This is probably also the result of reading a large amount of Pratchett in the fever of my recent illness, but at work today I was talking to co-worker C and the phrase "Two-chicken problem" came up, in the context of "It will take a sacrifice of two chickens to solve this problem" (IBM tape library and lin_tape control paths, if you are curious). Then the thought occured to me: there needs to be a practical guide to the occult arts for system administrators.
I mean, everyone knows it takes goat's blood to solve SCSI problems. But what about the details? Does it have to be fresh goat's blood? Do you have to sacrifice a live goat, then and there, or can you take it from a more aged specimen? Or can you just order goat's blood from a laboratory supply house? Does it even have to be liquid? Can you use powder, directly, or perhaps reconstitute it? It's the old witchcraft problem: it's all well and good to use eye of newt, but which eye? Which newt?
I'm thinking there's an O'Reiley book here.