Modern Linux Distribution Defaults Are Stuck in 2009
Modern Linux still ships with sysctl defaults that make no sense on real hardware. Before calling yourself an admin, learn what your kernel actually does, or enjoy debugging packet drops and half-baked TCP stacks the hard way.
From Navy Labs to Onion Layers: How Tor Slipped Its Leash
Tor was not built by rebels. It was born in a Navy lab, a government experiment in secrecy that escaped into the wild and became the Internet’s favorite act of irony.
The Great Cloud Exit: Taking Back the Internet, One Rack at a Time
The cloud was supposed to free us. Instead, it made us dependents. Here’s why developers, sysadmins, and builders are taking back the Internet, one rack at a time.
AWS and the Myth of Regional Independence
AWS has long sold the idea of regional independence, a cloud so resilient that no single outage could take it down. Reality keeps proving otherwise. Every time us-east-1 coughs, half the internet catches it. The truth is simple: AWS’s global control plane still lives in one place, and when it stumbles, everything feels it. This piece looks at why that happens, how “multi-region” isn’t what you think it is, and why real decentralization still isn’t in Amazon’s playbook.
Half the Internet Is Bots (and the Other Half Is Just Trying to Block Them)
Half the Internet isn’t people anymore. It’s bots, scanners, and digital junk chewing through global bandwidth like termites in a datacenter. Most of what your server sees isn’t traffic, it’s noise. This post takes a look at just how much of the web’s capacity is wasted on bad actors and why sysadmins have basically become the Internet’s immune system.
Why Email Feels “Broken” Today (Even When It Works)
Email began as a fully decentralized network where anyone could run a server and communicate freely. Over decades of spam wars and authentication layers, control shifted to a handful of large providers who now decide which messages deserve to be delivered. This post traces how that happened, why it matters, and what it means for the future of self-hosted communication.
From Beige Box to Backbone: How PIX Shaped the Internet
The first PIX firewall didn’t look like much, just a PC chassis with a few NICs but it quietly reshaped Internet history. It secured the early web, conserved IPv4 space, and inspired every modern firewall and home router. Decades later, its architecture still drives how the Internet connects and protects itself.
When Apple Stopped Building for Builders
There was a time when Apple made real tools for real creators. From the Xserve racks that powered studios and schools to the AirPort Time Capsule that quietly protected entire homes, Apple once believed its users could be trusted with control. macOS Server, the G4 Cube, and the original Time Capsule showed that technology could be powerful, elegant, and personal all at once. Today, that spirit is gone, replaced by cloud subscriptions and closed systems. This post looks back at the era when Apple built for the people who built things.