AstroJetson (u/AstroJetson)

AstroJetson commented on Advent of Sysadmin 2025 sadservers.com/advent... · Posted by u/lazyant

Here's 12 Sysadmin/DevOps (they're synonyms now!) challenges, straight from the day job:

  1.  Get a user to stop logging in as root.
  2.  Get all users to stop sharing the same login and password for all servers.
  3.  Get a user to upgrade their app's dependencies to versions newer than 2010.
  4.  Get a user to use configuration management rather than scp'ing config files from their laptop to the server.
  5.  Get a user to bake immutable images w/configuration rather than using configuration management.
  6.  Get a user to switch from Jenkins to GitHub Actions.
  7.  Get a user to stop keeping one file with all production secrets in S3, and use a secrets vault instead.
  8.  Convince a user (and management) you need to buy new servers, because although "we haven't had one go down in years", every one has faulty power supply, hard drive, network card, RAM, etc, and the hardware's so old you can't find spare parts.
  9.  Get management to give you the authority to force users to rotate their AWS access keys which are 8 years old.
  10. Get a user to stop using the aws root account's access keys for their application.
  11. Get a user to build their application in a container.
  12. Get a user to deploy their application without you.

After you complete each one, you get a glass of scotch. Happy Holidays!

AstroJetson · 12 days ago

I think the BOFH answer would be “They ride Elevator #2 to sub-basement 3.” Plot twist, there is only sub-basement 2.

Two pints of ale please!

AstroJetson commented on Running Unsupported iOS on Deprecated Devices nyansatan.github.io/run-u... · Posted by u/OuterVale

AstroJetson · 17 days ago

I have an iPad Air that I love, made in 2014, last iOS is 12.5. I’d love a slightly more current browser, but the rest of the software is working fine. I spend 6-7 hours using it each day.

Just a browser is all I want.

AstroJetson commented on Employee quits job over an Nvidia RTX 5060 tomshardware.com/pc-compo... · Posted by u/R_Uttam

AstroJetson · 18 days ago

It’s like the days when I traveled for work, and some bright spark in finance said the bonus points belonged to the company. We had a few go-arounds about it. It got ugly in the company, and I refused to fly. Then about a dozen other employees refused to fly. I still went to customer locations, but I drove. What could be a one day trip to Chicago became 3 days out, one day there, 3 days back. Mileage, food and hotels were easily 4 times the cost of the flights. They backed down.

AstroJetson commented on Solving Fizz Buzz with Cosines susam.net/fizz-buzz-with-... · Posted by u/hprotagonist

gregsadetsky · 22 days ago

There was another great satirical take on FizzBuzz which had something to do with runes and incantation and magical spells...? I sort of remember that the same author maybe even wrote a follow up? to this extremely experienced developer solving FizzBuzz in the most arcane way possible.

Does this ring a bell for anyone?

---

Found it!

https://aphyr.com/posts/340-reversing-the-technical-intervie...

https://aphyr.com/posts/341-hexing-the-technical-interview

https://aphyr.com/posts/342-typing-the-technical-interview

https://aphyr.com/posts/353-rewriting-the-technical-intervie... (the FizzBuzz one)

https://aphyr.com/posts/354-unifying-the-technical-interview

wow.

AstroJetson · 21 days ago

Thanks for the memory reminder, I read them when they first came out. They are still highly amusing today!

AstroJetson commented on McDonald's is losing its low-income customers latimes.com/business/stor... · Posted by u/PaulHoule

gyomu · 22 days ago

Insert classic Michael Pollan “if you see it being advertised, it’s likely something you shouldn’t be eating”.

No one’s advertising spinach or beans.

AstroJetson · 22 days ago

Popeye the Sailor has entered the chat. /s

Weirdly, I do get ads for veggies, but it could be driven by my recent research spree on vegetarian recipes to have great food across the holidays for my mostly vegetarian family. I may have skewed “the algorithm “

AstroJetson commented on Magic Mushrooms. LSD. Ketamine. The Drugs That Power Silicon Valley wsj.com/tech/silicon-vall... · Posted by u/youngtaff

AstroJetson · 2 months ago

> things you can do at work when you’re high on drugs, such as brainstorming in a meeting or using Excel.

... using Excel. Oh nice, some of the most complex stuff I've seen has been in Excel and lots of magic VBA.

AstroJetson commented on MicroPythonOS – An Android-like OS for microcontrollers micropythonos.com... · Posted by u/alefnula

fxj · 2 months ago

Does it run on M5Stack Tab5 or the CARDPUTER? Did anyone try?

AstroJetson · 2 months ago

Oh that would be cool. The current list of hardware has two boards. So the answer to your specific question is "No."

You might want to look at upyOS all it needs is micropython running. https://github.com/rbenrax/upyOS

I've added this to my "try someday list"

AstroJetson commented on Root cause analysis? You're doing it wrong entropicthoughts.com/root... · Posted by u/davedx

AstroJetson · 2 months ago

I did a very long RCA on a problem. My management at the time was really BIG into looking at ALL THE CAUSES. They wanted HUGE fishbone diagrams to show that we had looked at everything. This was in the days of having huge drum plotters, so the diagrams could be 36" and many feet long.

So I did what they wanted and the root cause was:

On December 11 1963 Mr and Mrs Stanley Smith had sexual intercourse.

I got asked what that had to do with anything and I said, "If you look up a few lines you'll see that the issue was a human error caused by Bob Smith, if he hadn't been born we wouldn't have had this problem and I just went back to the actual conception date."

I got asked how I was able to pin it to that date and said "I asked Bob what his father's birthday was and extrapolated that info"

I was never asked to do a RCA again.

AstroJetson commented on Ask HN: What's the best hackable smart TV? · Posted by u/xrd

bitwize · 2 months ago

A dumb TV with an x86 HTPC attached to the back via VESA bracket. Sceptre dumb TVs from the Wal-Mart web site are your cheat code.

AstroJetson · 2 months ago

Winner!! I have a pair of these that have multiple HDMI ports. So my "hacking" is hanging a raspberry pi or a x86 computer.

AstroJetson commented on Ken Isaacs: "How to Build Your Own Living Structures" (1974) flashbak.com/how-to-build... · Posted by u/dxs

AstroJetson · 2 months ago

That architecture was big in the 70's There was a companion product around then called Gridbeam that was given a boost.

I've been using gridbeam for the last 15 years for easy assembly of lots of builds.