2.5 Admins 191: Mechanical Turk

Why updating iPhones in their sealed boxes might have some downsides, Amazon’s “AI” turned out to just be people, LLMs hallucinating imaginary dependencies is potentially a security risk, Aruba backs up its government data to the Internet Archive, and disk queue schedulers in Linux.

 

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News/discussion

Here’s our first look at Apple’s in-the-box iPhone updating machine

Amazon Ditches ‘Just Walk Out’ Checkouts at Its Grocery Stores

AI bots hallucinate software packages and devs download them

Caribbean nation of Aruba backs itself up to Internet Archive

 

Free Consulting

We were asked about disk queue schedulers in Linux.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tailscale

Tailscale is an easy to deploy, zero-config, no-fuss VPN that allows you to build simple networks across complex infrastructure. Go to tailscale.com/25a and try Tailscale out for free for up to 100 devices and 3 users, with no credit card required.

 

 

 

 

 

 

See our contact page for ways to get in touch.

 

2.5 Admins 190: twitterz

A backdoor has been found in xz-utils, OpenZFS improves ZVOL performance on Linux, Twitter devs fail at regex, and adding SATA ports to a home NAS.

 

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Hybrid Cloud Show is a new show that’s part of the Late Night Linux Family!

 

News

backdoor in upstream xz/liblzma leading to ssh server compromise

OpenZFS Merges Support For Using Multiple Task Queues To Increase Performance for zvols

X fixes URL blunder that could enable social media phishing

 

Free Consulting

We were asked about adding SATA ports to a home NAS.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tailscale

Tailscale is an easy to deploy, zero-config, no-fuss VPN that allows you to build simple networks across complex infrastructure. Go to tailscale.com/25a and try Tailscale out for free for up to 100 devices and 3 users, with no credit card required.

 

 

 

 

 

 

See our contact page for ways to get in touch.

 

2.5 Admins 189: Too Much Glass

Glassdoor seemingly doesn’t understand its raison d’etre, Telegram wants to cheap out on sending verification codes, law enforcement makes YouTube give them details of everyone who watched certain videos, and tuning a low end VPS to host a blog.

 

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News/discussion

Users ditch Glassdoor, stunned by site adding real names without consent

Telegram’s Peer-to-Peer Login system is a risky way to save $5 a month

Feds Ordered Google To Unmask Certain YouTube Users

 

Free Consulting

We were asked about tuning a low end VPS to host a blog.

 

 

 

 

 

Tailscale

Tailscale is an easy to deploy, zero-config, no-fuss VPN that allows you to build simple networks across complex infrastructure. Go to tailscale.com/25a and try Tailscale out for free for up to 100 devices and 3 users, with no credit card required.

 

Kolide

Kolide ensures that if a device isn’t secure it can’t access your apps.  It’s Device Trust for Okta. Visit kolide.com/25a to learn more.

 

 

 

 

 

See our contact page for ways to get in touch.

 

2.5 Admins 188: Farewell to Core

The FreeBSD version of TrueNAS is going away, a major Apple antitrust case begins, encrypted LLM chat responses are relatively easy to read, and scaling a fleet of FreeBSD hosts with jails.

 

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News

TrueNAS CORE 13 is the end of the FreeBSD version

zVault

Apple’s antitrust fight begins

US DOJ’s blockbuster lawsuit against Apple is headline grabber but poses limited near-term impact

Hackers can read private AI-assistant chats even though they’re encrypted

 

Free Consulting

We were asked about scaling a fleet of FreeBSD hosts with jails.

Cluster provisioning with Nomad and Pot on FreeBSD

 

 

 

 

 

 

See our contact page for ways to get in touch.

 

2.5 Admins 187: MDK

Prison officials took away inmate student laptops for no good reason, Warner Bros. ruined gamers’ experiences, Google’s terrible office WiFi, and managing gold images.

 

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News/discussion

An engineer bought a prison laptop on eBay. Then 1,200 incarcerated students lost their devices

Devs left with tough choices as Warner Bros. ends all Adult Swim Games downloads

Google’s self-designed office swallows Wi-Fi “like the Bermuda Triangle”

 

Free Consulting

We were asked about managing gold images.

 

 

 

 

 

 

See our contact page for ways to get in touch.

 

2.5 Admins 186: Jim Defends the CFAA

Roku stops its users watching TV until they accept a new ToS, the line between journalism and computer fraud and abuse, and when using jumbo frames on a network makes sense.

 

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News

Roku disables players and TVs with attempt to coerce arbitration agreement

Over 15,000 hacked Roku accounts sold for 50¢ each to buy hardware

Op-ed: Charges against journalist Tim Burke are a hack job

 

 

Free Consulting

We were asked about using jumbo frames on a network.

 

 

 

 

 

Kolide

Kolide ensures that if a device isn’t secure it can’t access your apps.  It’s Device Trust for Okta. Visit kolide.com/25a to learn more.

 

 

 

 

 

See our contact page for ways to get in touch.

 

2.5 Admins 185: 2.5 Gigabits

The boss of Nvidia says kids don’t need to code because they can just use AI, companies sell their users’ data to train models, and why 2.5Gbps networking probably isn’t worth bothering with.

 

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News/discussion

Jensen Huang says kids shouldn’t learn to code — they should leave it up to AI

Google cut a deal with Reddit for AI training data

Tumblr and WordPress to Sell Users’ Data to Train AI Tools

 

Free Consulting

We were asked about adding 2.5Gbps gear to your network.

 

 

 

 

Kolide

Kolide ensures that if a device isn’t secure it can’t access your apps.  It’s Device Trust for Okta. Visit kolide.com/25a to learn more.

 

 

 

 

 

See our contact page for ways to get in touch.

 

2.5 Admins 184: Avast, mateys

More cameras leak footage, Avast is fined for selling user data, a vending machine quietly scans students’ faces, using a small NVMe drive with ZFS, and taking snapshots of VMs.

 

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News

“So violated”: Wyze cameras leak footage to strangers for 2nd time in 5 months

Avast fined $16.5 million for ‘privacy’ software that actually sold users’ browsing data

Vending machine error reveals secret face image database of college students

 

Free Consulting

We were asked about using a small NVMe drive with ZFS, and taking snapshots of VMs.

 

 

 

Automox

Check out the brand new Autonomous IT podcast. Listen in as a variety of experts in the IT Operations space discuss the latest Patch Tuesday releases, mitigation tips, and custom automations to help with CVE remediations. Listen now on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts.

 

 

 

 

See our contact page for ways to get in touch.

 

2.5 Admins 183: Unbootable Quantum Toothbrushes

Why it’s not a great idea to install Windows 11 on unsupported hardware, quantum computing hype has been replaced by AI, toothbrushes can’t be part of a botnet, Google has killed cached search results, and testing your backups.

 

Plugs

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News/discussion

Windows 11 24H2 goes from “unsupported” to “unbootable” on some older PCs

Investors threw 50% less money at quantum sector last year

Viral news story of botnet with 3 million toothbrushes was too good to be true

Google has killed cached results in search

 

Free Consulting

We were asked about testing your backups.

 

 

 

 

Kolide

Kolide ensures that if a device isn’t secure it can’t access your apps.  It’s Device Trust for Okta. Visit kolide.com/25a to learn more.

 

Automox

Check out the brand new Autonomous IT podcast. Listen in as a variety of experts in the IT Operations space discuss the latest Patch Tuesday releases, mitigation tips, and custom automations to help with CVE remediations. Listen now on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts.

 

 

 

 

See our contact page for ways to get in touch.

 

2.5 Admins 182: All the Small Things

Nginx is forked, Broadcom/VMware kills ESXi, dedup is finally fixed in ZFS, using multiple network interfaces on a NAS, and more.

 

Plugs

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News

announcing freenginx.org

Broadcom-owned VMware kills the free version of ESXi virtualization software

OpenZFS Native Encryption Use Raises Data Corruption Concerns

Fast Dedup is a Valentines Gift to the OpenZFS and TrueNAS Communities

 

Free Consulting

We were asked about using multiple network interfaces on a NAS.

 

 

 

 

Kolide

Kolide ensures that if a device isn’t secure it can’t access your apps.  It’s Device Trust for Okta. Visit kolide.com/25a to learn more.

 

 

 

 

 

See our contact page for ways to get in touch.