What is 'Big Pickle'? The Mysterious Stealth LLM Explained
Spotting 'Big Pickle' in your AI model picker? Here is a quick breakdown of OpenCode Zen's rotating stealth reasoning model, its specs, and how it works.
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Explore 109 articles on sysadmin, cybersecurity, web development, and tech.
Building an Engineer's Second Brain: My Production Obsidian Setup & Workflow
A look inside a comprehensive Obsidian second brain for life, business, wealth, and engineering: E2E encrypted sync, Git backups, AI curation, Dataview dashboards, and Templater runbooks.
The Quiet Markdown Revolution: The Emerging Standards Shaping Agentic AI
A technical field guide to the emerging Markdown (.md) standards powering modern AI agents: AGENTS.md, OKF.md, SKILL.md, SHIELD.md, and SOUL.md.
Under Siege: Top 15 WordPress & CMS RCEs and Zero-Dependency File Integrity Auditing
A breakdown of 2026 critical WordPress & CMS RCE attack vectors (including the wp2shell chain) and two zero-dependency Bash & PHP file integrity auditing scripts to detect injected backdoors.
Verify, Don't Trust: Breaking Down the Coldcard PRNG Entropy Vulnerability
A technical postmortem of the 2026 Coldcard PRNG entropy exploit: why 40-bit software fallbacks are fatal, why firmware patches don't fix weak seeds, and how to build a resilient multi-vendor Bitcoin custody stack.
Migrating away from WordPress at Lunch with AI
How I migrated a 10-year-old WordPress blog with 88 articles and 136 media assets to Astro SSG in a single lunch break using AI pair programming.
Free AI Models & Endpoints for Your AI Agents
Curated list of free and generous API tier LLM endpoints for powering AI coding agents and local scripts, including Groq, OpenRouter, and Gemini.
Self-Hosting Docker Microservices: Traefik 3, Portainer & Cloudflare Tunnels
How to architect a modern self-hosted homelab stack using Docker Compose, Traefik 3 reverse proxy, Portainer, and Cloudflare Tunnels.
Hardening Debian 12 & Ubuntu Servers: The 10-Step Security Audit Checklist
A practical 10-step security hardening checklist for Debian 12 and Ubuntu servers: SSH keys, UFW firewall, Fail2ban, and kernel sysctl tuning.
Running Local AI Coding Assistants: Ollama, DeepSeek-Coder & VS Code
How to run local, private AI coding assistants on your own hardware using Ollama, DeepSeek-Coder, and VS Code with the Continue extension.
From 'Continue...' to Autonomous Deployment: How AI Shifted 100% of My Code
From typing 'continue...' across Part 1 and Part 2 codeblocks to autonomous multi-agent pipelines: how AI transformed my technical scripting into rapid project delivery.
Basic Setup Steps for Your First Proxmox Server
A step-by-step guide to configuring your first Proxmox VE hypervisor: no-subscription repository setup, SSH key hardening, Fail2ban, and LXC templates.
dImageGen: High-Concurrency Go Microservice for Fast CLI Image Generation
Building a lightweight, high-concurrency Go microservice and CLI tool to generate and cache AI images straight to disk before native CLI tooling existed.
Playing with AI Image Generation
Experiments with AI image generation using Midjourney, DALL-E, and Stable Diffusion, testing prompt engineering and photorealistic rendering.
From Batch Loops to Go Binaries: A Scripter's Language Evolution
From late-90s batch loops and executable packers to C segfaults, Python venvs, and finding Go nirvana: a practical scripter's journey.
Leveraging AI Chatbots on X: A Small Guide to @Grok and @AskPerplexity
How to use AI chatbots directly on X (Twitter) using Grok and @AskPerplexity for quick research, thread summaries, and web fact-checking.
Firefox to Arc Migration Guide 2025
A comprehensive guide to migrating from Firefox to The Browser Company's Arc browser in 2025: profiles, extensions, keyboard shortcuts, and sync.
How to Check, Transfer, and Sell Pi Cryptocurrency in 2025: A Beginner-Friendly Guide
A beginner-friendly guide to verifying Pi Network wallet balances, completing Mainnet KYC checklist items, and safely transferring Pi cryptocurrency.
CCTV-Watch: Headless RTSP Stream Capture and OpenCV Motion Telemetry
Building a lightweight, headless Python surveillance daemon that connects to IP camera RTSP streams and uses OpenCV frame differencing to eliminate false motion alerts.
The End of an Era: ICQ to Shut Down
Remembering ICQ as the pioneering instant messaging client shuts down after 28 years: 90s chat culture, the famous 'Uh-oh!' sound, and legacy.
Farewell to Kabosu, the Doge That Conquered the Internet
A tribute to Kabosu, the Shiba Inu rescue dog behind the iconic Doge meme and Dogecoin, passing away at age 18 after shaping internet culture.
Getting Rich with Trading Bots: Bull Runs, Bear Traps, and Algorithmic Reality
From 2-3% daily compounding euphoria in a raging crypto bull market to catching falling knives in the bear turn: what running trading bots actually taught me.
The Smart Money Visual Edge: Turn Govee Lights into Bitcoin (or Any Crypto) Trading Signals
How to automate Govee smart RGB lights to change colors based on live Bitcoin and crypto market price movements using Python and webhooks.
Resolving Avorion Server Error: "Attempt to Call Field 'Contents' (A Nil Value)"
How to fix the Avorion dedicated server crash error 'attempt to call field contents a nil value' caused by corrupted inventory scripts.
Troubleshooting Anaconda Installation Issues on Debian 12
How to troubleshoot common Anaconda Python installation errors, path conflicts, and missing shared libraries on Debian 12 Bookworm.
RIP - Charlie Munger: Unveiling the Legacy of an Investing Genius and Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman
Remembering Charlie Munger, Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway: mental models, multidisciplinary thinking, and timeless investing principles.
A Comprehensive Guide to Upgrading GitLab from Major Version to Major Version in Debian
Step-by-step guide to upgrading GitLab across major versions on Debian servers following the official upgrade path without breaking migrations.
Building an Algorithmic Crypto Trading Bot and Backtester in Python
A technical walkthrough of building an automated Python crypto trading bot with mean-reversion algorithms, CCXT integration, and historical backtesting.
RIP Queen Elizabeth II - London Bridge has Fallen
Reflections on the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, the activation of Operation London Bridge, and the end of a historic 70-year reign.
How to Switch from RSA to Ed25519 SSH Keys in OpenSSH
How to generate and migrate to Ed25519 SSH keys in OpenSSH, streamline your local ssh config, and handle legacy RSA SHA-1 host connections.
Reset Wordpress Password via PHPMyAdmin or SQL Commands
How to reset an admin password on WordPress using direct MD5 SQL queries in phpMyAdmin or the MySQL command line when locked out.
Upgrade Debian Stretch (9) to Buster (10)
Complete walkthrough for upgrading Debian 9 Stretch to Debian 10 Buster via SSH: updating apt sources.list, dist-upgrade, and system cleanup.
Essential cPanel & Apache CLI Snippets: Inodes, Connections, and Symlink Audits
A collection of practical cPanel and Apache SSH one-liners for inode diagnostics, active server connections, and security symlink audits.
Exim & cPanel Mail Forensics: Top Senders, PHP Scripts, and Queue Purging
Essential Exim and cPanel CLI one-liners to trace spam outbreaks, identify rogue PHP mail scripts, and purge thousands of frozen spool messages.
Cybersecurity Career Paths
Breaking down the Cyber Security Domains mind map by Henry Jiang: career paths across security architecture, incident response, governance, and user education.
Google Data Center Security
An inside look at Google's multi-layered physical and operational security measures protecting global cloud data center infrastructure.
VPS Error: Unable to create cgroup for vm**: No such file or directory
How to resolve the KVM error 'Unable to create cgroup for vm: No such file or directory' by restarting the libvirtd daemon on Linux hypervisors.
7 Fun and Useless Linux Terminal Utilities to Play With
A fun collection of classic terminal toys and ASCII animations: Asciiquarium, Steam Locomotive (sl), burning fire (aafire), and Star Wars via telnet.
RIP John H. Conway inventor for The Game of Life
Honoring the legacy of mathematician John Horton Conway, creator of the Game of Life cellular automaton and combinatorial game theory.
Setting Up Fail2ban to Block SSH Brute Force Attacks on Debian and Ubuntu
How to configure Fail2ban on Debian and Ubuntu servers with custom SSH jail rules, IP whitelisting, and quick CLI commands to manage banned IPs.
Happy Twenty-Twenty!
New Year greetings and brief reflections entering 2020 with upcoming infrastructure and coding plans.
How to Clear RAM Memory, Cache, Buffer and Swap Space on Linux in SSH
Simple terminal commands to safely drop page cache, dentries, inodes, and reset swap memory on Linux servers via SSH.
Jitsi Meet Logo and Text Change
How to customize the logo, watermark, and UI text on a self-hosted Jitsi Meet video conferencing server by editing interface_config.js.
How to Create a Simple Systemd Service to Run Background Scripts on Linux
How to create a custom systemd service unit on Linux to keep Python, Node.js, or Bash scripts running in the background with auto-restart on crash.
Rebuild cPanel Roundcube Database
How to fix corrupted SQLite or MySQL Roundcube webmail databases on cPanel servers using the convert_roundcube_mysql2sqlite and rebuild scripts.
Three sends pornographic marketing text to the subscriber base
Analysis of a mobile marketing blunder where UK telecom provider Three accidentally sent adult promotional SMS messages to its customer base.
How to play DirectX and Vulkan Games under Linux?
Complete guide to running Windows DirectX 9/11/12 and Vulkan games on Linux using Wine, DXVK, VKD3D, Lutris, and Valve's Proton.
What is DNS Flag Day? (1st Feb 2019)
Explaining DNS Flag Day 2019: major DNS providers and software vendors dropping EDNS workarounds to enforce strict RFC protocol compliance.
How to learn and practise War Games, Hacking, Pen-Testing and Web Application Security Testing
Top platforms and interactive war games for learning ethical hacking, penetration testing, and web application security skills.
First Aid / Rapid Response
Essential first aid principles, patient assessment steps, and rapid response guidance for handling medical emergencies before emergency services arrive.
EU funding bug bounties for open source projects in 2019.
The European Commission funds bug bounties on major open source projects including VLC, KeePass, 7-Zip, Apache Tomcat, and PuTTY through HackerOne.
pam_panic - Linux authentication for people in distress
How pam_panic provides a duress authentication module for Linux that wipes sensitive keys or triggers defensive scripts if a duress password is typed.
Raspberry Pi PIR Movement Detection and CCTV Security System
Building a standalone DIY security camera using a Raspberry Pi, an HC-SR501 PIR motion sensor, and automated snapshot capture with email alerts.
Command & Conquer / Red Alert 1 Remastered
EA and Petroglyph announce 4K remasters of Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert with original Westwood Studios team members and Frank Klepacki.
Warcraft III: Reforged
Blizzard announces Warcraft III: Reforged at BlizzCon 2018, featuring rebuilt 4K graphics, updated cutscenes, and 62 single-player missions.
Winamp is coming back in 2019 and will be whipping more llamas ass!
Radionomy announces a new modernized version of the classic Winamp media player with updated audio streaming and cloud connectivity.
Smart Mirror
DIY Smart Mirror hardware build log using a two-way glass mirror, Raspberry Pi display module, and customizable dashboard widgets.
Bash One-Liners: Flip a Coin and Generate Random Passwords with /dev/urandom
Two handy Linux shell one-liners using /dev/urandom: true entropy coin flipping and generating clean random passwords directly from the CLI.
cPanel Professional Certification (FREE)
How to earn the official cPanel Professional Certification (CPP) for free through cPanel University, covering server administration fundamentals.
Sans Forgetica
A look at Sans Forgetica, a typeface designed by RMIT University researchers that uses desirable difficulty principles to improve memory retention.
Clearing Minecraft Server Lag
Troubleshooting and fixing lag on modded Minecraft Forge and Spigot servers by diagnosing chunk generation, flowing liquids, and memory leaks.
Accessing WHM without the root password
How to log into cPanel Web Host Manager without a root password by generating a temporary user session URL via the whmapi1 command line tool in SSH.
Fixing a Stalled Exim Mail Queue and Clearing Frozen Spool Files on cPanel/WHM
How to fix a jammed Exim mail queue on cPanel and WHM servers using SSH commands to inspect traffic, delete frozen messages, and reset corrupt spool locks.
Enabling SPF and DKIM for all domains (WHM / cPanel Server)
A quick SSH command to enable SPF and DKIM DNS records across all hosted cPanel accounts on a WHM server using the enable_dkim_spf script.
Mini Security Certifications
Quick, free online cybersecurity certification courses from vendors like Fortinet, Qualys, and Cybrary to build verified infosec credentials.
Show OpenVZ / Virtuozzo Container Disk Space and Usage Percentage
A quick Awk one-liner to list all OpenVZ / Virtuozzo VPS containers sorted by disk space with calculated percentage usage.
How to Benchmark Disk I/O Speed on Linux VPS, VMs and Containers with dd and fio
How to accurately benchmark disk write speeds and 4K IOPS inside Linux VPS instances, KVM virtual machines, and Proxmox LXC containers using dd and fio.
DOTT + R? (Day of The Tentacle Remastered)
LucasArts' iconic 1993 point-and-click time-travel adventure Day of the Tentacle gets a high-res remaster by Double Fine with in-game developer commentary.
Find all error_logs on a server
A useful Linux find command to locate, sort, and inspect all error_log files across a server to troubleshoot PHP errors and disk usage.
Automating IRC Network Security in the 2000s: Defending Against Drone Floods, Open Proxies, and SDBot
Looking back at mid-2000s IRC network defence: building multi-network security bots with real-time SNOTICE sniffing, Blitzed OPM lookups, and auto-G-Lines.
Jurassic Park Theme
Melodica cover of the Jurassic Park theme song that became an iconic internet classic alongside movie memorabilia.
3D Printed Whiskey Ice Cubes?
A look at Suntory's 3D on the Rocks campaign, creating intricate 3D-milled ice cube sculptures for whiskey using Autodesk 3D and CNC carving.
Wordpress Security Basics
Essential WordPress security practices: securing wp-admin, updating plugins and themes, enforcing strong passwords, and monitoring user accounts.
Fixing Wordpress Insecure / Mixed Content in Posts
How to fix insecure HTTP mixed content warnings in WordPress posts after enabling SSL using search-and-replace queries and URL updates.
Growth Hacking Basics
The fundamentals of growth hacking: combining data analytics, viral marketing hooks, and product experimentation to scale web traffic.
Fixing Minecraft Server issues - Exception while updating neighbours
How to resolve the Exception while updating neighbours crash on Minecraft servers caused by corrupt redstone, fluids, or hopper block states.
Happy April Fools
A quick round-up of the best April Fools jokes, tech pranks, and gaming parodies from across the internet.
Sexiest Looking Uptime Monitor w/ API
Overview of StatusCake and modern uptime monitoring services featuring public status badges, REST APIs, and multi-location ping checks.
Anki - Flashcard Learning on Android, iOS, Linux and Windows
Overview of using Anki for spaced-repetition flashcard learning across Linux, Windows, Android, and iOS with AnkiWeb cloud sync.
Setting up Automated Scan Email Results
How to automate daily rootkit and malware scans on Debian/Ubuntu servers using rkhunter and chkrootkit with daily email log reports via cron.
The Life of Jim
A look at The Life of Jim, a creative character illustration and internet comic series by illustrator Chris.
Tweet when your followers are awake, know when they sleep!
Using Sleeping Time and Twitter activity analytics to estimate follower sleeping patterns and schedule tweets for maximum engagement.
Email Tester - SPF, DKIM, Blacklisting - Do Your Emails Get to the Inbox?
How to test email deliverability, SPF records, DKIM signatures, and spam blacklist status using mail-tester.com to prevent emails hitting spam.
Happy Pi Day - March 14th
Celebrating Pi Day on March 14th with math trivia, circle constants, and fun facts about the most famous irrational number.
Happy Steak and BJ Day! - March 14th
Notes celebrating March 14th as the male counterpart holiday to Valentine's Day with good food and humour.
Postfix Queue Monitoring With Mailgraph
How to set up Mailgraph and RRDtool to generate real-time visual mail traffic graphs and queue statistics for Postfix servers on Debian and Ubuntu.
Debugging WordPress: 5 Essential Troubleshooting Steps
First steps for debugging WordPress 5 and Gutenberg editor issues: enabling WP_DEBUG, checking PHP error logs, and isolating theme or plugin conflicts.
Website Speed? Website loading in under 1 second
How optimizing WordPress caching and assets reduced website load times under 1 second, and why page speed matters for search engine rankings.
Purple.com - Simple & Purple
The story of Purple.com, one of the simplest and most enduring classic single-page websites on the internet since 1994.
Top places to find a remote / online job
Curated list of reputable job boards and platforms for finding remote software engineering, sysadmin, customer support, and writing roles.
Playing Cards for Geeks
A curated collection of geek-themed playing cards featuring computer science algorithms, Linux commands, web design, and retro gaming art.
Dungeons and Developers .com
A talent tree and RPG-style skill mapper for web developers to benchmark their knowledge in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and backend infrastructure.
Happy 31st Birthday Dan Fry!
Reflections, birthday notes, and life updates celebrating turning 31, looking at career progress, health, and upcoming technical projects.
League of Professional System Administrators (LOPSA)
Overview of the League of Professional System Administrators (LOPSA), professional development standards, and code of ethics for sysadmins.
SMS Bombing from Windows CLI using Android
Security audit demonstration showing how Android debug bridge (ADB) commands on Windows CLI could automate SMS messaging and testing.
Viewing the Google Cache on demand
How to quickly inspect Google's cached version of any web page on demand to retrieve lost CSS, HTML changes, or debug indexing issues.
Email Notification on SSH 'root' Logins
How to configure instant email notifications whenever someone logs into a Linux server as root via SSH using a simple .bashrc script and mailx.
Understanding Basic Wordpress SEO
A beginner's guide to WordPress SEO: setting search engine friendly permalinks, optimizing post titles, meta tags, and using XML sitemaps.
SEO Tips – What Experienced Online Marketers Do
Core SEO strategies used by experienced marketers: organic link acquisition, technical site auditing, and conversion rate optimization.
SEO Tips – Improving Your Rank in 5 Easy Ways
5 practical search engine optimization tips covering niche keyword research, content quality, backlink diversity, and site hierarchy.
Effective SEO Tricks to Implement – Quality Content and Article Submission
How to combine high-quality article content with directory submissions and contextual anchor text for sustainable organic search visibility.
Building Web 2.0 Backlinks – The Easy and Effective Way to Do It
A practical approach to building web 2.0 backlinks on platforms like WordPress and Blogger with niche content to improve search rankings.
Basic SEO Tips to Remember
Fundamental search engine optimization tips covering targeted keyword selection, title and content placement, and building organic backlinks.
SEO Tricks – Getting to the Top
How search engine ranking algorithms evaluate on-page factors, site architecture, domain age, and authority backlinks to rank content.
Should you buy a 4K TV?
A practical buyer's guide comparing 4K Ultra HD resolution against 1080p, looking at viewing distance, content availability, and panel specs.
Hour of Code
The global Hour of Code initiative designed to introduce computer science and programming fundamentals to students worldwide.
Wordpress 101 Certification
Completing the Udemy WordPress 101 course for training team members in WordPress core administration, settings, and theme customization.
Welcome to my new home
The first post on DanFry.net: launching a personal technical blog to share sysadmin guides, server troubleshooting notes, and coding experiments.
SEO Tricks – Making Site Visibility Easier
Actionable ways to improve site crawlability and organic visibility through XML sitemaps, internal linking structure, and content freshness.