What Does It Mean to Throttle a Hard Disk?

Problem scenario
You have read about disk throttling. What does it do?

Solution
Disk throttling is the limiting of I/O activity. Files are often downloaded at an even rate over the network. Batches of writes can happen while throttling read operations. This can allow for interruptions from other OS processes without excessive latency and a consistent user experience. A server's performance can be improved by putting a cap on disk input/output operations. The throttling algorithm is not trivial. A benefit of disk throttling is that logs fill up gradually (rather than suddenly). For experimental or specialized disk use cases, disk throttling can be turned off intentionally.

How Do You Troubleshoot “quotacheck: Your kernel probably supports journaled quota but you are not using it.”?

Problem scenario
You are running a quotacheck command on a Linux system. You get an error "quotacheck: Your kernel probably supports journaled quota but you are not using it. Consider switching to journaled quota to avoid running quotacheck after an unclean shutdown. "

Your /etc/fstab looks like this:

# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
/dev/foo  /bar ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1

What should you do?

Possible solution
Backup the /etc/fstab file (e.g., make a copy in your home directory).
Modify the /etc/fstab file.

In the rightmost group of characters with letters (not the dump or pass columns with integers, usually 0s, 1s or 2s), append these characters without the quotes:

",usrjquota=aquota.user,grpjquota=aquota.group,jqfmt=vfsv0"

Here is a correct line:

# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
/dev/foo  /bar ext4 errors=remount-ro,usrjquota=aquota.user,grpjquota=aquota.group,jqfmt=vfsv1 0 1

Save the changes. Run this command (but replace "/bar" with the destination of the mount point in the /etc/fstab):

sudo mount -o remount /bar

The above solution was found in part with these two postings:
https://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-1014051.html
https://www.howtoforge.com/how-to-set-up-journaled-quota-on-debian-lenny

vfsv0 applies to 32 bit OSes. vfsv1 applies to 64 bit OSes.

What is Homeostat (or Sleep Homeostat)?

Question
You have heard the terms homeostat and sleep homeostat. What do these terms mean?

Answer
"Homeostat (Sleep Homeostat): A neurobiologic structure or circuit that is believed to regulate sleep quality and quantity based on the amount and/or quality of prior wakefulness." (Taken from page 151 of Cognitive Behavioral Treatment of Insomnia by Perlis et al.)

"Blessed are those drowsy ones: for they shall soon nod to sleep." (Taken from page 38 of Thus Spake Zarathustra (Squid Classics 2017).)

In GitLab, How Do You Find Only Files (not folders or projects) That Have “foo” in Their Content and Have File Extensions of .bar?

Problem scenario
You are using the GitLab GUI. You want to find files that end with .bar and have the patter "foo" in the content. How do you find them?

Solution
Use the Search feature. Use this as the search term for a given Group in GitLab (with "Any" for the "Project"):

foo extension:bar

(Do not use ".bar".)

The source of this is https://docs.gitlab.com. "Finding any file with the .yaml extension: extension:yaml" taken from https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/search/advanced_search.html

What Does the Term “pwn” Mean?

Question
In I.T. culture, there is a term "pwn". What does it mean?

Answer
In video game culture, there is a term "pwn" [1]. The past tense is "pwned" [1]. According to Wikipedia [2] it can refer to Phrack World News. It could be a reference to unauthorized computer usage (as it amounts to internet slang) and can refer to Phrack World News [3]. It could refer to hacking into a system.

[1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/pwn-what-it-means-and-how-you-say-it

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PWN

[3] http://phrack.org/issues/69/3.html

Does Chef Use a DSL?

Question
You are not sure if Chef uses pure Ruby or a DSL based on Ruby or Erlang. Does Chef use a Domain Specific Language?

Answer
It uses a Ruby-based domain specific language. The sources are as follows:

https://docs-archive.chef.io/release/12-0/dsl_recipe.html
https://cloudacademy.com/course/getting-started-chef/the-recipe-dsl/

What States Have Double Taxation on Income for Remote Workers?

Problem scenario
"People who work in a state they do not live in may be subject to income tax withholding for both states." (This quote was taken from https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/legal-and-compliance/employment-law/pages/hybrid-work-legal-challenges.aspx.)

You read that some states make the remote employee pay income tax in addition to other taxes where the employer is located. What states are these?

Answer
Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New York, and Pennsylvania. Sometimes another state (the state your employer is in) will give you a credit if you live in one of these states.

The source this answer is
https://www.adp.com/spark/articles/2022/11/remote-and-hybrid-workers-state-tax-incentives-and-compliance-challenges.aspx

How Do You Troubleshoot the Error “req: Use -help for summary”?

Problem scenario
You run a command like this:

sudo openssl req -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -keyout contint.key -x509 -days 9999 contint.crt

You get this as the output: "req: Use -help for summary."

What should you do?

Possible Solution #1
Use the "-out" flag between "9999" and "contint.crt".

Possible Solution #2
Do you have an extra "-new" flag in your command? There may be an extraneous flag that should not be there.

Possible Solution #3
Can you simplify the command? Complex commands with potential escape characters could create confusion. To isolate the problem, start with a simple version of what you are trying to run. Then start using arguments of a greater complexity on that working command.

Possible Solution #4
See this serverfault.com posting.