i'm too old-school for credit-cards and don't "own" one. i don't order anything from the internet because i can't inspect it first. i do as much as possible with cash. i try to do as little as possible in my life "automagically", meaning i never set up automatic bill-paying, automatic deposits, automatic software updates, etc...
i ssh into my firewall from work. not my home system, my firewall. i do as little as possible on other's computers that involve my passwords. i try to make my home system as inaccessible as possible to the outside world. here, lemme re-phrase the question. i should have thought this out a little before jumping the gun. way too many people have brought up concerns i DO have. is it possible to have a user account that can do everything root can, without being root? can i rename "root", as i can rename the "administrator" account in Win2K? sorry if i wasted anybody's time. i should know all this stuff, i've been using computers for 15 years now... -----Original Message----- From: Bob Miller [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, October 23, 2001 12:33 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [EUG-LUG:3386] Re: questions about user accounts Justin Bengtson wrote: > security is not an issue to me. i have a decent firewall and > i back-up regularly. about the only thing someone could "steal" from my > computer is the 1200-odd mp3's i have... Have you ever typed your credit card number into your web browser? Do you think someone who has superuser privileges on your box couldn't have intercepted it? Do you ever type the password to other people's systems (at work or school)? Do they want the world to have access to their systems? You can eliminate typing passwords, as Patrick suggested, by using sudo. You could also set a really long password timeout, so you only have to type root's password once a day or once a week. It is possible to configure X to "autologin" a user when the machine boots. I do not remember exactly how it's done, sorry. -- Bob Miller K<bob> kbobsoft software consulting http://kbobsoft.com [EMAIL PROTECTED]
