On Sat, 18 Jun 2005, David Moss
Thank you, but you may call me anything you want. However, I am 61 and mostly retired.
I think I don't have it "badly wrong." Most guys who are into IT in any significant, deep way really are on the internet in one way or the other. For example, Stallman is, to me, an expert. A well known expert. YOU may know experts from personal-professional contacts but a guy who really has some serious knowledge is going to be KNOWN much more widely and (easily) FINDABLE (by at least search engines, media, or publications).
Furthermore, when I get hits on a name and half of the very few of them are about guns, drunken aussies, and the like, then I'm not finding a serious IT guy. If I saw a ton of posts on comp.*.unix.* or whatever, maybe I'd be more impressed.
Well, we could have a big argument between "X is possible" vs. "X is impossible" and all I can say is that all of the books (I cited two, I read two more that I did not talk about) and I have clippings from our major computer trade rags (eWeek, inforworld, etc.) that measue up about two inches and they are all on security and whenever the question comes up, they are careful to hedge their remarks about absolute security.
That's fine. I'll give you big brownie points and a handshake for recognizing that there may be some limits to your knowledge. I have lots of problems with people who claim they are "Jesus Christ" and I get along fine with people who tell me what they can and can't do, up front.
I had a linux box here (desktop, RH 6.2) and it got hacked and I knew exactly at the time and can give a detailed description. Interesting, but I was not happy. Also, it was my own fault, too.
Nice work, hats off to you!
I doubt it. But, keep trying.
I agree completely.
I follow most of what you are saying here, and I agree, too.
These are all good points. But, we have desktops. I'm 'the whip' and we're not continuously connected to the net. Also, we don not communicate with insurance comapnies by the interenet. We use FAX and POTS.
That's fine, there are a lot of us on the newsgrous that dribble on endlessly about a lot of things. Its quite normal. Its fun, entertaining, an sometimes educational. Moreover, since they say that to prevent or delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease, you should exercise the brain and stimulate it as much as possible (touche').
Suffice to say, sensible security makes your IT system safer than
Afraid to disagree with you on that. The best thing we can do is make a list of pros and cons and then you and you and I can buttign a numerical value to each pro and con and each one of us will give higher or lower values to those pros or cons as we like best.
And, if you're so safe, then tell me if its possible for you to not know about a vulnerability but that the vulnerability may exist and somebodey ELSE knows about it. And, what would you do about THAT?
I'm not sure if you are in Australia or where, but I was down there in '95, saw Sydney and a few other things (Koala Park, I was thrilled with the 'roos walking around the sidewalks, touched-petted a Koala, etc). Sydney (at least the parts of it I saw) was very nice, clean. And, the people all wonderful.
"straydog" with his own (personal) opinion, too.
