by ezs | May 14, 2026 | evilzenscientist
The new v6 and v7 family Azure hardware is now broadly available, with plenty of capacity in the various regions.
The biggest changes are to network and storage drivers, moving to use the Microsoft MANA interface for network fabric, and a switch from SCSI to NVMe for disk.
Unlike previous SKU updates, e.g. v3 to v5, this family update requires some planning, especially on the Linux side.
There is a great PowerShell script to assist with the switch, which automates much of the roll forward, and provides a roll back as well.
In testing I found that two additional checks made this work flawlessly:
- Ensure the latest Azure VM tools are are installed (azure-vm-utils)
- Ensure the nvme drivers are installed (modprobe, dracut.conf)
Usual disclaimers before doing this – ensure you have a backup of your Linux VM before this work, you could be left with a somewhat broken VM. The rollback script works well.
by ezs | Feb 24, 2026 | evilzenscientist
Back in 2013, on the back of a bonus payment, I bought a fancy Jura coffee machine.
Over the years I have serviced it, repaired it, replaced parts.
Today it finally died. Brittle plastic, valves and manifolds that are old and leaky.
I bit the bullet and bought a new shiny machine.
by ezs | Jan 22, 2026 | evilzenscientist
I’ve been looking for something a tad more sophisticated than cron for a while.
Key criteria:
- simple to use/install
- lightweight infrastructure needs
- web interface
- ideally open source
- maintained (not bitrotted)
I found Cronicle (github)
It seems to meet these requirements. I just installed this on an openSUSE LEAP 16 box. That was another learning curve! (Where did my Yast go!)
by ezs | Jan 21, 2026 | evilzenscientist
For future reference – burn the USB as DD, otherwise you get:
warning /dev/disk/by-label/Install-Leap-16.0-x86_64 does not exist
warning /dev/root does not exist
and dropped to emergency mode.
Hopefully this helps someone.
by ezs | Jan 3, 2026 | evilzenscientist
On 1 January I started another Masters program at WGU, and really needed to double-down on writing, and GSD.
I’ve used the Pomodoro Technique successfully before; short, intensive, 25 minute bursts of focus time.
Following some recommendations, I have augmented this with the Freedom app; which blocks apps and web usage (i.e distractions).
I’ll report back, but several days in this has really helped with GSD.
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