When is it recommended to adopt a new DevOps tool?
In this article, I discuss the pros and cons of checking out and maybe adopting new DevOps tools, even though the ones we have are still doing their job.
Always update the BIOS first
Today, I spent hours trying to install Bluefin on an older laptop. The process always failed with Failed to write boot loader configuration. I tried vanilla Fedora Silverblue and ended up with the same disappointing result. Following a tip I found on the Bluefin Discord, I finally tried installing Fedora Workstation, and was able to…
A rocky but encouraging start with Rails credentials
For the biggest part of this week, I’ve been working on upgrading the Rails versions of our managed hosting dashboard application. I started with Rails 6.0, and now I’m at Rails 7.1. Today, I struggled for a long time with deploying to the staging instance on Heroku. At the centre of my issues was that…
Flatpak saved my live stream
I hope that the effort required for switching from X11 to Wayland will be worth it. I just spent my whole Sunday rebuilding my livestreaming setup. A little bit of background: For sending my camera and desktop video to Twitch and YouTube, I use the popular Open Broadcaster Software. Since I’m running an atomic Linux…
Taking time off is part of the job
Are you getting PTO (Paid Time Off)? If you’re employed, you probably do. It means that even when you’re taking time off work (within limits), you won’t forgo any of your salary. Thanks to the people who fought this right out for us over the last century or so, it’s part of any proper employment…
I was on the Beyond Blocks podcast
Oliver Davies, a Drupal expert whom I’ve known for years, graciously invited me to join him on his podcast. “Beyond Blocks” is a weekly podcast about Drupal, PHP, open-source, and related software development topics. I enjoyed every minute of our chat, which covered all kinds of topics such as infrastructure automation, Drupal, WordPress, DevOps, Linux…
The secret to Linux workstation peace of mind
In our inaugural Deep Dive session in The Server Room, I gave a demo of my Linux workstation setup. (Deep Dive sessions are part of the recurring events program in my DevOps membership community.) In my demonstration, the operating system did, of course, take centre stage. After my community members, it now your turn to…
Talk: Infrastructure as Ruby Code
This is a recording of my talk at Ruby Unconf Hamburg 2024 about configuring servers using Chef/CINC. Given the fact that I decided the day before the conference to prepare and propose this talk, I think it came out pretty decent. 😄 You can find the slides for this talk here.
Reading recommendations, week 35/2024
AI for sysadmins, a non-murderous design pattern, how to apply for SRE jobs and how to find focus doing them, and an interesting fish.