Security people need to be on top of multiple fields. You can't be in IT security without knowing a lot about all the layers in system.

Specialist network techs look at a problem and push it to specialist server/desktop techs if it doesn't fit their view of a "network issue". The user gets bounced back and forth till they give up or figure it out themselves.

Take the problem direct to a security specialist and 9 times out of 10, they will be able to point directly to the root of the problem because they don't have tunnel vision. Word of mouth spreads the idea that "Fred in security will know how to fix that", rinse and repeat and you spend half your day on support issues.

It's human nature. And not necessarily a bad thing as as single call for help can lead to nipping a security issue in the bud..

More general training (and higher pay!) for help desk staff is the only real answer but people are locked into the idea that help desk are "ticket generators" rather than troubleshooters.

I've just upgraded from 9.04 to 9.10 with no problems at all.

In fact, I now know that one of my hard disks is failing (high reallocated sector count) due to the default use "palimpsest" to monitor drive condition!

I'm stoked!

You folks don't know the half of it..

My flight to London from Australia went via LA recently. I had to sign a "visa waiver" that basically said I waived all my rights whilst in transit in LA.

I had no intention of entering the USA at all. I was "in transit" from Australia to London.

However, I was directed through USA imigration into the baggage claim area (my baggage didn't leave the plane of course..) and then herded back around immigration into the transit lounge.

At the immigration desk I was photographed and fingerprinted. When I stated that I didn't want to enter the USA and asked why I was being fingerprinted, the immigration officer was quite rude and basically said "What do you have to hide?".

I found the whole incident truly scary and it made me quite sick to my stomach. I will never take any flight that transits the USA ever again and I will certainly never visit the USA.

Two things get me about this.

The first is that the process effectively mixed me (an in-transit passenger) with visitors to the USA _after_ immigration. This is stupidity of the highest level.

The second is that the USA now have my photo and fingerprints on record against my will and I have absolutely no say in how those records are used or stored.

During this experience I had the awful thought that if my photo happened to match some dickhead criminal, I could have been thrown in a USA prison, something that doesn't really appeal to me.

I advise anyone traveling overseas to avoid the USA if at all possible.