Michael W. Lucas's Blog, page 8

58: Nuclear Waste with a Few Rubies

My time has mostly been Run Your Own Mail Server fulfillment, but I finally got Dear Abyss off to copyedit.

I have absolutely nothing against developers. Most—many—uh, quite a few of them are lovely human beings. I simply wish that they had dedicated their lives to something that might improve civilization, like volunteering to pick up trash by the roadside.

My problem is with code, not coders.

We treat computer code like a precious treasure worthy of hoarding, when in reality it’s like nuclear ...

Mailing List Signups Fixed

I discovered today that my mailing list signup forms have been broken since last December. (Yes, I need to figure out how to monitor this.)

If you’ve tried to sign up to one of my announcement lists and couldn’t, I do apologize. If you still want to sign up, it actually works now! Nonfiction subscribers get a free tech book, fiction subscribers get a story or two a week for six weeks, and sponsors get left the heck alone until I want money for no good reason.

I only send mail for event announcem...

Ebook of “Run Your Own Mail Server” off to early backers

If you preordered Run Your Own Mail Server, backed the Kickstarter, sponsored the book, or get my books as a Patronizer, you should have got a note or a post about your copy of the ebook.

As people always find especially persistent typos right after I release the ebook, I’m waiting to order print books until Monday.

57: I Play the Heavy

I’m prepping to write a new edition of Networking for Systems Administrators. Here’s a bit from the beginning where I’m talking to network administrators.

I skip many traditional networking topics because they’re not absolutely essential. SNMP, or the Simple Network Management Protocol, is one example. I filled a book this size discussing SNMP. I do discuss how ICMP is built on top of IP, when the specification wedges it into this misshapen role between the network and transport layers. But some...

RYOMS preorders close 14 August 2024

For the next couple of days I’m reviewing the paperback print proof of Run Your Own Mail Server. I received the proofs just before I flew to Vegas, and while I glanced through the book in between my meetings, I spent most of my energy selling work and learning new ways to insinuate myself into the publishing ecosystem. I must dedicate time to examining each page, even though looking at the text triggers mental torment.

If it all looks good, or good enough, I’ll be closing preorders on this Wedne...

56: Three Debacles in a Trenchcoat

I’m in Lost Vegas meeting with editors, publishers, and other writers, figuring out how to break publishing. It’s rather like BlackHat, except artsy. I suspect my voice displays every bit of my jet lag, but here you go.

One day the FreeBSD Foundation decided to start a journal, which is much like an author deciding to write an operating system. Cheered by the prospect of witnessing three debacles in a trenchcoat, I offered heartfelt encouragement. Before my popcorn finished popping, they asked m...

July’s Japish Sausage

Because this all certainly feels like a jape.

Last month, I hoped the RYOMS Kickstarter might round out at $50k. It hit $76,883, with 1966 backers. $25K of that was in the last three days. Plus, there were a few hundred sponsors. This is what we in the writing business call “freaking insane.” My reaction once again proved that I am temperamentally unsuited to success.

This isn’t life-changing money. I’m estimating half for fulfillment. Half of what remains will be reserved for taxes. It does tak...

Las Vegas Gelato Meetup, 5 August 2024, 7PM

I will be at in Las Vegas next week for a private writing event. Coincidentally, it’s during Black Hat. Probably not a coincidence. Vegas hotel rooms go cheap during August. My schedule is absolutely jammed, but I’m slicing out an hour or so Monday night to get gelato.

7PM at Up In Scoops, 4624 W Sahara Ave #2, Las Vegas, NV 89102. It’s well-reviewed and looks nicely indie. Off the Strip, so parking should not be as big an issue as last time I tried this.

I’ll be eating outside because covid, bu...

55: Eldritch Faery Queen Glamour

Been super busy with Run Your Own Mail Server page layout, but took a break to finish writing next month’s FreeBSD Journal Letters column.

These “generative artificial intelligences” scour the Internet collecting text strings and noting which characters often appear in which order. The programmers heard the phrase “the wisdom of crowds” and thought it wasn’t satire. When you enter a string into the system, they produce a string that looks like something that would appear after your string. In ot...

“Run Your Own Mail Server” print layout: 348 pages

Making it the biggest Mastery book I’ve ever written. I was right to make the ebook $15, and I suspect the print version will wind up being $35. Won’t know until I feed it to the printer.

Now I go through the manuscript page-by-page with my red pen and highlighters, looking for layout errors. And content errors. Yes, I’ve caught content errors at this stage before. The best way to perceive an error in a manuscript is to change the form.

With luck I’ll have a clean interior to submit to the pri...