2.5 Admins 267: Hoarding Cache

The weird errors you see when your root partition is full, TikTok uses a lot of bandwidth by preloading videos, and dealing with a ZFS pool that won’t import.

 

Plugs

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Keeping Data Safe with OpenZFS: Security, Encryption, and Delegation

 

News/discussion

Dark patterns killed my wife’s Windows 11 installation

TikTok video pre-loads cause ‘massive data wastage’

 

Free consulting

We were asked about dealing with a ZFS pool that won’t import.

Importing corrupted pool causes PANIC

Klara added additional diagnostics to ZFS to help investigate this issue, that shipped as part of 2.3.4

Klara also has a work-around to get past the errors, but it is likely to result in data loss if there are overlapping segments, or the leaking of free space when segments are not entirely removed (not to be attempted without a developer present)

 

 

 

 

 

 

See our contact page for ways to get in touch.

 

2.5 Admins 266: Jiggawatts of Hallucinations

Intel and Nvidia are teaming up for multiple reasons, Open AI are planning to build data centers and use a ludicrous amount of power, LLM hallucinations aren’t going away, and how long we keep servers and hard drives in production.

 

Plugs

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Troubleshooting ZFS – Common Issues and How to Fix Them

 

News

Nvidia, Intel to co-develop “multiple generations” of chips as part of $5 billion deal

Nvidia and Intel’s $5 billion deal is apparently about eating AMD’s lunch

OpenAI and Nvidia’s $100B AI plan will require power equal to 10 nuclear reactors

Nvidia adds more air to the AI bubble with vague $100B OpenAI deal

The AI-energy apocalypse might be a little overblown

OpenAI’s Stargate project to pave the world with AI datacenters announces five new US locations

OpenAI admits AI hallucinations are mathematically inevitable, not just engineering flaws

 

Free consulting

We were asked about how long we keep servers and hard drives in production.

 

 

 

 

 

See our contact page for ways to get in touch.

 

2.5 Admins 265: Storage Lies

Joe set up a FreeBSD box to serve as a replication target and it was surprisingly straightforward, if rather different from Linux. Plus the lies that storage tells us.

 

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2.5 Admins 264: A Question of Trust

Matrix shows how painful enormous databases can be to restore, why the certificate authority system doesn’t seem to make sense in 2025, a hosting provider thinks they are better than Cloudflare at blocking malicious traffic, a viral app turns out to be written by an enthusiastic dev who doesn’t understand best practices, and using S3 object storage outside of the cloud. With guest host Gary from Linux After Dark and Hybrid Cloud Show.

 

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News/discussion

Matrix.org homeserver grinds to a halt after RAID meltdown

Mis-issued certificates for 1.1.1.1 DNS service pose a threat to the Internet

The number of mis-issued 1.1.1.1 certificates grows

Mythic Beasts will block Cloudflare IPs on shared hosting if abusive traffic gets through

Unfortunately, the ICEBlock app is activism theater

ICEBlock handled my vulnerability report in the worst possible way

 

Free consulting

We were asked about using S3 object storage outside of the cloud.

MinIO

 

 

 

 

 

See our contact page for ways to get in touch.

 

2.5 Admins 263: Seagate RAID

McDonald’s IT systems seem to be riddled with 90s-style coding errors, we finally know where the fraudulent hard drives came from, when IT workers go rogue, and ZFS on root without using FreeBSD or Ubuntu.

 

Plug

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News/discussion

How I Hacked McDonald’s

Seagate Uncovers Global Scheme That Sold 1 Million Used Drives as New

# smartctl -l farm /dev/sdx

Developer gets 4 years for activating network “kill switch” to avenge his firing 

Woman gets 8 years for aiding North Koreans infiltrate 300 US firms

 

Free consulting

We were asked about ZFS on root without using FreeBSD or Ubuntu.

Introduction to ZFSBootMenu

 

 

 

 

 

See our contact page for ways to get in touch.

 

2.5 Admins 262: It’s About Control

Google is planning to assert even more control over which Android apps can be installed, the US government takes a 10% stake in Intel, and minimum networking speeds in homes and offices.

 

Plugs

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ZFS Basecamp Launch: A Panel with the People Behind ZFS

 

News/discussion

A new layer of security for certified Android devices

US government takes 10 percent stake in Intel in exchange for money it was already on the hook for

 

Free consulting

We were asked about minimum networking speeds in homes and offices.

 

 

 

 

 

See our contact page for ways to get in touch.

 

 

 

2.5 Admins 261: Worms and Baskets

Why you can’t rely on a single cloud provider, Jim discovers AI that spreads itself like a worm, and configuring all-flash arrays.

 

Plugs

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FreeBSD Summer Roundup: Guide to Lock-In Free Infrastructure

 

News/discussion

AWS deleted my 10-year account and all data without warning

AWS Restored My Account: The Human Who Made the Difference

Jim’s AI nightmare

 

 

Free consulting

We were asked about configuring all-flash arrays.

 

 

 

 

 

See our contact page for ways to get in touch.

 

2.5 Admins 260: Watery Email

AMD’s recent mobile-class processors impress us with their power to performance ratio, the UK government suggests a preposterous way to save water, setting up verified boot with snapshots, and the best way to configure ZFS to run VMs.

 

Plugs

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ZFS Summer Roundup: Smart Hardware Advice

 

News

AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 vs. Ryzen 9 9950X vs. Ryzen 9 9950X3D Linux Performance Review

UK Government says delete old emails to save water

UK government to invest over £2 billion in the UK’s AI ecosystem

 

Free consulting

We were asked about setting up verified boot with snapshots, and the best way to configure ZFS to run VMs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

See our contact page for ways to get in touch.

 

2.5 Admins 259: New Web?

The Web is a mess of tracking and AI scraping so do we need a new one, would it even be possible, or is this the wrong question? Plus setting up servers in a garage where dusty woodworking is happening.

 

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Free consulting

We were asked about setting up servers in a garage where dusty woodworking is happening.

 

 

 

 

 

 

See our contact page for ways to get in touch.

 

2.5 Admins 258: Artificial Dirtbag

Jim is concerned that although over-anthropomorphising LLMs is a mistake, we should be cautious about some of their human-like behaviour. Plus how to maintain old ZFS pools, and accessibility in the BSDs.

 

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Discussion

It’s a mistake to over anthropomorphize LLMs, but it’s equally a mistake to *under* anthropomorphize them

Grok will no longer call itself Hitler or base its opinions on Elon Musk’s, promises xAI

 

Free consulting

We were asked about how to maintain old ZFS pools, and accessibility in the BSDs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

See our contact page for ways to get in touch.