@mdione No, prices aren't like that. They may vary. In this specific situation, considering what they told me, I was quite sure it was going to be a complicated task. So that's why I kept myself higher than usual.

@mdione no punishment at all. If you call me and say "I need to upgrade my server", it's one thing. If you call me and say "my server isn't working, not booting anymore, I do not have any backups, I don't know what happens", I need to investigate first.

I'm not punishing anyone, but you can't expect to call me and fix it in 10 minutes, offering a coffee as a payment.

I got a call from someone I don't know.

"Hi. We have a FreeBSD server. It's been working perfectly for years, but it hasn't been updated since then. We asked AI to update it, but now it won't boot anymore. It didn't even make a backup before starting. The AI keeps trying things, everything is down, and we've already spent over €500 in tokens. Can you help us?"

"Sure. €500, plus the time it'll take me to try to fix it. Assuming it can still be fixed and nothing important has been deleted."

"That much?"

Some silence.

"Well, I hope AI takes your job away!" And he hung up.

Believing that autopilot automatically makes you an invulnerable professional pilot will ruin far more people than job losses will.

I don't know if AI will take my job away, but it's already cost them €500 and, probably, their server.

#IT #SysAdmin

Whoa!!!

https://lists.debian.org/debian-security-announce/2026/msg00441.html

#IT #Security #Linux #Debian

Which one, in your opinion, will be the title of the next post on IT Notes (not a poll as they're too long for a poll)?

- From nonsense to perfection, the Microsoft way: systemd
- How my NetBSD-powered toaster burnt my bread
- From Apple to Raspberry Pi Zero W: fruit, without getting fat
- I let my agents run for one month. They made a pizza with tiramisu, deleted all the recipes, then denied everything and hallucinated. In the end, they cooked poisonous mushrooms, but saved my life by suggesting I go to the hospital immediately.
- I forgot my keys and my OpenBSD-powered smart lock locked me out of my house
- None of the above

@kaixin is it ok after the first minute?

The night 142 of my servers went up in the clouds. Physically.

The video of my presentation has just been published. Thank you, video team!

https://exquisite.tube/w/nQbc54t4G7YGaqiryZ7mg1

#EuroBSDCon #EuroBSDCon2026

Postulate: the amount of space available in a double bed does not increase linearly with the size of the mattress.

In fact, it often does not increase at all.

I suspect it tends to a constant.

@valhalla @lindasartini @andre123 @AnotherJoe coi prezzi odierni ti servirà una pensione parlamentare per comprare un misero hard disk nuovo…

At last!!!

#FTTH

"Dear customer, although we have already scheduled and canceled your appointment three times, we regret to inform you that the technician who was supposed to drop by today between 14:30 and 16:30 has encountered an unexpected issue and will not be able to make it. In other words, would you accept an appointment in 15 days?"

I bit their heads off. I am absolutely furious. This is the third time I've had to cancel work commitments just for them to pull this. The sheer mediocrity of how this whole thing is being managed is irritating, to say the least.

#FTTH

@seuros why?

Today, the President of the Italian Republic, in a public speech, said that one of the main problems of AI is its impact and the concentration of overwhelming power it generates in the hands of a few.

He’s not a tech guy, but even he is pro-OwnYourData. We should invite him to the BSD Cafe.

#BSDCafe #OwnYourData

Dear BSD Cafe friends,
we have Matrix and a wonderful Delta Chat relay.

A BSD Cafe xmpp server...

#BSDCafe #BSDCafeServices

We are all different from each other.
Although we look alike, no one is the same as the other. Yet we are all equally necessary, we are all equally important.

Let us learn to respect each other in our differences and, all together we will be something much greater, like the sea.

#Photography #Photo #Raindrops #FensterFreitag #WindowFriday #Life

Problem solved

#Pizza #Food

A wolf just crossed the road. We were less than 10 meters away…

@valhalla @imperia In teoria dovrebbe fare switching automatico da OpenMeteo a MET Norway, ma i sistemi di monitoring dicono che il VPS ha avuto una interruzione totale di connettività di circa venti minuti, dunque non raggiungeva nulla.
Alias, se si è rotto qualcosa, è stato a Milano, dal provider

@valhalla ahah I’m sure I’ll learn new profanities. Those are masters, and he already has old me I will probably hear strange spells while they try to pass with the new, thicker cables

A few days ago our cooktop started smelling like gas. It's almost 27 years old, but I still tried to figure it out. The smell was coming from inside, so something is clearly failing. To be safe, I decided to shut off the gas and turn everything off.

I like to think ahead, so I took out a portable induction hob and put it on top. Then we went out and bought a new set with four induction hobs and a convection oven with steam cooking and so on. In short, a good appliance. "Proudly made in Italy" by De' Longhi.

Since we had already been thinking for a while about making our electrical system safer (it has three phases, with parts dating from the early ’80s, early 2000s, and a more recent section), we took the opportunity to ask for two quotes. Old cables and more power consumption don't play very well together.

The first one arrived this afternoon. Polite, a bit distant. Brand-new Mercedes van, beautiful, he was spotless, even fragrant. He asked for a floor plan and marked all the outlets, switches, and so on. He immediately said everything would have to be replaced, new wiring run (hopefully without breaking walls), and all outlets and switches changed. He'll send a quote "which will certainly be high" and expects more than three weeks of work. I was stunned.

Two hours later another one arrived. A company of similar size, a bit older (but not by much), and with screwdrivers in hand. Clean, but clearly coming from an active job site. That reassured me. First thing, he wanted to open the current electrical panel, which will need replacing, but he saw that the conduits are adequately sized. Then he randomly opened two outlets and two switches. Again, adequate conduits. He deliberately checked the oldest ones and found the original certification mark, still valid today because the manufacturer has continued producing that line (since 1961!) and keeps certifications updated even for older installations.

Long story short, the replacements will be very few. There will be some external adjustments, and the quote is far lower than even my most optimistic expectations.

I’ve already given him the go-ahead. It'll be four or five critical days (not weeks), but at least I'll sleep even more soundly.