I would argue that the muffler is not as important, more akin to the management of cards or the 'wow factor.' A car's main function is transportation, so if it fails that it almost can't impress anyone. So a lock can have several ancillary features but if it is easily defeated, it gets a fail in my book.

And I am not sure how you would measure a lock to get the 99.99% and if that number is even possible for a lock(Google 'myth 5 9s')

And I am happy with my hippie GNU friends...and I let MUNI drive me around, so I'm probably not impressing anyone who would be impressed by a car. I would love to drive a Tesla for a couple of days though.

I don't think your car analogy is accurate. In this case I bought the BMW(and really a 325 impresses my friends? I need better friends!) to impress my friends, not to protect the platinum in my muffler. If someone steals my muffler, my friends should still be impressed by my status symbol, so long as it isn't running. (Unless my friends are Joe Dirt, and then that loud roar is badass, yeeehaawww!)

A lock on the other hand, was purchased for the sole purpose of denying entry to unauthorized people. It failed to do so.

So I guess a better car analogy would be I bought a BMW 750i to impress my friends, but since they are all hippie GNU users who shun material things, it failed to do so. I would have been better off buying a Tesla Motors car to appeal to their green side.

Oh wait, the car didn't fail, my friends failed to appreciate the Ultimate Driving Machine. Sorry, my car-analogy-fu is weak today.

Yeah, what he said....I don't watch Fox News, but it seems if they are as crooked as it has been reported, will they even report on this? And if they do, I wonder how they will spin it..."Liberal lefty media trying to discredit Fox again!"

I am sure there is a great joke here, but I am not witty enough to put it in words

-1 Offtopic, I know.

Agreed.

Wow, did I touch a nerve there? I didn't run X on servers, and the only time the root password is typed is if you are at the console. Just because we didn't use sudo doesn't mean we didn't have our own system for access control and auditing.

And I have to agree with visualight, if you are spending 99% of your time as a regular user, then you are not a Unix admin, but more likely an app support/dev person who is in /etc/sudoers.

Either way, I thought the article was funny and was just having some fun with it.

I think what I didn't make clear is the fact that we had separate groups that ran the non-root services. With hundreds of systems and a small group of us that had root access(restricted by IP and ssh key-based auth, heavily monitored and any exception was emailed from central syslog, among other things) if we were logging into a server, it was to do something that needed root access. We weren't logging in to troubleshoot apache as root. Well, sometimes, but we had everything scripted so we wouldn't start things up with the wrong UID.

We didn't even have sudo installed on the really old systems and any su would trigger alerts.

I guess my original point was, as root I was aware of the loaded gun I was carrying, but that was my job. It seems that many of the admins in this thread may be of the small shop variety that are wearing more than just the # hat. That is fine too, and if you do have to wear different hats, then sudo is probably a great thing.

And really, lighten up kids, you too will be old and bearded someday and will get a kick out of arguing the merits of old school vs. new school. Hell, when I started security was an after thought and if you wanted to harden a system, you were considered a security nazi.

When you have hundreds of systems, you don't build any software on anything close to production anyway. But I agree with the point.

I didn't say that. There is more than one way to skin a cat. Everything that was ever done as root on the systems in question were logged. And I am not sure what you mean by separation of duties, but app support, dbas and root tasks are all performed by their own accounts and staff. If I needed to help a dba, I would sit with them and use their login.

Ok, you win. I am inexperienced and have never had to clean up after other root users.

Yes. If it doesn't need to be run as root, then it is not my job. You need to grep a video directory for every instance of 'justin bieber"? Go ask someone who has nothing better to do and is thrilled to wield the power of grep. I will be busy mocking Winders admins and tossing them quarters.

Really? When your job is entirely about being root, sudo is just getting in the way. I happen to have run systems in a serious environment, and we never used sudo. I would say if you have something to do that ISN'T root, you sir are teh nub.

I got a FP on Xmas for a robot article...was pretty jazzed about it too. So take that whippersnapper!

Say Merry Xmas to our new robotic overlords

Every time I fly, I envision a 'freight class' where a passenger is neatly tucked into a rigid container(a coffin comes to mind) that has a self-contained oxygen system and is monitored for failure. These containers are then stacked and secured in the plane and delivered to the final destination. You can cram more people into a plane, thereby reducing costs and increasing efficiency (in theory) of the entire system. For the flyer, I imagine a lounge where you are drugged and slipped into the container, and then gently come to in a lounge at your destination. I am sure this sounds too impersonal for many, but I would sign up for it in a heartbeat...no foul odors, no pushing and shoving, no crying babies, etc. Add this system and you could extend the travel efficiency beyond just the airports.