Terra Field

Upgrading to a Broadcom 9600-24i on TrueNAS Dragonfish

Sun, 28 Jul 2024 12:15:00 +0000

Earlier this year, PG&E hiked up our electricity rates significantly in California. What last year was painful but acceptable electric bill each month rapidly became unacceptable, and so we started looking for opportunities to lower our consumption. One of the first things to come to mind here is the NAS we use for media storage/backups/etc. This NAS is slightly overbuilt for home user needs – it is a SuperMicro 2U 6028U-TR4T+ server with 2 Xeon CPUs, 128GB of RAM, 5 SSDs (3 PCI SSDs, 2 SATA SSDs), and 12 spinning disks connected to a BPN-SAS-826A backplane.

Transgender Day of Vulnerability

Fri, 08 Apr 2022 02:54:37 +0000

“Those who kept silent yesterday will remain silent tomorrow.”

― Élie Wiesel, Night

A week ago, the trans community and our allies celebrated Transgender Day of Visibility — the day we’re supposed to proudly shout to the world that “We’re here, we’re queer, we’re still listening to This Year” or whatever. Visibility is important: If you aren’t seen and your experience isn’t shared, it will be difficult (if not impossible) for people who aren’t a part of your group to empathize with your experience.

Interview Theater

Thu, 27 Jan 2022 15:01:32 +0000

I’m tired of your interview process. I’ve worked in tech on Linux and Windows based servers since 2003 — and I was doing it for fun before that. I installed Slackware off of repurposed Windows 95 beta floppies. I remember when you had to recompile the kernel to raise the number of file descriptors.

Does having been around since the 1.x kernel days mean I shouldn’t have to prove my abilities? No, but your half-baked interview processes don’t actually clarify a candidate’s abilities and I’m tired of performing interview theater. As an industry, we have managed to create the perfect process to ensure that corporate cultures stagnate and that the employee base of a company takes as long as possible to diversify.

My Resignation from Netflix

Mon, 22 Nov 2021 18:19:06 +0000

(Note: This is a copy of my resignation letter that was delivered to my team and members of the Trans* ERG)

Greetings,

I have resigned from Netflix as of 11/21/2021. This isn’t how I thought things would end, but I am relieved to have closure.

When I was looking to change teams at Netflix, when I was trying to decide if I needed a break from my ERG leadership role, and when I was suspended from Netflix in October, there was one person whose advice I sought in all three cases: B. Pagels-Minor. Shortly after B. was fired for something I did not and do not believe they did, I made a decision: sink or swim, I was going to walk side by side with B. as they had for so many of us while they led the Trans* ERG.

Arbitration is a Joke

Mon, 25 Oct 2021 16:49:10 +0000

When I joined Netflix I signed an employment agreement that contains a “Mandatory Arbitration” clause. Like many people, I didn’t fully comprehend what I was signing. Now that I do, I encourage workers to push their employers to remove these clauses for all current and future employees.

What is a “Mandatory Arbitration Clause”?

In “The Growing Use of Mandatory Arbitration”, the Economic Policy Institute summarizes:

In a trend driven by a series of Supreme Court decisions dating back to 1991, American employers are increasingly requiring their workers to sign mandatory arbitration agreements. Under such agreements, workers whose rights are violated can’t pursue their claims in court but must submit to arbitration procedures that research shows overwhelmingly favor employers.

It Was Never About Dave

Mon, 18 Oct 2021 22:50:26 +0000

My last meeting as Co-VP of the Netflix Trans* ERG was supposed to be October 5th. It was a positive day for me, because my ERG work was the most gratifying work I’d ever done — but it was also a huge amount of emotional labor. I was excited to be able to focus more on engineering for a bit. Like I often do, I shared my feelings on the experience in a Twitter thread, including this tweet:

Jerle (CW: Suicide)

Wed, 28 Jul 2021 02:38:00 +0000

CW: Suicide

I didn’t know I was trans when Jerle (Damiya, Kate) took her own life. I had just been diagnosed with a pituitary macroadenoma the year before. When I said I was starting testosterone replacement therapy while talking with her on IRC, she immediately told me that I was taking the wrong hormone. I didn’t understand at the time, but of course she was right. I don’t know why I’m writing this right now other than this story has been stuck in my throat for a long time now, and I just want to get it out of my head.

Her Name Was Zoey

Sat, 26 Sep 2020 00:57:30 +0000

Last Saturday, my friend and metamour Zoey Frandsen (Twitter, Facebook) passed away unexpectedly at the age of 32. Zoey was a polyamorous, pansexual trans woman. There is now an obituary which deadnames her, treating her chosen, legal name as if it was some kind of nickname. There is a picture of her before she transitioned, with that same sad stare so many of us trans people have before we find our true selves. I don’t know that person, I never met them, and I know for a fact that is not how Zoey would want to have been remembered.