Two “Absolute OpenBSD” reviews

One from Crypted Nets and one from IT World.

I post book reviews mostly so I can find them again years from now. When the time comes to do a third edition, I need quotes like “I doubt that a better book on OpenBSD could be written” for the cover and marketing materials.

FreeBSD-update vs bind99-base

My master nameserver runs BIND 9.9, so I can do DNSSEC easily. I’ve installed from ports, but used the REPLACE_BASE option so that it overwrites the BIND 9.8.3 install included in the base system. That way I don’t have to worry about having multiple versions of the same command on different systems.

I patch this . . . → Read More: FreeBSD-update vs bind99-base

DNSSEC Mastery #1 best-seller…

…in its extremely narrow category. The Kindle edition is #1 and the paperback is #3.

Admittedly, DNS books are not a big category. I’m not up against Stephen King here. But it’s my category, and I’ll take it. I cut my teeth on DNS and BIND Beating it out just seems somehow immoral. But . . . → Read More: DNSSEC Mastery #1 best-seller…

The next FreeBSD book?

BSDCan hasn’t officially started, and I keep getting asked when I will write a third edition of Absolute FreeBSD?

The short answer is: I don’t know.

The slightly longer answer is: it depends in part on you.

The much longer answer is:

FreeBSD has added lots of stuff since Absolute FreeBSD came out in 2007. . . . → Read More: The next FreeBSD book?

DNSSEC Mastery print now on Amazon

Amazon now has the print version of DNSSEC Mastery available.

I set the initial price assuming that they would discount. How much will they discount it, and when? No idea. Amazon is not inscrutable, but scrutling them exceeds my abilities. SSH Mastery print has ranged from ~$14 to ~$17 at various times, based how much . . . → Read More: DNSSEC Mastery print now on Amazon

Books at BSDCan

I’m sure everyone who reads this blog knows I’ll be at BSDCan tonight through early Sunday morning. I will also have books for sale, however.

Absolute OpenBSD, $50 SSH Mastery, $20 DNSSEC Mastery (4 proof copies only), $20

Cash only.

If you buy a book, I’ll throw in a free Tilted Windmill Press T-shirt while . . . → Read More: Books at BSDCan

First “DNSSEC Mastery” reviews

Two reviews came out over the weekend, one from Peter Hansteen and the other from Justin Sherrill.

Apparently this book also does not suck. Yay!

I’ll be giving a live dramatic reading from the book — er, that is, teaching a course on DNSSEC — at BSDCan Wednesday morning this week.

“Absolute OpenBSD” Kindle edition: problems and on sale

I’ve heard from a few different readers that there are problems with the Kindle edition of Absolute OpenBSD. It’s by no means every copy in every format, but there are enough problem reports that it needs investigating.

I’ve notified the publisher. They are investigating. When I have an update, I will post it.

Generally, when . . . → Read More: “Absolute OpenBSD” Kindle edition: problems and on sale

Basic Ansible Playbooks

Ansible is a tool for managing servers en masse, much like Puppet or CFEngine. Ansible has a shallower learning curve than either of those systems, however, and it’s idempotent. How do I know it has a shallower learning curve? Because I learned enough of it to do actual useful work in only a couple of . . . → Read More: Basic Ansible Playbooks

iptables and ipsets

I’m dragging my work environment from “artisan system administration” to mass-managed servers. Part of this is rationalizing, updating, and centralizing management of packet filter rules on individual hosts. Like many environments, I have a list of “management IP addresses” with unlimited access to every host. Managing this is trivial on a BSD machine, thanks to . . . → Read More: iptables and ipsets