The O’Reilly Network system admin section posted an article about the many things that computer system administrators forget to do when it comes to security and protocol. It is a very well thought out list, including simple errors that should never happen, like:
1. Forgetting to Delete a Former User’s Account
When IBM, Novell, and HP hold seminars in the same city around the same week, you find out why you need their identity management systems. Some unnamed Fortune 50 companies forgot to delete former user accounts for five years. Those former employee accounts existed in the human resource and payroll databases, in the computer directory, address book in the SID, SAM, and AD. The vendors will say, you don’t have enough system administrators, will never find enough available, and therefore need Tivoli, eDirectory, or OpenView.
Who really knows if the workforce has enough system administrators? In my survey, system administrators complained about their workload, lack of time to plan, and a need to prioritize their tasks. I asked many if they kept a list of their tasks and few did. About 90 percent of the engineers surveyed went to work with their daily schedule in their heads. I counted that as forgetfulness.
I rarely go to the grocery store without a list because I cannot recall what I need. I forget the laundry detergent or some obvious item like vitamins. If I can’t remember 15 items on a grocery list, how do I expect to remember the things I need to do at work? I function poorly without a list.
We have to close the door when a user leaves. We also need a checklist to follow and a way to find out who left. You cannot justify leaving former user accounts active. Some things to remember include disabling the user’s password. I like to preserve her directory, since someone else may take the her place. I typically move the directory and rename it. We often want to keep the contents of the old user’s directory intact.
Depending on your organization’s IT policies, you’ll want to create a list of actions to take. Remember that you need to do more than simply changing a user’s password. If this user ever had root access you might find anything from a trojan system binary to an unknown kernel module. With that in mind we can move on to Rootkits.
Ever have trouble getting friends on MySpace and wonder if having a lot of friends ultimately leads to getting more friend requests? If you’re like me, then you are always looking for ways to find more friends on MySpace without actually having to socialize. Don’t add me, I don’t need your pity add.
Read on as I go undercover for the NextLust exclusive story. All the details inside! (more…)
Internet hunting. It’s been around for a couple of years now, and is the sickest thing I can think of this side of kiddie porn or Jack Thompson. Basically, it involves users picking out a harmless animal on a webcam that’s just sitting in a pen, and with a click, someone standing by the pen kills the animal. The original “justification” for the enterprise was to allow disabled hunters to get their murderous rush vicariously. I’m not sure how this even became a reality, but I suppose there are enough weirdos out there that this actually requires the attention of legislators.
Recently, Connecticut finally passed a bill prohibiting such senseless crap. Thank you to all the states that prohibit such things. As a Canadian, I know I have a lot to be ashamed of in this department, but at least we have the balls to kill things ourselves. For anyone who’s considering opening a business like this or patronizing them with real money, go screw yourself. Bambi’s mom will hunt you down and eat your soul.
Johnny Abbatiello aka winner of the most likely to get pwn’d on ‘How to catch a Predator’ has just tied the noose and kicked the chair. It appears that the young college student majoring in Advanced Ancient Roman Practices 102, has outed himself on a shared iTunes network across his dorm. Further inspection into the site Yay Hooray shows a link to Johnny Abbatiello’s MySpace profile, which, of course, has been deleted.
One other quick note: If you have a friend or classmate that listens to to Alanis Morisette and Barenaked Ladies, he might also be housing underage porn.
An interesting article gives some insight and a look at the dirty little secrets of space exploration. There are a lot of questions in life, who are we? Where do we come from? What’s it like to bang a chick in zero gravity? Well just like all of life’s mysteries some things are probably best left unknown.
One major concern comrade Talgat Musabayev seems to have is that children born form interstellar intercourse might turn out to be the spawn of Satan or something like that. So either most cosmonauts either forget condoms on the way up or have just never heard of them. Too bad, I guess during space training someone forgot to tell this guy you can have your cake and eat it too, way to go Russia.
I admit I kicked myself pretty hard when the million dollar homepage actually made what it set out to do. But this genius is looking to blow away the competition and get someone to pay him a cool ten million for one ad spot. Sounds enticing but sadly I have to pass. It appears I’m only $9,994,000 away from the getting my specialty massage service ad seen by six other people. Damn, so close.
You know what I hate doing? Reading a bunch of bullcrap to get to the good stuff. So guess what? I’m going to go ahead and read about 400 page of useless info and cut to the chase and tell you what games run nice, and which ones suck your grandma’s left nut.
Speaking of useless info, I just downed a Red Bull and am blasting some Diesel Boy (crappy Jungle music) as my russian co-worker plays Halo 2 online bitching about how people in rumble slayer can stick him in his semi-thick accent, I know, what the hell? I’m fucking wired.
How the games run:
Half-Life 2 - Steam runs great along with Day of Defeat, Counter Strike: Source, Lost Coast and Episode 1. Smooth as butter.
Darwinia - “Runs like a pig”
Bejeweled 2, Bookworm, Astropop & Chuzzle - They all run fine, no problems
World of Warcraft - Runs fine, don’t worry
Battlefield 2 - Punkbuster is a bitch, once you get over that the game runs fine
Keyboards aren’t just for typing and locating pron, no, they’re for beating the crap out of annoying co-workers as well. Case in point: this video. Check out this high-strung dude who goes a bit mental on his office mate.
Remember a while ago when the “Samy is my hero” worm broke out on Myspace and automatically added you as a friend? Right, me neither. My conclusion: Samy’s a dick and deserves whatever he gets, all hail News Corp!
Samy Kamkar is actually being forced to pay Myspace restitution for his worm. I cannot see Myspace really needing any money, unless Tom is fishing for that new underwater mini-bar he saw in Sky Mall. God, people with money piss me off.
Fines aside, Samy my hero has to endure 90 days of community of service, but here’s the real kicker. He is now officially banned from the internet for an undisclosed amount of time. Bummer dude.
There’s an old saying that states it’s sometimes cheaper to replace than to repair. There’s also the classic “you get what you pay for.” Put them together for what should have been a simple laptop repair, and what you get is a good warning for consumers. Names are changed to protect the not-too-innocent (and to prevent us from getting sued), but my name hasn’t been changed; I can’t protect the stupid. (more…)
