One of the things that I love about most of the areas of focus in my academic study — be it French historical linguistics or Ancient Near Eastern religion — is careful, painstakingly detailed study of manuscripts. Spending hours poring over minute, often spare or seemingly insignficant details; noticing patterns and drawing connections where they may not be obvious; slowly building a larger picture of what’s going on … I love it.

This is what I’m going through right now as I wrestle with LDAP. Frustratingly little documentation — bits here, bits there — but slowly I’m figuring it out. LDAP is not a tricky concept at all, it’s just the command line tools are not immediately obvious if I have little idea what’s in the database. It’s been fun.