Sorry I left this blog languish for a bit. Let me catch you up on a few things that have happened in my professional life in rough chronological order:

• I was quite surprised (stunned really, ask me about it some time) and tremendously honored to receive the 2009 SAGE Outstanding Achievement Award at the last LISA. For those who were not at the 2009 LISA, you missed my 1985 Sally Fields acceptance speech imitation.
• It was great to have the opportunity to present to the other sysadmins in the ‘hood at the January 2010 BBLISA meeting.
• At a friend’s urging, I ran for and was elected to a seat on the USENIX’s Board of Directors. If you haven’t heard of USENIX before, it is the organization that sponsors the LISA conference (and some other great ones). Come June, I look forward to serving USENIX and the wider sysadmin community in that capacity to the best of my ability. Thanks to those who voted to give me that opportunity.
• I’m also very honored to be asked to give the opening keynote session at the upcoming PICC Conference sponsored by LOPSA-NJ. I’ve also been asked to teach a class there based on this website’s favorite book. PICC is the first regional conference I’ve attended in a while and I think it is going to be great.

That’s what is up with me. How are things with you?

I’m thrilled and delighted to announce that Automating System Administration with Perl, the second edition of the semi-famed Otter Book (the book formerly known as Perl for System Administration) has been published by O’Reilly Media. The Otter Book is available now in paper and electronic form. Be sure to get your copy now!

50% bigger than its predecessor, the new edition has been completely updated and expanded to include the very latest operating systems, Perl modules, and sysadmin best practices. In addition to new chapters, I’ve also added several more of the appendices people really seemed to dig from the first edition. It is still militantly multi-platform. And as before, there’s tons of stuff for people who do any sort of system administration work in the book. You’ll get something out of it whether you are a seasoned professional or a person who has just been told by their boss “make the server work.” For more meta-book, please see the book page on this site.

With the second edition comes this website which I hope will be a cool place to find information about the broad range of topics surrounding the book (Sysadmin stuff, Perl stuff, Otter stuff, etc.). Little bits of pith on these topics will also flutter by via @otterbook on Twitter (so follow, follow, follow the…otter?).

Enjoy!