The Nerdy Sixty | (55/60) Terminal Tetris | Challenge
Use the Tetris game included in BSD Games (`tetris-bsd`) or the one built into Emacs (`M-x tetris`) to play Tetris in a terminal environment.
The Nerdy Sixty | (54/60) Classic Snake Game | Solution
Solution: Install the snake game (for example via the BSD games package or nsnake) to play the classic Snake in your terminal.
😴 SRE Is About Sleeping Well
SRE is not about heroics. It is about creating systems that fail safely enough for humans to rest. Using the metaphor of good bedtime routines, this ELI5 article explains how Site Reliability Engineering reduces chaos, protects team energy, and builds reliability so nobody has to be a legend at 3 a.m.
The Nerdy Sixty | (54/60) Classic Snake Game | Challenge
Install the snake game (for example via the BSD games package or nsnake) to play the classic Snake in your terminal.
The Nerdy Sixty | (53/60) First Software Easter Egg | Solution
Solution: Discover how Atari’s Adventure (1979) hid the creator’s name, marking the first known Easter egg in a video game.
Bitfire Battalion Releases “Bosses of Eternity” — A Metal Tribute to the Greatest Boss Battles in Gaming History
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The Boss Music Finally Arrived There are moments in gaming that stay with us forever. The controller gets tighter in your hands.The music changes.The screen shakes.And suddenly you know: This is the final fight. For years, games have given us legendary enemies — impossible monsters, fallen heroes, ancient gods, cosmic horrors, tyrants, dragons, machines, demons,…
🧹 Automation Is Teaching the System to Clean Its Room
Automation is not about avoiding work. It is about avoiding the same stressful cleanup again and again. Using the metaphor of chores and habits, this ELI5 article explains how automation helps SRE teams reduce repetitive manual tasks, prevent avoidable incidents, and build calmer, more reliable systems over time.
The Nerdy Sixty | (53/60) First Software Easter Egg | Challenge
Discover how Atari’s Adventure (1979) hid the creator’s name, marking the first known Easter egg in a video game.
The Nerdy Sixty | (52/60) First Computer Bug | Solution
Solution: Learn about the famous incident in 1947 when a moth was found in a computer, coining the term ‘bug’.
🩺 Monitoring Is a Health Check, Not a Lie Detector
Metrics are symptoms, not verdicts. This ELI5 article explains monitoring through the metaphor of a doctor visit, showing why numbers alone do not tell the full story. Learn how good SRE teams use metrics, context, and user impact together to diagnose system health instead of treating dashboards like lie detectors.
The Nerdy Sixty | (52/60) First Computer Bug | Challenge
Learn about the famous incident in 1947 when a moth was found in a computer, coining the term ‘bug’.
The Nerdy Sixty | (51/60) Missing September Days | Solution
Solution: Understand the calendar switch of 1752: 11 days were omitted when the British Empire adopted the Gregorian calendar.
🥅 Blamelessness Is Psychological Safety with a Pager
Blamelessness is not about avoiding accountability. It is about creating enough psychological safety for teams to review incidents honestly and improve together. Using a team sports replay metaphor, this ELI5 article explains why resilient teams learn faster when they analyze the whole play instead of blaming the most visible person.
Letters from the Future
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A launch post for Letters from the Future, a satirical book of memos, incident reports, tickets, and open letters from workplaces where AI keeps doing exactly what it was told.
Early Computing Adventures – Where Debugging Meant Bug Zapping
Arc 6 of The Nerdy Sixty takes us back in time — when programmers punched cards, editors played Tetris, and the first bug had wings. History, hilarity, and high ASCII await.
The Nerdy Sixty | (50/60) Daytime Protocol | Solution
Solution: Use the “Daytime” protocol by connecting to port 13 of a time server (like time.nist.gov) via telnet or netcat to get a timestamp.
🕵️ Postmortems Are Detective Stories for Nerds
Postmortems should work like detective stories, not courtroom trials. This ELI5 article explains how good incident reviews follow clues, reconstruct timelines, and improve systems without hunting for culprits. Learn why blameless postmortems help SRE and incident response teams uncover real causes and build safer, more reliable production systems.
The Nerdy Sixty | (50/60) Daytime Protocol | Challenge
Use the “Daytime” protocol by connecting to port 13 of a time server (like time.nist.gov) via telnet or netcat to get a timestamp.
The Nerdy Sixty | (49/60) Internet via Pigeons | Solution
Solution: Identify RFC 1149: “A Standard for the Transmission of IP Datagrams on Avian Carriers” – a humorous specification for sending network traffic via pigeons.
✈️ Runbooks Are Emergency Cheat Sheets
Runbooks are not textbooks. During an incident, engineers need short, visual, actionable guidance—just like airplane emergency cards. This ELI5 post explains why nobody reads long documentation at 3 a.m. and how better runbooks improve incident response, reduce stress, and protect uptime when production systems start failing.
