INFO: Chef client is running, will wait for it to finish and then run.

tldr; So I wasted a few hours today because I had changed a setting, (or chef had changed) the location of its lock file (chef-client-running.pid). I found that manually removing the file, and restarting chef was a work-around.

zero-day exploits, my finest serverfault.com moment (according to the points table)

A question was asked on serverfault about responding to zero-day exploits, and I managed to pitch in with a slightly pontificating answer. 

However it caused me to hit to 200 a day reputation limit, so it seems it is definitely the sort of thing that chaps on serverfault.com like to read.

So here is my currently highest scoring answer in all its glory...

WHO IS TO BLAME FOR THIS OUTRAGE? (Network error: XXX)

This is a very basic set of troubleshooting steps for remote TCP services, which include a couple of tests to determine the important thing in these situations...

"WHO IS TO BLAME FOR THIS OUTRAGE?"

So its not working.

What is not working? Just some random TCP service on the network, MySQL-port 3306, MS SQL 1433, tomcat 8080, apache 80, you can check the IANA database of registered port assignments for 57333 million other examples.

(in fact this has run a bit long, so this is just Part 1 - the common error messages, the payoff, ie who to blame has got pushed back to part 2, or 3...)

Tools for debugging DNS fuckup-ery

If you have a hang-over, and you are trying to show someone who is not a command-line freak, why their web-site is down for DNS reasons, you can do worse than this on-line graphical tool;
http://www.zonecut.net/dns/

Looks to have been setup by Bjorn Isaksson some time in the ancient past internet terms, i.e. before last Tuesday.