Feuerfest

Photo by Pixabay: https://www.pexels.com/photo/clear-glass-with-red-sand-grainer-39396/

All too often, I come across blog posts, 'What's new?' sections and other content that doesn't show when the content was first published or last modified. I find this annoying. This information provides crucial context. It allows me to make certain assumptions and correctly place the content in a timeline.

It's like reading a changelog for software where the added, changed or removed features aren't attributed to the version where they changed. It's not helpful at all.

A political piece, written at the height of a scandal may omit crucial information. Which was first discovered months later. During the lengthy and boring police investigation. About which nobody writes in detail, of course. If I had a date next to the text, I could place the piece in the correct position on the timeline and explain to myself why certain arguments were not used or were simply wrong, but which may have represented the current knowledge at the time the piece was written.

Today I got curious about what happened to the german PC handbook publishing company Data Becker. And I found this blogpost (in german) by Thomas Vehmeier: Data Becker – eine Ära geht zu Ende (vehmeier.com). Apparently he worked at Data Becker in the middle of the 1990's. And in his text he writes about his experience and how & why Data Becker failed when the Internet, and therefore the market, began to change.

But.. There is no date. Nowhere. He also doesn't mention the year when Data Becker got out of business. Classical archaeological problem. We can only definitely say "It happened after the 1990's". But apart from that? Well he links to the WirtschaftsWoche. A german business magazine. They do a have date on their article. 9th October 2013. And they wrote that Data Becker will go out of business in 2014.

Does this clarify when his text was written? No, but it answers it somewhat sufficiently.

Albeit it illustrates my problem. Yes, it is not an unsolvable one, but still annoying - for me. And, I guess, I'm again in the minority here.

EDIT: I just re-read this article in August 2025 and now the blogpost from Thomas Vehmeier shows a date. 10th October 2013. Yai!

Photo by ThisIsEngineering: https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-working-on-computer-hardware-19895718/

I watched an interesting video from the Youtube Channel GamersNexus. It's title is "ASUS Scammed Us".

And in this video they show how the ASUS RMA process is broken and many customers are faced with repair bills higher than the original costs for the devices. Or ASUS claims parts need to be repaired which are not broken according to the customers. Another big topic is also that ASUS regularly claims the customer caused the defect and hence repair isn't covered under their guarantee.

Yeah.. While watching the video you get the feeling the process was designed that way to maximize profit. This means it's intransparent, not flexible enough and generally doesn't have the customer at the core of it's view/goal.

Which sucks. And gained ASUS a place on my "Do not buy from ever again"-list... The video is linked below:

Or, if you prefer a link, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pMrssIrKcY

Photo by Tim Gouw: https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-in-white-shirt-using-macbook-pro-52608/

I'm just so fucking happy right now I have never been a customer of GoDaddy. As I learned via Reddit yesterday GoDaddy closed the access to their DNS API for many customers.

No prior information.

No change of the documentation regarding API access.

Nothing.

For many customers this meant that their revenue stream was affected as, for example, the SSL-Certificates for web services couldn't be automatically renewed. Which is the case when you are using Let's Encrypt.

Therefore I can't say it in any other words: GoDaddy deliberately sabotaged it's customers in order to maximize it's income.

Yeah, fuck you GoDaddy. You are on my personal blacklist now. Never going to do business with you. Not that I planned, but sometimes decisions like this must be called out and sanctioned.

When customers asked why their API calls returned an HTTP 403 error (Forbidden) GoDaddy provided the following answer (accentuation done by myself):

Hi, We have recently updated the account requirements to access parts of our production Domains API. As part of this update, access to these APIs are now limited: If you have lost access to these APIs, but feel you meet these requirements, please reply back with your account number and we will review your account and whitelist you if we have denied you access in error. Please note that this does not affect your access to any of our OTE APIs. If you have any further questions or need assistance with other API questions, please reach out. Regards, API Support TeamAvailability API: Limited to accounts with 50 or more domains Management and DNS APIs: Limited to accounts with 10 or more domains and/or an active Discount Domain Club plan.

Wow. The mentioned OTE API meanwhile is no workaround. It's GoDaddy's test API. Used to verify that your API-Calls work, prior to sending them to the productive API. You can't do anything there which would help GoDaddy's customers to find a solution without having to pay.

Sources

Am I the only one who can't use the API? (Reddit)

Warning: Godaddy silently cut access to their DNS API unless you pay them more money. If you're using Godaddy domain with letsencrypt or acme, be aware because your autorenewal will fail. (Reddit)

Photo by Kaique Rocha: https://www.pexels.com/photo/people-walking-on-pedestrian-lane-during-daytime-109919/

Nowadays, it feels like everyone of us uses at least five different social networks. Mastodon, Twitter/X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, etc. Even messaging apps like Whatsapp and Telegram try more and more to become social networks of their own. Allowing you to follow channels of your favorite brand, celebrity, topic, etc. And even technical sites like GitHub are slowly getting new social features. Following the age-old mantra, "User retention and engagement are key."

Unfortunately, I have a basic problem with all these social networks. See, a human being is not a single-interest individual. Each one of us has multiple interests. And those can vary widely. Additionally, they overlap in different parts of our lives. Sure, your kids are your most valued and precious interest, and you love sharing your experiences with them. What about professional or job-related experiences? Or your leisure time crafts like gardening or cooking? Do you fancy some videogaming to relax? Are you politically active? Help out in your community? All of these are good examples.

Unfortunately, I have a basic problem with all these social networks.

But.. What, and forgive me my ignorance, what if I'm only interested in your job-related experiences? Or your experiences as a developer of some open-source software I use, and I simply wish to be a little ahead on the information flow. And not rely on some IT news site but instead get it directly from the developer?

I don't know your kids. So why should I care? Surely some stories are nice and sweet. Alas I have the same limited time each day as everyone else. Therefore, for me, information reduction is key. I don't want to be constantly bombarded with bits of knowledge I don't want and don't need to know. Each single social network out there forces me to swallow every single drop that comes out of the "digital information water tap".

Each single social network out there forces me to swallow every single drop that comes out of the "digital information water tap".

Yes, you can unfollow. Or block people entirely. Maybe blacklist some channels. Click the "show me less of this" button. But again, these are partially incomplete features. What if I am interested in only some aspects of a person's life? Not their garden, not their kids, not their political views. How do I filter that? Or those "lovely contacts" that set up automatic content generation and spill 3-5 posts into your feed every single day. Do these features help in such a situation? No, they don't. And that is the problem I have with social networks in general.

Currently, I feel the only option offered to me is a rather ultimate one. Block, unfollow, unfriend, or mute. And while the unfollow feature is somewhat usable, it still doesn't solve my problem.

The solution, or: What Google+ did right

The main feature of Google+ was that the content creator was able to group his contacts into circles, for example, a circle called "family" for family members and a circle called "coworkers" for work-related postings. And then he or she could share content only with that circle (or both). Or decide to share publicly for everyone. The follower or friend, of course, was able to group his or her friend into different circles. But the key point was: It was possible to choose which content stream to display by clicking on the button for each circle on the left of Google+.

Yes, that leaves room for improvement. I can't control with which circle(s) the creator associated me. But for me, it was a step in the right direction. One, which sadly was shut down by Google.

One step further

How about a social network where each profile of a person has several feeds (or streams)? Several. Not just one. And of course, we are allowed to define, create, and delete as many feeds (or streams) as we like. And every follower can choose to just follow one stream (or none at all) or the whole profile with all feeds. Sounds a bit like (Hash-)Tags? Yes! Exactly! As hashtags in themselves are nothing different than key words. Each post can be linked to any number of feeds. Like a post about budgeting your new hobby can be shared in your streams labeled "Finance Tips" and "Gardening".

Then the burden of information sorting and reduction is shifted from the followers to the creators. Giving them the burden of choosing what to post where. But in return they should get users who are more engaged, as they are actually only consuming content they are interested in. Well, in theory. The whole psychology and market behavior regarding social networks is not my strong point. And I fear that most people just don't care. They just scroll past that content that is not interesting to them and never think about whether they should be forced to scroll that much, let alone how to fix that problem.

Google+ was social media for me. Forget every other network.

But I remember that Google+ was social media for me. Forget every other network. There, I engaged the most. I posted the most. I commented the most. And I actually learned more than in any other social network I've been or am still active in.

Yes, Twitter has lists, Mastodon too, and so on. But these networks weren't designed around that feature! It wasn't displayed prominently on the start page. Always hidden 2-3 layers deep in some sub-section of some rarely used menu.

I still miss Google+.
(Does this count as an "Old man yells at cloud"-post? 😅 )

Photo by Piet Bakker: https://www.pexels.com/photo/white-long-coat-lion-68421/

No productive change on Friday!

This expression was my first encounter with ITIL at all. Having just started fresh as Junior Linux sysadmin at a major German telecommunications provider. Strictly speaking, the rule was the following: "No standard changes to a production system if the next day isn't a normal workday." This was put in place to ensure that problems in production can be fixed in a timely manner, that all required resources and people are available. A plain, simple logical rule—and a very effective one.

But how do my wisdom teeth come into play? Well, as I am currently learning for my ITIL4 certification, I remembered a story from that time. I was visiting my dentist, and the whole appointment just felt strange. I knew I had some minor pain in one or two teeth a few weeks ago. Which was when I first visited them. But the dentist—a big clinic with several doctors—did not have enough time at that point and gave me a new appointment.

Naive as I was, I didn't note down what would be done at that appointment. Trusting that the doctor will document everything, right? Well.. He didn't. This time I got another doctor, and he did the one thing I remembered and then just left the room. I wasn't told the appointment was over. It didn't feel like it was over. So I just kept sitting in the chair, waiting.

Some 10 minutes later, a doctor's assistant comes into the room to prepare it and is surprised I am still there. I am told that I am free to go, and, well, I do. I had just put my jacket on when another assistant approached me. "Oh, good that I managed to catch you. You need to make an appointment for the removal of two of your wisdom teeth. The doctor spotted caries in them."

I was surprised. He didn't say anything about that. But, ah, well. Doctors can have a bad day too. So off to the reception I went to make an appointment for the removal. Only to learn that these removals are done by an external doctor who solely does wisdom teeth removal. Additionally, all of his appointments for the next 3 months are fully booked. The reason? He is only present on Fridays.

Immediately, the beloved ITIL phrase comes to mind. Realizing full well that if I should have any pain or bigger problems, I will be in minor trouble. Having to go to the emergency on-call dentist in my town for that weekend—or directly to the hospital. I wasn't really keen on that. So the receptionist and I agreed that I would call some days later to schedule an appointment when I had sufficient time to organize my calendars.

Only that.. Well, I never called back. I grew more and more suspicious over the days and said to myself, "Let's wait until I start to feel something in my teeth." The doctor's strange behavior didn't contribute to my inner well-being either.

I waited. And waited. And waited. And when it was time for my next regular dentist visit, I decided to get a second opinion. I asked some colleagues, checked a few "Rate your doctor" websites, and went to another dentist.

There, they did an X-ray of my whole jaw to get a complete overview. The doctor was nice. Explained what he was looking for. What he can and can't see, and I asked fairly simply if there is any caries in some of my wisdom teeth. He looked a bit stunned for a second and said, "No, not from what I see. If there is caries, usually black spots are visible. But there are none, as far as I can see. Do you feel any pain? Especially when they come into contact with something hot or cold?"

So, I explained the whole situation to him, and then he told me a few details (which I won't write down here for legal reasons), which made it obvious to me that changing my dentist was indeed a good decision.

And all of that, just because I followed ITIL procedures from my employer. Ha!

Photo by Miguel Á. Padriñán: https://www.pexels.com/photo/email-blocks-on-gray-surface-1591062/

Some rather fun stories revolve around my usage of mail addresses. Like many IT people, I like to use identifiable email addresses. In my case, it means I always use companyname-DDMMYYYY@my-domain.tld or website-domain-DDMMYYYY@my-domain.tld when I need to specify a mail address.

This has the advantage that I can verify if the sender matches the recipient address. Obviously, Paypal won't send mail to some-webshop05072024@my-domain.tld. And it is a good pointer when some customer database was leaked or if sites are selling customer data. I experienced it like 10 times already: the mail associated with a certain website or shop got spam right after I deleted my account there. Truly unsuspicious...

And in the few cases where a company's customer database was leaked several times, I can easily change the mail address and still track if the new address is being spammed or not.

The unexpected benefit of unique mail addresses

The first real surprise came to me some years ago when I bought new furniture for my new flat. When the furniture was being delivered and built up one of the people setting them up said to me: "Ah, I see we work at the same company."

I was confused and replied: "Uh, no. I'm not working for (that furniture company's name). Why do you think I do?"
"Well, according to the receipt you got the employee discount.", the man replied. I was dumbfounded. I definitely didn't lie, and when I was in the store and purchased the furniture the employee also said nothing regarding this topic.

Then it dawned on me: My mailaddress! It was companyname@my-domain.tld! But.. I thought in disbelief, "It's only in the local-part!" Well.. Looks like the employee doesn't understand the structure of mail addresses and that everyone is free to choose the part before the @-sign (the so-called local-part or username). And thought I do work for the company, and gave me the discount without saying a single word. Wow.

Basic IT-Security in the banking industry?

And today? The same happened. With my bank. I needed an appointment and called them. As I didn't provide a mail address to them in all these years they asked for one to set up the online calendar entry. I told the customer rep to use bankname2024@my-domain.tld. The representative immediately asked in surprise: "Oh! You work for one of our branches?"

Well.. I was a bit shocked as, until that point, I thought that bank employees were at least minimally trained to properly read mail. In order to detect at least the most obvious phishing attempts. It seems I was wrong.

I gave the rep a quick run-down on the structure of mail addresses and said that basically everything in front of the @ is irrelevant (or at least should be treated as such). And that was it. On to the next adventure with mail addresses!