There is something almost insulting about how simple the internet feels. You type a name. It responds. As if by instinct. As if somewhere behind the curtain there is intelligence, intention, maybe even elegance. There isn’t. There are numbers. Cold, indifferent numbers. IP addresses. The kind that do not care what you think you are doing, only where your data
I came across DNS while going through Chapter 7, and it felt like one of those topics that looks simple at first and then slowly reveals how much of the world depends on it. DNS is not something people talk about. It does not have the appeal of artificial intelligence or cybersecurity or whatever the current buzzword happens to be.
Starting Chapter 7 I’m starting Chapter 7 on Mastering Linux Administration, and this is where things begin to feel different. Up to this point, working in Linux feels contained. You install software, manage files, and run commands on your own machine. Everything stays local and predictable. It feels like you are in control of a single system. But networking changes
Let’s get something straight right away. I’m your sysadmin. We are not friends. This is not hostility. It’s just clarity. In most jobs people expect warmth, camaraderie, the occasional lunch conversation about weekend plans. In systems administration, the relationship is a little different. My job is not to be socially available. My job is to make sure the systems keep
Today I was working through Chapter 6 of Mastering Linux Administration by Alexandru Calcatinge and Julian Balog, and it reminded me of something most people never think about. When people say “disk space”, they imagine something simple. Like a big digital warehouse. You put files in.You take files out.The end. Linux politely laughs at this idea. Because under the hood,
The Honest Truth Nobody Puts on LinkedIn A job in IT is not sexy. It never has been. The public image of technology is full of glossy nonsense. Startup founders giving interviews. Developers dramatically typing code on giant screens. Silicon Valley billionaires talking about “changing the world.” But the reality of working in IT looks nothing like that. It looks
Every person has a thing. Some people collect shoes.Some collect watches.Some collect books they swear they’ll read someday. My wife collects anything that is a horse or a unicorn. And I mean anything. Statues. Mugs. Decorations. Keychains. And yes. Plush toys. Lots of plush toys. It Started Small Like most collections, it began innocently. A small horse figurine.A unicorn mug.One
Every year around this time, something quietly appears on the calendar that makes every IT administrator pause for a moment. Budget season. Not the glamorous kind of budgeting you see in startup slides where people throw around words like innovation, disruption, and AI transformation. I mean the real thing. The kind where you open spreadsheets, look at last year’s numbers,
Sysadmin work does something to your brain. At first it only affects how you deal with systems. You learn to check details, verify what actually happened, and avoid taking explanations at face value. When something breaks, you investigate. You trace events back to their source. You separate what people think happened from what actually happened. That mindset makes perfect sense
The Moment You Finally Check There is always a small moment of hesitation before checking grades. You log in.You find the page.You hover over the link for a second. Even when you think things are going well, graduate school has a way of surprising you. Sometimes pleasantly. Sometimes not. So this week I checked my midterm grades for the Spring