https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/Recent content in Posts on Cameron Kerr :: BlogHugo -- 0.145.0en-usSun, 20 Apr 2025 13:34:20 +1200https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2025/github-actions-step-summary/Sun, 20 Apr 2025 13:34:20 +1200https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2025/github-actions-step-summary/Do you find yourself wasting time trawling through logs and downloading CI artefacts to find common types of errors? Use GitHub Actions Step Summaries to accellerate your workflow.https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2025/where-did-that-sqlalchemy-sql-originate/Sat, 19 Apr 2025 11:34:45 +1200https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2025/where-did-that-sqlalchemy-sql-originate/ORMs such as SQLAlchemy are very useful, but can easily generate very inefficient unrecognisable code. Here’s an easy way to log where the query originates in your code.https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2025/openscad-magnifying-glass/Sat, 29 Mar 2025 12:38:09 +1300https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2025/openscad-magnifying-glass/How I fixed a magnifying glass by creating an original framehttps://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2025/openscad-phone-case/Thu, 06 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2025/openscad-phone-case/It’s easy to create a phone case when there are none on the markethttps://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2025/bloom-filter-lightning-talk/Fri, 31 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2025/bloom-filter-lightning-talk/An introduction to OpenSCAD to encourage you to try it outhttps://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2024/bloom-filter-lightning-talk/Mon, 04 Nov 2024 20:03:55 +1300https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2024/bloom-filter-lightning-talk/A Lightning talk I gave to Dunedin Code Craft in November 2024https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2024/3d-print-and-paint-ocarina/Sat, 07 Sep 2024 21:30:10 +1200https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2024/3d-print-and-paint-ocarina/A fun modern craft and music projecthttps://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2024/profiling-postgis/Thu, 01 Feb 2024 19:40:29 +1300https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2024/profiling-postgis/PLProfiler is a great tool for profiling PL/PGSQL functions, but you need an extra trick for PostGIS native functions.https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2023/ergodox-ez-vs-kinesis-advantage/Tue, 22 Aug 2023 08:50:16 +1200https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2023/ergodox-ez-vs-kinesis-advantage/I’ve been a delighted Kinesis Advantage user for over 10 years. I purchased the Ergodox EZ as a second keyboard for hybrid work. Now its time to replace my Kinesis. Let’s compare!https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2023/cel-go-for-policy-as-code/Tue, 15 Aug 2023 23:21:07 +1200https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2023/cel-go-for-policy-as-code/An Example of using the Common Expression Languagehttps://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2023/A-Python-to-Go-Retrospective/Tue, 15 Aug 2023 21:54:45 +1200https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2023/A-Python-to-Go-Retrospective/Encouraging System Admins / Engineers to Improve their Programminghttps://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2023/syft-your-linux-fleet/Mon, 19 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2023/syft-your-linux-fleet/I explore using Syft and Grype, demonstrate use of jq and Go’s text templates, and explore using Syft against a server rather than a container.https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2023/prometheus-grafana-performance-nginx-lua/Fri, 24 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2023/prometheus-grafana-performance-nginx-lua/Regain visibility into the performance of Open Source Grafana and Prometheus so you know which dashboards and visualisations are slowing down your Prometheus service.https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2023/mapping-git-dependencies-with-ngrams/Wed, 25 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2023/mapping-git-dependencies-with-ngrams/Where in Git would I go to edit the code that deploys a set of resources identified by audit findings?https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2022/efs-top-talkers/Tue, 22 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2022/efs-top-talkers/Use Amazon’s VPC flow logs (similar to NetFlow) to identify NFS clients and servers and enrich that IP-level information with useful names so you can recognise EC2 instances, EFS endpoints etc.https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2022/job-hunting-advice-for-senior-positotions/Mon, 07 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2022/job-hunting-advice-for-senior-positotions/Some observations from successful job hunting for those wanting a remote role or to pivot in the industry. Meant for more senior roles, where the funnel should be smaller.https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2018/byo-proxy-ansible/Thu, 25 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2018/byo-proxy-ansible/Network gynmastics using SSH and a local proxy for servers that don’t have internet access but still need to ‘yum update’ etc.https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2017/limiting-access-via-squid-to-docker-containers/Thu, 02 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2017/limiting-access-via-squid-to-docker-containers/I wanted to grant just the access needed for different Docker containers through Squid. I used Squid’s ability to use Ident as a way to look up a ‘user’ for a connection, and made a custom identd server to provide this information.https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2017/capture-replay-udp-protocols/Tue, 25 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2017/capture-replay-udp-protocols/Capture real-world network traffic so you can replay it later / elsewhere for development and testing. An example is given using IPFIX (AppFlow), but directly relevant to UDP Syslog too.https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2017/installers-that-hang-reading-random/Thu, 23 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2017/installers-that-hang-reading-random/Giving a single process (tree) a different view of the filesystem without modifying the process; and showing how to do this manually and via Ansible.https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2015/memcached-logging-under-systemd-rhel7/Tue, 04 Aug 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2015/memcached-logging-under-systemd-rhel7/How to cleanly gather logs for memcached.https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2015/being-liberal-in-a-cisco-environment/Tue, 05 May 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2015/being-liberal-in-a-cisco-environment/Network incompatibilities do happen and sometimes you need to be a little more forgiving in order to let the traffic flow. An example of where some Cisco behaviour was running foul of Linux.https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2015/iptables-notrack-to-implement-stateless-rules-and-reduce-packet-loss/Tue, 05 May 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2015/iptables-notrack-to-implement-stateless-rules-and-reduce-packet-loss/Disabling IPTables connection tracking for DNS can resolve problems due to too many connections in the connection table.https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2015/use-getent-hosts-in-scripts/Wed, 15 Apr 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2015/use-getent-hosts-in-scripts/It is common practice to use tools like ‘dig’ to lookup DNS results, but this has very bad performance. If you just need to lookup a name or address, there’s an easier, friendly way.https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2014/dont-let-java-on-linux-determine-its-own-timezone/Mon, 01 Sep 2014 00:00:00 +0000https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2014/dont-let-java-on-linux-determine-its-own-timezone/Your timezone says Pacific/Auckland but Java reports Antarctica/SouthPole; what gives?https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2014/deleventd/Tue, 29 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2014/deleventd/When you want SSH and sudo, but all you have is a Samba share. Similar to using a flag file in a network share to trigger some scripted action, this solution uses inotify to watch for files that get deleted, and then even shows the status of each job.https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2014/ora-12170-tns-connect-timeout-resolved/Sat, 26 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2014/ora-12170-tns-connect-timeout-resolved/ORA-12170https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2014/mysql-and-ssl/Sun, 20 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2014/mysql-and-ssl/I needed to get an old version of MySQL server 5.0 running with SSL on Debian Etch. It was not as simple as you might have thought.https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2011/build-inode-lookup-database/Sun, 28 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0000https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2011/build-inode-lookup-database/I show a simple but effective use of SQLite3 to help me with an analysis problem.https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2011/nfs-lock-analysis/Sun, 28 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0000https://cameronkerrnz.github.io/posts/2011/nfs-lock-analysis/NFS locking can impede the performance of your clustered application. Learn how to capture and analyse NFS traffic to see where your locking issues are.