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.

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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

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

Introduction to ZFSBootMenu

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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.

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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

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

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

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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

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We were asked about configuring all-flash arrays.

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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.

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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.

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

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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

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

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Two recent outages were handled very differently but show the dangers of centralisation, Let’s Encrypt is introducing certificates for IP addresses, and the differences between backup and production systems.

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News/discussion

Microsoft’s 19-hour Outlook outage exposes fragility in cloud infrastructure

Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 incident on July 14, 2025

We’ve Issued Our First IP Address Certificate

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We were asked about the differences between backup and production systems.

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To celebrate the 256 milestone we devote the whole episode to explaining why we use ZFS. We explain about data safety, data retention, data portability, and ease of administration.

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Klara ZFS Basecamp – Central Resource for Everything ZFS

Practical ZFS

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Microsoft offers Windows 10 updates in return for your settings data, Denmark wants to protect against deepfakes using copyright, someone is wrong on the Internet about RAID, and getting a sysadmin job in your late 40s.

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News/discussion

Microsoft’s free updates for Windows 10 draw criticism

Denmark plans to thwart deepfakers by giving everyone copyright over their own features

Why I Stopped Using RAID on My Plex Media Server

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We were asked about getting a sysadmin job in your late 40s.

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A vulnerability in sudo brings up concerns about feature-creep, and makes us consider alternatives. Plus Broadcom starts auditing VMware customers, and how to decide which outbound ports to open on a large network’s firewall.

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Disaster Recovery with ZFS: A Practical Guide

News/discussion

Vulnerability Advisory: Sudo chroot Elevation of Privilege

VMware perpetual license holder receives audit letter from Broadcom

Free consulting

We were asked about how to decide which outbound ports to open on a large network’s firewall.

See our contact page for ways to get in touch.