"Just ask the Unix team", Not because it is their responsibility, but because they can solve the problem quickly as they have the widest berth of knowledge.
Coding as a Sys Admin is crucial. Just know when to say I can't(or won't), for your sanity.
This, a thousand times! I'm a UNIX Engineer for a large corporation, and I find that the UNIX team gets pulled into every problem, when the reality is, it is seldom an OS issue. It's because we have to have that depth of knowledge, just to set up a single box, never mind a fully automated HA environment. I find that we also have the job of calling out bullshitters who say "it's not our problem (I'm looking at you Network Team) or "no I didn't change anything!" (mister chmod -R 777).
On topic: Scripting is key to solving a lot of "run this on 300 AIX, 50 RHEL, 20 HP-UX, and 5 Solaris boxes" and staying sane doing it. Our problem is we have a ton of legacy scripts that do a lot of day-to-day stuff, which was great for 300 total boxes. On an enterprise level with thousands of machines, not so much. Now we're trying to replace a mess of scripts with enterprise level solutions, but figuring out how we do it now, and how we want to do it with some real software is more of a challenge than we thought. We're in a bit of a mess because someone automated everything with scripts, and it is not scaling.
I am currently getting my BS in Computer Information Systems through Saint Leo University. They are a brick and mortar school based out of Florida. They also have many satellite campuses on Military bases. I was actually in the Military when I started taking classes at the Langley AFB campus.
I find that if you take the discussions seriously and put time into the papers, you can learn quite a bit. I feel that they are not a "degree mill" type of school. They do not differentiate between an "online" degree and a "regular" degree which to me is a plus, given the stigma of online learning.
There are some classes I've breezed through (mostly the COM classes, I've been in IT for 12 years..) and others I've had to really work hard at. For instance I'm getting C in marketing, this semester, at least so far. Marketing?! I wasn't really prepared for all of the case studies and the professor wants very detailed answers that demonstrate a working knowledge of the material. Now that I know this, I will be able to bring my grade up, but it goes to show that it is on par with classroom learning as far as the range of difficulties.
IANAL, so this is just armchair quarterbacking but, if YOU bought the laptop, it's YOUR laptop. This is assuming the boss doesn't want to tag it as a company laptop in return for reimbursement.
Just because I do work on my home PC (which I do), doesn't mean the company has any right to it.
But, if I figured out the One Great Internet Business Idea or write the Great American Novel and used the company laptop to do it, it's an avenue they could use to claim they own it.
Once again, NAL, but I don't think this gives them an avenue. If the company guys me legal pad and a pen, and I write "[A] Great American Novel", it doesn't give the company any rights to my work. I think you're being a bit paranoid.
Think about everything that would have to fall in line for this to happen:
You'd actually have to come up with an idea or work, worth 'stealing'. The company would have to know about it AND care enough about it to steal it, or try to claim it as their own. Would have to prove that the laptop you used was indeed owned by the company AND That you did the work on the laptop.
It's more like putting up road barriers to a couple of city blocks because the street is known for prostitution and drug dealing. Even if it has legitimate businesses.
Yes, it's called message center plus. It's an extremely easy uninstall, however they mask it as an 'update' when it is really just adware. Bad move on Lenovo's part.
And my entire (large) company uses Thinkpads, I bet the helpdesk is going nuts today.
It's amazing how people don't even read the summary. PC makers will ship Windows with a browser. It might not necessarily be IE.
"Computer makers would then have the option to add the browser back in, ship another browser or ship multiple browsers, according to a confidential memo that was sent to PC makers and seen by CNET News."
*My personal preference would be to increase the minimum standards for possessing a D/L to the point at which it would remove sufficient numbers of drivers from the roadway so as to reduce traffic congestion. We only have room for X drivers. We'll only issue X licenses to the most competent.
Which translates into "We'll only issue X licenses to the people with money."
How do you define competence? Add more tests? Who gets to pay for that? This would just wind up making driving schools that are insanely expensive, because you've now just made drivers licenses a limited commodity. So those who aren't deemed competent enough by your new standard, commute how? Your 'personal preference' works great until you factor in actual people.
Let me preface this with the fact that I'm a pretty hardcore geek. I'm not quite the type to dress up in a Star Fleet uniform and go to a convention, but close. I was in the USAF for 8 years as a 3c0X1 (Computer Operations Specialist). I had two duty stations, the Pentagon and Langley AFB VA. I was an E-5 (Staff Sergeant) by the time I got out. I will say this, I was given the opportunity to excel or fall flat on my face.
My first year at the Pentagon I was a telephone operator. I had gone through 6 weeks of Basic and 3 months of non-stop technical training for Computer Operations (Sys Admin on the civilian side) and I was answering telephones from 11pm to 7am. Needless to say I was very disgruntled at my initial assignment and it showed. I fortunately got through my evaluations without a mark and never got into too much trouble but it was apparent I was a malcontent. Most of the 3c0x1's stationed at the Pentagon (used to) go through the switch first, it's all civilian now, thank God. From there they would evaluate you and put you in a different IT shop. My friend who put in a bit of effort now and again worked network security for 3 years. I got stuck working on a 30 year old mainframe, processing message traffic for the remainder of my time at the Pentagon.
Fortunately I was given an assignment to Langley where I did Sys Ad work for an Intel Squadron. I worked on all types of equipment with applications and systems that you don't see outside of government operations. I saw that if I showed up on time, uniform straight and put in some effort day in and day out I was rewarded accordingly. The Major I worked for (not directly he was 4 people higher in my chain) noticed my work, said it was appreciated and put me in charge of an even better network with MUCH higher visibility. I was in charge, I had 3 people that worked for me and if they screwed up, it was my screw up. We did everything from scripts to SAN to Email, UNIX, Linux, you name it. The only thing we didn't do was routers, switches and cables. Life was good, my job was great.
In 2006, when it was time for my second re-enlistment, I tested the waters with my resume and I was astounded that I got offers in the 6 figures with only 4 real years of experience (plus an AS in Information Systems and a TS/SCI clearence). I got out and took a job as a contractor for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.
Ironically, I stayed in Virginia for 8 years in the Air Force, minus the occasional training at Keesler AFB, MI. When I worked for the NGA, I went all over the place, Japan, UK, all over the US, etc. I attribute the success, I had, to the hard learning I had in the military.
Basically I would say that, at least in the AF, if you show up to work, look good, act professional and do your job, you will generally excel. There are of course exceptions to this, however overall, I think it compares very much to how you could, or could not, be treated in the civilian world.
We have (mostly) something similar. First letter denotes whether the machine is devlopment, PAT or production. Then 3 letter location (we have multiple data centers), and app name and a number.
This is good for those of us who have to call a site to get any physical work done. Also, if I get paged on a development or PAT server, I know it can wait until morning.
With the exception of a government IT departments wounded pride, I doubt it was much of an incident. All the juicy government stuff is kept separate, with more stringent controls, i.e. SIPR, JWICS, NSAnet, etc. It was probably less harmful than a corporation being compromised. What they would have seen would have been day to day business and possibly personal information on people.
Although it is possible to piece together unclassified information to get classified information, the intruder would have to have a specific goal in mind and know where and what to look for. That's not to say it's not disturbing that a network such as this one was compromised.
As a *NIX sysad/engineer these are some common ones that I've found co-workers didn't know (a lot of other ones have been listed):
HP-UX: ll (basically ls -al) . bdf (Berkley version of df). print_manifest [/opt/ignite/bin/print_manifest](If you have ignite tools installed, gives you machine info).
All:
showmount -e [remote host] - good of you use nfs and want to check what mounts are exported. stty erase [ctrl+v] [backspace] - for when you get those annoying ^? when you hit backspace. set -o vi - if you're moderately good with vi setting your environment to it saves SO much time.
Tools for windows boxes to Administer *nix boxes remotely:
PuTTY - if you're *nix admin/engineer you probably know about PuTTY, you probably use it. PuTTY Connection Manager - less known - great to manager your windows. Reflection X Manager and ftp client. winscp.
Slashdot Mirror
"Just ask the Unix team", Not because it is their responsibility, but because they can solve the problem quickly as they have the widest berth of knowledge.
Coding as a Sys Admin is crucial. Just know when to say I can't(or won't), for your sanity.
This, a thousand times! I'm a UNIX Engineer for a large corporation, and I find that the UNIX team gets pulled into every problem, when the reality is, it is seldom an OS issue. It's because we have to have that depth of knowledge, just to set up a single box, never mind a fully automated HA environment. I find that we also have the job of calling out bullshitters who say "it's not our problem (I'm looking at you Network Team) or "no I didn't change anything!" (mister chmod -R 777).
On topic: Scripting is key to solving a lot of "run this on 300 AIX, 50 RHEL, 20 HP-UX, and 5 Solaris boxes" and staying sane doing it. Our problem is we have a ton of legacy scripts that do a lot of day-to-day stuff, which was great for 300 total boxes. On an enterprise level with thousands of machines, not so much. Now we're trying to replace a mess of scripts with enterprise level solutions, but figuring out how we do it now, and how we want to do it with some real software is more of a challenge than we thought. We're in a bit of a mess because someone automated everything with scripts, and it is not scaling.
GLaDOS, is that you?
I am currently getting my BS in Computer Information Systems through Saint Leo University. They are a brick and mortar school based out of Florida. They also have many satellite campuses on Military bases. I was actually in the Military when I started taking classes at the Langley AFB campus.
I find that if you take the discussions seriously and put time into the papers, you can learn quite a bit. I feel that they are not a "degree mill" type of school. They do not differentiate between an "online" degree and a "regular" degree which to me is a plus, given the stigma of online learning.
There are some classes I've breezed through (mostly the COM classes, I've been in IT for 12 years..) and others I've had to really work hard at. For instance I'm getting C in marketing, this semester, at least so far. Marketing?! I wasn't really prepared for all of the case studies and the professor wants very detailed answers that demonstrate a working knowledge of the material. Now that I know this, I will be able to bring my grade up, but it goes to show that it is on par with classroom learning as far as the range of difficulties.
Unfortunately I ran out of Mod points. Consider this my virtual +1 Insightful.
Why not? "To Catch a Thief" shows how to commit robbery and that is also aired by the discovery channel.
I wonder, of those complaining, how many filed a tax return this year?
They are also pre-paid plans that you can activate directly from the device.
I don't think there's a speaker in the cockpit from the tower
From the last link the TFS (emphasis mine):
At cruise altitude - the pilots stated they were using cockpit speakers to listen to radio communications, not their headsets.
Probably to, oh I don't know, provoke discussion? Isn't that kind of the point of /.?
offered to reimburse me for it
IANAL, so this is just armchair quarterbacking but, if YOU bought the laptop, it's YOUR laptop. This is assuming the boss doesn't want to tag it as a company laptop in return for reimbursement.
Just because I do work on my home PC (which I do), doesn't mean the company has any right to it.
But, if I figured out the One Great Internet Business Idea or write the Great American Novel and used the company laptop to do it, it's an avenue they could use to claim they own it.
Once again, NAL, but I don't think this gives them an avenue. If the company guys me legal pad and a pen, and I write "[A] Great American Novel", it doesn't give the company any rights to my work. I think you're being a bit paranoid.
Think about everything that would have to fall in line for this to happen:
You'd actually have to come up with an idea or work, worth 'stealing'.
The company would have to know about it AND care enough about it to steal it, or try to claim it as their own.
Would have to prove that the laptop you used was indeed owned by the company AND
That you did the work on the laptop.
It's more like putting up road barriers to a couple of city blocks because the street is known for prostitution and drug dealing. Even if it has legitimate businesses.
MPG.
It's just titled Warcraft. Remember those RTS games and books? I'll pretend it's based on those instead of WoW.
Though a character named 'Leroy Jenkins' would be hilarious.
Yes, it's called message center plus. It's an extremely easy uninstall, however they mask it as an 'update' when it is really just adware. Bad move on Lenovo's part.
And my entire (large) company uses Thinkpads, I bet the helpdesk is going nuts today.
"Computer makers would then have the option to add the browser back in, ship another browser or ship multiple browsers, according to a confidential memo that was sent to PC makers and seen by CNET News."
10. Chump
9. Chumpette
8. Yours
7. Up
6. Pimpmobile
5. Bite
4. My
3. Shiny
2. Daffodil
1. Ass
*My personal preference would be to increase the minimum standards for possessing a D/L to the point at which it would remove sufficient numbers of drivers from the roadway so as to reduce traffic congestion. We only have room for X drivers. We'll only issue X licenses to the most competent.
Which translates into "We'll only issue X licenses to the people with money."
How do you define competence? Add more tests? Who gets to pay for that? This would just wind up making driving schools that are insanely expensive, because you've now just made drivers licenses a limited commodity. So those who aren't deemed competent enough by your new standard, commute how? Your 'personal preference' works great until you factor in actual people.
Let me preface this with the fact that I'm a pretty hardcore geek. I'm not quite the type to dress up in a Star Fleet uniform and go to a convention, but close. I was in the USAF for 8 years as a 3c0X1 (Computer Operations Specialist). I had two duty stations, the Pentagon and Langley AFB VA. I was an E-5 (Staff Sergeant) by the time I got out. I will say this, I was given the opportunity to excel or fall flat on my face.
My first year at the Pentagon I was a telephone operator. I had gone through 6 weeks of Basic and 3 months of non-stop technical training for Computer Operations (Sys Admin on the civilian side) and I was answering telephones from 11pm to 7am. Needless to say I was very disgruntled at my initial assignment and it showed. I fortunately got through my evaluations without a mark and never got into too much trouble but it was apparent I was a malcontent. Most of the 3c0x1's stationed at the Pentagon (used to) go through the switch first, it's all civilian now, thank God. From there they would evaluate you and put you in a different IT shop. My friend who put in a bit of effort now and again worked network security for 3 years. I got stuck working on a 30 year old mainframe, processing message traffic for the remainder of my time at the Pentagon.
Fortunately I was given an assignment to Langley where I did Sys Ad work for an Intel Squadron. I worked on all types of equipment with applications and systems that you don't see outside of government operations. I saw that if I showed up on time, uniform straight and put in some effort day in and day out I was rewarded accordingly. The Major I worked for (not directly he was 4 people higher in my chain) noticed my work, said it was appreciated and put me in charge of an even better network with MUCH higher visibility. I was in charge, I had 3 people that worked for me and if they screwed up, it was my screw up. We did everything from scripts to SAN to Email, UNIX, Linux, you name it. The only thing we didn't do was routers, switches and cables. Life was good, my job was great.
In 2006, when it was time for my second re-enlistment, I tested the waters with my resume and I was astounded that I got offers in the 6 figures with only 4 real years of experience (plus an AS in Information Systems and a TS/SCI clearence). I got out and took a job as a contractor for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.
Ironically, I stayed in Virginia for 8 years in the Air Force, minus the occasional training at Keesler AFB, MI. When I worked for the NGA, I went all over the place, Japan, UK, all over the US, etc. I attribute the success, I had, to the hard learning I had in the military.
Basically I would say that, at least in the AF, if you show up to work, look good, act professional and do your job, you will generally excel. There are of course exceptions to this, however overall, I think it compares very much to how you could, or could not, be treated in the civilian world.
We have (mostly) something similar. First letter denotes whether the machine is devlopment, PAT or production. Then 3 letter location (we have multiple data centers), and app name and a number.
This is good for those of us who have to call a site to get any physical work done. Also, if I get paged on a development or PAT server, I know it can wait until morning.
With the exception of a government IT departments wounded pride, I doubt it was much of an incident. All the juicy government stuff is kept separate, with more stringent controls, i.e. SIPR, JWICS, NSAnet, etc. It was probably less harmful than a corporation being compromised. What they would have seen would have been day to day business and possibly personal information on people.
Although it is possible to piece together unclassified information to get classified information, the intruder would have to have a specific goal in mind and know where and what to look for. That's not to say it's not disturbing that a network such as this one was compromised.
eom.
If the systems boot slowly, that's the fault of the corporate IT policy putting slow-booting operating systems on computers.
Bingo. Note to all SysAdmins (especially the managers): If your desktops take 30 minutes to boot, your doing it wrong.
Also everywhere I've worked you've been required to leave your desktop on to make it easier to push updates, especially emergency updates.
As a *NIX sysad/engineer these are some common ones that I've found co-workers didn't know (a lot of other ones have been listed):
HP-UX:
ll (basically ls -al) .
bdf (Berkley version of df).
print_manifest [/opt/ignite/bin/print_manifest](If you have ignite tools installed, gives you machine info).
All:
showmount -e [remote host] - good of you use nfs and want to check what mounts are exported.
stty erase [ctrl+v] [backspace] - for when you get those annoying ^? when you hit backspace.
set -o vi - if you're moderately good with vi setting your environment to it saves SO much time.
Tools for windows boxes to Administer *nix boxes remotely:
PuTTY - if you're *nix admin/engineer you probably know about PuTTY, you probably use it.
PuTTY Connection Manager - less known - great to manager your windows.
Reflection X Manager and ftp client.
winscp.
"Gee Brain, what do you want to do tonight?" "The same thing we do every night, Pinky--try to take over the world."
Now let's see you withdraw your 'Sword of a 1000 Truths' from an ATM.