I managed to host the rpm database on my RH machine about a year ago. And in trying to upgrade stuff, finally got it so that gcc doesn't work, glibc is screwed up, etc, etc. Rather than rebuild everything, I'm going to take the chance to upgrade and switch distros (to Progeny for those who need to know.)
I was thinking along your lines (wait for GCC 3.0) but I'd rather not. I backed up all of my tarballs, and I'll wipe everything except/usr/local and/home. Install new distro. Now, when GCC 3.0 rolls around, I might have to reinstall again, but I've backed up the tarballs. Just reinstall them.
There is another trick: with each subsequent release, there are more and more apps available. Half of the tarballs of stuff I have installed on my RH 6.2 system are included as packages on Progeny (Storm/Corel/Debian/etc)
Here is a little excercise. Get your basic finance book. Any finance book will have this info.
Look at the cost of the MBA. Now figure out the FMV of the money (it's in the finance book if you don't know). Now, take that same amount of money, and figure the FMV invested at... 8% (or some other figure that you think you could invest money at today).
Now, for the really fun part. Do the same, but figure in the salary differentials. Lower your salary for the next 2-3 years to compensate for time spent in school. But raise it for the year immediately afterward and into the future.
Take all of these things together, and see where you will be better off in 5, 10, 20 years. (ie, invest the money you would spend on education in the stock market, or spend it and get the ROI)
Having done this, you are an accountant. Decide if the money and career change are worth the time lost to family. Now you are a businessman.
As has been indicated, YMMV. The MBA program I attended (most definately not a 'Harvard equivalent') had instructors who did or, rather, would, spend time discussing various issues of importance to the entrepreneur. Finding investment money, business plans, etc. Sure, all of that can be found in most any MBA program, but the instructors I had were willing to tailor the discussion to entrepreneuers.
So, as with any education, the degree doesn't matter, but the school, the classes, and the instructors do matter.
I could deal with the shipping prices. My problem when I was looking at the auction sites was that the prices were so high, especially for stuff that has no warranty.
Mame has a time and place where it is appropriate. IMNSHO:
When deciding whether or not to buy a game. Mame can give you a general feel for the gameplay and appearance. Of course, without the ROM file, THIS IS ILLEGAL.
Mame can also serve as motivation to finish that cabinet resto.
Finally, there are some cabs that you will never find, or be able to restore, or that are truly out of reach (Star Wars cabs come to mind).
Mame is to the real thing as masturbation/blow-up-dolls are to the real thing.
(Again, I don't discount the work done on MAME. It is truly an amazing emulator. It just isn't a replacement for a cab)
Good reply. Here on/. and the 'net in general, Americans (USians. Can't say I've noticed with Canadians) we get a lot of shit when it comes to not recognizing other cultural norms and standards. Yet when it is turned the other way, it's all right for Europeans, Africans, Asians, etc. to slag on us because we are different.
Same thing I experienced in college with women's (or in some cases wymyn's) groups, African American groups, Asian American groups, etc. It was okay to slag the white protestant male for his barbaric, stereotypical views, but Gaya forbid it worked the other way around.
IOW, all American, white, Protestant males were/are racist, elitist, misogynist scum. But everyone in our group is an individual.
As to the original question: you are the warden, not the child's best friend. I like playing with my son, but that's not the duty I undertook (I think that was five minutes of rollicking good fun;)
FWIW, did anyone consider that asking how to monitor computer use in June, as school is letting out a bit stupid? What kind of kids are you raising who would rather veg in front of the TV/computer than go outside and go swimming, ride bikes, etc, etc, etc.?
I've not had any luck with the 'local' papers. But going to the nearest large city (Wash. DC, in my case) is much better.
I would try going to a few auctions, and purposely underbidding on some stuff to get a feel for how they work.
Beware eBay. You will spend as much (or more) as from a company like TNT, and get a much dicier product.
I'll second your advice about being able to solder. If you always get a cold joint, get some practice.
Yes, MAME can be easier, but the ROMs are probably not legal for you to have unless you have the game. In which case, why would you want MAME?? I thought about building a MAME-cab, but decided against it. MAME is best for trying a game to see if the game is really as good as you remembered.
But remember that you have an 'investment' for life. Go to your local arcade, and check out how they are abused, and they keep on running. Once your machine is up and going, it takes very little to keep it in good shape.
Good bunch. I bought two games from them about two years ago. Okay to talk to, helped me with a minor repair during their massive Xmas rush last year. CHEAP delivery. $100 for two machines (one was a 16 foot skeeball machine) about 3 hours from Philly.
Yeah, the prices were a bit nuts. But I believe I got what I paid for.
Remember those guys who barely made it out of your intro to [comp.sci, biology, physics, chemistry, statistics, etc]? They are now no longer referred to as 'idiot'; the proper terminology is 'your honor'.
Looks like you slashdotted yourself. I think that could be a first.
(Somewhat on topic):
If it is an X-terminal, what's the holdup? Isn't there a coax/twinax/rj45 port on the back? That, some sort of 'Ctrl-Esc' or something to get into the configuration menu, and this HOWTO and maybe this HOWTO and this HOWTO might offer some info. I'm sure that if you went out and actually bought or glommed on to an X Terminal, you might have a clue, but others reading this/. might not.
This is simply another waveform that is being detected. How do they decide at which point you need a court order, and at which point is it okay? How many nm detector? That's all we are dealing with. How much difference is there between the red on my Dr. Pepper can and the red that these sensors pick up?
What about 'visual wavelengths'? Well, in some cases, you need a special viewer (aka binoculars) to see an alleged criminal act. Are these now illegal? What is the difference between a pair of binoculars and an infrared camera? Both augment human vision beyond that which naturally occurs. For that matter, are police on stake-outs no longer allowed to wear eyeglasses or contact lenses?
"Oh," you reply, "but you can just put up curtains." Yeah, well you can also 'just' put up infrared deflecting panels (I believe that Pink Panther chap sells some consumer grade ones).
What about microphones? How is this different? We take a waveform that humans cannot naturally perceive (either due to amplitude, frequency, or simple placement of the sound emitting source) and modifies it for consumption.
I'm not saying that this is a bad decision necessarily. It does seem to be the right one. But how is it possible for the Supremes, not known for their scientific or mathematical skills, to have made a decision which is a technological one?
This issue is far from as black and white as others are posting.
I think you hit the nail on the head with your choice of services. But I'll reiterate and narrow them down a little bit. Also, since you said an advanced course, I'll assume that your users can cd, cp, mv, emacs (vi), and LOCK DOWN A SINGLE BOX. Sorry, but that latter isn't what I call advanced. There are advanced topics within it, but this is something you must be able to do. So let's call security a beginning and an advanced topic and a topic that permeates the rest.
First I would work on general issues. I would work on the./configure, make, make install polka. Sure, the defaults are usually good enough, but there is rarely a package that I don't change at least one thing on.
Then I would go a bit more into/etc/users,/etc/passwd,/etc/shadow and so forth. And also go into SUID stuff.
With this out of the way, you can move on to the 'important' stuff (quoted because many will dismiss the earlier issues as fluff. It is no less important than this)
I'd start with Apache. Compiling it, installing it, securing it. It is going to be fairly ubiquitos (sp), has a huge user base and support, and offers the opportunity to do all the little bits that are important. The students will have to learn how to allow/disallow features, throw out garbage (for example, I usually combine all of the.conf files into httpd.conf. Makes life much easier for me. YMMV, but it is an example of something that an admin should decide). You also can learn about chroot jails, running as non-root (and I usually run almost nothing as 'nobody.nobody', instead giving each daemon a specific 'nobody'-type user. Again, an admin decision).
Next I would go into SSL/SSH and telnet. Perhaps SSL/SSH should come first. No problem. By having this early, you can get new admins into the habit of switching to SSH early. It also allows an intro to inetd.conf.
Now that you have covered SSH and disabled telnet, it's time to disable ftp. Have them learn (or reiterate) why scp is better. Or show them how to set up Apache to offer similar functionality. Or show them how to install a new ftp daemon, or show them how to hit bugtrak, et al. and fix their own distro. For a well trained admin, I would suggest showing all of the options, explain why (IMHO) scp is the best solution, and let them make their own decisions about how to proceed.
Next up for me would be Samba. I imagine the same is true in most shops. You cover security (again:) users and groups (again:) and have a genuinely useful tool. This can also be the time for some preaching. Depending on the size of your training network, you can show students that the server doesn't matter, as the clients all look at it the same way. And this is free (and Free) (and Open) (hell, it's probably even shared:).
I would assume email is next, but we use Exchange. Follow up with DNS and dhcp, and you should be just about done.
You should have a mixed network (in this case meaning Linux clients and server plus M$ clients and server) with a decent sized network (number of students + 5 = number of hosts). I would also suggest that if your students are up to it (and to be honest, they should be if they are going to perform well outside of the classroom) you should periodically (between lessons or lesson segments) have students change which computer they are working on. This will give them the opportunity to see how other people configure things, opening the possibility for discussion, or simply cleaning up someone else's house.
Finally, I would again reiterate that if there is more than one way to do something, tell your students. Let them make the choice. They'll be doing that after they leave your care.
Now, as to specific course material: start with the basics, and let the course evolve on its own. I would pick a scenario that is easily grokked by your students (a university, a small business with a web-presence, whatever) and set things up with that in mind.
I have never taken an advanced computer class, but have taken some advanced classes in many other fields. If you are truly teaching an advanced class, the material you have prepared is just the beginning. The less of it you have, the better. Advanced students will have the questions and ideas to push the class along. Trying to return to the syllabus or lecture can and will just frustrate them. (Of course, in this, I am ignoring cultural differences, the actual 'advanced'ness of your class, etc. But your aren't paying for my advice, so...) If my experiences are any indications, you should be able to go into any class with a one-page list of 'today's' topics, and have a nice eight hour class.
I would keep on hand the official documentation of these projects, any ORA books you have on them, and so forth. For the benefit of the students, I would give them lists of websites, newsgroups, and mailing lists that may be able to help them in the future. In addition to getting used to making technilogical decisions, being able to find their own help is an important tool. If you can find the help, they can figure out much of the rest.
Sorry for rambling. I know I've missed a few points I wanted to make, but this should hopefully get you started. Any questions, ask.
(May as well reply to the replies to my reply here. Most of the arguments are in a similar vein)
I stand my ground that 20 year old secrets are quite lame and not worth protecting. Your post was the one that seemed most rational, as it focused on things such as spy networks. No problem. That almost makes sense. If the network hasn't already been compromised (Aldrigde Ames, et al.)
If foreign powers (and in this case, I think we need to primarily concern ourselves with the Soviets and possibly the Chinese) are incapable of breaking the secrets after 20 years, they aren't a threat. If they are capable, destroying the drives is a moot point; they already have the information. But I will grant that of all the arguments, the question of spys makes more sense than any other.
Second point that many others made was WRT technological advances. Which doesn't float at all. Even after having a U2, I don't remember tales of a Soviet counterpart (I'm not a hardware buff, so I could be wrong. Still, it would be an important part to the Gary Powers legacy if there was evidence of the Soviets reverse-engineering the thing). There is also the more important matter of build-quality. You can have the greatest design in the world, but if your metallurgy/construction/operation of a device is faulty, who cares? I think the SCUD's proved that point about ten years ago. While the patriot missile helped, so did the fact that the SCUDs were put together like a Trabant. (Come to think of it, a Trabant in a trebuchet would likely have been more effective).
(Most of the rest deals with the other replies, so don't take it personally if it's not 100% related to your post)
Another poster mentions chemical and biological warfare, as well as the Manhattan project, as being items that are still rightfully under wraps. Give me a break. Without access to that data, China, Pakistan, and India (among others) all have nuclear programs. Concurrent discovery of technology is the norm, and the US didn't do anything grand, except get it done before having to get on with the island hopping.
Biological is perhaps the biggest joke there is. Anybody with a few credits of chem or bio in college could develop a rather nasty thing to rain all sorts of shit down on an enemy. The real trick is delivery systems. Given that little GPS powered 'RC' plane, I don't think we need to go high tech, either.
But of course, someone could steal the super-duper-top-secret GPS error removing protocol. This and the exact capabilities fall into the same category: big freakin' deal. Close only counts in horseshoes, handgrenades, and nukes. Do you think Saddam or Osama cares if their pathogen hits at 1602 Penn. Ave. instead of 1600?
I could go on and on about why the arguments posted up to my post were wrong, and did not support the destruction of hard drives. BUT, I have largely reversed my opinion, based on one small thing that I haven't (yet) seen mentioned: most of these machines don't have 20-50 year old data on them. Most like, it is just a few months. Thanks to the DOD (and their worldwide counterparts) Intel, Western Digital, and the rest continue to make 386's, one GB drives, and 30 pin SIMMs. Those 486's that could go into the schools don't contain ancient information. They contain the latest and greatest, given the slow speed of replacement of computers by the DOD.
(And to the moderator of my original post: If you think I am a troll simply because of strong language or an opinion that differs from yours, say so. Don't hide behind the 'overrated' tag. Obviously, at least four people on/. felt it was worth replying to with reasonably well thought out arguments (even though I disagreed with 99% of what they said). If you picked 'overrated' because you weren't sure if you were right, than you shouldn't be modding. And if you did it to save your karma, that's right, you are a karma whore. Earn your karma by posting.)
WTF!? Do you actually think that some 20 year old (let alone 50 year old) information on some computer means anything?? If the US gubmint suddenly got:
All Soviet troop movements from the spring of 1979 to the summer of 1980,
The latest blueprints for their newest fighter,
Photos of Khruschev (sp) shagging Bobby Kennedy while Marilyn Monroe looked on,
and Stalin's memoirs, entitled "Why Hitler is a Bigger Prick than I"
who would give a shit.
Christ, you probably believe that the FOIA is too lenient.
Good idea. Few problems (NB I'm not slaggin the whole thing, just picking a few nits)
First, I wouldn't put it past the average university to blame students even if the latest update of the officially proscribed anti-viral software is installed and properly running.
Second, damage deposits are usually the property of the person who makes the deposit. So is the interest.
Despite the obvious signing of waivers, other students could claim that the university is responsible for their computers' safety should various protections be required.
Faculty will never agree to anything that may endanger their funding. No way, no how. University IT dept's are the faculties' collective 'beeyatch'.
Scan my ports, I DoS you. Deal with it. (I don't, but someone would.)
Slashdot Mirror
First of all, admit that you need a better pr0n archiver. Then we can talk...
Similarly, many Windows (yes, and *n?x) users run Napster and clones. Are these servers?
Ask Slashdot: Where can I find pictures of huge, gaping assholes?
http://cmdrtaco.net/rob.shtml
Big dittos to your post. With a caveat.
/usr/local and /home. Install new distro. Now, when GCC 3.0 rolls around, I might have to reinstall again, but I've backed up the tarballs. Just reinstall them.
I managed to host the rpm database on my RH machine about a year ago. And in trying to upgrade stuff, finally got it so that gcc doesn't work, glibc is screwed up, etc, etc. Rather than rebuild everything, I'm going to take the chance to upgrade and switch distros (to Progeny for those who need to know.)
I was thinking along your lines (wait for GCC 3.0) but I'd rather not. I backed up all of my tarballs, and I'll wipe everything except
There is another trick: with each subsequent release, there are more and more apps available. Half of the tarballs of stuff I have installed on my RH 6.2 system are included as packages on Progeny (Storm/Corel/Debian/etc)
Here is a little excercise. Get your basic finance book. Any finance book will have this info.
Look at the cost of the MBA. Now figure out the FMV of the money (it's in the finance book if you don't know). Now, take that same amount of money, and figure the FMV invested at... 8% (or some other figure that you think you could invest money at today).
Now, for the really fun part. Do the same, but figure in the salary differentials. Lower your salary for the next 2-3 years to compensate for time spent in school. But raise it for the year immediately afterward and into the future.
Take all of these things together, and see where you will be better off in 5, 10, 20 years. (ie, invest the money you would spend on education in the stock market, or spend it and get the ROI)
Having done this, you are an accountant. Decide if the money and career change are worth the time lost to family. Now you are a businessman.
go forth grasshopper...
As has been indicated, YMMV. The MBA program I attended (most definately not a 'Harvard equivalent') had instructors who did or, rather, would, spend time discussing various issues of importance to the entrepreneur. Finding investment money, business plans, etc. Sure, all of that can be found in most any MBA program, but the instructors I had were willing to tailor the discussion to entrepreneuers.
So, as with any education, the degree doesn't matter, but the school, the classes, and the instructors do matter.
I could deal with the shipping prices. My problem when I was looking at the auction sites was that the prices were so high, especially for stuff that has no warranty.
Mame has a time and place where it is appropriate. IMNSHO:
When deciding whether or not to buy a game. Mame can give you a general feel for the gameplay and appearance. Of course, without the ROM file, THIS IS ILLEGAL.
Mame can also serve as motivation to finish that cabinet resto.
Finally, there are some cabs that you will never find, or be able to restore, or that are truly out of reach (Star Wars cabs come to mind).
Mame is to the real thing as masturbation/blow-up-dolls are to the real thing.
(Again, I don't discount the work done on MAME. It is truly an amazing emulator. It just isn't a replacement for a cab)
Good reply. Here on /. and the 'net in general, Americans (USians. Can't say I've noticed with Canadians) we get a lot of shit when it comes to not recognizing other cultural norms and standards. Yet when it is turned the other way, it's all right for Europeans, Africans, Asians, etc. to slag on us because we are different.
Same thing I experienced in college with women's (or in some cases wymyn's) groups, African American groups, Asian American groups, etc. It was okay to slag the white protestant male for his barbaric, stereotypical views, but Gaya forbid it worked the other way around.
IOW, all American, white, Protestant males were/are racist, elitist, misogynist scum. But everyone in our group is an individual.
As to the original question: you are the warden, not the child's best friend. I like playing with my son, but that's not the duty I undertook (I think that was five minutes of rollicking good fun;)
FWIW, did anyone consider that asking how to monitor computer use in June, as school is letting out a bit stupid? What kind of kids are you raising who would rather veg in front of the TV/computer than go outside and go swimming, ride bikes, etc, etc, etc.?
I've not had any luck with the 'local' papers. But going to the nearest large city (Wash. DC, in my case) is much better.
I would try going to a few auctions, and purposely underbidding on some stuff to get a feel for how they work.
Beware eBay. You will spend as much (or more) as from a company like TNT, and get a much dicier product.
I'll second your advice about being able to solder. If you always get a cold joint, get some practice.
Yes, MAME can be easier, but the ROMs are probably not legal for you to have unless you have the game. In which case, why would you want MAME?? I thought about building a MAME-cab, but decided against it. MAME is best for trying a game to see if the game is really as good as you remembered.
But remember that you have an 'investment' for life. Go to your local arcade, and check out how they are abused, and they keep on running. Once your machine is up and going, it takes very little to keep it in good shape.
Good bunch. I bought two games from them about two years ago. Okay to talk to, helped me with a minor repair during their massive Xmas rush last year. CHEAP delivery. $100 for two machines (one was a 16 foot skeeball machine) about 3 hours from Philly.
Yeah, the prices were a bit nuts. But I believe I got what I paid for.
Remember those guys who barely made it out of your intro to [comp.sci, biology, physics, chemistry, statistics, etc]? They are now no longer referred to as 'idiot'; the proper terminology is 'your honor'.
Looks like you slashdotted yourself. I think that could be a first.
/. might not.
(Somewhat on topic):
If it is an X-terminal, what's the holdup? Isn't there a coax/twinax/rj45 port on the back? That, some sort of 'Ctrl-Esc' or something to get into the configuration menu, and this HOWTO and maybe this HOWTO and this HOWTO might offer some info. I'm sure that if you went out and actually bought or glommed on to an X Terminal, you might have a clue, but others reading this
You just got trolled. Check out his posting history and you'll see.
This is simply another waveform that is being detected. How do they decide at which point you need a court order, and at which point is it okay? How many nm detector? That's all we are dealing with. How much difference is there between the red on my Dr. Pepper can and the red that these sensors pick up?
What about 'visual wavelengths'? Well, in some cases, you need a special viewer (aka binoculars) to see an alleged criminal act. Are these now illegal? What is the difference between a pair of binoculars and an infrared camera? Both augment human vision beyond that which naturally occurs. For that matter, are police on stake-outs no longer allowed to wear eyeglasses or contact lenses?
"Oh," you reply, "but you can just put up curtains." Yeah, well you can also 'just' put up infrared deflecting panels (I believe that Pink Panther chap sells some consumer grade ones).
What about microphones? How is this different? We take a waveform that humans cannot naturally perceive (either due to amplitude, frequency, or simple placement of the sound emitting source) and modifies it for consumption.
I'm not saying that this is a bad decision necessarily. It does seem to be the right one. But how is it possible for the Supremes, not known for their scientific or mathematical skills, to have made a decision which is a technological one?
This issue is far from as black and white as others are posting.
Excellent. And with that DirectX 8 that is due out for Linux, he'll be all set!
Seriously, while a PITA for Linux, it will be great for 'Doze games.
Ummm... Go reread the post. I think it was humor.
I think you hit the nail on the head with your choice of services. But I'll reiterate and narrow them down a little bit. Also, since you said an advanced course, I'll assume that your users can cd, cp, mv, emacs (vi), and LOCK DOWN A SINGLE BOX. Sorry, but that latter isn't what I call advanced. There are advanced topics within it, but this is something you must be able to do. So let's call security a beginning and an advanced topic and a topic that permeates the rest.
./configure, make, make install polka. Sure, the defaults are usually good enough, but there is rarely a package that I don't change at least one thing on.
/etc/users, /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow and so forth. And also go into SUID stuff.
.conf files into httpd.conf. Makes life much easier for me. YMMV, but it is an example of something that an admin should decide). You also can learn about chroot jails, running as non-root (and I usually run almost nothing as 'nobody.nobody', instead giving each daemon a specific 'nobody'-type user. Again, an admin decision).
First I would work on general issues. I would work on the
Then I would go a bit more into
With this out of the way, you can move on to the 'important' stuff (quoted because many will dismiss the earlier issues as fluff. It is no less important than this)
I'd start with Apache. Compiling it, installing it, securing it. It is going to be fairly ubiquitos (sp), has a huge user base and support, and offers the opportunity to do all the little bits that are important. The students will have to learn how to allow/disallow features, throw out garbage (for example, I usually combine all of the
Next I would go into SSL/SSH and telnet. Perhaps SSL/SSH should come first. No problem. By having this early, you can get new admins into the habit of switching to SSH early. It also allows an intro to inetd.conf.
Now that you have covered SSH and disabled telnet, it's time to disable ftp. Have them learn (or reiterate) why scp is better. Or show them how to set up Apache to offer similar functionality. Or show them how to install a new ftp daemon, or show them how to hit bugtrak, et al. and fix their own distro. For a well trained admin, I would suggest showing all of the options, explain why (IMHO) scp is the best solution, and let them make their own decisions about how to proceed.
Next up for me would be Samba. I imagine the same is true in most shops. You cover security (again:) users and groups (again:) and have a genuinely useful tool. This can also be the time for some preaching. Depending on the size of your training network, you can show students that the server doesn't matter, as the clients all look at it the same way. And this is free (and Free) (and Open) (hell, it's probably even shared:).
I would assume email is next, but we use Exchange. Follow up with DNS and dhcp, and you should be just about done.
You should have a mixed network (in this case meaning Linux clients and server plus M$ clients and server) with a decent sized network (number of students + 5 = number of hosts). I would also suggest that if your students are up to it (and to be honest, they should be if they are going to perform well outside of the classroom) you should periodically (between lessons or lesson segments) have students change which computer they are working on. This will give them the opportunity to see how other people configure things, opening the possibility for discussion, or simply cleaning up someone else's house.
Finally, I would again reiterate that if there is more than one way to do something, tell your students. Let them make the choice. They'll be doing that after they leave your care.
Now, as to specific course material: start with the basics, and let the course evolve on its own. I would pick a scenario that is easily grokked by your students (a university, a small business with a web-presence, whatever) and set things up with that in mind.
I have never taken an advanced computer class, but have taken some advanced classes in many other fields. If you are truly teaching an advanced class, the material you have prepared is just the beginning. The less of it you have, the better. Advanced students will have the questions and ideas to push the class along. Trying to return to the syllabus or lecture can and will just frustrate them. (Of course, in this, I am ignoring cultural differences, the actual 'advanced'ness of your class, etc. But your aren't paying for my advice, so...) If my experiences are any indications, you should be able to go into any class with a one-page list of 'today's' topics, and have a nice eight hour class.
I would keep on hand the official documentation of these projects, any ORA books you have on them, and so forth. For the benefit of the students, I would give them lists of websites, newsgroups, and mailing lists that may be able to help them in the future. In addition to getting used to making technilogical decisions, being able to find their own help is an important tool. If you can find the help, they can figure out much of the rest.
Sorry for rambling. I know I've missed a few points I wanted to make, but this should hopefully get you started. Any questions, ask.
I imagine that the University would take care of the Red Hat machines in much the way they would take care of the Mac OS machines: Not on My Network!
>>If there is any 20 year-old info that needs to stay secret (and has), how the hell am I supposed to know about it to rebut your argument?
Interesting argument. And one that I am not sure I can refute.
Touche.
"If nmap is illegal, than only criminals will have nmap"
(May as well reply to the replies to my reply here. Most of the arguments are in a similar vein)
/. felt it was worth replying to with reasonably well thought out arguments (even though I disagreed with 99% of what they said). If you picked 'overrated' because you weren't sure if you were right, than you shouldn't be modding. And if you did it to save your karma, that's right, you are a karma whore. Earn your karma by posting.)
I stand my ground that 20 year old secrets are quite lame and not worth protecting. Your post was the one that seemed most rational, as it focused on things such as spy networks. No problem. That almost makes sense. If the network hasn't already been compromised (Aldrigde Ames, et al.)
If foreign powers (and in this case, I think we need to primarily concern ourselves with the Soviets and possibly the Chinese) are incapable of breaking the secrets after 20 years, they aren't a threat. If they are capable, destroying the drives is a moot point; they already have the information. But I will grant that of all the arguments, the question of spys makes more sense than any other.
Second point that many others made was WRT technological advances. Which doesn't float at all. Even after having a U2, I don't remember tales of a Soviet counterpart (I'm not a hardware buff, so I could be wrong. Still, it would be an important part to the Gary Powers legacy if there was evidence of the Soviets reverse-engineering the thing). There is also the more important matter of build-quality. You can have the greatest design in the world, but if your metallurgy/construction/operation of a device is faulty, who cares? I think the SCUD's proved that point about ten years ago. While the patriot missile helped, so did the fact that the SCUDs were put together like a Trabant. (Come to think of it, a Trabant in a trebuchet would likely have been more effective).
(Most of the rest deals with the other replies, so don't take it personally if it's not 100% related to your post)
Another poster mentions chemical and biological warfare, as well as the Manhattan project, as being items that are still rightfully under wraps. Give me a break. Without access to that data, China, Pakistan, and India (among others) all have nuclear programs. Concurrent discovery of technology is the norm, and the US didn't do anything grand, except get it done before having to get on with the island hopping.
Biological is perhaps the biggest joke there is. Anybody with a few credits of chem or bio in college could develop a rather nasty thing to rain all sorts of shit down on an enemy. The real trick is delivery systems. Given that little GPS powered 'RC' plane, I don't think we need to go high tech, either.
But of course, someone could steal the super-duper-top-secret GPS error removing protocol. This and the exact capabilities fall into the same category: big freakin' deal. Close only counts in horseshoes, handgrenades, and nukes. Do you think Saddam or Osama cares if their pathogen hits at 1602 Penn. Ave. instead of 1600?
I could go on and on about why the arguments posted up to my post were wrong, and did not support the destruction of hard drives. BUT, I have largely reversed my opinion, based on one small thing that I haven't (yet) seen mentioned: most of these machines don't have 20-50 year old data on them. Most like, it is just a few months. Thanks to the DOD (and their worldwide counterparts) Intel, Western Digital, and the rest continue to make 386's, one GB drives, and 30 pin SIMMs. Those 486's that could go into the schools don't contain ancient information. They contain the latest and greatest, given the slow speed of replacement of computers by the DOD.
(And to the moderator of my original post: If you think I am a troll simply because of strong language or an opinion that differs from yours, say so. Don't hide behind the 'overrated' tag. Obviously, at least four people on
WTF!? Do you actually think that some 20 year old (let alone 50 year old) information on some computer means anything?? If the US gubmint suddenly got:
All Soviet troop movements from the spring of 1979 to the summer of 1980,
The latest blueprints for their newest fighter,
Photos of Khruschev (sp) shagging Bobby Kennedy while Marilyn Monroe looked on,
and Stalin's memoirs, entitled "Why Hitler is a Bigger Prick than I"
who would give a shit.
Christ, you probably believe that the FOIA is too lenient.
>>Is it just me, or does it seem to anyone else like Slashdot's editors 1) can't read, and/or 2) are easily amused?
Since most of the readership falls into both of these categories, why shouldn't the editors?
Good idea. Few problems (NB I'm not slaggin the whole thing, just picking a few nits)
First, I wouldn't put it past the average university to blame students even if the latest update of the officially proscribed anti-viral software is installed and properly running.
Second, damage deposits are usually the property of the person who makes the deposit. So is the interest.
Despite the obvious signing of waivers, other students could claim that the university is responsible for their computers' safety should various protections be required.
Faculty will never agree to anything that may endanger their funding. No way, no how. University IT dept's are the faculties' collective 'beeyatch'.
Scan my ports, I DoS you. Deal with it. (I don't, but someone would.)
A few things to answer, but not a bad idea.