open source tools help (contract) in DC area?

Tue Jul 26 14:30:14 UTC 2005

At 8:41 PM -0400 2005-07-25, Howard C. Berkowitz wrote:

>>	I'm not convinced that this is an appropriate on-topic posting for
>>  NANOG.  It seems to me that you would be much better off going
>>  through SANS or SAGE to find local groups in the area that could be
>>  helpful to you.
>
>  Actually, the interest is in open-source ISP tools.

	Syslog is a standard *nix administration tool, useful for system 
administrators but also used by network administrators and anyone 
else doing any kind of administration on a *nix box.  RRD, MRTG, and 
Ethereal are standard *nix network and system administration tools. 
Flowscan and Flowtools are standard *nix network administration 
tools.  I see nothing here that is unique to the ISP environment.

	Moreover, in the role of system administrator (not network 
administrator), I have personally used all but one of these toolsets 
-- flowscan/flowtools.  As a system administrator, I've written 
syslog processing tools or hacked on syslog processing tools 
originally developed by others, and in some cases I've even taken 
over maintenance of those tools.

	I see nothing here that is unique to the ISP environment.

At Tue, 26 Jul 2005 00:50:23 GMT, Fergie (Paul Ferguson) wrote:

>  Don't sweat it, Howard -- some people would rather slam you
>  for what you post to the list than help out. Shame, that.

	I don't see anything in the original request that seems to make 
this post more suitable for NANOG than anywhere else.  And I see 
nothing here that makes this post unique to an ISP environment, or 
even just more ISP-oriented than plain general network-oriented.

	Moreover, Howard was talking about a virtual training group 
setting up shop that needed some help with what seemed to me to be 
some very basic stuff -- the sort of thing that I would hope any 
training group would have the in-house expertise to deal with, 
otherwise they wouldn't be qualified to be providing training on 
those topics.

	However, I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, and 
assume that he just went to the wrong place to ask his question as 
opposed to asking the wrong question in the first place.

	Part of the reason for my original response on this thread is 
that I have been chastised a couple of times by the new-generation 
moderators for being off-topic, and I recalled that we're trying to 
be more self-policing about these sorts of things.

	I'm honestly trying to understand what is an on-topic post and 
what is not, and it seems to me that this is pretty clearly off-topic.

	So what is on-topic?  I've got a question that I've been thinking 
about for a while regarding SIP/VOIP white/yellow pages directory 
services and aggregation, and I've been afraid to ask here because I 
felt it might be too basic and non on-topic.

-- 
Brad Knowles, <brad at stop.mail-abuse.org>

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little
temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

     -- Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), reply of the Pennsylvania
     Assembly to the Governor, November 11, 1755

   SAGE member since 1995.  See <http://www.sage.org/> for more info.