Novice sysadmins (was: Suggestions for a more privacy conscious email provider)

Tue Dec 5 18:15:59 UTC 2017

Back in the day, only Ph.D's used the internet, so they were the sysadmins.

These days, I recommend that system administration be only allowed for
card-holding responsible people who have proven their technical abilities.
Then, when you get awarded your Ph.D, they can take your sysadmin card back.

On Tue, Dec 5, 2017 at 8:33 AM, Leo Bicknell <bicknell at ufp.org> wrote:

> In a message written on Tue, Dec 05, 2017 at 06:49:43AM -0800, Stephen
> Satchell wrote:
> > The NSF in particular ran the 'Net like bouncers do in a strip club:
> > you break the rules, you go.  No argument.
>
> I'm not sure I've ever seen a more inaccurate description of the NSF.
> What in the world are you talking about?
>
> > The original trust model for the Internet was based on this unrelenting
> > oversight.  You didn't expect Bad Things(tm) because the consequences of
> > doing them was so severe:  banishment and exile.  Also, the technical
> > ability required to do Bad Things(tm) wasn't easily won.  Accessing the
> > 'Net was a PRIVILEGE, not a right.  Abuse at your own peril.
>
> Oh wait, you took the BS to a new level.
>
> There was no banishment and exile.  This was before we knew of buffer
> overflows, spoofing, and so on.  I remember the weekly sendmail buffer
> overrun bugs, the finger back bombs, the rlogin spoofing attacks.
> Turns out bored college students were very good at creating mischeff.
>
> There was no banishment.  There were plenty of bad things.
>
> > Ok, I'll shut up now.
>
> Good plan.
>
> --
> Leo Bicknell - bicknell at ufp.org
> PGP keys at http://www.ufp.org/~bicknell/
>