[kwlug-disc] an appealing theme for a weekly blog post?

[unsolicited]

Robert P. J. Day wrote, On 05/07/2009 1:16 PM:
>   hard as it may be to believe, i've been asked by the senior software
> editor at "linux magazine" whether i'd be interested in writing a
> weekly blog on some TBD topic.  i originally suggested a "kernel
> newbies" column, which would -- each week -- explain a specific kernel
> programming feature, accompanied by actual code so that the reader
> could see the code in action.  that is, rather than an arm-waving
> presentation (which certainly has value all by itself), the emphasis
> would be on things people could compile and run.
> 
>   another theme was linux performance monitoring and tuning, while
> another was more general linux development topics (userspace
> development, debugging, utilities like readelf and objdump, and so
> on).  nothing's been finalized yet, so i thought i'd ask -- what
> "theme" would most appeal to the general kwlug readership?  what
> specifically would make you want to keep coming back to read the next
> installment?
> 
>   this doesn't mean i have the gig yet, it just means i'm trying to
> figure out what would grab the largest audience.

Some questions:
- what is the current audience?
- what audience are you trying to attract?
- are there different (sub-)audiences for the print / web / 'RSS' 
versions?
- are newly-minted coders the greatest untapped pool of readers?

If I look around at the documentation available, there seems to be 
some virtual dividing line between 'system' and 'network'. Yet, almost 
by definition, with high-speed internet everyone is on a network. Add 
the web, and there is definitely an 'external network.' Therefore, by 
definition, the first non-modem device in your home is a gateway. 
Which is all to say, any articles that touches this area has an 
audience of 'everyone'.

ntp, dns, dhcp, proxy, peer guardian, anti-virus, anti-malware, 
authentication, authorization, accounting, samba (think back to 
Richard trying to get file sharing going on a wrt box and having to 
give up, IIRC, on nfs), and anything else you can think of that you 
need 'one of' in an 'enterprise'. (Anti-virus will lead to dazuko will 
lead to compiling your own kernel.) Let alone, say, the 
inter-relationship / impact between dhcp -> dns / proxy (via dhcp 
entries) -> anti-malware -> web browser, or nmap <-> nagios <-> mrtg.

I'm not suggesting great detail. The dearth I have found is one-stop 
shopping / single source of a 'checklist' (check sheet, actually) of 
things to consider in this area. [a la series of articles.] I'll 
follow up an article on 'X' by going to the 'X' website - but only if 
I've encountered something that says I should be concerned about 'X' 
in the first place.


On a side note ... the biggest impact on me of your kernel device 
drivers presentation was being able to see a kernel compiled. (Monkey 
see, monkey do.) Essentially a side-effect of your topic. Not everyone 
needs or wants to write a device driver, but everyone can compile 
their own kernel.

Some thoughts, FWIW.