Know Thy Protocol

The universal IT solution strikes again. While medical equipment keeping someone alive seems like it might warrant a more sophisticated troubleshooting approach than "turn it off and on again," you can't argue with the classics. Somewhere, a hospital administrator is updating their runbook: "Step 1: Reboot patient. Step 2: If patient doesn't respond, check if they're plugged in properly."

The classic "name all the bands" gatekeeping, but make it networking. Every CS student has that moment of panic when someone asks about the OSI model and suddenly you're frantically trying to remember if it's "Please Do Not Throw Sausage Pizza Away" or "All People Seem To Need Data Processing." Meanwhile, the gun just represents the networking professor's grading policy.

The sweet irony of working in IT - spending your days blocking everyone's fun while secretly having the keys to the kingdom. That moment when you realize your company's firewall is cockblocking your Mario Kart session, but then remember YOU control the firewall. Suddenly those network administration certifications finally pay off! Nothing like using your godlike network privileges to ensure Blue Shell justice can be served, even on corporate Wi-Fi. The circle of tech life: create problems, sell solutions... to yourself.

The evolution of Linux mail clients, as told by Winnie the Pooh's increasing sophistication. Thunderbird? Basic. Elm? Now we're getting somewhere. But telnet localhost 25 ? That's peak sysadmin energy right there - manually typing SMTP commands like it's 1985 and you've got something to prove. Nothing says "I understand the protocol" quite like handcrafting your email headers while your coworkers wonder why you're giggling at a terminal.

You set up a cute little home server to host your personal projects, maybe run Plex, store your files, tinker with Docker containers... and suddenly everyone at the family gathering wants you to explain what it does. Next thing you know, Uncle Bob wants you to "fix his Wi-Fi" and your non-tech friends think you're running a crypto mining operation. The swear jar stays empty because you've learned to keep your mouth shut. But that "telling people about my home server when I wasn't asked" jar? That's your retirement fund. Every time you can't resist explaining your beautiful self-hosted setup, another dollar goes in. The worst part? You know you're doing it, but the urge to evangelize about your Raspberry Pi cluster is just too strong. Pro tip: The moment someone shows mild interest, you're already mentally planning their entire homelab migration. Nobody asked, but they're getting a 45-minute presentation anyway.

The perfect answer to "What screams 'I'm insecure'?" - just a naked HTTP link with no SSL/TLS protection. That poor little protocol is basically walking around the internet without pants on, exposing all its data packets for everyone to see. Security professionals are having heart palpitations right now. Nothing says "please steal my credentials" quite like sending your password over plain HTTP. It's the digital equivalent of writing your bank PIN on a billboard.