Jim Salter
@jimsalter.bsky.social
I'm the Jim Salter that writes about Linux, FreeBSD, ZFS, Wi-Fi, and so forth. You may've seen my stuff at Ars Technica, Wirecutter, Smallnetbuilder (RIP) or wherever there's nerdery afoot. Much more active at: https://fosstodon.org/@jimsalter
Pinned
Jim Salter
@jimsalter.bsky.social
· Nov 13
ALL NEWS IS EDITORIAL.
I heard @socialistdogmom.bsky.social apologizing for how integral her voice is to her podcast, Weird Little Guys, and it crystallized something for me. It is a feature, not a bug, when reporters report in their own voice rather than an artificially disaffected one.
Thread:
I heard @socialistdogmom.bsky.social apologizing for how integral her voice is to her podcast, Weird Little Guys, and it crystallized something for me. It is a feature, not a bug, when reporters report in their own voice rather than an artificially disaffected one.
Thread:
2.5 Admins 273: Reliability Tracking
Allan tells us about the OpenZFS Summit, mixed disk sizes in ZFS with AnyRaid, an upcoming standard keeps partially dead drives usable, upcoming 50 and 100 TB drives, and NVMe rust drives. Plus using a separate mini PC for work.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
Allan tells us about the OpenZFS Summit, mixed disk sizes in ZFS with AnyRaid, an upcoming standard keeps partially dead drives usable, upcoming 50 and 100 TB drives, and NVMe rust drives. Plus using a separate mini PC for work.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
November 13, 2025 at 10:13 PM
2.5 Admins 273: Reliability Tracking
Allan tells us about the OpenZFS Summit, mixed disk sizes in ZFS with AnyRaid, an upcoming standard keeps partially dead drives usable, upcoming 50 and 100 TB drives, and NVMe rust drives. Plus using a separate mini PC for work.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
Allan tells us about the OpenZFS Summit, mixed disk sizes in ZFS with AnyRaid, an upcoming standard keeps partially dead drives usable, upcoming 50 and 100 TB drives, and NVMe rust drives. Plus using a separate mini PC for work.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
2.5 Admins 272: NVMe Surprise
Why you should seriously consider buying refurbished hard drives, why drives might be lasting longer than they once did, Jim’s M.2 NVMe drive died at an inopportune moment, using multiple partitions on disks with ZFS.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
Why you should seriously consider buying refurbished hard drives, why drives might be lasting longer than they once did, Jim’s M.2 NVMe drive died at an inopportune moment, using multiple partitions on disks with ZFS.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
November 6, 2025 at 7:45 PM
2.5 Admins 272: NVMe Surprise
Why you should seriously consider buying refurbished hard drives, why drives might be lasting longer than they once did, Jim’s M.2 NVMe drive died at an inopportune moment, using multiple partitions on disks with ZFS.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
Why you should seriously consider buying refurbished hard drives, why drives might be lasting longer than they once did, Jim’s M.2 NVMe drive died at an inopportune moment, using multiple partitions on disks with ZFS.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
Even if you don't need me to tell you "stop trusting email," you might find it handy to have the reasons why not to trust email written out and easy to refer *other* folks to, instead of having to make the argument from scratch every damn time.
jrs-s.net/2025/10/30/p...
jrs-s.net/2025/10/30/p...
Please STOP trusting email. – JRS Systems: the blog
jrs-s.net
October 30, 2025 at 9:33 PM
Even if you don't need me to tell you "stop trusting email," you might find it handy to have the reasons why not to trust email written out and easy to refer *other* folks to, instead of having to make the argument from scratch every damn time.
jrs-s.net/2025/10/30/p...
jrs-s.net/2025/10/30/p...
2.5 Admins 271: Dead Internet
Why you should keep your Baseboard Management Controller off the network, ZFS is hard to defeat with a zip bomb, how bad the Internet bot problem probably is, and building a small home server cluster.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
Why you should keep your Baseboard Management Controller off the network, ZFS is hard to defeat with a zip bomb, how bad the Internet bot problem probably is, and building a small home server cluster.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
October 30, 2025 at 9:31 PM
2.5 Admins 271: Dead Internet
Why you should keep your Baseboard Management Controller off the network, ZFS is hard to defeat with a zip bomb, how bad the Internet bot problem probably is, and building a small home server cluster.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
Why you should keep your Baseboard Management Controller off the network, ZFS is hard to defeat with a zip bomb, how bad the Internet bot problem probably is, and building a small home server cluster.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
2.5 Admins 270: Storage Shortage
It looks like the storage companies aren’t betting on the AI bubble lasting much longer, the arguments against self-hosting, and setting up a server for virtualization and containers.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
It looks like the storage companies aren’t betting on the AI bubble lasting much longer, the arguments against self-hosting, and setting up a server for virtualization and containers.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
October 23, 2025 at 8:30 PM
2.5 Admins 270: Storage Shortage
It looks like the storage companies aren’t betting on the AI bubble lasting much longer, the arguments against self-hosting, and setting up a server for virtualization and containers.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
It looks like the storage companies aren’t betting on the AI bubble lasting much longer, the arguments against self-hosting, and setting up a server for virtualization and containers.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
2.5 Admins 269: End of 10?
Windows 10 is officially end of life but Microsoft extends free updates for Windows 10 in Europe, it gets even harder to use a local account in Windows 11, and whether repurposing old server hardware is worth it.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
Windows 10 is officially end of life but Microsoft extends free updates for Windows 10 in Europe, it gets even harder to use a local account in Windows 11, and whether repurposing old server hardware is worth it.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
October 16, 2025 at 6:42 PM
2.5 Admins 269: End of 10?
Windows 10 is officially end of life but Microsoft extends free updates for Windows 10 in Europe, it gets even harder to use a local account in Windows 11, and whether repurposing old server hardware is worth it.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
Windows 10 is officially end of life but Microsoft extends free updates for Windows 10 in Europe, it gets even harder to use a local account in Windows 11, and whether repurposing old server hardware is worth it.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
Reposted by Jim Salter
POLITICO: “.. They referred to Black people as monkeys and ‘the watermelon people’ and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They talked about raping their enemies .. and lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery.
@politico.com
www.politico.com/news/2025/10...
@politico.com
www.politico.com/news/2025/10...
October 14, 2025 at 5:25 PM
POLITICO: “.. They referred to Black people as monkeys and ‘the watermelon people’ and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They talked about raping their enemies .. and lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery.
@politico.com
www.politico.com/news/2025/10...
@politico.com
www.politico.com/news/2025/10...
2.5 Admins 268: The Salter Philosophy
A Red Hat breach leads to a leak of lots of sensitive customer data, Synology backs down on allowing third-party drives but they are removing features, and managing ZFS properties during replication.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
A Red Hat breach leads to a leak of lots of sensitive customer data, Synology backs down on allowing third-party drives but they are removing features, and managing ZFS properties during replication.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
October 9, 2025 at 7:58 PM
2.5 Admins 268: The Salter Philosophy
A Red Hat breach leads to a leak of lots of sensitive customer data, Synology backs down on allowing third-party drives but they are removing features, and managing ZFS properties during replication.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
A Red Hat breach leads to a leak of lots of sensitive customer data, Synology backs down on allowing third-party drives but they are removing features, and managing ZFS properties during replication.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
2.5 Admins 267: Hoarding Cache
The weird errors you see when your root partition is full, TikTok uses a lot of bandwidth by preloading videos, and dealing with a ZFS pool that won’t import.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
The weird errors you see when your root partition is full, TikTok uses a lot of bandwidth by preloading videos, and dealing with a ZFS pool that won’t import.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
October 2, 2025 at 9:47 PM
2.5 Admins 267: Hoarding Cache
The weird errors you see when your root partition is full, TikTok uses a lot of bandwidth by preloading videos, and dealing with a ZFS pool that won’t import.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
The weird errors you see when your root partition is full, TikTok uses a lot of bandwidth by preloading videos, and dealing with a ZFS pool that won’t import.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
2.5 Admins 266: Jiggawatts of Hallucinations
Intel and Nvidia are teaming up for multiple reasons, Open AI are planning to use a ludicrous amount of power, LLM hallucinations aren’t going away, and how long we keep servers and hard drives in production.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
Intel and Nvidia are teaming up for multiple reasons, Open AI are planning to use a ludicrous amount of power, LLM hallucinations aren’t going away, and how long we keep servers and hard drives in production.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
September 26, 2025 at 4:05 AM
2.5 Admins 266: Jiggawatts of Hallucinations
Intel and Nvidia are teaming up for multiple reasons, Open AI are planning to use a ludicrous amount of power, LLM hallucinations aren’t going away, and how long we keep servers and hard drives in production.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
Intel and Nvidia are teaming up for multiple reasons, Open AI are planning to use a ludicrous amount of power, LLM hallucinations aren’t going away, and how long we keep servers and hard drives in production.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
2.5 Admins 264: A Question of Trust
Matrix shows how painful DBs can be to restore, the TLS cert system doesn’t make sense in 2025, using S3 object storage outside of the cloud, and more. With guest host Gary from Linux After Dark and Hybrid Cloud Show.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
Matrix shows how painful DBs can be to restore, the TLS cert system doesn’t make sense in 2025, using S3 object storage outside of the cloud, and more. With guest host Gary from Linux After Dark and Hybrid Cloud Show.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
September 11, 2025 at 7:51 PM
2.5 Admins 264: A Question of Trust
Matrix shows how painful DBs can be to restore, the TLS cert system doesn’t make sense in 2025, using S3 object storage outside of the cloud, and more. With guest host Gary from Linux After Dark and Hybrid Cloud Show.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
Matrix shows how painful DBs can be to restore, the TLS cert system doesn’t make sense in 2025, using S3 object storage outside of the cloud, and more. With guest host Gary from Linux After Dark and Hybrid Cloud Show.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
2.5 Admins 262: It’s About Control
Google is planning to assert even more control over which Android apps can be installed, the US government takes a 10% stake in Intel, and minimum networking speeds in homes and offices.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
Google is planning to assert even more control over which Android apps can be installed, the US government takes a 10% stake in Intel, and minimum networking speeds in homes and offices.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
August 28, 2025 at 11:46 PM
2.5 Admins 262: It’s About Control
Google is planning to assert even more control over which Android apps can be installed, the US government takes a 10% stake in Intel, and minimum networking speeds in homes and offices.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
Google is planning to assert even more control over which Android apps can be installed, the US government takes a 10% stake in Intel, and minimum networking speeds in homes and offices.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
2.5 Admins 261: Worms and Baskets
Why you can’t rely on a single cloud provider, Jim discovers AI that spreads itself like a worm, and configuring all-flash arrays.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
Why you can’t rely on a single cloud provider, Jim discovers AI that spreads itself like a worm, and configuring all-flash arrays.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
August 21, 2025 at 8:50 PM
2.5 Admins 261: Worms and Baskets
Why you can’t rely on a single cloud provider, Jim discovers AI that spreads itself like a worm, and configuring all-flash arrays.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
Why you can’t rely on a single cloud provider, Jim discovers AI that spreads itself like a worm, and configuring all-flash arrays.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
2.5 Admins 260: Watery Email
AMD’s recent mobile-class processors impress us with their power to performance ratio, the UK government suggests a preposterous way to save water, setting up verified boot with snapshots, and the best way to configure ZFS to run VMs.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
AMD’s recent mobile-class processors impress us with their power to performance ratio, the UK government suggests a preposterous way to save water, setting up verified boot with snapshots, and the best way to configure ZFS to run VMs.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
August 14, 2025 at 11:43 PM
2.5 Admins 260: Watery Email
AMD’s recent mobile-class processors impress us with their power to performance ratio, the UK government suggests a preposterous way to save water, setting up verified boot with snapshots, and the best way to configure ZFS to run VMs.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
AMD’s recent mobile-class processors impress us with their power to performance ratio, the UK government suggests a preposterous way to save water, setting up verified boot with snapshots, and the best way to configure ZFS to run VMs.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
2.5 Admins 259: New Web?
The Web is a mess of tracking and AI scraping so do we need a new one, would it even be possible, or is this the wrong question? Plus setting up servers in a garage where dusty woodworking is happening.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-259/
The Web is a mess of tracking and AI scraping so do we need a new one, would it even be possible, or is this the wrong question? Plus setting up servers in a garage where dusty woodworking is happening.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-259/
August 7, 2025 at 7:25 PM
2.5 Admins 259: New Web?
The Web is a mess of tracking and AI scraping so do we need a new one, would it even be possible, or is this the wrong question? Plus setting up servers in a garage where dusty woodworking is happening.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-259/
The Web is a mess of tracking and AI scraping so do we need a new one, would it even be possible, or is this the wrong question? Plus setting up servers in a garage where dusty woodworking is happening.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-259/
An open letter to a billionaire:
August 4, 2025 at 3:03 PM
An open letter to a billionaire:
2.5 Admins 258: Artificial Dirtbag
Jim is concerned that although over-anthropomorphising LLMs is a mistake, we should be cautious about some of their human-like behaviour. Plus how to maintain old ZFS pools, and accessibility in the BSDs.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
Jim is concerned that although over-anthropomorphising LLMs is a mistake, we should be cautious about some of their human-like behaviour. Plus how to maintain old ZFS pools, and accessibility in the BSDs.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
July 31, 2025 at 5:07 PM
2.5 Admins 258: Artificial Dirtbag
Jim is concerned that although over-anthropomorphising LLMs is a mistake, we should be cautious about some of their human-like behaviour. Plus how to maintain old ZFS pools, and accessibility in the BSDs.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
Jim is concerned that although over-anthropomorphising LLMs is a mistake, we should be cautious about some of their human-like behaviour. Plus how to maintain old ZFS pools, and accessibility in the BSDs.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
2.5 Admins 257: Outage365
Two recent outages were handled very differently but show the dangers of centralisation, Let’s Encrypt is introducing certificates for IP addresses, and the differences between backup and production systems.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
Two recent outages were handled very differently but show the dangers of centralisation, Let’s Encrypt is introducing certificates for IP addresses, and the differences between backup and production systems.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
July 25, 2025 at 5:20 PM
2.5 Admins 257: Outage365
Two recent outages were handled very differently but show the dangers of centralisation, Let’s Encrypt is introducing certificates for IP addresses, and the differences between backup and production systems.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
Two recent outages were handled very differently but show the dangers of centralisation, Let’s Encrypt is introducing certificates for IP addresses, and the differences between backup and production systems.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
2.5 Admins 256: Why ZFS
To celebrate the 256 milestone we devote the whole episode to explaining why we use ZFS. We explain about data safety, data retention, data portability, and ease of administration.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
To celebrate the 256 milestone we devote the whole episode to explaining why we use ZFS. We explain about data safety, data retention, data portability, and ease of administration.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
July 19, 2025 at 3:38 PM
2.5 Admins 256: Why ZFS
To celebrate the 256 milestone we devote the whole episode to explaining why we use ZFS. We explain about data safety, data retention, data portability, and ease of administration.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
To celebrate the 256 milestone we devote the whole episode to explaining why we use ZFS. We explain about data safety, data retention, data portability, and ease of administration.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
2.5 Admins 255: Copyright Your Face
Microsoft offers Windows 10 updates in return for your settings data, Denmark wants to protect against deepfakes using copyright, someone is wrong on the Internet about RAID, and getting a sysadmin job in your late 40s.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
Microsoft offers Windows 10 updates in return for your settings data, Denmark wants to protect against deepfakes using copyright, someone is wrong on the Internet about RAID, and getting a sysadmin job in your late 40s.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
July 10, 2025 at 6:21 PM
2.5 Admins 255: Copyright Your Face
Microsoft offers Windows 10 updates in return for your settings data, Denmark wants to protect against deepfakes using copyright, someone is wrong on the Internet about RAID, and getting a sysadmin job in your late 40s.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
Microsoft offers Windows 10 updates in return for your settings data, Denmark wants to protect against deepfakes using copyright, someone is wrong on the Internet about RAID, and getting a sysadmin job in your late 40s.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
2.5 Admins 254: chrudo
A vulnerability in sudo brings up concerns about feature-creep, and makes us consider alternatives. Plus Broadcom starts auditing VMware customers, and how to decide which outbound ports to open on a large network’s firewall.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
A vulnerability in sudo brings up concerns about feature-creep, and makes us consider alternatives. Plus Broadcom starts auditing VMware customers, and how to decide which outbound ports to open on a large network’s firewall.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
July 3, 2025 at 9:56 PM
2.5 Admins 254: chrudo
A vulnerability in sudo brings up concerns about feature-creep, and makes us consider alternatives. Plus Broadcom starts auditing VMware customers, and how to decide which outbound ports to open on a large network’s firewall.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
A vulnerability in sudo brings up concerns about feature-creep, and makes us consider alternatives. Plus Broadcom starts auditing VMware customers, and how to decide which outbound ports to open on a large network’s firewall.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
Reposted by Jim Salter
Came across an obviously "AI"-made article of "Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Novels of 2025" where every one of the books doesn't actually exist, including one purported to be by me. The internet's filling up with slop, y'all.
Here's a canonical list of my work, btw:
whatever.scalzi.com/about/books-...
Here's a canonical list of my work, btw:
whatever.scalzi.com/about/books-...
Books and Other Projects by John Scalzi
You may have heard: I write books. Here’s what I’ve published. The Old Man’s War Novels This series of books is what I’m currently best known for. Old Man’s War (2005)…
whatever.scalzi.com
June 26, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Came across an obviously "AI"-made article of "Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Novels of 2025" where every one of the books doesn't actually exist, including one purported to be by me. The internet's filling up with slop, y'all.
Here's a canonical list of my work, btw:
whatever.scalzi.com/about/books-...
Here's a canonical list of my work, btw:
whatever.scalzi.com/about/books-...
2.5 Admins 253: ImpossibleFS
Jim is concerned that we might not see another next-gen filesystem that can compete with ZFS, no matter how much we all want one. Plus whether you should switch to third-party firmware on your router.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
Jim is concerned that we might not see another next-gen filesystem that can compete with ZFS, no matter how much we all want one. Plus whether you should switch to third-party firmware on your router.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
June 26, 2025 at 6:10 PM
2.5 Admins 253: ImpossibleFS
Jim is concerned that we might not see another next-gen filesystem that can compete with ZFS, no matter how much we all want one. Plus whether you should switch to third-party firmware on your router.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
Jim is concerned that we might not see another next-gen filesystem that can compete with ZFS, no matter how much we all want one. Plus whether you should switch to third-party firmware on your router.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
Reposted by Jim Salter
I just have to say, as a historian of the Reconstruction-era Klan, that masked paramilitaries are very bad and masked vigilantes are even worse and there are causal links between the two and none of this is good for democracy.
Just some creepy armed Mad Max guys trying to gain entry to Dodgers Stadium.
ICE says it wasn’t them. DHS says they were Border Patrol. But honestly who the hell knows? They’ve given permission for any psycho to put on a ski mask, point a gun, grab people & throw them into an unmarked vehicle.
ICE says it wasn’t them. DHS says they were Border Patrol. But honestly who the hell knows? They’ve given permission for any psycho to put on a ski mask, point a gun, grab people & throw them into an unmarked vehicle.
June 19, 2025 at 10:11 PM
I just have to say, as a historian of the Reconstruction-era Klan, that masked paramilitaries are very bad and masked vigilantes are even worse and there are causal links between the two and none of this is good for democracy.
2.5 Admins 252: Nintendon’t Back Up
Nintendo cuts off Switches that dare to play backed up games, more Microsoft AI exploits, why you shouldn’t regularly spin down hard drives, and securing applications on a home server.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
Nintendo cuts off Switches that dare to play backed up games, more Microsoft AI exploits, why you shouldn’t regularly spin down hard drives, and securing applications on a home server.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
June 20, 2025 at 1:19 AM
2.5 Admins 252: Nintendon’t Back Up
Nintendo cuts off Switches that dare to play backed up games, more Microsoft AI exploits, why you shouldn’t regularly spin down hard drives, and securing applications on a home server.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...
Nintendo cuts off Switches that dare to play backed up games, more Microsoft AI exploits, why you shouldn’t regularly spin down hard drives, and securing applications on a home server.
2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-2...