On Tue, 4 Jan 2011, Yves Dorfsman wrote: > On 11-01-04 08:00 AM, Derek J. Balling wrote: >> >> On Jan 4, 2011, at 9:32 AM, Michael C Tiernan wrote: >>> >>> When something happens such as a server/data breach being noticed by the >>> news system, it is then that we can piss-n-moan to each other about who's >>> right, wrong, idiots, or saviors but then this person will produce a "Press >>> Release" representing *all of us* in which the *roles of the system >>> administrators* is discussed and clarified for the unknowing public. >> >> A common problem with this sentence is the "representing all of us" >> sentiment. >> There's precious few topics which any position could be said to represent >> "all >> of us". >> > > To me *this* is the problem. Period. We rarely come into agreement on > anything, we do not have even the most basic set of best practices. > > If we did, then we could go to go to the press and say "in this particular > case, what we see is a consequence of the sysadmins not following the best > practices supported by our organisation." If we could say something like that, > the press would be happy to talk to us. The press loves press-releases, as we > provide them with 90% of the information, all they have to do is verify the > information, and found counterpoints to it. > > I think part of the issue is that system administration is closer to an art > than a hard science. There are no double blind study that proves that there > will be adverse effects if you administrate a machine one way or another.
This is made worse because there is not any 'best practice' that there is not a valid reason to ignore in some situation. But when you do choose to ignore the best practices, you need to do so with your eyes wide open to the risks involved (which includes accepting responsibility if something goes wrong) David Lang _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/
