There's this notion of a technological cycle of reincarnation, where an implementation is followed by a logical successor which leads to another one which carries on down a chain until someone has a bright idea which looks an awful lot like the original implementation. For example, it used to be …

I remember that there are test patterns built into T1 CSU/DSUs, but not what they are or how to turn them on -- if I need to know, I'll look it up.

I remember that there are three QoS bits in the IPv4 header, but not where they are. Probably …

Recognize this pattern:

• Set a goal
• Work towards the goal
• Evaluate progress:
• If it didn't get closer to the goal, try a different approach.
• If it got closer to the goal, try improving it.
• Cycle.

That seems reasonable, right? It accomplishes what you wanted to do, possibly in a naive manner.

Several people have asked me recently what hardware I would buy today for use as a home firewall.

About a year ago, we switched ISPs from RCN to Verizon. I had no particular issues with RCN except that their prices went up each year without providing better service. (It's true that RCN also fails to handle IPv6 natively, but Verizon shares that failure.) What's happened in that year …

In the distant past, the functions of author, editor and page designer were separated. The author wrote things; the editor fixed errors (both objectively and subjectively) and selected choice bits to highlight; the page designer made things look the way they should. The editorial intermediary didn't consult the author much …

All email disclaimers are utterly useless -- except, possibly, one that a lawyer sends you that, on that particular message, reminds you that you are not in a privileged relationship.

Here's the proof:

This message (including any attachment(s) hereto) is confidential and may also be privileged. It is intended solely …

One problem: we have built an immense network of supercomputers that is essentially a Commons. An abuse of this Commons that would be ridiculously unprofitable if it had to be carried out by humans -- say, an expected return of one one-hundredth cent per attempt -- is highly attractive to unscrupulous actors …

I work at a small technology company, recently moved from Cambridge to Boston. The new landlords were a little surprised that we wanted to expand the kitchen. This is what we normally supply to our employees and guests:

We have an espresso machine (and will teach you how to use …

"Move fast and break stuff" is a decent philosophy if and only if the consequences of breaking stuff are survivable.

• If breaking stuff means that your website looks weird, that's survivable.

• If breaking stuff means that performance sucks for a while, that's survivable.

• If breaking stuff causes unavailability during a …

First 'Real' Job

"Hey, do you want to interview at an ISP? They're looking for part-time people who can use UNIX."

Lars (pronounced Larsh) lived across the hall from me in the dorm. Four of us piled into his car, all of us were accepted provisionally as juniormost UNIX people …

Gas ranges have the UNIX nature: they are powerful, can be controlled precisely, and if you only half-know what you are doing, it's possible to blow up your house. If you do know what you're doing, nearly any problem can be solved by taking it apart and cleaning things or …

The Amazon Kindle Fire HD10 (2017) is the high-end tablet of their line. The hardware is mediocre and the software is quite bad. I do not recommend you purchase this or any other Fire tablet... unless you have some very specific requirements.

Let's consider the negatives, first.

Bootloader is locked …

By all means, replace procmail with maildrop.

If you haven't read a procmailrc in a few months, it's so much line noise and you need to consult the man pages again.

If you haven't read a maildrop recipe file, well -- here's a nearly maximum-complexity snippet:

   xfilter "/usr/bin/spamc -U …