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Cybersecurity Is A Battlefield

2025-10-17 ~ Tom's IT Cafe ~ Leave a comment

Code is the shield and the blade.

A single line of script can stop an exploit or create one.

Continue reading “Cybersecurity Is A Battlefield” →

Privacy Isn’t Hiding – It’s Choosing

2025-10-152025-10-29 ~ Tom's IT Cafe ~ Leave a comment

We used to think of privacy as secrecy.
Something for spies, activists, or people with something to hide.
That mindset doesn’t fit the world we live in anymore.

Today, privacy is choice – the ability to decide what others see about you, when, and how.

Continue reading “Privacy Isn’t Hiding – It’s Choosing” →

Private Matrix Synapse Server for SMEs: Silence in Motion

2025-10-07 ~ Tom's IT Cafe ~ Leave a comment

There’s power in owning your words.

At Tom’s IT Cafe, we built a fully self-hosted Matrix Synapse server – secured, encrypted, and tuned for reliability.

Continue reading “Private Matrix Synapse Server for SMEs: Silence in Motion” →

Ansible With SOPS – Secret Handling On Ghost Level

2025-10-012025-10-29 ~ Tom's IT Cafe ~ Leave a comment

SOPS: Secrets OPerationS – A silent tool for Ghost Operators. Silent Architects.

Ansible Vault safeguards your data.

  • The team grows.
  • The data is more complex.
  • Encrypted files are too much noise.

SOPS restores the signal.

Continue reading “Ansible With SOPS – Secret Handling On Ghost Level” →

09 Ghost Operations – The Final Blades

2025-09-242025-09-24 ~ Tom's IT Cafe ~ Leave a comment

Sysadmins.
DevOps.
Developers.
Operators in different uniforms.

Continue reading “09 Ghost Operations – The Final Blades” →

08 Objective: Encrypt the Silence – Ansible Vault

2025-09-172025-09-17 ~ Tom's IT Cafe ~ Leave a comment

Ghosts know that secrets are critical.
You can’t let them sit or travel in plain text.
Ansible Vault is the blade of the Operator.

Continue reading “08 Objective: Encrypt the Silence – Ansible Vault” →

07 Objective: Reusability and Doctrine – Roles

2025-09-15 ~ Tom's IT Cafe ~ Leave a comment

Write once.
Execute unlimited.
The Ghost Ops way.

Variables – loaded.
Templates – locked.
Tasks – trained.
Playbooks – executing.

Roles – fixed directory structures of Ansible code.

Continue reading “07 Objective: Reusability and Doctrine – Roles” →

06 Objective: Orchestrated Strikes – Playbooks

2025-09-122025-09-12 ~ Tom's IT Cafe ~ Leave a comment

Variables – loaded.
Templates – locked.
Tasks – trained.

Ghosts may notice – we’re flying low with plain text variables – for now.

Continue reading “06 Objective: Orchestrated Strikes – Playbooks” →

05 Objective: Code as Message – Jinja2 Templates

2025-09-04 ~ Tom's IT Cafe ~ Leave a comment

Logic and data separated.
Variables are loaded.

Dynamic configuration files? Templates are your blades – fed by variables.

They support logic.
Loops.
Conditionals.

Ghosts don’t over-complicate.
Clarity keeps templates sharp.

Continue reading “05 Objective: Code as Message – Jinja2 Templates” →

04 Objective: Fluid Intelligence – Variables

2025-09-01 ~ Tom's IT Cafe ~ Leave a comment

Hostnames.
Network addresses.
Ports.
Filenames.

They change.
They’re variables.

Continue reading “04 Objective: Fluid Intelligence – Variables” →

03 Objective: Execution Vectors – Modules & Tasks

2025-08-29 ~ Tom's IT Cafe ~ Leave a comment

Modules – The Execution Units

Modules are small working horses.
Tactical code units. One module. One function. The UNIX way.
Clear Python code.
You don’t need Python – modules are abstracted to YAML.

Continue reading “03 Objective: Execution Vectors – Modules & Tasks” →

02 Objective: Whispers to Hosts – Inventories

2025-08-28 ~ Tom's IT Cafe ~ Leave a comment

You don’t command what you can’t see.
You don’t control what you can’t reach.

Inventories are your maps.
Your whispers travel through them.

Continue reading “02 Objective: Whispers to Hosts – Inventories” →

01 Objective: Forge The Blade – Deploy And Configure

2025-08-27 ~ Tom's IT Cafe ~ Leave a comment

Ansible brings surgical precision, or chaos and entropy.
The key is the installation and configuration.

Don’t go in war with a blunt sword.

Continue reading “01 Objective: Forge The Blade – Deploy And Configure” →

00 The Special Forces Of Operations – Ansible Tactical Briefing

2025-08-262025-08-26 ~ Tom's IT Cafe ~ Leave a comment

You whispered.
DeadSwitch delivers.
Ansible for the ghosts.
A training? No.
Tactical briefing.

Continue reading “00 The Special Forces Of Operations – Ansible Tactical Briefing” →

Common Lisp – Surgical Cuts With The Loop

2025-08-26 ~ Tom's IT Cafe ~ Leave a comment

The loop macro looks like noise to the untrained eye.
Parentheses stretch, clauses scatter, intentions get lost in plain sight.

Most devs avoid it, afraid it will swallow their code.
We don’t fear.
We carve.

Continue reading “Common Lisp – Surgical Cuts With The Loop” →

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