When a co-worker handed me a copy of The Phoenix Project, the 8-bit art on the cover looked fun. But the tagline — ‘A Novel About IT, DevOps and Helping your Business Win’ — sounded a bit like the usual buzzword management lingo. But I was clearly wrong, I loved this book! It is unlike…
Linux server principles
This is a list, in no particular order, of principles to adhere when running a secure Linux server. SSH – Never allow direct SSH root access (set PermitRootLogin No). SSH – Do not use SSH keys without a passphrase. SSH – If possible, do not run SSH on a public IP interface (preferably use a…
My 2018 music discoveries (first half!)
Long time readers will know I love sharing my music discoveries. You can read the 2015, 2016, 2017 editions here. At the half-point of 2018 I feel it is time again because of some exceptionally exciting bands! So here we go. I’ll start of with a band that is actually twice on this list. They’re just…
GNU coreutils comm is amazing
Most people know sort and uniq (or even diff) and usually use a mix of these tools when comparing two files. However sometimes, there is a shorter solution than piping different commands together: comm is your answer! The comm(1) command is one of the most powerful but also underused text tools in the coreutils package. Comm’s…
My Vim setup
The following lines are in my .vimrc file and make working with Vim all the better! I keep it pretty basic, so I don’t use the very popular fugitive.vim or NERDTree plugin. Put these lines in ~/.vimrc or /etc/vim/vimrc (depending on your distro, sometimes they are already there but need to be uncommented), and you’re…
The Soul of a New Machine – Tracy Kidder
The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder from 1981 is one of those books that always seems to pop up when ‘computer-people’ share their book recommendations. Exhibit A, exhibit B, exhibit C and more, you get the picture. The “Pulitzer Price Winner” notion on the cover seemed promising enough and it was about computers, and I…
My 2017 music disoveries
I did a music post for 2015 and 2016, so here is 2017! Whether it’s blogs, podcasts, movies or the YouTube algorithm, if you keep your ears open there’s always new music to discover. So here we go in no particular order. Of course this list couldn’t be complete without Morrissey. So let’s start with…
Favorite 2017 purchases
Here’s a chronological list of some of the physical things/tools/gadgets I bought in 2017. Physical as in, I’m leaving out experiences, books and cryptocoins. Here we go. The Sony MDR-ZX110 headphones are decent aka good enough for my use, but more importantly also cheap enough so I don’t have to worry when I break them,…
Django in 10 minutes
This post is for myself, two weeks ago. I needed something like this. Or, maybe it’s for you? You know a little bit of Python, kind of understand the MVC concept and have a clear understanding of RDBMS? Congratulations, you will have no trouble getting something up and running in Django in a couple of…
Super Mario Odyssey
When the first trailer for Super Mario Odyssey came out it underscored the magic all Mario games seem to share. Because my four and five year old, who have no prior sentimental knowledge of Mario, made it vocally very clear this was the game they wanted (well, a T-Rex in the trailer also helps). So…
U2 – 11 O’Clock Tick Tock live at Red Rocks
If there is one song from the already incredible U2 Red Rocks’ set that stands out for me it is definitely 11 O’Clock Tick Tock. You will never hear a better live song by 22 year old kids who are completely killing it. When I was already a fan for life this otherwise non-studio-album song cemented that…
Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
This book by Ashlee Vance sat on my wish-list since it came out two years ago. So, long overdue, last week I finally got to it and boy, what a ‘fantastic‘ read it is. There is lot to say about the man, his ideas and the ways he goes about bringing those ideas to life….