This is the 100th post here at Adminbyaccident. Little I knew when I starting posting that I would reach the ‘impossible’ mark of the 100 articles. Sure, some of them are not very interesting, nor instructive. Three years ago I wasn’t the same and I hope in three years time I’m still here and kicking. Very few people visiting this site know I had a different career in the past. For the last three years I’ve been working on IT full time, although I’ve been administering sites and playing with UNIX toys for just a bit longer.
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Skiing was and still is my passion. However this computer thing got me in quite deep too. It all started firing up a ski gear site and all the sudden I was descending the rabbit hole. The rest is history, and some of it is written history. From FreeBSD, to security related stuff, through Linux and more. Let’s recap some of, in my opinion, highlights.
1.- The Apache hardening guide. I rewrote it to fit the format for a Digital Ocean article. And of course I did it on FreeBSD. Adminbyaccident is on the first page of Google searches when looking for ‘how to harden apache’. And I’m proud of it.
2.- Very recently I also wrote a guide on Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday. Although I am not very well versed on the Windows platform I acquired a more than decent knowledge on Windows patching, security advisories and related stuff.
3.- Security. Yes, hardening Apache HTTP is one thing, patching Windows another, but there’s been more. Like installing a network instrusion detection system (IDS) like Suricata on FreeBSD or a host based one like OSSEC server on Ubuntu. Did I hear vulnerability scanning? Not one article about OpenVAS but one, no wait, two more on Nessus. I did also write about the Intel vulnerabilities, not just for the MDS ones but for the original Spectre and Meldown too. Using WordPress? Have a look at this. And please, don’t go messing around stealing passwords like a knucklehead. Something about SSL/TLS certificates? Yes, some here, and some more over there.
4.- Improving Apache’s HTTP performance, has not just one article but two complementary ones. The first was rewritten for Digital Ocean too and can be read here.
5.- The ‘Abandon Linux‘ theme. As if there was no other thing to write about and annoy some people I was also brave enough to publish some articles entitled: ‘Abandon Linux. Do this, or do that’ sort of thing. Why?
Containers, Docker, this kind of thing seems to have taken the world by storm, operating system level virtualization is old news. It seems to be a thing now but this type of virtualization appeared first in the eighties with chroot, but what really made it a thing were FreeBSD Jails and later Solaris Zones gave the ultimate refinement. The world wasn’t looking and all the sudden Docker, containers, OpenShift,… marketing? Have I heard marketing? Sorry, sometimes I hear voices. And yes I’ve written an article on Docker (more to come in the near future).
And why on earth would anyone abandon Linux for FreeBSD? Well… the desktop is coming (something the GNU/Linux camp has worked a lot on) but for running any kind of system FreeBSD is more than powerful enough, and beyond. Or so says Netflix, which is running the development branch in production! More details in this presentation. But there are other reasons.
– Phylosophycal ones.
– Because you like Docker and also moving your recently developed software from your local machine to production systems without a hassle.
– Because you don’t sleep when upgrading the OS in your environments and you want to.
– Because you can manage containers with ease.
To summarize the fifth point. Take the ‘Abandon Linux’ thing as a joke and take the positive knowledge it may bring you.
6.- Networking. I will hopefully write more about this in the forthcoming weeks but as for now there are some bits already here at adminbyaccident where anyone can read about useful networking commands.
7.- Politics. Well… not strictly yet. I still hear some noise. And yes, I am a sinner. More of them are on the works.
8.- Scripts. Last, but not least. Or so they say. Some of the simplest, but I hope sometimes useful, scripts on my Github page, always linked here at Adminbyaccident.com.
It’s been a hell of a journey to write 100 articles at Adminbyaccident. It has happened in just 3 years. Taking in account the year has 52 weeks it’s been quite a challenge sometimes to keep the rythm. One article per every week and a half. Work, study, have a life, write… Hopefully there are many more to come and you can enjoy them as much as I do writting them. And yes, English is not my mother tongue, and yes, sometimes they come out rough on the edges. I don’t have the time!
Thanks for reading all these lines above. If you’ve got this far down here, thank you. Very appreciated. 😉
If you find the articles in Adminbyaccident.com useful to you, please consider making a donation.
Use this link to get $200 credit at DigitalOcean and support Adminbyaccident.com costs.
Get $100 credit for free at Vultr using this link and support Adminbyaccident.com costs.
Mind Vultr supports FreeBSD on their VPS offer.