This is tonight!
On 6/24/26 11:41, Russell Senior wrote:
Who: Ryan Sayre
What: Death & Digital Succession, Cloud Optimization, and the
Resurrection of a .US Locality Registrar
Where: 1930 SW 4th Avenue, Portland, Oregon 97201-5304, Room 86-01
When: Thursday, July 2, 2026 at 7 PM
Why: The pursuit of technology freedom
Summary:
What happens to legacy internet infrastructure when the sole technical
owner passes away? When Jon Backstrom (AKA Prairie Nyx) died in 2023,
they left behind critical pieces of community infrastructure under
risk of going offline completely —including the nameserver prairie.net
and vital segments of the geography-centric .US locality domain space
(RFC 1480).
This talk covers the messy, real-world saga of digital succession and
infrastructure rescue. We'll walk through the technical and human
challenges of breaking into systems without passwords, tracking down
next of kin and the remaining passionate user base to keep them informed.
On the technical side, we will look at how to quickly audit, patch,
and migrate legacy services under pressure. We'll discuss practical
strategies for cloud juggling, lowering operational costs, and
eliminating both technical and human single points of failure by
balancing the best of modern cloud automation with DIY resilience.
Finally, we will dive into the history, near-death, and possible
resurrection of the Internet for actual human communities. Ultimately,
this is a talk about digital stewardship, service preservation, and
remembering why we build and maintain systems for the pure joy of the
craft.
Bio:
Ryan Sayre is a cloud and storage technologist who enjoys the
restoration, maintenance, and tinkering of vintage computing hardware.
In his spare time, he manages legacy internet infrastructure
(skylab.org and prairie.net), coordinates a Portland school bike bus
initiative, and tries to keep good stuff alive for the good of the
commons.
Calagator: https://calagator.org/events/1250482620
With luck, the talk will also be streamed live here:
http://www.twitch.tv/kngbwlf, and later posted to YouTube.
PLUG is back at Portland State University, thanks to the Computer
Science Department and to Andrew Greenberg. The room is in the
basement of the PSU Engineering Building (also connected underground
to the Fourth Avenue Building, or FAB). Enter through the Engineering
Building. The outside door will be locked, but there should be someone
present at the entrance to let you in starting at 6:40pm until 7pm.
There will be a sign on the door with a phone number you can SMS if
there isn't someone there to let you in immediately.
