TechSNAP

Systems, Network, and Administration Podcast.

About the show

Systems, Network, and Administration Podcast. Every two weeks TechSNAP covers the stories that impact those of us in the tech industry, and all of us that follow it. Every episode we dedicate a portion of the show to answer audience questions, discuss best practices, and solving your problems.

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Episodes

  • 414: Rooting for ZFS

    October 18th, 2019  |  42 mins 27 secs
    19.10, 2g, 5.3, amazon sidewalk, backups, boot environments, btrfs, canonical, copy on write, data integrity, devops, eoan, freebsd, google wifi, jupiter broadcasting, lora, lorawan, low bandwidth, mesh wifi, nest wifi, rf chirp, sigfox, snapshots, spread spectrum, surefi, techsnap, tp-link, ubuntu, unifi, wifi, wireless, wireless networking, zfs, zsys

    We dive into Ubuntu 19.10's experimental ZFS installer and share our tips for making the most of ZFS on root. 

  • 413: The Coffee Shop Problem

    October 4th, 2019  |  32 mins 5 secs
    0-rtt, 1.1.1.1, 8.8.8.8, amd, amd ryzen, anonymity, canary, chrome, chrome canary, chromebook, chromebook support, cloudflare, cloudflare dns, cookies, cryptography, curl, devops, dns, dns-over-https, doh, duckduckgo, encryption, firefox, forwarding, google, google dns, google search, guardmi, http/3, https, incognito, ip, iptables, jupiter broadcasting, lenovo, lenovo chromebook, linux academy, man-in-the-middle, memory encryption, mitm, mmproxy, mozilla, network protocol, networking, privacy, proxy, public-key cryptography, quad-9, quantum computers, quantum computing, quantum supremacy, quic, quiche, region shifting, rust, ryzen pro, ryzen pro 3000, search engines, security updates, shor's algorithm, spdy, ssl, startmail, startpage, sysadmin podcast, tcp, tcp/ip, techsnap, tls, udp, vpn, warp, web proxy, windows, wireguard, wireguard vpn

    We peer into the future with a quick look at quantum supremacy, debate the latest DNS over HTTPS drama, and jump through the hoops of HTTP/3.

  • 412: Too Good To Be True

    September 20th, 2019  |  34 mins 36 secs
    802.11ax, chromebooks, chromeos, cloudreadyos, cryptography, devops, ethernet, google, hvac, industrial iot, iot, jupiter broadcasting, low bandwidth, networking, neverware, qkd, quantum cryptography, quantum key distribution, rf chrip, security, security updates, spread spectrum, sure-fi, sysadmin podcast, techsnap, the wifi challenge, wifi, wifi 5, wifi 6, wireless, wpa3

    It's TechSNAP story time as we head out into the field with Jim and put Sure-Fi technology to the test.

  • 411: Mobile Security Mistakes

    September 6th, 2019  |  29 mins 38 secs
    amd, android, app security, apple, benchmarks, cpu load balancing, devops, epyc, exploit chain, exploit market, google, ios, ipc, iphone, jailbreak, jupiter broadcasting, libxpc, linux, malware, mobile, mobile apps, mobile security, numa, open source, privilege escalation, project zero, security, sysadmin podcast, techsnap, thunderbolt, usb, usb power delivery, usb-c, usb4, v4l2, video4linux, webkit, zeroday, zerodium

    We take a look at a few recent zero-day vulnerabilities for iOS and Android and find targeted attacks, bad assumptions, and changing markets.

  • 410: Epyc Encryption

    August 23rd, 2019  |  50 mins 7 secs
    amd, amd epyc, amd psp, amd rome, bluekeep, bluetooth, bruteforce, certificate lifespace, comet lake, cpu, cpu benchmarks, ctftool security, devops, encryption, entropy, ev certs, extended validation, https, ice lake, intel, intel me, jupiter broadcasting, knob, knob attack, memory encryption, rdp, security, sem, sev, sgx, ssl, ssl certifications, sysadmin podcast, techsnap, text services framework, tls, virtualization, vulnerabilities, windows, worms

    It's CPU release season and we get excited about AMD's new line of server chips. Plus our take on AMD's approach to memory encryption, and our struggle to make sense of Intel's Comet Lake line.

  • 409: Privacy Perspectives

    August 9th, 2019  |  39 mins 14 secs
    ad-blocking, adblock plus, advertising, amiunique, apple, bleee, bluetooth, bluetooth le, browser fingerprinting, canvas, chrome, devops, encryption, encryption debate, facebook, firefox, ghostery, google, incognito, ios, iphone, jupiter broadcasting, mozilla, openvpn, panopticlick, privacy, privacy badger, private browsing, security, sysadmin podcast, techsnap, ublock, ublock origin, vpn, webgl, whatsapp, wireguard

    We examine why it's so difficult to protect your privacy online and discuss browser fingerprinting, when to use a VPN, and the limits of private browsing.

  • 408: Apollo's ARC

    July 26th, 2019  |  35 mins 13 secs
    agc, ai, apollo, apollo anniversary, apollo guidance computer, arc, caching, chris siebenmann, cloud, core rope, dancing demon, devops, floating point, fpu, intel, kernel module, kvm, loihi, machine learning, magnetic core, margaret hamilton, memory, nasa, neural networks, neuromorphic computing, openzfs, page cache, pohoiki, punch cards, qcow, qcow2, qemu, retro computing, simd, snapshots, sysadmin, techsnap, text adventure, trs-80, vhd, virtualization, zfs, zfs on linux, zol

    We take a look at the amazing abilities of the Apollo Guidance Computer and Jim breaks down everything you need to know about the ZFS ARC.

  • 407: Old School Outages

    July 10th, 2019  |  42 mins 31 secs
    amd, benchmarks, bgp, bgp leak, cloudflare, cpu, deployment, devops, ecc, epyc, facebook, google, grafana, infosec, intel, internet, internet infrastructure, librenms, logging, logs, metrics, microsoft, monitoring, nagios, netdata, nrpe, observability, old school, opennms, outages, performance, prometheus, regex, riemann, rkpi, ryzen, server, server builds, sysadmin, techsnap, time series, verizon, xeon, zabbix

    Jim shares his Nagios tips and Wes chimes in with some modern monitoring tools as we chat monitoring in the wake of some high-profile outages.

  • 406: SACK Attack

    June 23rd, 2019  |  43 mins 33 secs
    backdoor, crypto, cryptocurrency, device removal, devops, dram, ecc, encryption, firefox, freebsd, linux, memory, mozilla, mss, networking, openzfs, ping of death, ram, rambleed, raw send, rowhammer, sack panic, sandbox, sandbox escape, security, ssd, targeted attack, tcp, techsnap, trim, zero day, zfs

    A new vulnerability may be the next 'Ping of Death'; we explore the details of SACK Panic and break down what you need to know.

  • 405: Update Uncertainty

    June 11th, 2019  |  30 mins 47 secs
    automatic updates, backups, bluekeep, brute force, devops, firewalls, goldbrute, hard drive, industrial control systems, internet worm, microsoft, nas, network security, nsa, out of support, password security, patching, patching policies, rdp, remote desktop, remote desktop protocol, rosewill, security, ssd, storage, supermicro, techsnap, terminal services, updates, vulnerabilities, wannacry, windows, windows update, windows xp, worm

    We explore the risky world of exposed RDP, from the brute force GoldBrute botnet to the dangerously worm-able BlueKeep vulnerability.

  • 404: Prefork Pitfalls

    May 25th, 2019  |  33 mins 49 secs
    apache, apache bench, apache mpms, benchmarking, cdn, concurrency, devops, event loop, http, lighttpd, mod_php, multi-processing modules, networking, nginx, performance, php, prefork, scalability, static sites, sysadmin, techsnap, threadpool, threads, varnish, w3 total cache, web hosting, web servers, wordpress

    We turn our eye to web server best practices, from the basics of CDNs to the importance of choosing the right multi-processing module.

  • 403: Keeping Systems Simple

    May 10th, 2019  |  46 mins 32 secs
    availability, cryptography, devops, dhcp, disaster recovery, ethernet, firewall, high availability, ipsec, kubernetes, layer 3, lfnw, linux, mesh network, openvpn, quantum computers, reliability, router, rpo, rto, security, simplicity, ssh, subspace, switch, sysadmin podcast, tcp, techsnap, tinc, tunnel, udp, vlan, vpn, wintun, wireguard, zinc

    We’re back from LinuxFest Northwest with an update on all things WireGuard, some VLAN myth busting, and the trade-offs of highly available systems.

  • 402: Snapshot Sanity

    April 25th, 2019  |  31 mins 33 secs
    atomic, atomic snapshot, copy on write, crash consistent, cron, data integrity, devops, filesystems, functional filesystem, linked list, openzfs, policy based, replication, rsync, sanoid, snapshot management, snapshots, syncoid, sysadmin podcast, techsnap, toml, warstories, zfs, zfs on linux, zol

    We continue our take on ZFS as Jim and Wes dive in to snapshots, replication, and the magic on copy on write.

  • 401: Everyday ZFS

    April 11th, 2019  |  47 mins 35 secs
    ashift, backups, cddl, checksum, copy on write, copyleft, data integrity, devops, ecc, filesystems, freebsd, gpl, hard disks, hard drives, iops, linux, openzf s, raid, raidz, snapshots, solaris, ssd, sun microsystems, sysadmin podcast, techsnap, throughput, ubuntu, vdez, zfs, zfs on linux, zfs on root, zol

    Jim and Wes sit down to bust some ZFS myths and share their tips and tricks for getting the most out of the ultimate filesystem.

  • 400: Supply Chain Attacks

    March 28th, 2019  |  32 mins 33 secs
    asus, asus live update firmware, asus malware, backdoor, badusb, bios, c runtime, cccleaner, command and control server, compiler, devops, fwupd, gigabyte, hardware manufacturers, intel management engine, ken thompson, linux, linux vendor firmware service, mac address, machine learning, malware, microcontroller, node, npm, package managers, pypi, python, reflections on trusting trust, shadowhammer, shadowpad, ssd firmware, supply chain, supply chain attacks, sysadmin podcast, techsnap, uefi, unsupervised learning, windows

    We break down the ASUS Live Update backdoor and explore why these kinds of supply chain attacks are on the rise.

  • 399: Ethics in AI

    March 15th, 2019  |  38 mins 48 secs
    ai, algorithms, bias, chatbot, civicplus, classification, computer vision, conceptnet, data, devops, expert systems, glove, machine learning, natural language processing, neural networks, passwords, plaintext offenders, privacy, programming, python, racism, reinforcement learning, robyn speer, scikit-learn, server builds, supervised learning, sysadmin podcast, tay, techsnap, unsupervised learning, word2vec, zo

    Machine learning promises to change many industries, but with these changes come dangerous new risks. Join Jim and Wes as they explore some of the surprising ways bias can creep in and the serious consequences of ignoring these problems.