[Gllug] Hacker Attack

[Nix]

On Tue, 10 Jan 2006, Bruce Richardson yowled:
> Actually, that is not a reassuring statement.  What I described was a
> little more than the ability to compile a kernel.  People who assume
> that this is enough are a real problem.  Managing production systems is
> about more than basic technical ability.

Indeed. The signs of a first-rank sysadmin are three, I think:

- ability to work with others (at least other sysadmins ;) )
- the aforementioned technical ability (Larry Wall's `laziness',
  too; it doesn't matter if you've got technical ability if you
  never use it to automate anything)
- paranoia! Assume everything will go wrong. Hunt ceaselessly
  for points of failure and plug them. Assume everything is your
  enemy and is out to get you.

These are pretty much the same skills you need to be a first-rank
programmer, although that has more skills as well (the ability to
abstract and generalize, for starters).

-- 
`I must caution that dipping fingers into molten lead
 presents several serious dangers.' --- Jearl Walker
-- 
Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug