Weekly Highlights: Celebrating System Administrators and More Tech Insights (July 21 — July 27)

Hello, Habr! Today we will discuss System Administrator’s Day, RUVDS featured in Tproger’s selection, efforts against «gray» providers, and highlight the top articles from last week: about optimizing server performance on AMD EPYC, the concept of time, infrared scanning of chips, and much more.

RUVDS congratulated Habr users on System Administrator’s Day, celebrated on July 25th. We shared a slightly humorous yet philosophical article discussing why sysadmins aren’t worried about competition from AI. Spoilers: it’s because AI lacks a beard, intuition, and the understanding of the phrase «the monastery ate the mail.»

RUVDS has been included in the latest selection of «Choosing Russian Hosting in 2025» on Tproger. This list features only verified providers for all types of tasks, from startups to corporate projects. We’re pleased to receive recognition from experts and continue to demonstrate that Russian hosting can be modern, flexible, and reliable.

The State Duma has passed the bill combating «gray» providers in its first reading. The Russian newspaper has investigated the legislators’ proposal, and our CEO Nikita Tsaplin provided commentary for the publication.

Last week, one of the Russian hosting providers faced a massive DDoS attack lasting several days. «Vedomosti» reported that issues were observed not only with the hosting provider itself but also with several services in the restaurant sector hosted on its servers. The publication reached out to our CEO Nikita Tsaplin for comments. For all the details and opinions, check out the article.

🔹 Optimizing Server Performance Based on Epyc

For several years, AMD has been offering incredibly powerful, or rather, super multi-core Epyc processors. In this article, we will explore the main bottlenecks, BIOS settings, and other factors that hinder the full potential of these processors.

🔹 Is it possible that we never have enough time because it doesn’t actually exist?

Time waits for no one. We all feel it, yet rarely contemplate its cause or the meaning of time itself. Most of us ordinary people lack the time to think about time. Intriguingly, this paradox is at the core of some scientists’ work.

🔹 Infrared Scanning of Chips

Before using an unknown chip, it’s advisable to examine what’s inside. Hacker Andrew «Bunny» Huang advocates this principle and has developed the IRIS (Infra-Red, In Situ) technique for infrared chip scanning.

🔹 Velleman HPS40 – A Compact Oscilloscope from 2002

This article discusses a vintage Swedish oscilloscope featuring a monochrome display and an elegantly designed interface and casing. The author will describe its electrical characteristics and showcase waveforms of test signals.

🔹 Memes of Admins and About Admins. Part 1: How to Treat Error ID-10-T through LARP, Who is BOFH and the Origin of System Administrator’s Day?

We’ll delve into how the image of a system administrator has evolved, exploring their own memes and jokes within both the Russian and English-speaking segments of the internet.