"I love Softpanorama: (slightly skeptical) Open Source Software Educational Society"

2022-05-14 15:07:47

"For the great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie--deliberate, contrived and dishonest--but the myth--persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Too often we hold fast to the clich�s of our forebears. We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." - JFK Yale University graduating class speech (June 11, 1962 "It is the duty of everyman, so far as his ability allows, to detect and expose delusion and error" - Thomas Paine May the source be with you, but remember the KISS principle ;-) Softpanorama(slightly skeptical) Educational society promoting "Back to basics" movement against IT overcomplexity and bastardization of classic Unix32 years of Softpanorama educational society which was started in September of 1989 as a monthly floppy based bulletin for PC programmers and was dissolved in September 2021. Web site will exist till June 2024. From now on the content is static. Switchboard Enterprise Unix Administration "Back to basics" movement against overcomplexity in Unix system administration KISS principle and Fighting Software Overcomplexity Skeptic Quotations Over 50 and unemployed Casino Capitalism Neoliberal Propaganda: Journalism in the Service of the Powerful Few The Iron Law of Oligarchy Two Party System as Polyarchy Python for Perl programmers Unix Sysadmin Tips bash Tips and Tricks The tar pit of Red Hat overcomplexity Registering a server using Red Hat Subscription Manager (RHSM) RHEL vs Oracle Linux pricing Defensive programming Language Design and Programming Quotes Systemd invasion into Linux Server space Using -exec option with find Cloud providers as intelligence collection hubs Facebook = Spyware Privacy is Dead � Get Over It Malware Top Vulnerabilities in Linux Environment Sudoer File Examples Midnight Commander Tips and Tricks Networking String Operations in Shell; Arithmetic Expressions in BASH Usage of pipes with loops in shell Programmers and sysadmins health issues COVID-19 fearmongering Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test Covid-19 vaccines COVID-19 prevention Deep State Nineteen Eighty-Four Groupthink SARS-CoV-2 origins and a "bioengineered virus" hypothesis NeoMcCartyism Neoliberal war on reality Female Sociopaths Toxic Managers; Understanding Micromanagers and Control Freaks Computer and System Administration Humor Recent updates [May 01, 2022] Films depicting female sociopaths : Understanding Micromanagers and Control Freaks [Apr 30, 2022] Insufficient Retirement Funds as Immanent Problem of Neoliberal Regime [Apr 29, 2022] The Mythical Man-Month [Apr 28, 2022] TAoCP and its Influence of Computer Science : The second love -- typography : Literate programming [Apr 27, 2022] The AWK Programming Language [Apr 26, 2022] Slightly Skeptical View on John K. Ousterhout and Tcl [Apr 25, 2022] Slightly Skeptical View on Larry Wall and Perl [Apr 24, 2022] Donald Knuth [Apr 23, 2022] Financial Humor : Politically Incorrect Humor : Computer and System Administration Humor [Apr 22, 2022] Introduction to the Unix shell history [Apr 21, 2022] Unix History with some Emphasis on Scripting : [Apr 20, 2022] A Slightly Skeptical View on Linus Torvalds : Selling Bazaar to Cathedral: Linux Gold Rush [Apr 19, 2022] Multix OS [Apr 18, 2022] Programming Languages History [Apr 17, 2022] Fifty glorious years (1950-2000): the triumph of the US computer engineering [Apr 16, 2022] Financial Humor : Politically Incorrect Humor : Computer and System Administration Humor [Apr 15, 2022] Is DevOps a yet another "for profit" technocult? [Apr 14, 2022] Slightly Skeptical View on Extreme Programming [Apr 13, 2022] Agile -- Fake Solution to an Important Problem [Apr 12, 2022] Object-Oriented Cult: A Slightly Skeptical View on the Object-Oriented Programming [Apr 11, 2022] KISS principle and Fighting Software Overcomplexity : "Back to basics" movement against overcomplexity [Apr 10, 2022] Corruption of Regulators [Apr 09, 2022] Financial Humor : Politically Incorrect Humor : Computer and System Administration Humor [Apr 08, 2022] Writing and degugging Perl One-liners [Apr 07, 2022] Pipes in Perl [Apr 06, 2022] Perl as a command line tool [Apr 05, 2022] Perl as powerful and flexible tool for Unix system administrators [Apr 04, 2022] Shell Prompts Customarization [Apr 03, 2022] Short Introduction to Lysenkoism [Apr 02, 2022] Financial Humor : Politically Incorrect Humor : Computer and System Administration Humor [Apr 01, 2022] Command completion [Mar 31, 2022] cdpath : Manipulating the Directory Stack [Mar 30, 2022] Annoying colors on Linux command line [Mar 29, 2022] Bash history reuse and bang commands : Directory favorites [Mar 28, 2022] Bang commands [Mar 27, 2022] Casino Capitalism [Mar 26, 2022] Financial Humor : Politically Incorrect Humor : Computer and System Administration Humor [Mar 25, 2022] The Second System Effect [Mar 24, 2022] Brooks law : The Mythical Man-Month [Mar 23, 2022] Conway Law : [Mar 22, 2022] KISS Principle [Mar 21, 2022] Object-Oriented Cult: A Slightly Skeptical View on the Object-Oriented Programming [Mar 20, 2022] The Iron Law of Oligarchy : Negative Politeness : The psychopath in the corner office [Mar 19, 2022] Financial Humor : Politically Incorrect Humor : Computer and System Administration Humor [Mar 18, 2022] Shell Prompts Customarization [Mar 17, 2022] Unix Shells [Mar 16, 2022] Softpanorama Bulletin. Vol 23, No.10 (October, 2011) An observation about corporate security departments [Mar 15, 2022] Troubleshooting NTP on Red Hat Linux [Mar 14, 2022] Two Views on IT in Commercial Enterprises: Utility vs. Competitive Advantage [Mar 13, 2022] SARS-CoV-2 origins and "escaped from the lab" hypothesis [Mar 12, 2022] Computer and System Administration Humor [Mar 11, 2022] Attaching to and detaching from screen sessions [Mar 10, 2022] Connecting to HP iLO via SSH : How do I reset the HP iLO IP address and password : What TCP ports ILO3 uses [Mar 09, 2022] Midnight Commander Tips and Tricks [Mar 08, 2022] Python for Perl programmers [Mar 07, 2022] Enterprise Unix Administration [Mar 06, 2022] Neoliberalism : Who Rules America : Rational Fools vs. Efficient Crooks -- The efficient markets hypothesis [Mar 05, 2022] Over 50 and unemployed : COVID-19 fearmongering [Mar 04, 2022] RHEL vs Oracle Linux pricing : The tar pit of Red Hat overcomplexity [Mar 03, 2022] High Performance Computing (HPC) : Torque [Mar 02, 2022] Back to basics -- Softpanorama sysadmin utilities [Mar 01, 2022] Bang commands [Feb 28, 2022] Bash history reuse and bang commands [Feb 27, 2022] Workaholism and Burnout : Slightly Skeptical View on Neoliberal Transformation of University Education [Feb 26, 2022] Harvard Mafia, Andrei Shleifer and the economic rape of Russia [Feb 25, 2022] iDRAC7 goes unresponsive - can't connect to iDRAC7 [Feb 24, 2022] Software Engineering [Feb 23, 2022] Modifying ISO image to include kickstart file [Feb 22, 2022] SGE cheat sheet [Feb 21, 2022] SGE queue states and state codes [Feb 20, 2022] Neoliberalism : Neoliberal Propaganda- Journalism in the Service of the Powerful Few [Feb 19, 2022] Politically Incorrect Humor :Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 : IT Slang Dictionary (sarcasm implied) : Classic Computer Humor [Feb 18, 2022] Unix System Monitoring [Feb 17, 2022] bash Tips and Tricks [Feb 16, 2022] Creating macros using the MR key [Feb 15, 2022] Systemd invasion into Linux Server space [Feb 14, 2022] Resetting frozen iDRAC without unplugging the server [Feb 13, 2022] Understanding Micromanagers and Control Freaks : Toxic Managers [Feb 12, 2022] Computer and System Administration Humor : Skeptic Quotations [Feb 11, 2022] The tar pit of Red Hat overcomplexity [Feb 10, 2022] Fighting Spyware [Feb 09, 2022] Usage of pipes with loops in shell : Unix Shells [Feb 08, 2022] Activating the gnome vino from the command line [Feb 07, 2022] Exporting DISPLAY in X Windows [Feb 06, 2022] Female Sociopaths [Feb 05, 2022] Diplomatic Communication [Feb 04, 2022] TeraTerm Macros [Feb 03, 2022] Attaching to and detaching from screen sessions : screenrc examples [Feb 02, 2022] Unix Shells : Usage of pipes with loops in shell [Feb 01, 2022] Perl Wiki as a System Administrator Tool [Jan 31, 2022] Connecting to HP iLO via SSH : Using HP ILO virtual CDROM [Jan 30, 2022] COVID-19 mutations and vaccines : Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test : COVID-19 Epidemic FAQ : COVID-19 in the USA [Jan 29, 2022] Over 50 and unemployed : COVID-19 epidemic as the second stage of the crisis of neoliberalism [Jan 28, 2022] Linux command line helpers [Jan 27, 2022] Enterprise Unix Administration [Jan 26, 2022] Perl as powerful and flexible tool for Unix system administrators [Jan 25, 2022] Midnight Commander Tips and Tricks [Jan 24, 2022] Facebook = Spyware [Jan 23, 2022] Chronic Unemployment : Softpanorama Bulletin, Vol 25, No.12 (December, 2013) Rational Fools vs. Efficient Crooks - The efficient markets hypothesis [Jan 22, 2022] Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2010 [Jan 21, 2022] Perl to Python translation [Jan 20, 2022] Language Design and Programming Quotes [Jan 19, 2022] Programmable keyboards [Jan 18, 2022] Commercial_linuxes/RHEL/Registration/pricing.shtml [Jan 17, 2022] Python for Perl programmers [Jan 16, 2022] Casino Capitalism [Jan 15, 2022] Stability is destabilizing - The idea of Minsky moment [Jan 14, 2022] Pure stupidity [Jan 13, 2022] Missing backup horror stories [Jan 12, 2022] Accidental Shutdowns/Reboot Blunders [Jan 11, 2022] Creative uses of rm [Jan 10, 2022] Sysadmin Horror Stories [Jan 09, 2022] Corruption at the SEC : Chronic Unemployment : Financial skeptic [Jan 08, 2022] Computer and System Administration Humor : Admin Humor : Sysadmin Horror Stories : Politically Incorrect Humor : Skeptic Quotations [Jan 07, 2022] Number of Servers per Sysadmin [Jan 06, 2022] System Activity Reporter (sar) [Jan 05, 2022] Dump and restore [Jan 04, 2022] Hybrid Cloud as Alternative to "Pure" Cloud Computing [Jan 03, 2022] Creative uses of rm [Jan 02, 2022] Peak Cheap Energy : Plato Oil as Hubert Peak in condition of rising oil prices : USA-Russia Gas War : Paper oil and record oil futures trading volumes [Jan 01, 2022] Computer and System Administration Humor : Admin Humor : Sysadmin Horror Stories : Politically Incorrect Humor : Skeptic Quotations [Dec 31, 2021] The /etc/passwd File [Dec 30, 2021] Wheel Group [Dec 29, 2021] Authentication token manipulation error [Dec 28, 2021] SecurID [Dec 27, 2021] Authentication and Accounts Security in "After Snowden" world [Dec 26, 2021] Neoliberalism : Populism as a social protest against neoliberalism : The Iron Law of Oligarchy [Dec 25, 2021] Computer and System Administration Humor : Admin Humor : Sysadmin Horror Stories : Politically Incorrect Humor : Skeptic Quotations [Dec 24, 2021] Over 50 and unemployed [Dec 23, 2021] Webliography of problems with "pure" cloud environment [Dec 22, 2021] Unix Sysadmin Tips [Dec 21, 2021] Unix System Monitoring [Dec 20, 2021] Enterprise Unix Administration [Dec 19, 2021] Stability is destabilizing - The idea of Minsky moment [Dec 18, 2021] Computer and System Administration Humor : Admin Humor : Sysadmin Horror Stories : Politically Incorrect Humor : Skeptic Quotations [Dec 17, 2021] RHEL vs Oracle Linux pricing : Red Hat Enterprise Linux Life Cycle [Dec 16, 2021] Creating a boot ISO that is using a remote kickstart file to install Red Hat [Dec 15, 2021] Modifying ISO image to include kickstart file [Dec 14, 2021] The tar pit of Red Hat overcomplexity [Dec 13, 2021] Registering a server using Red Hat Subscription Manager (RHSM) [Dec 12, 2021] Financial skeptic : Peak Cheap Energy : Corruption at the SEC [Dec 11, 2021] Financial Humor Bulletin, 2010 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 : Politically Incorrect Humor : Diplomatic Communication : Negative Politeness : Corporate bullshit as a communication method [Dec 10, 2021] Relax-and-Recover on RHEL [Dec 09, 2021] System Activity Reporter (sar) [Dec 08, 2021] Unix Configuration Management Tools [Dec 07, 2021] Shadow IT : Is DevOps a yet another "for profit" technocult [Dec 06, 2021] Unix Sysadmin Tips [Dec 05, 2021] Over 50 and unemployed : Stoicism : Surviving a Bad Performance Review : Workaholism and Burnout : Information Overload [Dec 04, 2021] Computer and System Administration Humor : Admin Humor : Sysadmin Horror Stories : Politically Incorrect Humor : Skeptic Quotations [Dec 03, 2021] DNA sequencing data compression [Dec 02, 2021] Environment Modules [Dec 01, 2021] OpenPBS, PBSpro and Torque : Grid engine : SGE queue states and state codes : SGE cheat sheet [Nov 30, 2021] Pdsh : dshbak - filter that normalizes pdsh output : pdcp - copy files to groups of hosts in parallel [Nov 29, 2021] High Performance Computing (HPC) [Nov 28, 2021] Diplomatic Communication : Female Sociopaths : The psychopath in the corner office [Nov 27, 2021] Computer and System Administration Humor : Admin Humor [Nov 26, 2021] vFlash for DRAC -- lifesaver in OS install via VPN and server recovery after crash [Nov 25, 2021] Updating the DRAC Firmware [Nov 24, 2021] iDRAC7 goes unresponsive - can't connect to iDRAC7 [Nov 23, 2021] Resetting frozen iDRAC without unplugging the server [Nov 22, 2021] Dell DRAC [Nov 21, 2021] Financial skeptic : Over 50 and unemployed : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 [Nov 20, 2021] Computer and System Administration Humor : Admin Humor [Nov 19, 2021] Attaching to and detaching from screen sessions [Nov 18, 2021] Midnight Commander Tips and Tricks [Nov 17, 2021] Usage of pipes with loops in shell [Nov 16, 2021] Facebook = Spyware [Nov 15, 2021] Python for Perl programmers [Nov 14, 2021] Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 : Chronic Unemployment [Nov 13, 2021] Computer and System Administration Humor : Admin Humor : IT Slang Dictionary (sarcasm implied) [Nov 12, 2021] Modifying ISO image to include kickstart file [Nov 11, 2021] Red Hat Enterprise Linux Life Cycle [Nov 10, 2021] The tar pit of Red Hat overcomplexity [Nov 09, 2021] Registering a server using Red Hat Subscription Manager (RHSM) [Nov 08, 2021] RHEL vs Oracle Linux pricing [Nov 07, 2021] Language Design and Programming Quotes : Eric Hoffer Quotes : Talleyrand quotes : Otto Von Bismarck Quotes : Propaganda Quotes [Nov 06, 2021] Computer and System Administration Humor : Admin Humor [Nov 05, 2021] Troubleshooting HPOM agents : HP Operations Manager [Nov 04, 2021] Webliography of problems with "pure" cloud environment [Nov 03, 2021] Sysadmin Horror Stories [Nov 02, 2021] Unix System Monitoring [Nov 01, 2021] Firewalld setup that allows only selected IPs [Oct 31, 2021] The Peter Principle : Parkinson Law : The Power Elite [Oct 30, 2021] Computer and System Administration Humor : Language Design and Programming Quotes [Oct 29, 2021] Network Troubleshooting Tools : Firewalld setup that allows only selected IPs [Oct 28, 2021] Linux route command [Oct 27, 2021] SSH Configuration [Oct 26, 2021] Network Troubleshooting Tools [Oct 25, 2021] Sudoer File Examples [Oct 24, 2021] Neoliberalism [Oct 23, 2021] Financial Humor : Politically Incorrect Humor : Computer and System Administration Humor [Oct 22, 2021] Oracle Linux administration notes [Oct 21, 2021] Converting CentOS to Oracle Linux with centos2ol script tutorial [Oct 20, 2021] RHEL vs Oracle Linux pricing [Oct 19, 2021] Python for Perl programmers [Oct 18, 2021] Midnight Commander Tips and Tricks [Oct 17, 2021] Neoliberal war on reality [Oct 16, 2021] Financial Humor : Politically Incorrect Humor : Computer and System Administration Humor [Oct 15, 2021] Linux route command : Configuring network in RHEL7 : nmcli : nmtui [Oct 14, 2021] Bonding Ethernet Interfaces in Red Hat Linux : Bonding Multiple Network Interfaces in SLES [Oct 13, 2021] Red Hat Enterprise Linux Life Cycle : Oracle Linux Administration Notes [Oct 12, 2021] RHEL vs Oracle Linux pricing [Oct 11, 2021] Converting CentOS to Oracle Linux : CentOS8 fiasco [Oct 10, 2021] NeoMcCartyism [Oct 09, 2021] Financial Humor : Politically Incorrect Humor : Computer and System Administration Humor [Oct 08, 2021] The Mythical Man-Month [Oct 07, 2021] Donald Knuth : TAoCP and its Influence of Computer Science : The second love -- typography : Literate programming [Oct 06, 2021] The AWK Programming Language [Oct 05, 2021] Slightly Skeptical View on John K. Ousterhout and Tcl [Oct 04, 2021] Slightly Skeptical View on Larry Wall and Perl [Oct 03, 2021] Nineteen Eighty-Four [Oct 02, 2021] Financial Humor : Politically Incorrect Humor : Computer and System Administration Humor [Oct 01, 2021] Introduction to the Unix shell history [Sep 30, 2021] Unix History with some Emphasis on Scripting : A Slightly Skeptical View on Linus Torvalds [Sep 29, 2021] Multix OS [Sep 28, 2021] Programming Languages History [Sep 27, 2021] Fifty glorious years (1950-2000): the triumph of the US computer engineering [Sep 26, 2021] Short Introduction to Lysenkoism [Sep 25, 2021] Financial Humor : Politically Incorrect Humor : Computer and System Administration Humor [Sep 24, 2021] Selling Bazaar to Cathedral: Linux Gold Rush [Sep 23, 2021] Is DevOps a yet another "for profit" technocult? [Sep 22, 2021] Slightly Skeptical View on Extreme Programming [Sep 21, 2021] Agile -- Fake Solution to an Important Problem [Sep 20, 2021] Object-Oriented Cult: A Slightly Skeptical View on the Object-Oriented Programming [Sep 19, 2021] KISS principle and Fighting Software Overcomplexity : "Back to basics" movement against overcomplexity [Sep 18, 2021] Financial Humor : Politically Incorrect Humor : Computer and System Administration Humor [Sep 17, 2021] Writing and degugging Perl One-liners [Sep 16, 2021] Pipes in Perl [Sep 15, 2021] Perl as a command line tool [Sep 14, 2021] Perl as powerful and flexible tool for Unix system administrators [Sep 13, 2021] Shell Prompts Customarization [Sep 12, 2021] Computer and System Administration Humor [Sep 11, 2021] Financial Humor : Politically Incorrect Humor : [Sep 10, 2021] Command completion [Sep 09, 2021] cdpath : Manipulating the Directory Stack [Sep 08, 2021] Annoying colors on Linux command line [Sep 07, 2021] Bash history reuse and bang commands : Directory favorites [Sep 06, 2021] Bang commands [Sep 05, 2021] Computer and System Administration Humor [Sep 04, 2021] Financial Humor : Politically Incorrect Humor [Sep 03, 2021] The Second System Effect [Sep 02, 2021] Brooks law : The Mythical Man-Month [Sep 01, 2021] Conway Law : [Aug 31, 2021] KISS Principle [Aug 30, 2021] Object-Oriented Cult: A Slightly Skeptical View on the Object-Oriented Programming [Aug 29, 2021] The Iron Law of Oligarchy [Aug 28, 2021] Financial Humor : Politically Incorrect Humor : Computer and System Administration Humor [Aug 27, 2021] Shell Prompts Customarization [Aug 26, 2021] Unix Shells [Aug 25, 2021] Softpanorama Bulletin. Vol 23, No.10 (October, 2011) An observation about corporate security departments [Aug 24, 2021] Troubleshooting NTP on Red Hat Linux [Aug 23, 2021] Two Views on IT in Commercial Enterprises: Utility vs. Competitive Advantage [Aug 22, 2021] Negative Politeness [Aug 21, 2021] Computer and System Administration Humor [Aug 20, 2021] Attaching to and detaching from screen sessions [Aug 19, 2021] Connecting to HP iLO via SSH : How do I reset the HP iLO IP address and password : What TCP ports ILO3 uses [Aug 18, 2021] Midnight Commander Tips and Tricks [Aug 17, 2021] Python for Perl programmers [Aug 16, 2021] Enterprise Unix Administration [Aug 15, 2021] Neoliberalism : Who Rules America : Rational Fools vs. Efficient Crooks -- The efficient markets hypothesis [Aug 14, 2021] Over 50 and unemployed : COVID-19 fearmongering [Aug 13, 2021] RHEL vs Oracle Linux pricing : [Aug 12, 2021] The tar pit of Red Hat overcomplexity [Aug 11, 2021] High Performance Computing (HPC) : Torque [Aug 10, 2021] Exporting DISPLAY in X Windows [Aug 09, 2021] Female Sociopaths [Aug 08, 2021] Diplomatic Communication [Aug 07, 2021] TeraTerm Macros [Aug 06, 2021] Attaching to and detaching from screen sessions : screenrc examples [Aug 05, 2021] Unix Shells : Usage of pipes with loops in shell [Aug 04, 2021] Perl Wiki as a System Administrator Tool [Aug 03, 2021] Connecting to HP iLO via SSH : Using HP ILO virtual CDROM [Aug 02, 2021] COVID-19 mutations and vaccines : Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test : COVID-19 Epidemic FAQ : COVID-19 in the USA [Aug 01, 2021] Over 50 and unemployed : COVID-19 epidemic as the second stage of the crisis of neoliberalism Older entries Age quod agis ("Do well in whatever you do"). Latin proverbs - WikiquoteThis site advocates skepticism as an approach to study of both technical and social phenomena. The latter is generally about questioning any preconceived attitudes, facts, or opinions/beliefs stated as facts, and critical examination of claims that are taken for granted in corporate MSM. It also can be viewed as a strong allergic reaction topseudoscience, "fake news" and "bullsh*t" of corporate owned MSMs (see propaganda), and the advocacy of alternative media such as blogs, wikis, web forums and email lists as valuable sources of information. The site containsresources for university students and the independently minded IT folks interested in self-education. Some pages also serve as useful references. It stresses the value of continuing education, which is actually a life long process of self-discovery. Underneoliberalism the university education has become the way to separating "haves" and "have not" and indoctrinate students: the class fault lines in neoliberal society are increasingly along educational lines. The access to university education in the USA became more and more expensive as, along with their "class segregation" function, neoliberal universities now serve as a profit center for educational sharks. Most material is related to programming, especially scripting (shell, Perl, pipes, Unix tools) and Unix system administration. But there are also some pages devoted onneoliberalism (akaCasino Capitalism),unemployment (includingOver 50 unemployment )toxic managers (especiallyfemale sociopaths),Groupthink,energy and some other more peripheral topics.The site is mainly oriented on people and organizations with limited resources. It might be useful as a self-education tool, including for those "over 50" IT folk who recently found themselves excluded and marginalized: "without work, without possibilities, without any means of escape." (Pope Francis on the danger of neoliberalism). This site tries to eschew the conventionally favored obfuscations about IT (for example about "cloud computing" or IT outsourcing) and exposethe theater of absurd which often both academic and, especially, corporate IT represents (sometimes in the form ofhumor; it's often the best medicine against conformism,stress, andoverload.). I think proliferation ofShadow IT is a clear sign that "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark", all hype about DevOps notwithstanding. For example, RHEL7 dramatically increased the complexity of the Linux operating system due to the introduction ofsystemd. That also changes our opinion about how open source ecosystem really works (in no way this is a bazaar) and who controls key elements of open source infrastructure. In a way, RHEL7 signify emergence of "open source aristocracy" interests of which are detached from interests of rank and file sysadmins and programmers, and which pushes for Windowization of Linux. In other words it confirms the Iron Law of Oligarchy, which clearly now is replayed on the open source arena. This site is also against "bastardization" of Unix which demonstrates itself in adding layers of complexity that hide Unix API and replaces classic Unix utilities, as well as subsystems like systemd that attempt to make Unix similar to Windows and betray the idea "everything is a file" that made Unix great. Adding complex binary databases (for example binary system logs) is step toward OS/360 philosophy. It promotes "back to basic" movement in computer science education, software development, and in system administration. In the neoliberal society, we now live, good jobs are very scarce commodity, and you no longer can be a purely technical specialist, you need to understand the social context of your life as well. Or you will be taken for a ride, squeezed or even mercilessly pushed out of workforce. Students who are brainwashed by neoliberal propaganda (and neoliberal universities are doing just that vianeoclassical economics courses) have higher chances to become debt slaves after graduation. In "for profit" education environment the debt peonage is now a "new normal" and universities became basically the real estate hoarders and debtor magnets for the banks. Unless you learn the difference between education and indoctrination, you might miss the fact that what used to be "the lower middle class" of IT professionals turns out to be simply an indebted write collar working class, "disposable IT workers", mercilessly squeezed by outsourcing. This site also strives to be a part of the "resistance movement" againsttheneoliberal trend toward atomizing workforce, squashing any human solidarity,converting humans into tradable goods on "labor market". Which means that along with mastering the technology, maintaining yourpersonal andfinancial health understanding the social system in which you live (Neoliberalism akaCasino Capitalism) is the necessary survival skill. The task which is actually very difficult because to live under neoliberalism and can't escape neoliberal brainwashing. Mush like was the case in the USSR with communist propaganda. Plato'sAllegory of the Cave describesthis inability of a group of (ideological) prisoners chained in a cave to interpret reality based solely upon the play of shadows projected upon the stone wall in front of them. Still, this is an educational site, not a propaganda site, and unlikepropaganda that manipulates people emotions and prejudgesto impose propagandist's views; education primary goal is to help to understand the reality of the current technological and/or social situation. Personal critical thinking is also important and you need to take the views expressed here with a grain of salt. Replacement of classic university educational model with neoliberal model in the US universities has resulted in a very narrowly educated professionals who not only do not know, but also do not want to knowanything about the society and politics. Understanding the society and people is typically a weak point of many programmers and system administrators including myself, the part of personality profile that drove us to this specialty. It often is amplified by narcissistic megalomania (as in "I am the greatest programmer; all others are schmucks who just don't get it"). But we can and should work diligently on eliminating this shortcoming, as many of us pay dearly for this "social blindness" (the term "professional idiocy" was coined by a German philosopher to denote someone who may be intelligent and competent in his own profession, but limited in social skills and as a member of society ) It is important to be aware about dangers of the IT workplace, such as psychopathic bosses (micromanagers,bullies,narcissists andauthoritarians), as well ashealth problems due to daily multi-hour sitting behind the display or two and unhealthy diet. With its relentless squeezing of the workforce neoliberal corporation needs narcissists, micromanagers and sociopaths in management ranks and it looks like the process of displacement of "technical managers" with "bean counters" and Harvard MBA types was finished a while ago. Which leads to situations like Boeing 737 MAX fiasco. In this environment you also need skills to survivea Bad Performance Review -- a standard waterboarding procedure in neoliberal corporation ;-) After all, for neoliberal corporation you are just a consumable resource, a unit of "human capital".While attending university has its value in itself, as a good university cultural environment can't be replicated elsewhere, for talented people independent study might save some money and, thus,help to avoid excessive feeding of education sharks. In any case, lifelong self-education is important and should be a goal in itself. What gets people to the top is relentless self-education and practice of a particular skill. The minimum for reaching "master" level of a given skill is estimated to be around10,000 hours, the earlier you start the better. And taking into account complexity of Unix/Linux (helloRHEL 7 with itssystemd ;-) and Byzantium tendencies of mainstream programming languages (and those days you need to know several of them), for programming and system administration 30,000 hours is a more reasonable estimate (one year is approximately 3000 working hours). Which means formula 4+6 (four years of college and 5-6 years on the job self-education ) to get to speed. Internet is a tool that gave us vast new opportunities of information exchange while at the same time tremendous possibilities of degrading of quality of this exchange in all major areas -- social, cultural, political and technical. Internet now serves as a the main advertizing channel, producing waterfalls of textual and visual spam fueled by advertising fees. Also too much information if often as bad as too little.Information overload is a real problem and in this sense filtration of information became much more important. You can use this site as one of such filters as links it provides for each topic are carefully evaluated. At the same time, it is important to understand that Internet is agiant snooping mechanism and such sites asFacebook are not so much social sites as intelligence collection sites. Snowden revelations proved that like in East Germany with its famousSTASI there is a dossier on any Internet user with a lot of meta-data and probably not only meta-data to trace each day of one's life to an hour or better. Governments no longer need informants to get private/compromising information about citizens. Advertisers, search engines and shopping sites like Amazonare pretty much enough. That greatly increases the value of understanding of computer security. While this site started as a pure computer science knowledgebase (compiled using Perl scripts), gradually the algorithms used were expanded into other areas which actually served as testing areas for some of concepts and scripts). Paradoxically now the fastest growing area is probablySocial (information about toxic managers,communication, andbureaucracies). The close second is information aboutneoliberalism (with theintroductory article, as such information remains rare on Internet) despite tremendous social importance of understanding what neoliberalism is about. The quality of pages vary widely. Generally the site develops as a living tree with pages on topic outside the set of current interests with time becoming stale and than obsolete. Still some of them contain historical information you can't find elsewhere and some of them can be viewed as a valuable historical documents. Softpanorama SwitchboardIn case of broken links please try to use Google search. 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Algorithms : Links : System Administration : Linux Administration : Red Hat : Red Hat Certification Program : Suse : Commercial Unixes : AIX : HP-UX Administration : Solaris : Databases : Editors : OS design : Languages : Networking : Mail : Orthodox File Managers : Open Source Software Problems : Scripting : Skepticism : Security : Software Engineering : Social : Corporate Unix Tools : Unixification of Windows : WWW Psychopaths : Micromanagers : Female Sociopaths : The Techniques of a Female Sociopaths : Bosos or Empty Suits (Aggressive Incompetent Managers) : Surviving a Bad Performance Review : The psychopath in the corner office : Bully Managers : Narcissists : Authoritarians Diplomatic Communication : Negative Politeness : Corporate bullshit as a communication method Divorcing Borderline Psychopath : Marital Infidelity Films depicting female sociopaths : The Devil Wears Prada : The Last Seduction : Dangerous Liaisons Russian Music Oldies : Russian Songs of the Wartime : Anna Netrebko : Those Were the Days : Russian RomancesBookshelf C language : C++ books : Perl : Unix Shells : Algorithms : Best Perl Books : Classic Computer Science Books : Red Hat : Solaris Administration : Compiler Construction : TCP/IP : OS Internals, Algorithms and Design Principles : Pascal : Prolog :Recent articles: Is DevOps a yet another "for profit" technocult? 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