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Read the:
USENIX System Administrators' Code of Ethics
LOPSA System Administrators' Code of Ethics

You're an IT PROFESSIONALl now. Act like it. Ignore the politics.

With "root"/"Administrator" account access to IT systems, you're basically God and have access to everything in IT. TRUST IS EVERYTHING between IT administrators and your users.

There was a time when bankers and accountants were highly respected because they had a fiduciary duty to their clients/customer. Following the recent economic crash of the Great Recession and Enron-type scandals, the reputations of companies like Goldman Sachs and Arthur Anderson were significantly tarnished and people's perception of them have noticeably changed. Sure, there's always been other scandals/incidents before but most people only remember the most recent big ones.

Physicians have their Hippocratic Oath, Professional Engineers have their Obligation of the Engineer, and lawyers have their professional code. Yes, every day, there's some new news story of a medical doctor, engineer, or lawyer violating all or some part of these oaths. The intention is that we all like to think/hope that as professionals, we can strive to maintain these goals and call out the ones who have gone astray.

All workplaces have some sort of internal office politics. This is what happens in any size or type of company or organization of humans due to company/organizational policies and just the nature of individuals (which tends towards being selfish or fiefdom-protecting). Being a "non-profit" is ultimately more of a tax status issue and does not automatically mean the entire non-profit organization or that all of its workers are 100% perfect, selfless, always altruistic individuals who all agree on everything.

More criminal minds might call such altruistic people "suckers" depending on the situation. Or what sometimes happens is that the altruistic individuals in charge made false assumptions about the costs or labor involved for operations and refuse to believe that we can't just all work for free or get stuff/materials for free just for the "good of the children blah blah blah". How many rich donors can you really get?

The goal is to find a job that has office politics which you can reasonably tolerate. Since you said you're new, there may be other background history in your organization that you're not aware of that you're just stumbling across now.

And yes, there's always 1 (or more) "crazy people" in any company/organization. Be cautious in dealing with them. Do your job (e.g. fix their computer if broken) but don't get looped into whatever personal agenda they're advancing.

Really doing something about any of the office politics sometimes might mean getting your manager involved (or becoming a manager). A good manager can serve as your "shield" (or "scapegoat" depending on your viewpoint) so you can defer/blame certain things to them ("I'd like to help you but my boss lady said I can't. Talk to her about it."). This is not a path to be chosen lightly.

All that being said...always keep your resume/CV up-to-date and your co-worker and business relationships cordial. Separate your work stuff from your personal stuff. Getting too entangled in this can turn into utter poison for yourself and your future career.

Sometimes, you've just go to bail. Really. If you can describe your workplace with the one word of "miserable" and you've made reasonable efforts to deal with it in a reasonable time period (maybe 3-6 months?), it's really time to go.

Even though it's kind of really targeted towards managers, Patrick Lencioni's book

The Infrastructure Crisis is a valid link. The rest of it is borked.

You talk about inspiration, but it was quite the opposite. Men walked on the moon, showed that its a barren rock and people lost interest almost immediately. All the romance and excitement was wiped out in the face of cold reality: men stuffed in aluminum cans and struggling around in awkward suits. They didn't even accomplish that much in terms of scientific discovery. What kind of inspiration is that?

Manned spaceflight is a dead end. We're not in the wooden sailing ship stage, we're in the fish flopping onto the beach stage.

You aren't very polite, and you aren't good at doing basic research. If you'd spent five minutes on Google, you might have found this, which shows a change in the coastline of more than .5 meters over the last 146 years.

If you can't tell what continental drift and erosion has to do with sea-level rise, I don't know what to tell you. Continental drift means some coasts are growing an order of magnitude larger than the sea change. In other places, it is shrinking many times faster than sea level change.

Thus we see, for people who live on the coast, sea level rise of 1.8mm is a laughably small problem, when compared to the many other things they are facing.

About the same time frame based on public TVA info.

A paper from 1970 about it, if any could peruse it:
http://cedb.asce.org/cgi/WWWdisplay.cgi?16923

It's not like they didn't perform upgrades during various down times on the various units. For example, the most extensive one I know of:
All 3 units shut down in 1985.
Browns Ferry units 2 and 3 were returned to service in 1991 and
1995, respectively
Unit 1: Started rework 2002, Completed rework in ~2007

From:
http://www.climatevision.gov/sectors/electricpower/pdfs/tva_ferry.pdf

The Tennessee Valley Authority restarted Unit 1 at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant in
North Alabama on May 22, 2007, completing one of the most extensive recovery efforts
in the nuclear industry for an operating plant.
TVA received permission from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission May 15 to restart the
reactor. TVA told the NRC on May 9 that it has the ability to operate and maintain all
three units at Browns Ferry safely, that work to restart and operate Unit 1 is complete and
that pre-start up testing was successful.
The restart completes the recovery effort within the five-year plan approved by the TVA
Board in 2002, and at the projected cost of about $1.8 billion.
“Returning Browns Ferry Unit 1 to our nuclear fleet gives TVA another dependable, safe
and emissions-free source of generation to help meet the growing demand for power in
the Tennessee Valley,” said TVA President and CEO Tom Kilgore. “The successful
recovery of TVA’s third unit at Browns Ferry is a result of the commitment,
determination and attention to detail of the people who did the work. I offer my sincere
thanks and congratulations to all TVA employees and contractors who helped bring this
important project to a successful conclusion.”
Operators began the deliberate, controlled process of restarting the reactor on Monday,
May 21, and a self-sustaining nuclear reaction was achieved at 12:28 am CDT on
Tuesday, May 22. Operators gradually increased power in the reactor over the next
several days and tested secondary plant systems to ensure they operate as designed.
TVA continues to conduct tests on the reactor and the other plant systems, including
connections to the power grid, followed by deliberate “automatic” trips, or shutdowns, to
ensure that safety systems operate correctly. Following these and other tests, the unit will
be reconnected to the TVA power system for the final time.
The tests are part of a program designed to bring the plant safely to power production.
TVA conducted similar power-ascension tests during the successful restart and
subsequent safe operation of Browns Ferry units 2 and 3.
“All three units at Browns Ferry are essentially alike now,” said TVA Acting Chief
Nuclear Officer Preston Swafford. “We have new or refurbished equipment that is
operated in the same manner on all three units, and our ongoing operations, maintenance,
training and oversight programs can focus on sustaining high-quality performance to
ensure the safe and reliable operation of Browns Ferry.”
TVA completed more than 4 million work hours preparing the engineering and design
and more than 15 million work hours modifying, replacing, and refurbishing systems and
components to ensure Browns Ferry Unit 1 can produce electricity safely and reliably to
meet the growing need for power in the Tennessee Valley.
TVA installed modern digital instrumentation and controls, modern power supplies,
replaced 200 miles of electrical cable and eight miles of pipe, replaced or refurbished the
unit’s large pumps and motors and conducted more than 1,200 tests that showed Unit 1
meets the design and regulatory requirements for safe operation.
Browns Ferry is located on Wheeler Reservoi

Somehow I don't think the idea of offshore nuclear reactors is all that unique, and certainly not "stolen from the Russians", seeing as how I have drawings of them here in a book from the 70s.

I think the bigger news would be if they started work on a railway from China to the US. That would only need to pass through Russia on the way to the US (with Canada if they want direct to the lower 48). The number of negotiations would be much lower, and the ability to safely send cargo through a rail tunnel under the sea would be worth untold billions. Tunneling under the Bering Straight is technically feasible, just look at the Chunnel and other such projects

The biggest challenge would be the permafrost http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permafrost that lies in much of the areas in question. Permafrost causes the landscape to change during the thawing/freezing cycles and is a known cause of damage to rail lines and presents a big engineering challenge overall. For example, "Passively Cooled Railway Embankments for Use in Permafrost Areas" http://cedb.asce.org/cgi/WWWdisplay.cgi?0304109). Such project would be cool (no pun intended) to attempt, but the maintenance would be hellish. Shipping by bulk carrier is cheaper by far imho.

"Aiding and abetting."

You're working on the loading dock, and you don't report how the shipper is taking money and selling stock out the back door. When asked about inventory shrinkage, you mumble about stuff that gets broken, returned and must have lost the paperwork, etc. - you are now an accessory after the fact.

You're in the military, and your senior officer orders you to do something against the regs. Forget the Nuremberg defense.

Sorry, I don't buy that. Does failing to report every speeder that passes you make you an accomplice? Or failing to report anyone who smokes pot? Refusing to help some moron who wants to attempt to steal his employer's clients isn't going to land you in jail. After all, you (or whoever the OP is, I don't feel like researching the message chain here) didn't report this "illegality" to the police, you reported it to the company. If there's a crime committed, you're supposed to report it to the police directly, not to some private entity. If you didn't go straight to the police, it must not have been much of a crime. And if you had gone to the police, they would have told you to stop wasting their time anyway.

You're confusing a crime (criminal act) with civil torts. You don't "report" civil torts to the police.

Also, the engineering code of ethics would like a word or two with you being such a slacker:

being honest and impartial and serving with fidelity the public, their employers and clients;

Serving with fidelity means you act in your employer and clients' best interests.

Engineers shall act in professional matters for each employer or client as faithful agents or trustees, and shall avoid conflicts of interest.

... self-evident ... an employee asking you to work against the clients' best interest - if you don't speak up you are putting yourself in a conflict of interests, and certainly not acting as a faithful agent or trustee

Engineers shall act in such a manner as to uphold and enhance the honor, integrity, and dignity of the engineering profession and shall act with zero-tolerance for bribery, fraud, and corruption.

Engineers shall avoid all known or potential conflicts of interest with their employers or clients and shall promptly inform their employers or clients of any business association, interests, or circumstances which could influence their judgment or the quality of their services.

Engineers shall not accept compensation from more than one party for services on the same project, or for services pertaining to the same project, unless the circumstances are fully disclosed to and agreed to, by all interested parties.

Engineers shall act with zero-tolerance for bribery, fraud, and corruption in all engineering or construction activities in which they are engaged.

That's how professionals are supposed to act, and how companies expect contractors to act, even if they're not engineers. As an independent IT professional, you have an obligation to act professionally, to act keeping a view to your clients' best interests, etc. When you don't act professionally, your client has the right to claim damages for any consequent loss.

I've been hoping for a long time that there would be some kind of CPA/SPE/bar/board equivalent for both IT and software design and engineering. It would really help our industries so very much. I believe it's only a matter of time before such things are created, but I really wish it would happen sooner rather than later.

No need for all that. We could start with a simple code of ethics. If people adhere to it, they don't need anything else, and if they don't adhere to it, no amount of certification or regulation will help.

It would include such complicated requirements as "Don't pirate shite. Not even good shite." "Don't enable invasion of privacy." "Do encourage open standards instead of shite." "Do document your own shite." "Shite happens is not an excuse." "When you leave a place, leave passwords, code, etc. behind - it's not yours." "NDA term is 1 year from exit. No more, no less."

There ae plenty of examples to draw from.

or, for those who prefer KISS:

10 REM BASIC CODE OF CONDUCT (PUN INTENDED)
20 DO NOT SCREW PEOPLE OVER
30 GOTO 10

/* C our new code of ethics */
#include <std/ethics.h>
int main(int argc, char* argv[], char* env[]) {
ethics_init();
ethics_run();
/* insert your code here */
ethics_free();
return NO_ETHICAL_VIOLATIONS_FOUND;
}

#regex code of ethics - see the power of regular expressions!
s/evil/good/gi;

I'd put a java version, butTheNamesOfTheVariousClassesWouldBeTooFuckingLongAndTheMethod-InvocationsAndAllTheTryExceptHandling-WouldBeSooooooooErrorProne-ItWouldBeAnEthicalViolationToDoSo and we'd end up in debugging ecursion hell anyway.

Road wear-and-tear is the fourth power of vehicle mass.

Fuel usage is roughly correlated with vehicle mass. It isn't perfect, but heavy cars tend to use more fuel.

So they are starting with the fuel usage tax (roughly correlated with first power of vehicle mass). If you really want to tax people for the damage they cause for roads, they should move towards a *greater* dependence on vehicle mass (towards fourth power). Instead, they are moving in precisely the opposite direction.

This proposed change simply isn't rationale.

Which is why need to bring back the WPA.

The ASCE's report card shows that our infrastructure sucks.

By JUST redoing the bandwidth, we'll probably duplicate efforts later pulling up roads to run wire, etc. Reminds me of a story a friend told me about a town redoing main street. They had a big plan and sent out info to all of the companies with pipes/lines under it. They said if they needed to replace anything, do it now or if they need to replace it before X years, they would foot the entire bill. The center of town got a ton of new fiber, etc.

I think Bailout and any bailout money we were going to give the Big 3 and rebuild Americas' infrastructure. Bridges, Dams, Power lines, roads. Quite a bit of stuff was built during the great depression putting people to work. After the MN bridge collapse inspectors are coming out of the wood work going "Yeah, these could fail at any time now too."

Take all those 2.9M employees that are out of work and have them start building shiat. If they want to sit on their Union ass and do nothing, they get nothing. Turn off unemployment. There'll be no shortage of jobs. Pay them what they're actually worth as manual labor. Caterpillar & Deere, the big 2 domestic construction manufacturers would need to increase their workforce (Which is partially union). Truckers would get more work shipping construction supplies and equipment. Mobile home makers would need to up production for temporary housing. Concrete, asphalt, and steel industries would need to up employment to help keep up with demand.

Along every road and every bridge run fiber, it costs nothing compared to what a new road does, so run a fat pipe to every town in America. The next Wozniak or Linus could be sitting at a place that currently just has 14.4 dial up. Maybe the smartest of the high school students could take part in remote learning at MIT or some where where they'll not be kept behind with the rest of their class.

In addition, toss a rail line down the center of the interstates. Get a light rail connecting most large cities. Maybe even a 'ferry' service. Need to go to CA? Load your car up on a rail. Go sit in the comfortable seats and in a day. You're in CA.

Just like all those roads and bridges helped spark the auto boom a decade or so later, in 10-20 years we could really see the economy back on its feet doing something else productive.

Who is going to foot the bill to upgrade the US power grid? When windmills generate large amounts of electricity outside of Los Angeles, PG&E shuts down many of the windmills as the transmission lines can't handle the additional electricity.

I found an interesting article about the US Power Grid: http://www.energybulletin.net/node/43823

According the American Society of Civil Engineers, http://www.asce.org/reportcard/2005/page.cfm?id=25 gave the US power grid a grade of D,

"The U.S. power transmission system is in urgent need of modernization. Growth in electricity demand and investment in new power plants has not been matched by investment in new transmission facilities. Maintenance expenditures have decreased 1% per year since 1992. Existing transmission facilities were not designed for the current level of demand, resulting in an increased number of "bottlenecks," which increase costs to consumers and elevate the risk of blackouts."

If everyone in your neighborhood upgraded their houses with another 220v circuit, could the transmission lines handle it? The increase in gas powered cars spurred an increase of gas stations, and that was paid for by the gas companies, through profits from selling gas. Remember tho in the US, power companies aren't allowed to be profitable.

If you had to pay 2,3,4x your electrical bill to pay to have your regions power grid upgraded, would you go for it? Better still would you pay for it even if you didn't have an electric car?

Americans bought 12,000,000 new cars in 2005. At $25,000 per car, that's $300 billion per year. More than 75% of New Yorkers did not own a car in 2000. Total expenditures on roads at all three levels of government (federal, state, and local) were $112 billion in 1999. The New York subway has 842 miles of track (including non-revenue-generating track), only 60% of which is below ground. At your quoted $400 million per mile (assuming 100% below ground), the NYC subway would cost very roughly $330 billion to build today. That's a lot of money. However, considering that the NYC subway has lasted us 104 years so far, and saved $4.6 billion in gasoline costs alone in 2006 (when oil cost roughly $70/barrel), reduces commute times and pollution, allows denser cities, reduces expenditures on roads and new cars, etc., and subways may begin to make more sense. I don't think subways make sense everywhere, but I do think they're underutilized by maybe a factor of four in the USA.

I'd also really like to see more money assigned to PRT research. PRT has the potential to produce public transit networks with passenger capacity similar to heavy rail at $1-50 million per mile and with competitive transit times. PRT also has the added benefit of potentially allowing for much faster transportation than cars or subway--a PRT system that runs at 160 km/h (100 mph) nonstop from within 2 blocks of your origin and destination is plausible with enough capital.

Not arguing with the fact that people agree to that license. However, I only agree with that up to the point of "even if such Contributor has been advised of the possibility of such damages." Even Civil Engineers have better ethics than that. See Canon 1.1-4. Heck read 'em all. https://www.asce.org/inside/codeofethics.cfm

What that line suggests is that, even if they knew it was a problem, Big Dig engineering firms in Boston would've kept plugging along cutting corners until someone got hurt...oh...they did eh? Well...Oh..I see.

So...does anyone have any honor anymore?

I can understand safeguarding developers from liability for accidental goofs, but blanket free-pass for intentionally including weak code should be actionable. That same sentence quoted above (quite a legalese-paragraph-sentence too) would exonerate someone who intentionally put a hidden back door into the apache source using security through obscurity... you know... for security updates, and was told it was a stupid idea.

The upswing is that the peer reviewed, engineered, open nature of Apache would prevent something like that from living too long. I could see issues with people using the same license on lesser software though.

The code of ethics is found here

I quibble:

PRIVACY: I will access private information on computer systems only when it is necessary in the course of my technical duties. I will maintain and protect the confidentiality of any information to which I may have access regardless of the method by which I came into knowledge of it.

First part, good. Second part, less good; it effectively requires you take no action over other ethical offenses that you discover during the course of your work, save when your action is dictated by law... if then. We are not lawyers with an attorney-client privilege, and I don't believe that society would be improved by our having right or obligation on those lines. While we should generally keep our mouths shut, and should not use the information we learn for our own benefit, there are some things I will not walk blithely past and stay silent about. Civil Engineers have no obligation to keep quiet about any bodies that turn up while working on a building project; neither do I.

Aside from that, it's a pretty good code. Add in the line from the Civil Engineers' code about "shall hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the public" at the beginning and I'd post it myself. As is... still missing something.

This is silly. The Seven Wonders of the Modern World can't be decided by an internet poll. The objective, authoritative, truthy way is to let the American Society of Civil Engineers decide it. And they have spoken. The Seven Wonders of the Modern World are the Channel Tunnel, the CN Tower, the Empire State Building, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Itaipu Dam, the Netherlands North Sea Protection Works, and the Panama Canal

In 1899, Technology Review noted that "readers of Popular Mechanics some time ago selected by vote" wireless, the telephone, aeroplane, radium, antiseptics, antitoxins, spectrum analysis, and X-rays as the "seven wonders of the modern world."

The "seven wonders of the New World" were Niagara Falls, Yellowstone Park, Garden of the Gods, Mammoth Cave, Yosemite Valley, Giant Trees, and Natural Bridge.

The infrastructure in the US is very much built out and there is not much new construction going on.

Actually I'm willing to admit I get some useful services out of my tax money. The worthless services outnumber the good though. I take a look at the latest Federal Transportation bill with 6,000 pork barel projects, including a bridge in Alaska that no one wants, and I have to say there are better things to spend my money on. Then I look at my local news and find out that after using my tax money to build a road our local transportation officials want to turn the thing into a toll road so they can charge me more. If a private company want to fund a toll road, great. But to double tax me like that is offensive.

If we eliminated just some of the government waste we could do so much more. The American Society of Civil Engineers give our nation's infrastructure a failing grade. And yet money is poured into new projects. Acording to the citizens against government waste:

The gas tax has morphed from 3 cents per gallon in 1956 to 18.4 cents today. Far from being a user fee for road travelers, the Highway Trust Fund pays for museums, bus stops, bike trails, and mass-transit boondoggles all over the country. Why don't we repair our bridges before building hiking trails?

Actually pothole repair probably would have been on McGreevey's platform in New Jersey, if he had run for re-election. There was a lot of publicity around pothole repair in the 03-04 winter. In places where roads are pretty much maxed out, repairing roads is an issue. As a local issue, potholes can be winner. But as a federal issue it isn't sexy. Even locally it's a big snore unless it's a major problem. And why has it become a major problem? Because it wasn't worth fixing the problems until they became major. So until things are so bad that everyone's complaining politicians will spend that money on new projects, not on infrastructure.

But, what's your point? Gas taxes should be cut and the transportation system goes to shit?

How about a moratorium on new projects until some of the infrastructure is repaired? How about a removal of pork from appropriation bills? Cut my gas taxes and the government has less to waste. The're already lettting things go to shit, this just prevents them from fiddling while the city burns.

As the article mentions, half of Holland is below sea level - obviously they don't have the option of relocating, but they prove that adequate flood defences can be built. The cost really isn't that big, a tiny fraction of what Bush is spending in Iraq would provide adequate flood defences for the area. Seems to me like a perfectly reasonable way to spend money, compared to some things I could mention.

Right on! After the 1953 flooding of over 2000km2 of polders, planning of the Delta Works was started. Dikes (or levees) along hundreds of kilometers of shore were raised by as much as 5 meters. Several flood barriers were built, some of which can move in order to permit sea traffic to pass during normal conditions. The American Society of Civil engineers considers them one of the seven modern wonders of the world.

The delta works took over 40 years to complete and the costs were huge, but not more than the $100 billion one year of Iraqi war costs.

As the article mentions, half of Holland is below sea level - obviously they don't have the option of relocating, but they prove that adequate flood defences can be built. The cost really isn't that big, a tiny fraction of what Bush is spending in Iraq would provide adequate flood defences for the area. Seems to me like a perfectly reasonable way to spend money, compared to some things I could mention.

Right on! After the 1953 flooding of over 2000km2 of polders, planning of the Delta Works was started. Dikes (or levees) along hundreds of kilometers of shore were raised by as much as 5 meters. Several flood barriers were built, some of which can move in order to permit sea traffic to pass during normal conditions. The American Society of Civil engineers considers them one of the seven modern wonders of the world.

The delta works took over 40 years to complete and the costs were huge, but not more than the $100 billion one year of Iraqi war costs.

The powerhouse at California's Helms Pumped Storage Project is 1,200 ft below the surface of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Linking existing reservoirs, the project provides 1,200 Mw of electrical peaking capacity. More than 1 million cu yd of granite was excavated. The 1,800 ft inclined shaft is one of the largest of its type ever excavated and concreted.

Many undergraduate civil engineers get the chance to build real bridges with the Steel Bridge Competition

My personal favorite has always been the Concrete Canoe, though.

In answer to the topic question: You get out of your education what you put into it.

Many undergraduate civil engineers get the chance to build real bridges with the Steel Bridge Competition

My personal favorite has always been the Concrete Canoe, though.

In answer to the topic question: You get out of your education what you put into it.

Mechanical? Argh. Try a civil engineer, or more specifically a structural engineer.

Another good link, with more engineering info that is generally available from the dumbed down nasa PAO press releases:
Space Truss, Civil Engineering Magazine, April 2000

Here is an old (April 2000) article from Civil Engineering Magazine about the Space Truss ("railroad")

I found this link last night when /. was /.ed
http://www.asce.org/news/pr042900_opalfasullo.cfm

It's a link about the main engineer involved in the construction of the Twin Towers.

Although some people may think his team's design was fatally flawed, I believe that the design did it's job. The structure held long enough for what at this time appears to be at least a partial evacuation.

Have you ever heard of private networks? You can have a TCP/IP network with its own internal numbering and no connection to the outside internet. What router did you think would pass your packets to the satellite's uplink antenna?