Agreed. There is always the risk of applying a patch, hot-fix, SP and breaking one or more applications.
Whenever something like Slammer gets hot, we see many posts stating that the Admins/DBAs are lazy and uninformed.
If Admins/DBAs could work in a pure tech environment and the Slammers of the world *still* happened, there would be more validity to this claim.
One problem in a larger shop is this (certainly not true in all cases): we don't work in a pure tech environment. We work in an env that is a *cost center*. We're often funded by operations and back office business lines that are also cost centers. We're two steps (at least) removed from the business lines that are profit centers.
The real visible stuff (e.g., development) is what business sponsors get excited and upbeat about. They like to fund development (and other visible efforts).
The invisible stuff like nitty-gritty systems admin is not well understood by funders and can be viewed as actually detracting from the all that nice visible development work.
Try selling your business sponsors on this idea:
"We want a team of full time Admins/DBAs dedicated to nothing but security, patching, hot-fixes, service packs. Oh, and we'll also need a lab environment that has all the components of the production environment for applying said patches, hot-fixes and service packs. And we'll also need a full time team of Business Analysts, UAT and regression testers to ensure apps still work as expected after applying patches, hot-fixes and service packs. Give us all of this and we'll guarantee that all systems are current and secure."
It's a tough sell;-)
Understand what you say about "should have take action months ago"...that makes good sense. Thanks for the clarification. If one is going to run a web server, then one should be responsible for keeping it and the OS secure and up to date.
However, I think we want to encourage people to use Linux, right?
The physical security at the big iron centers is probably pretty good at most large banks. I work for a large bank - but not for the big iron shop. As a DBA, I don't have card key access to our server room (and that's okay) - but the janitors do. Go figure.
Sounds like it just might be these guys: http://www.austmus.gov.au/factsheets/caneto ad.htm Imported into Au and Hawaii to stop insect pests in the sugar cane fields....ooooops.
'In part, the problem can be blamed on tech companies' attempts to cope with shrinking profit margins and a bad business environment.'
Maybe, in part, the shrinking profits are because of bad tech support. Nothing makes me want to drop a product faster than bad tech support. On several occaisions I've called Oracle GOLD Support with a problem and the gotten the response: "Oh, that would be a known OS problem. You'll have to take this up with the OS vendor." Who, of course, blames it on the RDBMS software.
Another problem might be the propensity for PHBs to demand that you call for Tech Support on problems you could solve for yourself with a bit of time. This would tend to flood Tech Support with fairly trivial questions and tempt those who manage Tech Support to man the front line support with less skilled techs.
"A Microsoft spokesperson has stated that Microsoft is shifting from a model in which MSN was the sole operator to a model where the operation of these services is available to multiple operators."
Bleep! That is to say rumours of Hailstorm's death have been greatly exagerated? Curses!
LONDON -- Scientists have discovered vast quantities of hydrogen gas, widely regarded as the most promising alternative to today's dwindling stocks of fossil fuels, lying beneath the Earth's crust.
Scientist 1: Wow! It's kinda dark down here.
Scientist 2: Just a sec...let me light this match for...
Public opinion doesn't stop autocrats from making repugnant decisions (look at Nixon-Reagan's drug policies for historical perspective).
Nixon's policy on drugs was a bit less repugnant than what we've got now. I believe half of the Fed Funds allocated to the 'drug problem' were ear-marked for treatment programs.
Um... what you may not realize is that The Forever War was the first "Vietnam-era 'fighting-a-pointless-war' thing" to be done in SF, and for that matter one of the first significant Vietnam novels in any genre.
Nice business practices, MS. You'd think you could prove that your product is superior through example, not slander.
Excellent observation! Seems like MS is doing what lots of other businesses are doing: if you can not get market share by providing a superior product, then you bad-mouth the competition; or you start up litigations.
There are many other ways of measuring programmer productivity. As a programmer and manager-of-programmers, I hold that they all have one feature in common: they are worse than useless.
huh? 'They all' being the metrics? Or the programmers?
* Lawyers as a group are no more dedicated to justice or public service than a private public utility is dedicated to giving light.
--David Melinkoff, Professor of Law, UCLA
Spam Assassin is very good. My ISP uses it. Because I get mail on a shell, I can have a recipe like this inside the.procmailrc # :0 H: * ?/usr/xpg4/bin/fgrep -i -f/home/xxxxx/.procmail/spam14.txt #/dev/null TEST ING # where spam14.txt contains: X-Spam-Status: Yes X-Spam-Flag: YES
Makes it easy to quarantine spam;-)
Re:Good for some, nightmare for others
on
Peek-a-Boo(ty)
·
· Score: 1
It's both security issue and personnel issue; primarily a personnel issue. 'Cause if employee A rats on employee B for surfing to naughty sites at work, HR is probably going to try and be darned sure there is a problem before dropping the discipline stick on employee A.
Slashdot Mirror
Heck...For a new name I think they oughta go with Fred Brooks's denomination:
Windows, Icons, Menus, Pointer
WIMP
It's got a good ring to it; yeah, WIMP 2005!
Agreed. There is always the risk of applying a patch, hot-fix, SP and breaking one or more applications. Whenever something like Slammer gets hot, we see many posts stating that the Admins/DBAs are lazy and uninformed. If Admins/DBAs could work in a pure tech environment and the Slammers of the world *still* happened, there would be more validity to this claim. One problem in a larger shop is this (certainly not true in all cases): we don't work in a pure tech environment. We work in an env that is a *cost center*. We're often funded by operations and back office business lines that are also cost centers. We're two steps (at least) removed from the business lines that are profit centers. The real visible stuff (e.g., development) is what business sponsors get excited and upbeat about. They like to fund development (and other visible efforts). The invisible stuff like nitty-gritty systems admin is not well understood by funders and can be viewed as actually detracting from the all that nice visible development work. Try selling your business sponsors on this idea: "We want a team of full time Admins/DBAs dedicated to nothing but security, patching, hot-fixes, service packs. Oh, and we'll also need a lab environment that has all the components of the production environment for applying said patches, hot-fixes and service packs. And we'll also need a full time team of Business Analysts, UAT and regression testers to ensure apps still work as expected after applying patches, hot-fixes and service packs. Give us all of this and we'll guarantee that all systems are current and secure." It's a tough sell ;-)
It's the NOC of the future.
It's entirely automated. No people...except for one guy and one vicious guard dog.
The guy is there to feed the dog.
The dog is there to prevent the guy from fiddling with the network.
Understand what you say about "should have take action months ago"...that makes good sense. Thanks for the clarification. If one is going to run a web server, then one should be responsible for keeping it and the OS secure and up to date.
However, I think we want to encourage people to use Linux, right?
This is *not* personal...but..."you should never have to ask that question" nicely sums up the problem with Linux.
The physical security at the big iron centers is probably pretty good at most large banks. I work for a large bank - but not for the big iron shop. As a DBA, I don't have card key access to our server room (and that's okay) - but the janitors do. Go figure.
I wonder if Rep. Berman has a website? If yes, you know what to do.
ummm, that'd be FARNSWORTH....see first sentence of the article ...
Wow...for that kinda of money i could put small desk and computer in a walk-in refrigerator.
It does look pretty cool though ;-)
Sounds like it just might be these guys:o ad.htm
http://www.austmus.gov.au/factsheets/canet
Imported into Au and Hawaii to stop insect pests in the sugar cane fields....ooooops.
Maybe, in part, the shrinking profits are because of bad tech support. Nothing makes me want to drop a product faster than bad tech support. On several occaisions I've called Oracle GOLD Support with a problem and the gotten the response: "Oh, that would be a known OS problem. You'll have to take this up with the OS vendor." Who, of course, blames it on the RDBMS software.
Another problem might be the propensity for PHBs to demand that you call for Tech Support on problems you could solve for yourself with a bit of time. This would tend to flood Tech Support with fairly trivial questions and tempt those who manage Tech Support to man the front line support with less skilled techs.
Just a guess, but it might be kinda a self-reference. BFP == Big Freakin' Program (i.e., Windows).
My guess would be for Mr. Gates it's not so much greed for more money but rather greed for more power.
Life is offensive on a multitude of levels...get over it.
Bleep! That is to say rumours of Hailstorm's death have been greatly exagerated? Curses!
Scientist 1: Wow! It's kinda dark down here.
Scientist 2: Just a sec...let me light this match for...
Nixon's policy on drugs was a bit less repugnant than what we've got now. I believe half of the Fed Funds allocated to the 'drug problem' were ear-marked for treatment programs.
Heh...I go to download the newest Ad-Aware and up pops a window promising me that I've won a vacation and I have to do is click 'next'.
For the non-SF version, see Haldeman's 'War Year'
Excellent observation! Seems like MS is doing what lots of other businesses are doing: if you can not get market share by providing a superior product, then you bad-mouth the competition; or you start up litigations.
Does this mean for $2B they could crack the 2048 bit key?
huh? 'They all' being the metrics? Or the programmers?
* Lawyers as a group are no more dedicated to justice or public service than a private public utility is dedicated to giving light.
--David Melinkoff, Professor of Law, UCLA
Spam Assassin is very good. My ISP uses it. Because I get mail on a shell, I can have a recipe like this inside the .procmailrc /usr/xpg4/bin/fgrep -i -f /home/xxxxx/.procmail/spam14.txtT ING
;-)
#
:0 H:
* ?
#/dev/null
TES
#
where spam14.txt contains:
X-Spam-Status: Yes
X-Spam-Flag: YES
Makes it easy to quarantine spam
It's both security issue and personnel issue; primarily a personnel issue. 'Cause if employee A rats on employee B for surfing to naughty sites at work, HR is probably going to try and be darned sure there is a problem before dropping the discipline stick on employee A.