 - 16:35 DMS 1120
A Two-Step FreeBSD Installer: Current Status and Future Plans
Alfonso Sabato Siciliano
https://www.bsdcan.org/2026/timetable/timetable-A-Two-Step-FreeBSD.html
To register https://www.bsdcan.org/2026/registration.html @bsdcan #freebsd #installer

2026-04-26 21:06:29 UTC

BSDCan https://www.bsdcan.org/2026/ Talk Saturday 2026-06-20: 13:15 - 14:05 DMS 1110
Escaping Plato's Cave with Software Freedom: A Classical Greek Symposium with Fred, Puffy, and Beastie
Corey Stephan
https://www.bsdcan.org/2026/timetable/timetable-Escaping-Plato-s-Cave.html
To register https://www.bsdcan.org/2026/registration.html @bsdcan #openbsd #freesoftware #philosophy

2026-04-16 13:31:26 UTC

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this version I feel is a bit closer to reality -
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/414/618/496/202/839/original/60f9cc044039fee2.png

2026-03-08 09:59:39 UTC

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I'm quietly amazed we're still here, so yes

2026-03-07 10:38:24 UTC

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I think that in the early 2030s we will be seeing dissertations and papers on "The Mid-2020s Developer Skills Erosion Caused by Indiscriminate Large Language Model (LLM) Use".
Believe me, it *will* be a hot academic topic.

2026-02-22 21:58:37 UTC

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😠 kan gjerne passe?

2026-02-12 21:43:38 UTC

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I *think* https://stagetimer.io/ (or at least something very similar) was what we used for EuroBSDcon, rigth, [@EuroBSDCon](https://bsd.network/@EuroBSDCon ) ?
(search terms were "conference talk countdown timer", there are several others)

2026-01-27 20:31:32 UTC

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I wonder, what was the original (I assume ad) context for that picture?

2026-01-14 14:23:06 UTC

Do you want to come to #ottawa and tell a bunch of #BSD geeks about what you enjoy doing?
Submit to BSDCan 2026!
Our submissions deadline is January 17, 2026, see https://www.bsdcan.org/2026/papers.html
Tutorials: June 17-18, 2026
Conference: June 19-20, 2026
More about the BSD conferences: https://nxdomain.no/~peter/what_is_bsd_come_to_a_conference_to_find_out.html
#freebsd #netbsd #openbsd #conference #development #sysadmin

2025-12-10 10:59:12 UTC

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while I am one of those lazy gits who prefer my keyboards be made for me, I'm sure there are #openbsd people who make their own.
I'd suggest to air the issue on misc and see if anyone pipes up.

2025-11-26 12:22:12 UTC

Tired of the interminable emacs vs vi editor wars (with praise for nano baked in)? Back in 2018 I wrote "ed(1) mastery is a must for a real Unix person" https://nxdomain.no/~peter/ed_mastery_is_a_must_for_real_unix_person.html - a review of @npub1ksf…r6s6 's then recent book #ed #vi #emacs #editors #unix #editorwars #standardeditor

2025-11-07 15:22:43 UTC

"What is BSD? Come to a conference to find out!" It's where the Internet comes from!
Read more: https://nxdomain.no/~peter/what_is_bsd_come_to_a_conference_to_find_out.html
https://medium.com/@peter.hansteen/what-is-bsd-come-to-a-conference-to-find-out-06acd7d77fd8
https://bsdly.blogspot.com/2025/11/what-is-bsd-come-to-conference-to-find.html
#BSD #Unix #FreeBSD #OpenBSBD #NetBSD #DragonFlyBSD #Freesoftware #Libresoftware #BSDlicense #permissivelicensing

2025-10-03 20:35:13 UTC

RFC1149: Ten Years of In-Flight Internet https://nxdomain.no/~peter/rfc1149_ten_years_of_in-flight_internet.html
Yes, there was an implementation. In April 2001, my laptop was pinged via carrier pigeon.
My writeup for the 10th anniversary of the experiment, with links to copies of the original material. #rfc1149 #pigenons #networking #hacking

2025-10-01 15:50:55 UTC

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thanks!
One of my goals with that article is (while not sounding downright sloganish) to point to both that open source is important in all software engineering, and open sourcing is somewhere in the range a necessity down to very helpful to get good software engineering.

2025-09-04 13:41:00 UTC

Friends, what is the appropriate response when what you were sold as an upgrade to an actually useful product you were running in a trial turns out to be just *vibe coder excreta* flimsily packed in a resemblance of the former version's gui?
yes, *vibe coder excreta*. You saw it here first.
#vibecode #vibecoderexcreta

2025-08-22 13:55:26 UTC

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Were Bambi and Cash Puddle autocarrot in acction, or deliberate variants by you? (nice either way in my book)

2025-08-11 13:50:41 UTC

Recently I found out that when I sent mail to GOOG hosted domains, they would mark my messages as spam or disappear then entirely.
Then today a mailing list host's spamassassin rejected my message.
It turned out that somebody had reported bsdly.blogspot.com (GOOG hosted, but referenced in my .signature) to spamhaus as malicious, and GOOG + the mailing list hoster believed them.
Got delisted, no problem. So which party is to blame here, or what method?
#spam #antispam #smtp #contentfiltering

2025-05-20 10:56:51 UTC

Can you help somebody skill up on a BSD related topic?
Submit a tutorial at https://events.eurobsdcon.org/2025/
See https://2025.eurobsdcon.org for information about the conference.
See you in Zagreb!
#eurobsdcon #bsd #conference #freebsd #openbsd #netbsd #unix #development #devops #freesoftware #libresoftware #skillup #upskill

2025-05-12 17:18:12 UTC

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It looks like there will be live streams on youtube https://eurovision.tv/how-to-watch

2025-01-16 08:53:35 UTC

Stefano Martinelli's @npub1ef5…gcpc article about his EuroBSDCon 2024 experience has been published by the FreeBSD Journal and on the Foundation web site: https://freebsdfoundation.org/our-work/journal/browser-based-edition/virtualization-2/conference-report-my-eurobsdcon-experience-in-dublin/ (TL;DR: he enjoyed it *a lot*) #eurobsdcon #dublin #freebsd #openbsd #netbsd #libresoftware #sustainability #development #freesoftware

2025-01-13 07:49:24 UTC

APNIC Blog: IP addresses through 2024
"There is still no evidence of any common sense of urgency about the deployment of [IPv6] ..." https://blog.apnic.net/2025/01/13/ip-addresses-through-2024/
#networking #IPv6 #infrastructure #transition

2024-12-12 08:30:37 UTC

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Once it sank in with my various relatives and acquaintances that I don't do Windows at all, I have been mostly spared those requests.

2024-12-04 08:00:38 UTC

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AFAIK both systems support Secure Boot, but I would warn that multibooting is a pain in general and the inevitable missteps can be quite time consuming.
The safer path would be IMO to decide which system is your main one and relegate the other to running in a virtual machine (or several if needed).
If the preference (or precedence) changes, it's relatively easy to change your setup to match.

2024-11-30 12:11:05 UTC

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what I see looks like mostly my profile info wrapped in JSON - files preserved here https://nxdomain.no/~peter/edent/

2024-11-28 10:47:23 UTC

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Live CDs or the USB storage equivalent are still doable.
I've at times installed a basic OpenBSD to a USB thingy and test booted things from that.
Even booting the install image dd'ed to a USB thing will give you a reasonably informative dmesg output. But then again in almost all cases when I have tried things have Just Worked.
Reinstalling Windows when I needed it turned out to be a lot harder (essentially requiring you to keep that device specific recovery image handy)

2024-11-28 09:56:07 UTC

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While I have no Costco-specific info, in my experience you should not be surprised if the shop requires you to reinstall (from a recovery image likely provided on the machine) before returning.
Otherwise they may charge you for something silly like a year of PC support (buried deep in the 2021 "The Impending Doom of Your Operating System Going to or Past 11, Versus the Lush Oasis of Open Source Systems" piece https://nxdomain.no/~peter/blog_wild_wild_world_of_windows.html or prettified with trackers https://bsdly.blogspot.com/2021/07/the-impending-doom-of-your-operating.html

2024-11-12 22:40:56 UTC

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I wonder to what extent the actual file format is common to those products, though.
My impression from way back was that at most times in the Windows age, MSWord .doc files were essentially memory dumps that if you were lucky could be rescued via RTF (see eg https://bsdly.blogspot.com/2013/11/compatibility-is-hard-chartestdoc-is.html and https://bsdly.blogspot.com/2008/04/does-anybody-here-remember-artie-eff.html - sorry, G-tracked only), compatibility between versions was far from guaranteed AFAICR

2024-10-03 06:58:45 UTC

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domains that were set up back in the day for temporary futzing about is I guess something we all have, and nobody expects those to stay available forever.
In my case I was a little surprised a few times to find that researchers and their research within my fields of interest appeared to have just disappeared into thin air, the material now available only via the wayback machine.

2024-10-02 07:00:07 UTC

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I have been refreshing some of my older pieces lately and have seen the same problem more often than I like.
I simply updated the URLs in my pieces but either of the logo options would be good to highlight the problem.
Back in the day we used to say that "good URLs do not change", but that seems to be of less importance to many at this point in time.

2024-08-03 10:28:04 UTC

Any friends ut there herding mail for .no domains, are you also getting an upsurge in bounces to addresses of the type no-$randomgarbage@$yourdomain.no (eg no-zl93u6ro3rf93va0ort@nxdomain.no)?
See https://nxdomain.no/~peter/traplist.shtml and links therein for reference #norway #smtp #mail #spam #bounces #spamd #traplist