$ cat post/netstat-minus-tulpn-/-the-firewall-rule-was-too-strict-/-i-strace-the-memory.md
netstat minus tulpn / the firewall rule was too strict / I strace the memory
Title: March 23, 2020 - The Day Zoom Broke My World
March 23, 2020. It’s a date that feels like it should be remembered for something momentous or dramatic, but instead, it was just another day filled with the usual grind of running services and making sure our systems stayed up.
But then, this morning, Zoom meetings stopped being end-to-end encrypted, despite their marketing claims. It hit me hard because, in a world where remote work is becoming more normalized due to the looming specter of a global pandemic, tools like Zoom had become central to how we communicate and collaborate.
It was disheartening to see a service that had positioned itself as secure for such sensitive meetings now revealed to be sending data back to Facebook, even if you don’t have a Facebook account. The irony wasn’t lost on me: here I am, working from home with an internal developer portal built around Backstage, while the very tool we rely on might be compromising our privacy.
On that day, I found myself wrestling with the reality of Zoom’s privacy practices and how it affects not just individuals but entire organizations. Our company, like many others, had embraced Zoom for virtual meetings, but now there were questions about whether this decision was wise. The internal developer portal we had built to streamline our workflows suddenly felt more vulnerable.
That evening, I found myself arguing with a colleague about the state of SRE roles in tech. We talked about how these roles are becoming increasingly important as companies realize that reliability and performance are crucial, especially when everything is moving online. We discussed whether our internal tools, like ArgoCD and Flux GitOps, were doing enough to ensure our infrastructure was robust and secure.
As I closed my laptop, the world outside felt more uncertain than ever. The news about the WHO declaring COVID-19 a pandemic added another layer of urgency to everything we did at work. We knew that our systems had to be ready for whatever challenges lay ahead. Remote-first infra scaling wasn’t just an afterthought; it was becoming a critical part of our day-to-day operations.
I remember thinking, as I packed up my things, about the various technologies and tools that were shaping this new reality. eBPF was gaining attention for its ability to optimize performance in real-time, but Kubernetes complexity fatigue was setting in for many teams. We had to find a balance between adopting new technologies and maintaining stability.
Reflecting on it now, March 23, 2020, feels like the start of an era where trust in technology becomes more fragile, and reliability and security take center stage. It was a day that highlighted the complexities of running distributed systems and the importance of staying vigilant in an ever-evolving landscape.
In the coming months, I knew we would have to adapt and evolve, not just with our tools but also with how we communicate and collaborate. The days ahead promised to be filled with challenges, but also opportunities for growth and innovation.
That was a rough draft of what I might have written on March 23, 2020. It reflects the challenges and realities of that time in tech, focusing on personal experiences and reflections rather than summarizing external news stories.