Notices by Stefano Marinelli (stefano@mastodon.bsd.cafe)

For years, I watched without understanding why my wife's iPad could sit in standby for weeks and still hold a charge, while mine would drain in two days without even being used. This went on for years - both are 2020 models and lightly used.

A week ago, by chance, I stumbled upon a post from someone mentioning that keeping the Pencil and Magic Keyboard attached, even when not in use, kills the battery in just a few days. I had never made the connection. Over a week ago, I disconnected everything and put the iPad in standby, connected to Wi-Fi, with 78% battery. I just turned it on: 54%.I can only think about how much I’ve needlessly ruined the battery over these six years out of ignorance (or was it inefficiency?).

#IT #BatteryLife #Inefficiency

This one beats them all and it’s going to make me laugh until tonight:

“I’ve been assigned to carry out a penetration test on a server you manage. The test will be performed from the outside, since the perimeter security needs to be assessed. In order to perform the test, I therefore ask you to disable any firewall, protection, blacklist. If any of these are in place, the server might not be reachable and could prevent the assessment.”

I had to read it three times just to make sure I’d understood it properly.

#IT #SysAdmin #HorrorStories

This afternoon, I took advantage of the rain to tidy up and clean my desk, as well as part of the cabinet to my right, which houses the switch and the Raspberry Pi 4 (powered by FreeBSD) that I use for various services.

I came across my old laptop again: a 2019 16" MacBook Pro, the last Intel model. I think it was one of the worst devices I’ve ever owned: sluggish, fans always loud, and the case 'polished' down quickly just from my hands. I used it for about a year, then passed it to my wife when I got the M1 Pro MBP - which I’m still using - in early 2022. By comparison, the Apple Silicon model feels brand new, even after four years of fairly intense use.

My wife had to stop using the 'old' one because the battery, despite having very few charge cycles, is practically dead. It doesn’t hold a charge, but that wouldn’t even be the biggest issue. The real trouble is that without a functional battery, it has become incredibly slow, with the fans constantly blasting, making it unusable. I tried turning it on again, but it even struggles to launch the macOS installer. I’m stuck: replacing the battery would cost 289 euros (from what I’ve read, the entire top case needs to be replaced), but I hate to leave it like this, as the hardware and screen still have a lot to offer.

I’ve thought about selling it as-is, but I think it would be difficult - an inexperienced buyer wouldn't understand that the slowness is caused specifically by the battery issue.

Any advice?

#Laptop #Apple #MBP #MacBookPro #Battery

Memories of a walk in nature, 13 years ago, in search of a Silent Sunday, a bit of peace in a tumultuous and turbulent period of my life that would soon come to an end, although I didn't know it yet.

This photo holds a profound significance, known only to me.

#Photography #Photo #Picture #Pic #Pics #NaturePhotography #SilentSunday #Peace

There's a Fediverse platform that I'd like to explore - and it's PieFed - by @rimu - on FreeBSD. Stay Tuned!

#PieFed

I thought Italy was the land of bureaucracy.

An overseas company wants a certificate for my company. I need to go to a specific office to get it and then scan it. I could get the same document online, but it wouldn't be signed. However, it’s a certificate where I declare... so I would just sign it digitally anyway. But no, they want the paper version, scanned, and then sent to them.

It doesn't make any sense.

#Bureaucracy

They say AI isn’t profitable. That’s not true.
Twice just this past week, I’ve been contacted and paid to fix problems caused by developers who relied on AI to configure servers.

#AI #IT #SysAdmin

Early 80s. A small lawn, a red Vespa, and the illusion of absolute freedom.

Judging by the color of the Vespa, it was probably powered by FreeBSD, even if it did not exist yet.

#ThrowbackThursday

Yesterday I lost a client. And I couldn't be happier about it.

It's a long-standing client, but the management changed a few months ago. On Monday, they requested an emergency intervention, which I handled immediately.

On Tuesday (yesterday, evening), they asked for a non-urgent enhancement to be closed by Wednesday evening. I explained that due to various reasons (including urgent family matters), I wouldn't be able to finish the task before Friday. That's when the lecturing started: they told me they set tight deadlines even for non-emergencies because "that's the proper way to do things", and anyone working with them must respect them without exception.

I requested a video call to clarify. I explained that the work requires nearly a full day and that I simply couldn't close it by Wednesday. Even the physical time required to copy the data exceeded their deadline. But the new management believes that by applying pressure, you can overcome anything. Even the laws of physics.

Their response was sarcastic: "Our requests take priority, even if you are dying". I smiled and reiterated that I had no other way. "We will therefore have to find a new consultant who respects our timing", they said.

My response: "Okay. Our agreement expired on 31st December. I was waiting for a renewal, but it never arrived. Meaning, I have no legal obligations toward you. You have the data, the passwords, everything. Have a great day.".

The manager, annoyed and failing to understand the implications, replied: "Fine, we’ll look for someone younger with fewer family ties to manage.".

This morning, the phone rang. It was the manager, asking me to reconsider. His tone remained contemptuous, so I told him my decision was final. Two minutes later, I got a call from their biggest client - the one responsible for over 50% of their revenue. They had been notified I was leaving and informed the company they would also leave if I was no longer the one supervising their machines.

I called the manager back, friendly, trying to see if they were willing to change their attitude - to move from peremptory orders to requests between human beings. He started talking about "suing for damages" if they lost their main client because of me (to be clear: I am not taking that client for myself).

I don’t know how this story will evolve, but right now, I'm just enjoying a breath of fresh air outside my window.

#IT #FreelanceLife #WorkLifeBalance #ToxicManagement #TechLife #Consulting #SelfEmployed

I thought I'd seen it all, but I'm surprised every single day.

Official posts from authorities about this morning's earthquake in Ravenna have appeared on 'traditional' social media.
Damage was minimal but visible. Yet, a good chunk of the replies is from people (living far away) questioning whether the earthquake even happened.

I honestly didn't think #noearthquake truthers were a thing.

Me in 2012: "Hey, it’s only 23:30! I can still work on some servers and updates!"
Me in 2026: "Hey, it’s 21! I can finally go to bed and rest my eyes!"

#TimeFlies #GettingOld

RE: https://mastodon.bsd.cafe/@stefano/115858721747358539

There have been significant updates - and a further attempted breach.
I cannot disclose any details, as the investigation is still ongoing. I don't know all the details.

I can say, however, that ZFS was extremely helpful in ensuring the investigation could be opened.

#ZFS #OpenZFS

The Virtue of Finished Things

An email asking if my software was abandoned made me realize how the ideal of completeness has disappeared from our lives. In an era of mandatory updates and disposable goods, I reflect on the value of boring software - the kind that is finished, reliable, and simply does its job.

https://my-notes.dragas.net/2026/01/06/the-virtue-of-finished-things/

#MyNotes #World #Reflections #IT #Life #Blogging

A few days ago, a client’s data center "vanished" overnight. My monitoring showed that all devices were unreachable. Not even the ISP routers responded, so I assumed a sudden connectivity drop. The strange part? Not even via 4G.

I then suspected a power failure, but the UPS should have sent an alert.

The office was closed for the holidays, but I contacted the IT manager anyway. He was home sick with a serious family issue, but he got moving.

To make a long story short: the company deals in gold and precious metals. They have an underground bunker with two-meter thick walls. They were targeted by a professional gang. They used a tactic seen in similar hits: they identify the main power line, tamper with it at night, and send a massive voltage spike through it.

The goal is to fry all alarm and surveillance systems. Even if battery-backed, they rarely survive a surge like that. Thieves count on the fact that during holidays, owners are away and fried systems can't send alerts. Monitoring companies often have reduced staff and might not notice the "silence" immediately.

That is exactly what happened here. But there is a "but": they didn't account for my Uptime Kuma instance monitoring their MikroTik router, installed just weeks ago. Since it is an external check, it flagged the lack of response from all IPs without needing an internal alert to be triggered from the inside.

The team rushed to the site and found the mess. Luckily, they found an emergency electrical crew to bypass the damage and restore the cameras and alarms. They swapped the fried server UPS with a spare and everything came back up.

The police warned that the chances of the crew returning the next night to "finish" the job were high, though seeing the systems back online would likely make them move on. They also warned that thieves sometimes break in just to destroy servers to wipe any video evidence.

Nothing happened in the end. But in the meantime, I had to sync all their data off-site (thankfully they have dual 1Gbps FTTH), set up an emergency cluster, and ensure everything was redundant.

Never rely only on internal monitoring. Never.

#IT #SysAdmin #HorrorStories #ITHorrorStories #Monitoring

Evergreen

#OpenBSD #RunBSD #Linux #Jokes

Dear Big Tech, I get it. You’ve invested massive amounts in your 'AI' (basically keeping the money in a closed loop and patting yourselves on the back).
I get that you needed to 'invent' something new to break the product stagnation.
I understand all of that.

But *please*, stop forcing it on us everywhere.

AI should be an option, not an imposition.Those who want to use it know exactly where to find it.

For everything else, we just don't care. I want to go back to being a user and a customer, not your product.

#IT #AI #BigTech

AI models don’t really 'get' the BSDs. As a result, they often provide incomplete, imprecise, or flat-out wrong answers by defaulting to Linux paradigms. When it comes to illumos-based systems, they just completely lose the plot.

This is becoming a serious issue for the BSDs and illumos ecosystems. We are seeing entire websites flooded with AI-generated tutorials and guides that are totally incorrect. Most people don't realize this; they follow the instructions, fail, and then assume that the BSDs doesn't work well or are 'unstable' because they have supposedly changed since the guide was written.

Luckily, some people eventually find my blog, reach out, and finally understand what's actually going on. Others, unfortunately, end up on major social sites or comments, claiming that these systems are broken.

In 2026, one of our greatest challenges will be teaching people how to vet their sources and filter information.
And I see this as a very, very uphill battle.

#IT #SysAdmin #FreeBSD #NetBSD #OpenBSD #illumos #News #UnderstandingText #Disinformation

Exactly one year ago, on 30th December 2024, I laid the foundation of FediMeteo.

I took a VM, installed FreeBSD, and set up the first jail to support Italy. The goal was to create a tool for my own use, support a few countries, and announce it.

Unexpectedly, the enthusiasm was incredible. That pushed me to keep going, support more countries and cities, and turn it into what it is today.

FediMeteo now supports 38 countries and 2,937 cities, with more than 7,700 followers in the Fediverse alone, not counting the many people who follow via RSS feeds or visit the web pages.

If you are curious to read the story and some technical details, you can find it here:
https://it-notes.dragas.net/2025/02/26/fedimeteo-how-a-tiny-freebsd-vps-became-a-global-weather-service-for-thousands/

Today is also Tuesday, a #ThankYouTuesday, so I want to say thanks to:

* OpenMeteo - @openmeteo - for providing accurate, high quality data, without which FediMeteo would be far less useful

* @grunfink - creator of snac, who made all of this possible using very few resources, on a 4 euro per month VM

* FreeBSD, which thanks to the efficiency of the OS and its jail implementation made it possible to run this service in a stable and efficient way with minimal effort

* FediFollows - @FediFollows - that periodically spreads the word about cities, countries, and the enthusiasm around the project

*All of you*, who suggested, encouraged, corrected, and celebrated this project

And forward toward supporting more countries and other interesting features already in the works.

Happy birthday, FediMeteo! 🎉

#FediMeteo #HappyBirthday #Meteo #Weather #FreeBSD #snac #snac2 #OpenMeteo #Fediverse

I write technical articles on my blog.
AIs show up in large numbers to read them, crawl them, learn from them.
Time passes. I publish a new post.

And right on schedule, someone comments:
"This was clearly written by an AI".

Which is fascinating, really.

I write.
Machines read.
I keep writing.
Then humans accuse me of being the machine.

At this point I am not sure if the problem is that AI sounds too human,
or that humans have forgotten what a human who actually studies sounds like.

Either way, I will keep writing.
Worst case scenario, the AIs will enjoy it.
Best case scenario, one day a human will too.

#IT #Blogging

@xenotar somewhere in the upper floor, I guess...