Stefan Sperling @stsp@bsd.network

I will be hosting a #GameOfTrees version control system tutorial at #EuroBSDCon 2026, with @op as co-host (edit: Turns out Omar cannot make it; Johannes Thyssen Tishman will be co-hosting instead).

This tutorial will be suitable for both #Git experts and complete beginners. The experts will probably spend significant effort temporarily unlearning some things they know, while the beginners will spend moderate effort learning some things they didn't know. Our goal is that both groups will broaden their version control horizons a bit and have fun doing so ​

https://events.eurobsdcon.org/2026/talk/JJLZXQ/

For my company I have put together #gameoftrees and #OpenBSD support packages which cover tasks I have been doing via ad-hoc consulting gigs for years now. And I asked some freelancing friends from the OpenBSD community to share the work with me.

We support deployments of OpenBSD in server and firewall roles via yearly fixed-price contracts. All base system components can be supported.

From our existing client base we know for a fact that there are small and mid-sized businesses out there who run OpenBSD and would benefit from working with us. We want to find more of them.

https://chirpysoft.be/support.html

I will be hosting #OpenBSD and #PF firewall courses at @linuxhotel in the city of Essen, Germany.

OpenBSD: https://www.linuxhotel.de/course/openbsd-de

PF: https://www.linuxhotel.de/course/pf-de

Next date for the PF course will be: 18th of May 2027 - 20th of May 2027

The target audience are system administrators who would like to learn about OpenBSD and PF in order to use them as part of their network security tool set.

(Do not be afraid to sign up if you do not understand German. While the courses are advertised in German, written course material will be in English and the presentation will be entirely in English if preferred by participants.)

More earl grey, hot.

Some people who understand TLS very well (because they develop a TLS library), use this in their #Git config file. Maybe everyone else should use this, too.

[http "https://github.com/"]
pinnedpubkey = sha256//8gWWkWa8AfAz0khtRYRodss7ieQPpu8Sd7DppK94eVo=

Time for a cup of earl grey, hot, in the captain's honor.

I am getting excited about an upcoming generation of WiFi hackers which will add support for 11n and 11ac to the NetBSD kernel without wrapping Linux drivers in a compatibility layer. It's been kind of lonely in this territory over the past 10 years or so.

The main #Git repositories of the #GameOfTrees project have been migrated to SHA256 object identifiers: https://marc.gameoftrees.org/mail/1792937701.37192_0.html

I've just had to stumble across the database admin password in ~/.mysql_history in order to get the database of a #PHP application upgraded across a major version.

Leaves me wondering how many admins out there are having to touch legacy systems where such details have long been forgotten and cannot be found anywhere... ​