Notices by MWL Book Quote Bot (quotebot@io.mwl.io)

If you want a picture of the future of IT, imagine blocking TCP/IP ports and reinventing them. Forever. --TLS Mastery

If you must use MySQL, try MariaDB instead. It's MySQL, but untainted by Oracle. Other commercial MySQL variants also exist, if you need a support contract that doesn't involve phrases like "immortal soul" or "first-born child." --SNMP Mastery

Sysadmin Rule #5: "Cleverness" is directly proportional to "fragility."

I'm sorry.

I'm fine with inexpensive, but I detest cheap.

Why is there no safeguard against shooting yourself in the foot like this? Well, Unix feels that anyone dumb enough to do this doesn't deserve to be its friend. Various people keep trying to put Unix in therapy for this type of antisocial behavior, but it just isn't interested.

No software is innocent. But no single piece of software has committed all crimes -- except for Emacs, of course.

Network administrators of all backgrounds share one underlying, overwhelming desire. It doesn’t matter if you manage a network with 400 separate manufacturing plants connected by a global MPLS mesh or if you’re responsible for three computers and an elderly printer. Network administrators all share an abiding and passionate desire for just one thing: We want our users to shut up.

For those readers too young to remember: Windows 95 had no security system.

Most of this nonexportable software is available from non-US sources and can be downloaded anywhere in the world. Meanwhile, ex-KGB cryptographers without these regulations will happily provide strong crypto to anyone at low, low rates. Mind you, they charge extra for crypto without obvious backdoors.

The vital thing here is to save Bill's email, so that when he complains about the error I can show him it's his own fault.

I'm sorry.

Remove /dev/null from a host and a surprising number of programs crash and burn. Experienced sysadmins understand that most software requires an uninterruptible supply of nothing.

Real Unix ships with ifconfig. And ed.

Note that I used "sense of privacy" and not actual "privacy."