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I'm a bit too tired to write a full review of Usenix LISA 2017, so let me just say that the content was excellent and the audience was the most diverse that I've seen at a mainstream sysadmin conference.

The best part about the content? If I could sum it up in one word, it would be "new". Tons of new stuff, new technology, new ideas, and new techniques. (Ironically the one training session I taught was my not-new Time Management class, but the room was packed with new attendees.)

Best meta-issue? Usenix switched to the "Sched App" which was awesome. It made a big difference having an excellent app for the schedule. I always knew where I wanted to be. When a conference has multiple tracks, a good app becomes critical.

Congrats to co-chairs Connie-Lynne Villani (Fastly.com) and Caskey Dickson (Microsoft) for putting together an awesome conference and thanks to all the staff, committee, and volunteers that made it happen!

LISA 18 will take place October 28-November 2, 2018, at the Omni Nashville in Nashville, TN. I've already marked it in my calendar. You should too!

Posted by Tom Limoncelli in LISA Conversations

Episode 11 of LISA Conversations is Russell Pavlicek, who presented Unleashing the Power of the Unikernel at LISA '15.

You won't want to miss this!

Posted by Tom Limoncelli in LISA Conversations

Today (Tuesday, June 28, 2016) we'll be recording episode #11 of LISA Conversations. Join the Google Hangout and submit questions live via this link.

Our guest will be Russell Pavlicek. We'll be discussing his talk Unleashing the Power of the Unikernel from LISA '15.

  • The video we'll be discussing:

    • Unleashing the Power of the Unikernel
    • Russell Pavlicek
    • Recorded at LISA '15
    • Talk Description
  • Watch us record the episode live!

The recorded episode will be available shortly afterwards on YouTube.

You won't want to miss this!

Posted by Tom Limoncelli in LISA Conversations

This weekend is a good time to watch the video we'll be discussing on the next episode of LISA conversations: Russell Pavlicek's talk from LISA '15 titled Unleashing the Power of the Unikernel.

  • Homework: Watch his talk ahead of time.

Then you'll be prepared when we record the episode on Tuesday, June 28, 2016 at 3:30-4:30 p.m. PT. Register (optional) and watch via this link. Watching live makes it possible to participate in the Q&A.

The recorded episode will be available shortly afterwards on YouTube.

You won't want to miss this!

Posted by Tom Limoncelli in LISA Conversations

Our next guest will be Russell Pavlicek. We'll be discussing his talk from LISA '15 titled Unleashing the Power of the Unikernel.

Watch live! We'll be recording the episode on Tuesday, June 28, 2016 at 3:30-4:30 p.m. PT. Particpate in the live Q&A by submitting your questions during the broadcast. Pre-registration is recommended but not required. Register and/or watch via this link.

  • Homework: Watch his talk ahead of time.

  • Watch us record the podcast live!

The recorded episode will be available shortly afterwards on YouTube.

You won't want to miss this!

Posted by Tom Limoncelli in LISA Conversations

Episode 10 of LISA Conversations is Clay Caviness and Edward Eigerman, who presented Managing Macs at Google Scale at LISA '13.

You won't want to miss this!

Posted by Tom Limoncelli in LISA Conversations

Our next guest will be kc claffy. We'll be discussing her talk from LISA '15 titled Named Data Networking.

Watch live! We'll be recording the episode on Tuesday, April 26, 2016 at 3:30-4:30 p.m. Pacific Time. Particpate in the live Q&A by submitting your questions during the broadcast. Pre-registration is recommended but not required. Register and/or watch via this link.

The recorded episode will be available shortly afterwards on YouTube.

You won't want to miss this!

Posted by Tom Limoncelli in LISA Conversations

Episode 8 of LISA Conversations is Caskey Dickson, who presented Why Your Manager LOVES Technical Debt and What to Do About It at LISA '15.

You won't want to miss this!

Posted by Tom Limoncelli in LISA Conversations

This weekend is a good time to watch the video we'll be discussing on the next episode of LISA conversations: Caskey Dickson's talk from LISA '15 titled Why Your Manager LOVES Technical Debt and What to Do About It.

  • Homework: Watch his talk ahead of time.
    • Why Your Manager LOVES Technical Debt and What to Do About It
    • Recorded at LISA '15
    • Video and Slides

Then you'll be prepared when we record the episode on Tuesday, March 29, 2016 at 3:30-4:30 p.m. Pacific Time (convert). Register (optional) and watch via this link. Watching live makes it possible to participate in the Q&A.

The recorded episode will be available shortly afterwards on YouTube.

You won't want to miss this!

Posted by Tom Limoncelli in LISA Conversations

Our next guest will be Caskey Dickson. We'll be discussing his talk from LISA '15 titled Why Your Manager LOVES Technical Debt and What to Do About It.

Watch live! We'll be recording the episode on Tuesday, March 29, 2016 at 3:30-4:30 p.m. Pacific Time. Particpate in the live Q&A by submitting your questions during the broadcast. Pre-registration is recommended. Register and/or watch via this link.

  • Homework: Watch his talk ahead of time:

    • Why Your Manager LOVES Technical Debt and What to Do About It
    • Recorded at LISA '15
    • Video and Slides
  • Watch live!

    • LISA Conversations Episode #8
    • Co-hosts: Lee Damon and Thomas Limoncelli
    • Guest: Caskey Dickson
    • Will be recorded: Tuesday, March 29, 2016 at 3:30-4:30 p.m. Pacific Time (convert)

The recorded episode will be available shortly afterwards on YouTube.

You won't want to miss this!

Posted by Tom Limoncelli in LISA Conversations

Episode 7 of LISA Conversations is Kris Buytaert, who presented DevOps: The past and future are here. It's just not evenly distributed (yet) at LISA '11.

You won't want to miss this!

Posted by Tom Limoncelli in LISA Conversations

Our next conversation will be with Kris Buytaert, who presented "DevOps: The past and future are here. It's just not evenly distributed (yet)" at LISA '11. Watch his talk beforehand, and then join us at 11:30 am PST/2:30 pm EST on Tuesday, February 23, 2016, at the Google Hangout On Air.

You won't want to miss this!

Posted by Tom Limoncelli in LISA Conversations

In this episode we talked with Alice Goldfuss about the changes you need to make when growing a DevOps or sysadmin team. Alice also talked about dealing with remote workers, her experience at film school, plus she shares insights about giving your first presentation at a conference.

You don't want to miss this!

For the complete list of LISA Conversations, visit our homepage.

Posted by Tom Limoncelli in LISA Conversations

NOTE: Due to circumstances beyond our control, this episode will be recorded Feb 2 at 3:30PM PST.

This weekend is a good time to watch the video we'll be discussing on Usenix LISA conversations.

Our guest will be Alice Goldfuss. We'll be discussing her LISA '15 talk about growing a devops team: Scalable Meatfrastructure: Building Stable DevOps Teams

You won't want to miss this!

Posted by Tom Limoncelli in LISA Conversations

NOTE: Due to circumstances beyond our control, this episode will be recorded Feb 2 at 3:30PM PST.

On the next episode of LISA Conversations...

Our guest will be Alice Goldfuss. We'll be discussing her LISA '15 talk about growing a devops team: Scalable Meatfrastructure: Building Stable DevOps Teams

You won't want to miss this!

Posted by Tom Limoncelli in LISA Conversations

The next episode of the LISA Conversations video podcast will be a discussion with Sabrina Farmer. We'll be discussing her amazing talk "Overcoming My Biggest Roadblock, Myself" from the 2012 USENIX Women in Advanced Computing Summit (WiAC '12).

Watch her talk beforehand, and then join us at 3:30 pm PDT/6:30 pm EDT on Tuesday, October 27, 2015, at the Google Hangout On Air.

The video from Sabrina's talk can be found at https://www.usenix.org/conference/wiac12/overcoming-my-biggest-roadblock-myself

The talk was brought to my attention when someone described it was being "the talk that brought down the house at WiAC '12". I watched it and was blown away by her powerful story of self-discovery.

I look forward to discussing it with her next week.

For more info, visit the Usenix LISA Conversations Homepage.

Posted by Tom Limoncelli in LISA Conversations

Next week's "LISA Conversations" podcast will be a discussion about the LISA '14 talk "Making Push on Green a Reality". We'll be interviewing the presenter, Daniel V. Klein, about the talk and what he has to say about it nearly a year later.

"Push On Green" means automatically pushing code to production with no human gates. If all the tests pass, the new code is pushed to production automatically. This enables Google to push code more frequently and with higher confidence than (for example) monthly or weekly code pushes.

Watch the video from LISA '14 and get ready to watch us record the podcast live on September 29, 2015, at 3:30pm PDT. We take questions live during the session. If you can't tune in live, the video will be available shortly after.

You won't want to miss this!

See you there!

For more info about LISA Conversations, visit https://www.usenix.org/conference/lisa15/lisa-conversations

Posted by Tom Limoncelli in LISA Conversations

We'll be recording Episode 3 of Usenix LISA Conversations on Tuesday, September 29, 2015.

Our next conversation will be with Daniel V. Klein who presented "Making Push on Green a Reality" at LISA14. Watch his talk beforehand, and then join us at 3:30 pm PDT/6:30 pm EDT on Tuesday, September 29, 2015, at the Google Hangout On Air. We'll discuss the talk and what he's been doing since. If you miss the live session, you can view the recording on the USENIX YouTube channel.

This month's hosts will be Lee Damon and Tom Limoncelli (me!).

More info about the series can be found on the Usenix LISA Conversations Homepage.

Posted by Tom Limoncelli in LISA Conversations

Ben Rockwood was the guest of Episode 2. He gave a great talk at LISA'14 and we invited him to discuss it, the reaction it got, and what's new in his thinking since. Ben's a funny guy and had a lot of insightful new things to say.

I wasn't able to attend, so Lee Damon cohosted with a great substitute David N. Blank-Edelman. I'll be back next month when Dan Klein will be our guest.

More info about ULC including links to past and present videos is available at the homepage: https://www.usenix.org/conference/lisa15/lisa-conversations

Posted by Tom Limoncelli in LISA Conversations

We'll be recording Episode 2 of Usenix LISA Conversations on Tuesday (6 days from today).

Our next conversation will be with Ben Rockwood who presented "I Am SysAdmin (And So Can You!)" at LISA14. Watch his talk beforehand, and then join us at 3:30 pm PDT/6:30 pm EDT on Tuesday, August 25, 2015, at the Google Hangout On Air. If you miss the live session, you can view the recording on the USENIX YouTube channel.

This month's host will be Lee Damon and David Blank-Edelman (substituting for me; I'll return next month).

More info about the series can be found on the Usenix LISA Conversations Homepage.

Posted by Tom Limoncelli in LISA Conversations

Yes, I've started a video podcast that has a homework assignment built-in. Watch a famous talk from a past LISA conference (that's the homework) then watch Tom and Lee interview the speaker. What's new since the talk? Were their predictions validated? Come find out!

Watch it live or catch the recorded version later.

The first episode will be recorded live Tuesday July 28, 2015 at 1:30pm PDT. This month's guest will be Todd Underwood who will discuss his talk from LISA '13 titled, Post-Ops: A Non-Surgical tale of Software, Fragility, and Reliability

For links to the broadcast and other info, go here: https://www.usenix.org/conference/lisa15/lisa-conversations

Posted by Tom Limoncelli in LISA Conversations

Step 1: Watch a video from a past Usenix LISA conference.

Step 2: Join the Hangout On Air and watch Lee Damon and Tom Limoncelli interview the speaker. Send Q&A during the show.

Step 3: Watch and enjoy!

Our first 4 are scheduled for the last Tuesday of July/Aug/Sept/Oct.

The first one is July 28, 2015 at 1:30pm PDT. We'll be interviewing Todd Underwood about his LISA 2013 talk Post-Ops, A Non-Surgical tale of Software, Fragility, and Reliability. Watch the presentation head of time then join the the Google Hangout On Air.

(Want a reminder? RSVP for the event)

Posted by Tom Limoncelli in LISA Conversations

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