A Django site.
July 27, 2007
» Sysadmin Day: System Administrator Appreciation Day

Nobody else cares, but still:

Newsgroups: alt.sysadmin.recovery
Subject: ADMINSPOTTING
Message-ID: <5cl3le$q24@infoserv.aber.ac.uk>
From: gkb@aber.ac.uk (Gary Barnes)
Date: 28 Jan 1997 14:49:18 -0000
Organization: Ripoffs R Us
X-No-Archive: Yes

Choose no life. Choose sysadminning. Choose no career.        *****
Choose no family. Choose a fucking big computer, choose hard  *   *
disks the size of washing machines, old cars, CD ROM writers  * A *
and electrical coffee makers. Choose no sleep, high caffeine  * D *
and mental insurance. Choose fixed interest car loans. Choose * M *
a rented shoebox. Choose no friends. Choose black jeans and   * I *
matching combat boots. Choose a swivel chair for your office  * N *
in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose NNTP and wondering why  * S *
the fuck you're logged on on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting * P *
in that chair looking at mind-numbing, spirit-crushing web    * O *
sites, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose     * T *
rotting away at the end of it all, pishing your last on some  * T *
miserable newsgroup, nothing more than an embarrassment to    * I *
the selfish, fucked up lusers Gates spawned to replace the    * N *
computer-literate.                                            * G *
Choose your future.                                           *   *
Choose sysadmining[1].                                        *****

Gaz
[1] It might fuck you up a little less than heroin[2].
[2] ObFootnote.
--
 /\./\   gkb@aber.ac.uk (Gary "Wolf" Barnes)
( - - ) "Do not ask any lady to take wine, until you
 \ " /   see she has finished her fish or soup."
  ~~~                - Hints on Etiquette and the Usages of Society

Have a nice sysadmin day!

December 13, 2006
» A Microsoft Co-President admits it: Microsoft lost its way

James Allchin, co-president of Microsoft’s Platforms & Services Division:

I’m not sure how the company lost sight of what matters to our customers, both business and home, the most, but in my view we lost our way. I think our teams lost sight of what bug-free means, what resilience means, what full scenarios mean, what security means, what performance means, how important current applications are, and really understanding what the most important problems our customers face are.

(source)

We already knew that Mr. Allchin, please continue.

I see lots of random features and some great vision, but that does not translate into great products.

Well at least you have great marketing.

I would buy a Mac today if I was not working at Microsoft.

Why not? Just use the best tool for the job (hint: not Microsoft). After all you are still using Linux servers in portions of your site (via Akamai). And you used Linux for your main site a couple of years ago after worm and virus attacks (Microsoft hides behind Linux for protection). Microsoft just doesn’t get security but hey, you already said that :)

And I’m sure you still remember how your own techies admitted that FreeBSD was superior to Win2k for massive server installs when they migrated the frontend of Hotmail? Oh, and I think the Hotmail backend is still running Solaris?

And of course, since you are responsible of Microsoft’s operating systems, you know that your programmers use Perforce instead of Visual Source Safe?

And of course you know that between your own employees, for every MSN search user there are FOUR Google search users?

I think I get the point Mr. Allchin: If Microsoft doesn’t eat its own dog food anymore because it has lost its way, all your costumers should start doing the exact same thing:

USE THE RIGHT TOOL FOR THE JOB (Hint: NOT Microsoft).

May 19, 2006
» Dilbert on UNIX

“Here’s a nickel kid, get yourself a better computer.”

Dilbert on UNIX

Priceless.