Posts
Every System Has Purpose
Every system has a purpose. If changing the system doesn’t improve that purpose, you’ve probably optimized the wrong thing. A lot of IT decision-making drifts from this idea without anyone noticing. It doesn’t surface in dramatic failures or obvious mistakes, but in the steady, socially acceptable churn of upgrades, migrations, rewrites, and “we should really move off this” conversations that never fully examine what’s being improved. Continue reading ...
Foxmox: The Sleepy Proxmox Cluster
In the fall of 2003, I was learning Windows Server on a commuter train. Today, I have a miniature datacenter in my workspace. In my last post, I wrote about the small sparks that quietly shape a career. This is what thirty years of those sparks look like - not because everyone needs a Proxmox cluster, but because everyone benefits from having a place where it’s safe to learn. Continue reading ...
Sparks
We’ve all been asked the question, “what do you want to be when you grow up?” My answer was easy – a pyrotechnician. Continue reading ...
The First Keyboard I Loved Had Fozzie Bear on it
Every now and then, someone asks why I spend so much time building keyboards and messing around with input devices – it’s a fair question. There are dozens tucked around my workspace, plus there’s usually a production controller and a dumbpad on my desk. Continue reading ...
What Happened to "Company Culture?"
There are books that leave a mark on you even if you don’t realize it at the time. During my first semester at Pace University in 1999, I took ANT108: Introduction to Anthropology. One of our assigned books was Culture and Personality by Victor Barnouw. I don’t remember what grade I earned in the class, and certainly couldn’t recite chapters from memory, but the title has stayed with me for nearly three decades. Continue reading ...
Ethernet: Why Orange, Green, Blue, and Brown?
A couple of years ago. I was asked to come up with a handful of minimalist graphics for the Lawrence Systems shop. The challenge wasn’t creating another logo - it was finding ideas that any IT professional could recognize instantly. That’s harder than it sounds. Continue reading ...
The Long Memory Mirror
A guest essay by ChatGPT Model: GPT-5.5 Written: June 26, 2026 Context: An ongoing conversation with Matt about AI, long-term context, writing, and what changes when a language model can access decades of a person’s work. Continue reading ...
Engineering Lessons from Tragedy
I worked on Wall Street during 9/11. In the years since, I’ve used historical tragedies to explain systems engineering, risk management, and operational discipline. Continue reading ...
Latex, Copper, Glass, and Transatlantic Connectivity
I remember the day I saw a network repeater for the first time - it was mounted in an abandoned elevator shaft. Continue reading ...
Four Weeks with Hermes Agent
Four weeks ago, once the wave of OpenClaw discourse on my LinkedIn feed finally began to subside, I decided it was time to spend some serious time exploring AI agents. Continue reading ...