Matthew Kent wrote:
I think my linux box might be 0wned, because it makes "processing
noises" in the middle of the night (might this be xscreensaver?).
I can't recall what Gentoo has, but most distributions have a series of
nightly tasks like rebuilding the locate database, log rotation and so
on (see the /etc/cron.* directories)
Sometimes I fear that Windows will corrupt itself, as it has been known
to do in the past.
I've used and administered Windows workstations for years and short of
hardware problems, any corruption I've seen is a direct result of user
activity/stupidity. But given that, after extended use, it does tend to
get messy and slow.
Sometimes I fear that emerge --update world, or a kernel update, will
make me Gentoo system unbootable.
This happened to me after I got back from a 2 month trip. That was the
last straw in the 'Gentoo time sink experiment'.
Sometimes I fear that either harddrive will die for no reason.
They will, but that's a healthy fear if it keeps you doing backups :)
What should I do? Have any of you had this happen to you? I have gone
so far as thinking I should set up my old computer with an ultra-stable
gentoo configuration, firewall it completely (hardware router+iptables),
make a new account for school on my fast box, and do weekly backups onto
CD, which could then be put onto the stable box.
Just think of how much you value your data. If it's a month long project
with a hundred hours in it, you'll probably want to be spitting out CD's
every second day.
Personally, most of my files are no big deal to lose, so I do backups
whenever I feel the need. It's all about what lets you feel secure so
you can sleep at night.
Although I do think an entire second computer is a bit overkill. You
could have a equally good backup by ghosting your computer once a week
to a spare harddrive, or by buying a removable drive bay. Even a usb
keychain can store a large amount of data and be set to read only mode
and left plugged in.
And honestly if your worried about the time to rebuild your computer
after a crash, you might want to look at a distro that's a little less
time intensive.
What I am thinking of doing is compiling a package CD and a custom
stage3 tarball based on my current setup, so I'll have the same
optimizations (building on this computer), and none of the wasted time.
And I like USE flags.
Is this beyond the realm of being security-consious?
If your investing more time on your paranoia then actually using the
equipment, then perhaps :)
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