MacBook Pro on Desk

My Mac OS X Setup Guide

I happen to be someone that finds themselves setting up new systems for myself often. I have to remind myself there are tools that I need installed before the scenario in which I need to use them (on an airplane, during a crisis, etc.). I use a Mac so this list of software and setup is going to be very Mac OS X centric. From the web: Google Chrome Evernote - My brain lives here Google Drive - I keep some ....

June 8, 2016 · 2 min · Chris Short

GNU sed on Mac OS X

Like a lot of systems folks I use sed, a lot. It is probably an unhealthy amount of sed use but so be it. I operate on a lot of Linux servers but my desktop environment of choice is Mac OS X which means BSD tools (not the Linux-y GNU tools). The differences are relatively subtle between BSD sed and GNU sed. However, most of my work is done through iTerm (a literal black box)....

June 1, 2016 · 2 min · Chris Short

Poorly Documented Dependencies

Few things irritate me more than poorly documented dependencies. If your tool or software documentation states you can install your widget with one command and it does not work you are probably annoying people. Consider this a running list of tools and their often not well documented dependency chains. Feel free to chime in with your examples in the comments. Ansible Ansible is one of my favorite tools has many installation options....

May 23, 2016 · 1 min · Chris Short

Tangible Intangibles: Questions to Ask While Being Interviewed

A few weeks ago a co-worker and I were discussing some things we really enjoyed about our work environment. It reminded me of a few key questions I ask (or things that I look for) during an interview that typically indicate whether or not a job is going to be a good fit or not. What do you use for e-mail? It is a simple question but the answer tells you a lot about a company....

May 10, 2016 · 4 min · Chris Short

Got Badlock? Ansible Can Help

Badlock might not be bad for all. If you are using Ansible you can patch your systems with a single playbook (or ad hoc command). For RPM based OS users Badlock (samba) patching is as easy as: ansible -m shell -a "yum update *samba*" all Or you can be very granular and use an Ansible Playbook to audit and patch samba packages: --- - hosts: all tasks: - name: Check if samba packages are installed shell: "yum list installed *samba* | awk '!...

April 12, 2016 · 1 min · Chris Short