edit: Changes to New Years Backups
This commit is contained in:
Danny O'Brien
parent
f3128131c4
commit
122ebef2e2
3 changed files with 255 additions and 67 deletions
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
|
||||||
|
* Editorial Passes
|
||||||
|
** DONE HIRED [/] -- Commissioning and contract
|
||||||
|
** DONE STYLE [/] -- Editor and writer work together on style and structure.
|
||||||
|
** TODO FACTS [/] -- Fact-checking
|
||||||
|
- [ ] Links. Ensure we have links to as many places as possible, and that they work.
|
||||||
|
- [ ] Check with third-parties. To the greatest extent, we should reach out to everyone mentioned or to relevant experts and confirm that factual statements are correct.
|
||||||
|
- [ ] Terminology. Check that terminology is correct.
|
||||||
|
** TODO SPELL [/] -- Grammar and spell checking
|
||||||
|
** TODO GRAPH [/] -- Graphics. Every piece needs a illustrated initial and at least one image.
|
||||||
|
** TODO FINAL [/] -- Final look through before publication.
|
||||||
|
- [ ] Add any Almnck footnote references to the canonical [[../../../../doc/footnotes.org][footnotes]] list.
|
||||||
|
- [ ] Final check of all links.
|
||||||
|
** TODO WRAPUP [/] -- Final administrivia. YOU MUST DO THIS.
|
||||||
143
assets/editorial/01edits/integrity-new-years-backups/FACT.md
Normal file
143
assets/editorial/01edits/integrity-new-years-backups/FACT.md
Normal file
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,143 @@
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
Author: Integrity Jones
|
||||||
|
Title: Looking Back Up
|
||||||
|
Published: 2024-01-01
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
To Old Danny, greetings:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
The solar nights have barely stopped closing in, and we see even large language
|
||||||
|
models have been taking it easy for the winter. But for the faithful maintainer
|
||||||
|
of systems, there's still work to be done, here in the cooling embers of the year.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
> Solar nights -- does this mean anything (No)
|
||||||
|
> Link to LLM stories
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Now is a fine time of year to dust off your backup scripts, and see if they're
|
||||||
|
working as they should. An untested backup is a no backup at all, said the wise
|
||||||
|
ghosts of the Scary Devil Monastery, and if we want to set the year off to its
|
||||||
|
best start, we should ensure we can pause, tear-down, and re-start it at its lowest
|
||||||
|
points.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
> Link to Scary Devil Monastery
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
When examining my backup and restore process, took the opportunity this year to
|
||||||
|
quadruple the size of my root partition on my server.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
One last manual backup of the 256GiB SSD in my trusty server `boat` for the
|
||||||
|
sake of the old, and then an attempted restore for the sake of the new: to a
|
||||||
|
spare machine, `tub`, temporarily hosting a new, 1TiB SSD. If all goes well,
|
||||||
|
the restored backup in tub would have new room to grow, and I could swap
|
||||||
|
out that drive back into `boat` with minimal downtime.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
> Box on hard drives? Link to goods?
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
That moment of hardware-swapping would mean that `boat` would have to be
|
||||||
|
shutdown and then restarted anew. Humans need their respite over the holiday break:
|
||||||
|
but should I have permitted my server the same indulgence? My plan accepted
|
||||||
|
that boat would be offline for, one hopes, a small slice of time.
|
||||||
|
There are more convoluted ways to ensure that none of my websites, file syncing, and
|
||||||
|
miscellaneous tools did not flicker, even for a moment.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I could have switched my DNS settings to the fresh clean `tub`, for instance,
|
||||||
|
while overwriting `boat`. Or perhaps just repurposed boat for gentler, less
|
||||||
|
demanding tasks, giving it the end-of-year gift of a well-deserved retirement,
|
||||||
|
and switched to `tub` a new year's responsibility of my hosting my main home
|
||||||
|
processes.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
At the smallest scale, I do believe that uptime is overrated. We are surrounded
|
||||||
|
by tools bent into the shapes demanded by large tech companies, for whom site
|
||||||
|
reliability is their first commandment.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
But we are humans, not corporations. If even Homer nods, so can my home lab.
|
||||||
|
Christmas has its own folklore of visitors rebuffed, but hopefully my friends
|
||||||
|
have better things to do at this time than hit reload on my websites. Yes, a
|
||||||
|
personal webserver can go down for a few moments -- as long as it comes back up.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
> Link to Home nods line
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Which, with restored filing systems, is ever the question. Will the backup
|
||||||
|
truly come back up? A restored and rebooted machine may also be a time for
|
||||||
|
failure and death, just as, morbidly, we should note that human coronary deaths
|
||||||
|
seem positively correlated with the change of pace of the holidays.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
> Link to coronary death paper
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I use the more positively-framed "Relax-And-Recover" (REAR), a recover system
|
||||||
|
from when sysadmins wrote shell code and /liked it/. REAR is a sprawling bash
|
||||||
|
scripts that runs your choice of backup code -- from rsync to borg-- over your
|
||||||
|
entire linux root, on a regular, cron-determined, basis. Having seen to that
|
||||||
|
prosaic task, it will also create minimal, bootable blob. The blob, stuffed
|
||||||
|
onto an USB drive, CD ROM, or networked drive, will boot into a minimal Linux,
|
||||||
|
and gently lead you through reconstructing a re-partitioning of a drive
|
||||||
|
that will. At its end, the partition map on the machine you have booted
|
||||||
|
will be exactly the same shape as your original machine. Then it will pull
|
||||||
|
down your precious backups, and restore this drive to the precise state
|
||||||
|
that your backups recalled it. A perfect, royal, restoration.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
> Link to Relax and Recover
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Younger readers born into our age of strong types and weak stomachs, may be
|
||||||
|
balking at the idea of entrusting restoration to a bunch of stringly-typed Bash
|
||||||
|
scripts. REAR's 20K(!) lines of shellcode intimate that it has reached the
|
||||||
|
edges of complexity beyond that you might think bashism can bear.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
> Link to definition of stringly
|
||||||
|
> Link to proof of REAR's 20K of KLOCs
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
But this is /sysadmin/ shell code. That terrifying KLOC is
|
||||||
|
defensive, modular coding of the highest order. For the casual shell user,
|
||||||
|
REAR's operation is comprehensible, the failure modes anticipated, and
|
||||||
|
tweaks and errors are semi-obvious. REAR's authors emphasise "a relaxing
|
||||||
|
recovery", and ghosts of sysadminning past do not emphasise enhancing your
|
||||||
|
calm in those moments lightly.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
> Link to REAR
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I was never /not/ relaxed during my holiday restoration, but I did
|
||||||
|
occasionally emit a high-pitched carol or two of concern. Firstly, I had REAR create ISO
|
||||||
|
files for burning onto a CD-ROM that I could restore from. CD stands for
|
||||||
|
"Cretaceous Disk". Even I have not used one of them in anger in over a decade.
|
||||||
|
Converting a bootable ISO into a bootable USB drive drive turned out to be
|
||||||
|
surprisingly tricky, and I can never remember how to do it. In the end I was
|
||||||
|
forced, humiliatingly, to read REAR's FAQ, where they recommended a heavy
|
||||||
|
utility, https://unetbootin.github.io/, for achieving this. In the future, I've
|
||||||
|
set REAR to output those bootable blobs as RAWDISK, which can be burned
|
||||||
|
(warmed?) onto a USB.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
> Link to REAR's FAQ
|
||||||
|
> Link to UnetBootlin
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
REAR's ecumenical acceptance of multiple backup programs introduces additional
|
||||||
|
complexity into its scripts. My use of borg backup tripped up the restore. REAR
|
||||||
|
scans executables that it plans to include on its rescue bootable blob, so it
|
||||||
|
can detect what libraries they need and copy those over. Sadly, the borg
|
||||||
|
executable can be either a binary executable (for which this works), or just a
|
||||||
|
Python script, whose demands REAR cannot fathom. This is undoubtedly a bug a
|
||||||
|
future REAR will fix, but in the meantime I just copied over the binary borg
|
||||||
|
into /usr/local/bin and used that instead of the Pythonic borg of the Debian
|
||||||
|
repos.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
> Link to binary executable
|
||||||
|
> Link to executable/python script issue on github
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
After those tweaks, tub was filled with the form of boat's Christmas past. I swapped
|
||||||
|
over the two drives, holding my breath, and losing the little SSD screw as
|
||||||
|
always (these plastic nubbin replacements tempted me in the fallout). Boat
|
||||||
|
wobbled and then, like a plucky North Sea veteran, bobbed back up.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
> Link to nubbin ali express sale
|
||||||
|
> Link to North Sea tiktok music
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Testing your recovery plans during your own end-of-year downtime and recovery
|
||||||
|
gives you a moment to peer at what has been, and prepare for the ups and downs
|
||||||
|
of the coming year. What will be the same? What will change? What parts of your
|
||||||
|
life can you simply hard link to the habits of the past? And what will you have
|
||||||
|
to incrementally add and integrate into your ever-evolving life?
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Until next time, I am,
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
~Integrity Mather
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
@ -1,114 +1,146 @@
|
||||||
---
|
---
|
||||||
Author: Integrity Jones
|
Author: Integrity Mather
|
||||||
Title: Looking Back Up
|
Title: Looking Back Up
|
||||||
Published: 2024-01-01
|
|
||||||
---
|
---
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
To Old Danny, greetings:
|
To Old Danny, greetings:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
The solar nights have barely stopped closing in, and we see even large language
|
The nights have barely stopped closing in the Northern hemisphere, and we see
|
||||||
models have been taking it easy for the winter. But for the faithful maintainer
|
even large language models have been taking it easy for the
|
||||||
of systems, there's still work to be done, here in the cooling embers of the year.
|
winter[^winterbreak]. But for the faithful maintainer of systems, there's still
|
||||||
|
work to be done, here in the cooling embers of the year.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
Now is a fine time of year to dust off your backup scripts, and see if they're
|
Now is a fine time to dust off your backup scripts and see if they're working
|
||||||
working as they should. An untested backup is no backup at all, said the wise
|
as they should. An untested backup is no backup at all, said the wise elders of
|
||||||
ghosts of the Scary Devil Monastery, and if we want to set the year off to its
|
the [Scary Devil Monastery](http://www.faqs.org/faqs/sysadmin-recovery/)[^scarydevilmonastery], and if we want to set the new year off to its best
|
||||||
best start, we should ensure we can pause, tear-down, and re-start it even at its lowest
|
start, we should ensure we can pause, tear-down, and re-start the marching
|
||||||
points.
|
present even at its lowest points.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
When examining my backup and restore process, took the opportunity this year to
|
When examining my backup and restore process, I took the opportunity this year
|
||||||
quadruple the size of my root partition on my server.
|
to test my backups while quadrupling the size of my root partition on my
|
||||||
|
server.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
One last manual backup of the 256GiB SSD in my trusty server `boat` for the
|
One last manual backup of the 256GiB SSD in my trusty server `boat` for the
|
||||||
sake of the old, and then an attempted restore for the sake of the new: to a
|
sake of the old, and then an attempted restore for the sake of the new: to a
|
||||||
spare machine, `tub`, temporarily hosting a new, 1TiB SSD. If all goes well,
|
spare machine, `tub`, temporarily hosting a new, 1TiB SSD. If all goes well,
|
||||||
the restored backup in tub would have new room to grow, and I could swap
|
the restored backup in tub would have new room to grow, and I could swap
|
||||||
out that drive back into `boat` with minimal downtime.
|
that drive into `boat` with minimal downtime.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
That moment of hardware-swapping would mean that `boat` would have to be
|
That moment of hardware-swapping would mean that `boat` would have to be
|
||||||
shutdown and then restarted anew. Humans need their respite over the holiday break:
|
shutdown and then restarted anew. Humans need their respite over the holiday break:
|
||||||
but should I have permitted my server the same indulgence? My plan accepted
|
but should I have granted my server the same indulgence? My plan accepted
|
||||||
that boat would be offline for, one hopes, a small slice of time.
|
that `boat` would be offline for, I hoped, a small slice of time.
|
||||||
There are more convoluted ways to ensure that none of my websites, file syncing, and
|
|
||||||
miscellaneous tools did not flicker, even for a moment.
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
I could have switched my DNS settings to the fresh clean `tub`, for instance,
|
There are more convoluted ways to ensure that none of my websites, file
|
||||||
while overwriting `boat`. Or perhaps just repurposed boat for gentler, less
|
syncing, and miscellaneous tools did not flicker, even for a moment. I could
|
||||||
demanding tasks, giving it the end-of-year gift of a well-deserved retirement,
|
have switched my DNS settings to the fresh clean `tub`, for instance, while
|
||||||
and switched to `tub` a new year's responsibility of my hosting my main home
|
overwriting `boat`. Or perhaps just repurposed `boat` for gentler, less demanding
|
||||||
|
tasks, giving it the end-of-year gift of a well-deserved retirement, and
|
||||||
|
switched to `tub` a new year's responsibility of my hosting my main home
|
||||||
processes.
|
processes.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
At the smallest scale, I do believe that uptime is overrated. We are surrounded
|
At the scale of my own life, I do believe that uptime is overrated. We are
|
||||||
by tools bent into the shapes demanded by large tech companies, for whom site
|
surrounded by tools bent into the shapes demanded by large tech companies, for
|
||||||
reliability is their first commandment.
|
whom site reliability is their first commandment.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
But we are humans, not corporations. If even Homer nods, so can my home lab.
|
But we are humans, not corporations. If Homer nods, so can my home lab.
|
||||||
Christmas has its own folklore of visitors rebuffed, but hopefully my friends
|
Christmas has its own folklore of [visitors rebuffed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Befana), but hopefully my friends
|
||||||
have better things to do at this time than hit reload on my websites. Yes, a
|
have better things to do at this time than hit reload on my websites. Yes, a
|
||||||
personal webserver can go down for a few moments -- as long as it comes back up.
|
personal webserver can go down for a few moments -- as long as it comes back
|
||||||
|
up.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
Which, with restored filing systems, is ever the question. Will the backup
|
Which, with restored filing systems, is ever the question. Will the backup
|
||||||
truly come back up? A restored and rebooted machine may also be a time for
|
truly come back up? A restored and rebooted machine may also be a time for
|
||||||
failure and death, just as, morbidly, we should note that human coronary deaths
|
failure and death, just as, morbidly, we should note that human deaths
|
||||||
seem positively correlated with the change of pace of the holidays.
|
seem positively correlated with the change of pace of the holidays[^xmasdeaths].
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
I use the more positively-framed "Relax-And-Recover" (REAR), a recover system
|
I use the more positively-framed ["Relax-And-Recover"](https://relax-and-recover.org/) (REAR), a disaster recovery system
|
||||||
from when sysadmins wrote shell code and /liked it/. REAR is a sprawling bash
|
from when sysadmins wrote shell code and /liked it/. REAR is a sprawling bash
|
||||||
scripts that runs your choice of backup code -- from rsync to borg-- over your
|
scripts that runs your choice of backup code -- from `[rsync](https://jumpcloud.com/blog/how-to-backup-linux-system-rsync)` to `[borg](https://borgbackup.readthedocs.io/)` -- over your
|
||||||
entire linux root, on a regular, cron-determined, basis. Having seen to that
|
entire linux root, on a regular, cron-determined, basis. Having seen to that
|
||||||
prosaic task, it will also create minimal, bootable blob. The blob, stuffed
|
prosaic task, it will also create [minimal, bootable blob](https://relax-and-recover.org/usage/#recovery_from_usb). The blob, stuffed
|
||||||
onto an USB drive, CD ROM, or networked drive, will boot into a minimal Linux,
|
onto an USB drive, CD-ROM, or networked drive, will boot into a minimal Linux,
|
||||||
and gently lead you through reconstructing a re-partitioning of a drive
|
and lead you through the reconstruction and re-partitioning of a drive
|
||||||
that will. At its end, the partition map on the machine you have booted
|
that will emerge the same shape as your original machine. Then it will pull
|
||||||
will be exactly the same shape as your original machine. Then it will pull
|
down your backups, and restore this drive to the precise state
|
||||||
down your precious backups, and restore this drive to the precise state
|
that your backups recalled it. A perfect, royal, restoration.
|
||||||
that your backups recalled it. A perfect, royal, restoration.
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
Younger readers born into our age of strong types and weak stomachs, may be
|
Readers born into our age of strong types and weak stomachs may be balking at
|
||||||
balking at the idea of entrusting restoration to a bunch of stringly-typed Bash
|
the idea of entrusting restoration to a bunch of [stringly-typed](https://samgrayson.me/essays/stop-writing-shell-scripts/) Bash scripts.
|
||||||
scripts. REAR's 20K(!) lines of shellcode intimate that it has reached the
|
REAR's 20K(!) lines of shellcode intimate that it has reached the edges of
|
||||||
edges of complexity beyond that you might think bashism can bear.
|
complexity beyond that you might think bashism can bear.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
But this is /sysadmin/ shell code. That terrifying KLOC is
|
But this is *sysadmin* shell code. That terrifying KLOC is
|
||||||
defensive, modular coding of the highest order. For the casual shell user,
|
defensive, modular coding of the highest order. For the casual shell user,
|
||||||
REAR's operation is comprehensible, the failure modes anticipated, and
|
REAR's operation is comprehensible, failure modes anticipated and loudly-announced, and
|
||||||
tweaks and errors are semi-obvious. REAR's authors emphasise "a relaxing
|
tweaks and errors are semi-obvious. REAR's authors emphasise "a relaxing
|
||||||
recovery", and ghosts of sysadminning past do not emphasise enhancing your
|
recovery", and ghosts of sysadminning past do not lightly emphasise enhancing your
|
||||||
calm in those moments lightly.
|
calm in those moments.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
I was never /not/ relaxed during my holiday restoration, but I did
|
I was never /not/ relaxed during my holiday restoration. I did
|
||||||
occasionally emit a high-pitched carol or two of concern. Firstly, I had REAR create ISO
|
occasionally emit a high-pitched carol or two of concern. I have had REAR create ISO
|
||||||
files for burning onto a CD-ROM that I could restore from. CD stands for
|
files for burning onto a CD-ROM that I could restore from. CD stands for
|
||||||
"Cretaceous Disk". Even I have not used one of them in anger in over a decade.
|
"Cretaceous Disk" nowadays: Even I have not used them in anger for over a decade.
|
||||||
Converting a bootable ISO into a bootable USB drive drive turned out to be
|
|
||||||
|
Converting a bootable ISO into a bootable USB drive drive turns out to be
|
||||||
surprisingly tricky, and I can never remember how to do it. In the end I was
|
surprisingly tricky, and I can never remember how to do it. In the end I was
|
||||||
forced, humiliatingly, to read REAR's FAQ, where they recommended a heavy
|
forced, humiliatingly, to read [REAR's FAQ](https://relax-and-recover.org/documentation/faq), where they recommended a heavy
|
||||||
utility, https://unetbootin.github.io/, for achieving this. In the future, I've
|
utility, [UnetBootin](https://unetbootin.github.io/), for achieving this. In the future, I've
|
||||||
set REAR to output those bootable blobs as RAWDISK, which can be burned
|
set REAR to output those bootable blobs as [RAWDISK](https://relax-and-recover.org/rear-user-guide/basics/configuration.html), which can be burned
|
||||||
(warmed?) onto a USB.
|
(warmed?) onto a USB.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
REAR's ecumenical acceptance of multiple backup programs introduces additional
|
REAR's ecumenical acceptance of multiple backup programs can introduce additional
|
||||||
complexity into its scripts. My use of borg backup tripped up the restore. REAR
|
complexity into its scripts. My use of borg backup tripped up the restore. REAR
|
||||||
scans executables that it plans to include on its rescue bootable blob, so it
|
[scans executables](https://github.com/rear/rear/blob/0bd84e259c7c61612a1d8eb296ee1e81a2cbc87b/usr/share/rear/build/default/990_verify_rootfs.sh#L51) that it plans to include on its rescue bootable blobto
|
||||||
can detect what libraries they need and copy those over. Sadly, the borg
|
detect what libraries they require, so that it may copy those over. Sadly, the borg
|
||||||
executable can be either a binary executable (for which this works), or just a
|
executable can be either a binary executable (for which this works), or just a
|
||||||
Python script, whose demands REAR cannot fathom. This is undoubtedly a bug a
|
Python script, whose demands REAR cannot fathom. This is undoubtedly a bug a
|
||||||
future REAR will fix, but in the meantime I just copied over the binary borg
|
future REAR will fix, but in the meantime I just copied over the [binary borg](https://borgbackup.readthedocs.io/en/stable/installation.html#standalone-binary)
|
||||||
into /usr/local/bin and used that instead of the Pythonic borg of the Debian
|
into `/usr/local/bin` and used that instead of the Pythonic borg of the Debian
|
||||||
repos.
|
repos.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
After those tweaks, tub was filled with the form of boat's Christmas past. I swapped
|
After those tweaks, `tub` was filled with the form of `boat`'s Christmas past. I swapped
|
||||||
over the two drives, holding my breath, and losing the little SSD screw as
|
over the two drives, holding my breath, and losing the little M.2 SSD screw as
|
||||||
always (these plastic nubbin replacements tempted me in the fallout). Boat
|
always (these [plastic nubbin replacements](https://www.ebay.com/itm/275937873783) tempted me in the fallout, though apparently a [pencil sharpener](https://linustechtips.com/topic/1319971-missing-a-screw-for-your-m2-ssd-check-this-out/) also works in a pinch). `Boat`
|
||||||
wobbled and then, like a plucky North Sea veteran, bobbed back up.
|
wobbled and then, like a lucky [North Sea seafarer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlrvzLRgzdc), bobbed back up from an early visit to "[Fiddler's Green](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiddler%27s_Green)".
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
Testing your recovery plans during your own end-of-year downtime and recovery
|
Testing your recovery plans during your own end-of-year
|
||||||
gives you a moment to peer at what has been, and prepare for the ups and downs
|
downtime and recovery gives you a moment to peer at what has
|
||||||
of the coming year. What will be the same? What will change? What parts of your
|
been, and prepare for the ups and downs of the coming year.
|
||||||
life can you simply hard link to the habits of the past? And what will you have
|
What will be the same? What will change? What parts of your
|
||||||
to incrementally add and integrate into your ever-evolving life?
|
life can you simply hard link to the habits of the past? And
|
||||||
|
what will you have to incrementally add and integrate into your
|
||||||
|
ever-evolving life?
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
Until next time, I am,
|
Until next time, I am,
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
~Integrity Mather
|
~Integrity Mather
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
[^winterbreak]: Are the rumors of an AI Winter true? Do LLMs get lazier during December? [Ian Arawjo](https://ianarawjo.com/),
|
||||||
|
author of [ChainForge](https://github.com/ianarawjo/ChainForge), spotted [flaws](https://twitter.com/IanArawjo/status/1734924051242484223) in Rob Lynch's significant result that
|
||||||
|
GPT-4-Turbo produces fewer tokens when December is mentioned in its prompt, but [https://twitter.com/messages/54913-1586500784514113536](Cousin Lynch) is continuing to investigate at press time. See our earlier memo on the phenomenon, "The True Meaning of Wintermute: Northern Hemisphere Seasonability in Tessier-Ashpool AIs", Automatic Jack, Almnck. 1981.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
[^scarydevilmonastery]: Alt.sysadmin.recovery's monastic wisdom, is only dimly remembered
|
||||||
|
now that posting to Usenet and painting your nails black are
|
||||||
|
no longer professional requirements for network engineers. Nonetheless the newsgroup provided several powerful and vile proverbs on the importance of
|
||||||
|
backups, the foulest of which remain unrecorded in Heather Garvey's [extant
|
||||||
|
quotes
|
||||||
|
file](https://web.archive.org/web/20060423055444/http://home.xnet.com/~raven/Sysadmin/ASR.Quotes.html),
|
||||||
|
Garvey's document was, you may note, updated mere hours before Y2K day.
|
||||||
|
This lends some credence to the the theory that an eldritch rite committed by
|
||||||
|
the Monks on that day led to the key events in the subsequent Rupture of the
|
||||||
|
Nerds, including the abandonment of Usenet, ASR regulars Kirrily "Skud" Roberts' co-founding of the Geek
|
||||||
|
Feminism movement, and Charlie Stross being press-ganged into leaving system administraiton and forced by mysterious VC backers to become
|
||||||
|
prominent science fiction author, thereafter, following the success of Accelerando,
|
||||||
|
to be clumsily digitized into an AI corporate entity, programmed to
|
||||||
|
repeatedly deny that corporations were people until the West Lothian and Turing police backed away
|
||||||
|
from looking more any closely into his corporate structure. See, "Saint Charles of Stross: A Prohairetic Hagiography", G. Vittoria, Almnck. 2006.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
[^xmasdeaths]: Most recently -- but not *that* recently -- examined in
|
||||||
|
Phillips, D. P., Jarvinen, J. R., Abramson, I., & Phillips, R. R. (2004). Cardiac Mortality Is Higher Around Christmas and New Year’s Than at Any Other Time. *Circulation*, 110(25), 3781–3788. https://doi.org/10.1161/01.cir.0000151424.02045.f7.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Later studies suggest that people don't get any crazier or suicidal at Christmas (See
|
||||||
|
Schneider, E., Liwinski, T., Imfeld, L., Lang, U. E., & Brühl, A. B. (2023). Who is afraid of Christmas? The effect of Christmas and Easter holidays on psychiatric hospitalizations and emergencies—Systematic review and single center experience from 2012 to 2021. *Frontiers in Psychiatry*, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.1049935 ), and it may just be the same effect as more people dying in the medical system during weekends, See
|
||||||
|
Castaño-Pérez, S., Medina García, J.A. & Cabrera de León, A. The dose–response effect of time between emergency admission and inpatient care on mortality. Sci Rep 13, 22244 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-49090-5 .
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
For explorations of the theory that excess Winter deaths are caused by high-energy particle emissions from near-lightspeed Western gift-deliverers, see "Bremstrahlung und Blitzen!: A Comparison of Incidence Rates of Thyroid Cancer among the Naughty, Nice, and Non-Believers", Almnck. 1823.
|
||||||
|
|
|
||||||
Loading…
Reference in a new issue