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Misconfigured Webserver, Threats to Call FBI

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the all-in-a-morning's-work dept.

the_harlequin writes "The Register is reporting that a city manager threatened to call the FBI over a misconfigured webserver. From the article: "The heartland turned vicious this week when an Oklahoma town threatened to call in the FBI because its web site was hacked by Linux maker CentOS. Problem is CentOS didn't hack Tuttle's web site at all. The city's hosting provider had simply botched a web server." "

8 of 564 comments (clear)

  1. Re:!!!!~11111!!! by Vengeance · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The guy is a real piece of work. I liked this:

    "I am computer literate! I have 22 years in computer systems engineering and operation. Now, can you tell me how to remove 'your software' that you acknowledge you provided free of charge? I consider this 'hacking.'"

    22 years in systems engineering, but he hasn't got a clue as to how web sites operate. This guy epitomizes problems we all see every day: Incompetents who don't recognize their own incompetence. Then he compounds it by being an arrogant bastard and an overbearing, threatening weenie to boot.

    Nice.

    And these are the kinds of jackasses we ELECT to have power over us.

    --
    It was a joke! When you give me that look it was a joke.
  2. Re:!!!!~11111!!! by fabs64 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    realising you're incompetent doesn't make you competent, it just means you're not ignorant to your incompetence.

  3. Re:Interesting study on incompetence by jsight · · Score: 5, Insightful

    by definition, it is impossible for a majority of people to be above average.


    No, it's not.
    --
    Throw the bums out!
  4. Re:"I welcome this publicity" by beheaderaswp · · Score: 4, Insightful

    With one caveat:

    The press is his town might not be savvy enough to understand what he did.

    --
    Another consultant who stuck it out.

    "We are the Priests, of the Temples of Syrinx..."
  5. comic sans by BenjyD · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The guy's website provides further proof for the "low IQ and use of Comic Sans" correlation.

  6. respect and dignity by dustwun · · Score: 3, Insightful

    While the general response is to call for his incompetent head on a plate (not undeserved), we as a community should be making an effort to be polite to this idiot. If we want to continue the march of linux, we need to be prepared to deal with incompetence and people like this in a warm fashion, and mock them later with dignity and respect. If all he gets are threats, harrassing calls etc, he's going to assume that all linux people are alike, and that we're all terrorists and hackers. Please, if you're going to email/call/mock him, do so with dignity and respect as a member of the community. Don't prove him right by getting on his level. We're all better than him, so act like it.

    1. Re:respect and dignity by IgnoramusMaximus · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Not a chance.

      If that man was merely deficient in his understanding of the situation, I would cringe at the state of civic appointments but would heed your advice and remain civil and polite towards him, as I would in most cases in my professional dealings, preserving the decorum of the conversation. That is because such decorum is what makes inter-personal interactions civil, friendly and as a result allows us to correct someone's gaps in education without insulting him.

      Unfortunately, Mr. Butthead chose to go ape at the first opportunity, displaying his obtuse arrogance and ample ill will, not to mention lack of any decorum to the point that any pretense of civility never existed. Add to this the insulting and egomaniac "apology", which seeks to blame everyone else for his wretched personality, combine this with his civil-servant status, and we have a situation where civic action, publicity and frankly, total destruction of his credibility in the public's eye is the only decent course of action.

      Although it is frequently not so, this case has nothing to do with our, Linux users's, attitudes and everything to do with his.

  7. Re:This is wrong! by sethadam1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sorry, Builder, but all this shows is that incompetents shouldn't be left in charge of IT. I would say it demonstrates the exact opposite of what you say. Clearly the city manager is unqualified and ignorant. The open source project helped him -- for free -- even when he threatened litigation! Ultimately, CentOS solved the problem for him too, outdoing the ISP he presumably pays.

    I would argue that this furthers the cause significantly, and as an aside, encourages towns to take IT seriously.