I'll believe an AI agent can actually go rogue when it deletes all the data for student loans, credit reports, or pending foreclosures.
Until then, "rogue AI agents" are pure marketing.
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@mwl@io.mwl.io
hometown 4.6.8+hometown-1.3.0Kvetching, not complaining.
Writes books. Pet rats. Martial arts. Punch Nazis & terfs. If it wasn't on Industrial Records it's not industrial music, it's just sparkling noise. He/him. Bangpath old. Detroit, MI, US. Gelato!
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Joined November 12, 2022
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I used to call it "rubber hose cryptography" or "kneecap cryptography" or any number of things in an effort to avoid spelling out the real threat. People didn't get it.
I think I'll start calling it an "XKCD 538 attack" instead. Anyone who doesn't look it up isn't my reader. #openzfsmastery
Happy "By the standards of his time, Columbus was an abhorrent dick" day to one and all!
I've seen this chart three times in the last few days on other people's posts. It is accurate. I am compelled to comment, though:
"Heroic men who will intervene?"
Sure, if I ever stumble across a sexual assault I will intervene. I will fight dirty to protect a victim. No question.
But that obvious chance for physical heroism isn't going to happen in the real world. It could. But it won't.
The men on the right of this graph deliberate exclude the men at the far left from their circles.
Real-world heroism is not in a fist. It's in words. It's telling men at the far right that their behavior is unacceptable and excluding them from your circles, and doing so in front of men in the middle so that they see action is not only possible, but survivable.
Sure, there could be a social cost to you. Heroism has a cost.
If you laugh at a colleague's sexist or racist or homophobic joke rather than make trouble? You missed your chance to be heroic.
You can do better.
Today in #openzfsmastery:
"Whoever has your keys can decrypt your data. Protect the keys from intruders and unauthorized users. Conversely, whoever doesn’t have your keys cannot decrypt your data. That includes you. It especially includes the authors of this book.[1] Losing your keys equals losing your data. Back up your keys!
1 - Seriously, we can't help you."
Today's typo:
# zfs create encrypted/databae
Writing about #FreeBSD GELI for #openzfsmastery, which means I need to review GELI. I wrote about GELI in 2014, but reviewing my old books always feels unpleasant at best.
It's good to know that I've become a better writer in the last 12 years but damn, I was a pretty crappy writer back then.
I'm still a crappy writer, but less crappy is an improvement.
Boosted by @oxy@social.bsdlab.au
Today, I have been a full-time "pay the bills with my words" writer for 12 years.
I am clearly a special kind of stupid.
When They say that the death of AI will "kill the Internet," they're wrong. It'll cut off the flow of algorithmic sewage. It'll cripple Meta, X, Google, and so on.
Those of us who have our own web sites, who communicate independently? We'll be fine.
Welcome to 1995. Here's your modem.
Can't wait!
Replying to
@nuintari@mastodon.bsd.cafe @stefano@mastodon.bsd.cafe
This AI crap is almost enough to make me consider going back into consulting.
The power in any negotiation goes to the person most willing to walk away. Companies trashed by AI cannot walk away.
Replying to
@susankayequinn@wandering.shop
Yup. It's a reimplementation of the British public school system that supported the Empire.
Replying to
@oxy@social.bsdlab.au Yep.
Mind you, I suspect a bunch of you will look it up and go "Oh, yeah, right."
Respect goes to people's labor, never their products. I like BSD, but I respect the developers because they have done the work to develop the expertise that merits the respect.
There is no reason to offer that respect to people who haven't done the work.
I have more respect for people who spent a Saturday evening failing to get code to compile, or trying to write a story that doesn't work, or struggling to get perspective right on a watercolor, than to anyone prompting an LLM.
Today in #openZFSmastery:
"Lucas can now manage his own mistakes. Jude, of course, must manage the mistake of giving Lucas a jail."
I'd appreciate your support writing this book. https://mwl.io/sponsor
"If you cannot consistently type your passphrase correctly twice in a row, consider a simpler passphrase. If you can consistently type your passphrase correctly any number of times in a row, get a more complex one." #openzfsmastery #footnote
I'd appreciate help finishing this book. mwl.io/sponsor
Boosted by @oxy@social.bsdlab.au
"Magic and Stupidity are the exact same thing viewed from opposite directions."
My new #FreeBSDJournal column is out! "Choice of Agonies." If you need a splash of righteous vitriol to get your blood flowing, here you go.
https://freebsdfoundation.org/our-work/journal/browser-based-edition/production-deployments/
Replying to
@cstross@wandering.shop
I write books on self-hosting. The overwhelming majority of people shouldn't self-host.
(I do think that sysadmins hosting as mutual aid is viable, so long as the sysadmin understands their limits and doesn't overload themselves.)
The annoying thing about IPv6? Doing the math.
My static subnet was 2603:3015:2a05:d600::/59, and suddenly 2603:3015:2a05:d6c0 is appearing on my network. Is that part of my /59, or did comcast fubar me? I don't know, let's do MATH! 
Three days left until I can shut up about my Christmas story collection on #kickstarter!
Until then, I gotta keep shouting "look at my book!"
So, uh... please look at my book? It comes with bonuses?
https://mwl.io/ks
RE: https://mastodon.social/@emaste/117366006994694048
A vital lesson.
One day I hope to internalize it.
Quoting
Protip: When trying to track down a kernel problem, make sure you're actually running the kernel you expect *before* spending hours investigating results that don't make sense.
Open quoted postLook. We both know you're doing social media at work. That's what you do. You'll take the weekend off.
Which means today is your last day to back #twistedPresents. Grab it now, or lament missing your chance when you come back Monday.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mwlucas/twisted-presents
Writing about containers and jails today for #openzfsmastery.
Language management is a big part of writing a tech book. Techies are both notoriously bad at language, and notoriously picky about it. Containers and jails are types of lightweight virtual machines. I don't want to keep repeating "lightweight virtual machines" multiple times in a paragraph, so I need a good short punchy word.
I could abbreviate and call them LVMs, but Linux folks have different associations for that abbreviation.
The current attempt is to call them "lightweight virtual machine instances" 2-3 times to build an association in the reader's brain, then call them "instances" for the remainder of the chapter. It wouldn't work for a longer piece, but I think I can get away with it for half a chapter.
Boosted by @oxy@social.bsdlab.au
The #TwistedPresents #kickstarter ends TONIGHT. If you've been thinking you'll back it later, there is no later.
https://mwl.io/ks
Another $178 and all backers will get THREE books!
Unsure? Read a sample story at https://mwl.io/archives/24991
okay, I got the #openzfsmastery boot loader chapter fixed. Definitely done now.
Calling it for the day. Take a few hours off this evening to read to the rodents. 
Boosted by @oxy@social.bsdlab.au
My Gumroad stores are now shut down.
https://mwl.io/archives/24995
Time to investigate alternatives that support EU VAT, sigh.
that's the Boot Environment chapter of #openzfsmastery done! Covers FreeBSD and Proxmox.
I think my Saturday's done. It's pajama time.
Boosted by @oxy@social.bsdlab.au
IT'S HERE IT'S HERE IT'S HERE
The new @zzclaybourne@wandering.shop has arrived!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/obsidiansky/khumalo-tales
Boosted by @oxy@social.bsdlab.au
The #TwistedPresents #Kickstarter broke another stretch goal! All backers get my book of Christmas tales, another story, and another whole bonus book.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mwlucas/twisted-presents
It's passing the point where I can publish the book and turning into a good deal for backers, which is always cool.
Boosted by @oxy@social.bsdlab.au
Four days left on the #TwistedPresents #Kickstarter! #Christmas stories for folks who don't like Christmas.
Backers get two books and a bonus story. If it hits the next stretch goal, there'll be a third book.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mwlucas/twisted-presents
Got the #openzfsmastery section on privilege delegation completed.
Tomorrow, I figure out delegating datasets to containers. Seems there's little integration, everything gets delegated by hand?
Sponsorships are still open on this silly thing: https://mwl.io/sponsor
#bhyve with #ZFS rollback makes testing boot environments for #openzfsmastery sooo much easier. Snapshots on the hypervisor. Snapshots in the VM. Snapshots EVERYWHERE. #sysadmin
Boosted by @oxy@social.bsdlab.au
Today's #60SecondsOfWIP is out! From #OpenZFSMastery: "Lucas is Incompetent or Evil."
At https://mwl.io/archives/24997 or wherever mediocre podcasts are sold.
The #twistedPresents #kickstarter backer survey is out! If you were kind enough to support this book, please fill it out so I can send your rewards.
Replying to
@sirwumpus@tilde.zone A /64 is the smallest IPv6 subnet. Seriously. (It's a plot point in "git sync murder.")
A /59 gives your business 32 /64 subnets. I needed 3 (office, test, IoT), but okay.
Replying to
@nuintari@mastodon.bsd.cafe this would be why I wrote the netflow book.
I hate saying I wrote something for the lulz, but the look on the sysadmin's face when you present them with data is precious.
Boosted by @oxy@social.bsdlab.au
Me, working a straight job and #writing on the side, with a free Saturday: "I'm going to spend the day writing, yay!"
Me as a full-time writer with a free Saturday: "I'm going to spend the day writing, yay!"
Some people can't be helped.
Boosted by @oxy@social.bsdlab.au
If you're not going to let a franchise die honorably, do something batshit insane with it.
Like have Grant Morrison write James Bond.
https://comicbookclublive.com/2026/10/09/grant-morrison-is-your-new-james-bond-writer-for-idw/
Me, this morning: Yay, I finished the #openzfsmastery boot environment chapter yesterday, I can move on.
Me, getting to desk and seeing the boot environment chapter: oh no.
Boosted by @oxy@social.bsdlab.au
"Self-Publishing Success Stories" panel, 15 October 2026, 2PM, Ann Arbor Public Library
https://mwl.io/archives/25000
Boosted by @oxy@social.bsdlab.au
The new @zzclaybourne@wandering.shop book is at 68 backers?
You know what to do.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/obsidiansky/khumalo-tales