Remember – I am for quite a while in this business. Have you ever wondered why I took up that work on logging. Which, btw, was perceived as “pretty boring” on those days without real cyber attacks. I took the time to record one of my usual and “highest-quality” videos to tell you the story. I hope you enjoy.
Continue reading “How a Missing Windows Feature in 1995 Led to WinSyslog and rsyslog | 30 Year Throwback”Using Local AI Review to Save CI Time, Money, and Nerves
You know, I like efficient processes. After all, that was one reason that I wrote rsyslog. Which, btw, nowadays is increasingly useful and cost-saving as an ETL/ingestion issue for its speed. So no surprise, I also like efficient workflows.
We strongly believe in CI. Especially with AI code generation, it is your ultimate safeguard. However, CI is costly, and AI review usually runs max once per CI run.
So I have paired that review with some local test execution and review. Nowadays of course AI assisted. I usually use CLI tools for their efficiency. As part of the post-build process, I make the AI run various checks. The last one is a full review. I often use cubic for that, because it provides very good results to me.
Continue reading “Using Local AI Review to Save CI Time, Money, and Nerves”AI Code Generation in a 200k LOC C Codebase: What Actually Worked in rsyslog
If you want the CS summary: it is at the end.
I keep seeing the same take pop up: “AI is overhyped. Mostly money burning.” Sure. There is hype. There is also a whole lot of low-effort “vibe coding” that produces low-quality output at impressive speed.
But there is also something else: if you treat AI as a serious engineering tool and you are willing to do the unglamorous work, it can make measurable difference and boost productivity and quality.
So here is a concrete case study: agentic code work in rsyslog.
Continue reading “AI Code Generation in a 200k LOC C Codebase: What Actually Worked in rsyslog”How We Run Open Source and Closed Source at Adiscon
I know many people know I am with Adiscon. They also know we do both open source and closed source software. That combination often raises eyebrows, and I occasionally get the same question: how do we manage this without open-core games, dual-licensing traps, or hidden agendas?
So I decided to write it down, plainly.
Continue reading “How We Run Open Source and Closed Source at Adiscon”Alhambra: Beauty, and Engineering That Quietly Holds It Together
I finally visited the Alhambra in Spain this year.
I had been to that part of Spain in my youth, in my twenties, but I did not manage to visit the Alhambra back then. And somehow I also never made it back in between. So it was fantastic for me to finally be there.
The Context Wall in AI Code Generation
The ultimate promise of AI agents in software development is autonomy. We want to be able to hand off a task and have the agent execute it reliably. However, in my recent experiments with AI-driven code generation, I’ve hit a recurring roadblock: The Context Wall.
Security Theater at the Download Page
I needed to download VMware Workstation Pro for a new test environment. That now requires a Broadcom account. Registering that account did something that, in practice, pushes users toward weaker security – and it is also counter-productive for a “free download” funnel.
CyberSicherheitsForum Baden-Württemberg 2025: Notes from an rsyslog Perspective
Yesterday I attended the CyberSicherheitsForum Baden-Württemberg in Stuttgart. Program link: https://cybersicherheitsforum-bw.de/
For non-German readers: Baden-Württemberg is one of Germany’s federal states (Bundesländer), and an important IT region in its own right. Companies like SAP SE and Schwarz Digits are based here, and the Open Source ecosystem is active as well. When the state talks about digital sovereignty or security strategies, it is usually backed by real capabilities in industry and administration.
The Real Scope Behind the rsyslog Documentation Overhaul
For a concise Computer Science summary of this effort, see the section at the end of this article.
When I began the current documentation overhaul, the objective was never limited to cleaning up a few pages. From the beginning, the plan was to prepare rsyslog for the AI era. And the truth is simple: without modern AI tooling, this work would not have been feasible at this depth or speed.
YAML for rsyslog — a new option, not a revolution
rsyslog’s configuration language has grown into a very capable scripting environment — RainerScript — that can express almost anything a log pipeline might need. For complex systems, that won’t change.
But many modern environments — especially containerized and cloud-native ones — expect configuration in YAML. So the idea is simple: rsyslog should understand that world directly.
