Things I have learned - Part 3
Quick entry today:
Things I have learned - Part 2
Systems should be silent, unless they have something important to say that requires action on the part of the system administrator. In particular, notifcations (e.,g. e-mails, but potentially other mechanisms) should only be sent if they require action. If the action required is not completely obvious from the direct contents of the notification, then you need to add a link to external documentation detailing what needs to happen (e.g. a "trouble code", or a link to your wiki etc).
Hey look - Drupal!
Hey look, I've got Drupal now.
Things I have learned - Part 1
I've been a system administrator for nearly 10 years now, and there's a few things I've learned along the way. This is the first in a series of short posts sharing some of these things.
Documentation
Documentation. Supposedly the bane of every programmer, system administrator, or techie person who'd rather be Doing It than Writing About It. Those same people are also the first to complain about any lack lustre documentation of technology they're trying to use, once again proving that irony is not dead. Therefore, I'm going to complain some more, because it might make me feel better, and because I think I've got something else to say along the way.
My First Thunderbird Extension - Filter SubFolders
I've just finished and published my very first add-on for Mozilla Thunderbird: Filter SubFolders, a plugin that applies your mail filters to sub folders of an IMAP account, not just the inbox. It does so automatically when new mail is detected, and manually through a menu item.
Why OpenSource is great - Part 2
Why is Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) great? Because it lowers the risk software presents to your business. Here's why:
Tales from the Dark Side - Optimising Perl Memory Usage
I have recently had to optimise the memory usage of a perl script, and learned a number of lessons that I thought worth sharing.
Why OpenSource is great - Part 1
Opensource rocks. Here's one of the reasons why:
A story of terrible customer service
So, we've shifted into our new house. It rocks. Getting there was a bit of a mission though, and there's a number of companies that need to be singled out for special mention, for cluelessness, lack of customer service, and general stupidity. Just to be clear: these are all, in the end, relatively minor matters. Our cats are fine, we're fine, and the house is intact. But the number of issues is annoying, and frankly: