From edwin at NOC.cs.ruu.nl Wed Jan 7 05:32:09 1998 From: edwin at NOC.cs.ruu.nl (Edwin Kremer) Date: Wed, 7 Jan 1998 14:32:09 +0100 (MET) Subject: ANN/CfP: 1st International SANE Conference Message-ID: Dear SAGE members, below you'll find the announcement and call for papers for the SANE'98 conference to be held on November 18-20 in Maastricht, The Netherlands, and organized by the NLUUG and co-sponsored by USENIX and Stichting NLnet. If you prefer to read the Call for Papers in a different format, please visit the SANE'98 WWW site: http://www.nluug.nl/events/sane98/ Thanks for your time. best regards, --[ Edwin ]-- -- Edwin H. Kremer, systems- and network administrator. Dept. of Computer Science, Utrecht University, The Netherlands [WHOIS: ehk3] -------------------- http://www.cs.ruu.nl/people/edwin/ ----------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Announcement and Call for Papers 1st International SANE Conference November 18-20, 1998 Maastricht, The Netherlands A conference organized by the NLUUG, the UNIX User Group - The Netherlands co-sponsored by USENIX, the Advanced Computing Systems Association, and Stichting NLnet -------- OVERVIEW -------- Technology is advancing, the systems administration profession is changing rapidly, and you have to master new skills to keep apace. At the International SANE (System Administration and Networking) conference you can join the community of system administrators while attending a program that brings you the latest in tools, techniques, security and networking. You can learn from tutorials, refereed papers, invited talks and Birds-of-a-Feather sessions. Visit the Vendor Exhibition for the hottest products and the latest books available. The official language at the conference will be English. The conference will be located at the Maastricht Exposition and Conference Center, MECC. ---------------- TUTORIAL PROGRAM ---------------- On Wednesday November 18, 1998, up to four in-depth tutorials will be presented to you by the most popular and widely acclaimed speakers. ------------------ TECHNICAL SESSIONS ------------------ Two days of technical sessions, including keynote address, presentations of refereed papers and invited talks will follow the tutorial day. --------------------- CONFERENCE ORGANIZERS --------------------- Program Co-chairs: Edwin Kremer, Department of Computer Science, Utrecht University Jan Christiaan van Winkel, AT Computing Program Committee: Jos Alsters, C&CZ, KU Nijmegen Bob Eskes, ASR, Hollandse Signaalapparaten Peter den Haan, C&CZ, KU Nijmegen Patrick Schoo, Department of Mathematics, Utrecht University Michael Uterm?hle, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Paderborn Jos Vos, X/OS Experts in Open Systems Elizabeth Zwicky, Silicon Graphics, Inc. Event Organization: Chel van Gennip, Hiscom Mari?lle Klatten, NLUUG Monique Rours, NLUUG --------------- IMPORTANT DATES --------------- Extended abstracts due: April 17, 1998 Notification to speakers: May 8, 1998 Final papers due: September 4, 1998 Complete program and registration information will be available in June 1998. To receive information about the conference, please contact: sane98-info at nluug.nl or visit the conference WWW site: http://www.nluug.nl/events/sane98/ ----------------- CONFERENCE TOPICS ----------------- Presentations are being solicited in areas including but not limited to: * Security tools and techniques * Managing enterprise-wide email (what about UCE?) * Experiences with free software, including operating systems, in a professional environment * Innovative system administration tools & techniques * Distributed or automated system administration * Incorporation of commercial system administration technology * Adventures in nomadic and wireless computing * Intranet development, support, and maintenance * Integrating new networking technologies * Integration of heterogeneous platforms * Performance analysis, monitoring and tuning * Support strategies in use at your site * Effective training techniques for system administration and users ------------- INVITED TALKS ------------- If you have a topic of interest that is not (yet) very well suited for a refereed paper submission, please submit a proposal for an invited talk to the Program Committee at the address: sane98 at nluug.nl -------------------------- REFEREED PAPER SUBMISSIONS -------------------------- An extended abstract of up to four pages is required for the paper selection process. Abstracts accompanied by non-disclosure agreement forms are not acceptable and will be returned unread. Authors of accepted submissions must provide a final paper for publication in the conference proceedings. Final papers are held in the highest confidence prior to publication in the conference proceedings. Authors agree with publication of the final paper in the members-only area on the NLUUG WWW site and/or the conference CD-ROM. Please submit extended abstracts by one of the following methods: E-mail to: sane98 at nluug.nl Fax to: +31 20 6950018 Postal mail to: NLUUG PO Box 22727 1100 DE AMSTERDAM The Netherlands --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From jackson Tue Jan 13 14:09:42 1998 From: jackson (Jackson Dodd) Date: Tue, 13 Jan 1998 14:09:42 -0800 (PST) Subject: 1st Int'l System Administration & Networking Conference (SANE'98) Message-ID: <199801132209.OAA17403@usenix.ORG> 1st International System Administration and Networking Conference (SANE '98) November 18-20, 1998 Maastricht, The Netherlands Organized by the NLUUG, the UNIX User Group - The Netherlands, co-sponsored by USENIX and Stichting NLnetOverview Technology is advancing, the system administration profession is changing rapidly, and you have to master new skills to keep apace. At the International SANE (System Administration and Networking) conference you can join the community of system administrators while attending a program that brings you the latest in tools, techniques, security, and networking. You can learn from tutorials, refereed papers, invited talks, and Birds-of-a-Feather sessions. Visit the Vendor Exhibition for the hottest products and the latest books available. The official language at the conference will be English. The conference will be located at the Maastricht Exposition and Conference Center, MECC. TUTORIAL PROGRAM & TECHNICAL SESSIONS On Wednesday November 18, 1998, up to four in-depth tutorials will be presented to you by the most popular and widely acclaimed speakers Two days of technical sessions, including keynote address, presentations of refereed papers, and invited talks will follow the tutorial day. CONFERENCE ORGANIZERS Program Co-chairs: Edwin Kremer, Dept. of Computer Science, Utrecht University Jan Christiaan van Winkel, AT Computing Program Committee: Jos Alsters, C&CZ, KU Nijmegen Bob Eskes, ASR, Hollandse Signaalapparaten Peter den Haan, C&CZ, KU Nijmegen Patrick Schoo, Department of Mathematics, Utrecht University Michael Uterm?hle, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Paderborn Jos Vos, X/OS Experts in Open Systems Elizabeth Zwicky, Silicon Graphics, Inc. Event Organization: Chel van Gennip, Hiscom Mari?lle Klatten, NLUUG Monique Rours, NLUUG =================================================== IMPORTANT DATES Extended abstracts due: April 17, 1998 Notification to speakers: May 8, 1998 Final papers due: September 4, 1998 =================================================== Complete program and registration information will be available in June 1998. To receive information about the conference, please contact: or visit the conference Web site: http://www.nluug.nl/events/sane98/ CONFERENCE TOPICS Presentations are being solicited in areas including but not limited to: Security tools and techniques. Managing enterprise-wide email (what about UCE?). Experiences with free software, including operating systems, in a professional environment. Innovative system administration tools & techniques. Distributed or automated system administration. Incorporation of commercial system administration technology. Adventures in nomadic and wireless computing. Intranet development, support, and maintenance. Integrating new networking technologies. Integration of heterogeneous platforms. Performance analysis, monitoring and tuning. Support strategies in use at your site. Effective training techniques for system administration and users. INVITED TALKS If you have a topic of interest that is not (yet) very well suited for a refereed paper submission, please submit a proposal for an invited talk to the Program Committee at the address: sane98 at nluug.nl REFEREED PAPER SUBMISSIONS An extended abstract of up to four pages is required for the paper selection process. Abstracts accompanied by nondisclosure agreement forms are not acceptable and will be returned unread. Authors of accepted submissions must provide a final paper for publication in the conference proceedings. Final papers are held in the highest confidence prior to publication in the conference proceedings. Authors agree with publication of the final paper in the members-only area on the NLUUGWWW site and/or the conference CD-ROM. Please submit extended abstracts by one of the following methods: E-mail to: sane98 at nluug.nl Fax to: +31 20 6950018 Postal mail to: NLUUG PO Box 22727 1100 DE AMSTERDAM The Netherlands From dfwsage-owner at utdallas.edu Tue Jan 13 16:58:11 1998 From: dfwsage-owner at utdallas.edu (dfwsage-owner at utdallas.edu) Date: Tue, 13 Jan 1998 18:58:11 -0600 (CST) Subject: DFWSAGE Meeting on 1-26-98 Message-ID: <199801140058.SAA27606@velcro.utdallas.edu> The following topic will be presented at the next DFWSAGE meeting: Mastering System Security Tools and techniques for preventing and detecting security incidents. - Tools that are available to probe systems and networks for vulnerabilities - Ways to prevent outsiders from instigating probes - Tools/techniques to prevent intruders from gaining access to a machine, or from gaining privileges on a machine that they're not supposed to - Secure shells and SSL - what they do, how they do it, and some weaknesses in SSL - How to detect a compromise - what to look for, how to set up auto notification - An example of a security requirements analysis (our own at UNT) - Some examples of recent attacks - Some hacker group's self-publicity (web sites and such) Dianna Laakso Monday, Jan 26, 1998 7:00pm - 9:00pm University of Texas at Dallas McDermott Library Room MC3.224 Note, this is on the 4th Monday this month. Directions and maps are located at the DFWSAGE page: http://www.utdallas.edu/orgs/dfwsage Hope to see y'all there! From strata at virtual.net Wed Jan 14 12:25:21 1998 From: strata at virtual.net (strata at virtual.net) Date: Wed, 14 Jan 98 12:25:21 PST Subject: January BayLISA: SSH : Thurs, 1/15/1998 Message-ID: BayLISA General Meeting Thursday, 15 January, 1998 Cisco Building J1, LONDON Room <*** Note temporary room change, building remains the same. London Room is right next to usual room. Traditional ASCII map at end of posting. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday, 15 January, 1998 SSH -- Introduction through Implementation, Steve Acheson Starting at 19:30, and continuing until about 21:30 SSH, the Secure Shell program, has matured into a popular and powerful tool for secure system access and securely performing remote functions, such as rdist and rsync. The talk will focus on: SSH features and authentication methods Overview of the different versions (both public and commercial) How to secure X11 connections using SSH How to do secure port forwarding with SSH Softare available for use with SSH (eg, rdist, rsync) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- General Meetings: Unless otherwise noted, monthly meetings are held on the third Thursday of each month, at Cisco Systems in San Jose. Directions are available at this time, and please let us know if you have any questions. Light refreshments are generally served. BayLISA meetings are also broadcast on the MBONE using volunteer assistance and loaned hardware. MSRI has an MBONE broadcast schedule page as well as information about MBONE tools. Please see the BayLISA web site for more information about future meetings, BayLISA membership, and other neat stuff. http://www.baylisa.org/ Upcoming meetings: February 19th: All the News That Fits... Large Scale Netnews (Panel) Nick Christensen, Earthlink Danheil Baker, Supernews Landon Knoll, SGI ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- [http://www.baylisa.org/events/cisco.html] Getting To The Meeting at Cisco Systems Cisco Systems -- Building J Gateway Conference Facility 236 W. Tasman Drive San Jose, CA 95134 (At Highway 237 and N. First) Take any freeway to highway 237. If your on the Milpitas (east) side of the bay, head west towards Mountain View, if your on the Mountain View (west) side of the bay, head east towards Milpitas. Take highway 237 to N. First Street. Head south on N. First until you get to Tasman Drive. Turn right, following the light rail tracks. Go through the second signal, and Building J will be the middle of three buildings on your right before Vista Montana. You can enter the conference facility through the doors on the north side of the building. Look! An ongoing tradition, a terrible ASCII map! Cisco Main Campus ========================================================= \ Highway 237 \ \ Vista Montana/\ / \ ___________________ / \ Tasman Drive \ / \ \ / \ H / \ \ I \ G \ J \ F \ \ N. First Street \ K \ E \--- \ \ L \ D \ \ C \ \ \ \ B \----------\--------- Tasman Drive / \ A / \ Rio Robles Drive ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- =========================================================================== Strata Rose [KF6NBZ] strata at virtual.net VirtualNet Consulting http://www.virtual.net/ Internet: Installations, Security, Large Site Scaling Issues, E-Commerce =========================================================================== From strata at virtual.net Wed Jan 14 12:25:21 1998 From: strata at virtual.net (strata at virtual.net) Date: Wed, 14 Jan 98 12:25:21 PST Subject: January BayLISA: SSH : Thurs, 1/15/1998 Message-ID: BayLISA General Meeting Thursday, 15 January, 1998 Cisco Building J1, LONDON Room <*** Note temporary room change, building remains the same. London Room is right next to usual room. Traditional ASCII map at end of posting. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday, 15 January, 1998 SSH -- Introduction through Implementation, Steve Acheson Starting at 19:30, and continuing until about 21:30 SSH, the Secure Shell program, has matured into a popular and powerful tool for secure system access and securely performing remote functions, such as rdist and rsync. The talk will focus on: SSH features and authentication methods Overview of the different versions (both public and commercial) How to secure X11 connections using SSH How to do secure port forwarding with SSH Softare available for use with SSH (eg, rdist, rsync) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- General Meetings: Unless otherwise noted, monthly meetings are held on the third Thursday of each month, at Cisco Systems in San Jose. Directions are available at this time, and please let us know if you have any questions. Light refreshments are generally served. BayLISA meetings are also broadcast on the MBONE using volunteer assistance and loaned hardware. MSRI has an MBONE broadcast schedule page as well as information about MBONE tools. Please see the BayLISA web site for more information about future meetings, BayLISA membership, and other neat stuff. http://www.baylisa.org/ Upcoming meetings: February 19th: All the News That Fits... Large Scale Netnews (Panel) Nick Christensen, Earthlink Danheil Baker, Supernews Landon Knoll, SGI ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- [http://www.baylisa.org/events/cisco.html] Getting To The Meeting at Cisco Systems Cisco Systems -- Building J Gateway Conference Facility 236 W. Tasman Drive San Jose, CA 95134 (At Highway 237 and N. First) Take any freeway to highway 237. If your on the Milpitas (east) side of the bay, head west towards Mountain View, if your on the Mountain View (west) side of the bay, head east towards Milpitas. Take highway 237 to N. First Street. Head south on N. First until you get to Tasman Drive. Turn right, following the light rail tracks. Go through the second signal, and Building J will be the middle of three buildings on your right before Vista Montana. You can enter the conference facility through the doors on the north side of the building. Look! An ongoing tradition, a terrible ASCII map! Cisco Main Campus ========================================================= \ Highway 237 \ \ Vista Montana/\ / \ ___________________ / \ Tasman Drive \ / \ \ / \ H / \ \ I \ G \ J \ F \ \ N. First Street \ K \ E \--- \ \ L \ D \ \ C \ \ \ \ B \----------\--------- Tasman Drive / \ A / \ Rio Robles Drive ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- =========================================================================== Strata Rose [KF6NBZ] strata at virtual.net VirtualNet Consulting http://www.virtual.net/ Internet: Installations, Security, Large Site Scaling Issues, E-Commerce =========================================================================== From bigmac at gnac.com Thu Feb 5 16:07:53 1998 From: bigmac at gnac.com (Bryan McDonald) Date: Thu, 05 Feb 1998 16:07:53 -0800 Subject: GNAC Open House on Feb 23, 1998 Message-ID: <199802060007.QAA11197@tweety.main.gnac.com> ------- Blind-Carbon-Copy To: open-house at gnac.com reply-to: rsvp at gnac.com Subject: GNAC Open House on Feb 23, 1998 Date: Thu, 05 Feb 1998 16:07:53 -0800 From: Bryan McDonald Global Networking and Computing (GNAC) is celebrating our moving into new facilities in Redwood City, CA, and we want to invite you to come celebrate with us on Feb 23, 1998 at 7pm at our new offices. We have arranged for a couple of short presentations, some food, etc...read on for more details. If you are interested in coming to our open house, please RSVP (so we can make sure we have enough food and drinks for you all!) by replying to this email, which should automatically go to rsvp at gnac.com. We will send directions in reply to confirm your RSVP. Activities at the open house: + Phil Scarr, co-chair of the USENIX NT administration conference last fall, will be reviewing the highlights of that conference, including interesting information from Microsoft speakers and attendees. + Paul Vixie, known throughout the Internet for his work supporting the reference implementations of bind, dhcpd, and INN, will be reviewing the latest web-caching technologies. + Plenty of food and drinks for all. + Various sporting activities: Darts, Bochi Ball, and more. + And, of course, lots of good people networking with the best and the brightest in the Bay Area. Come celebrate with us! GNAC Management and Staff http://www.gnac.com ============================================================================= Bryan McDonald, Program Manager Global Network and Computing, Inc bigmac at gnac.com (650) 569-4622 (650) 569-4697 [FAX] ------- End of Blind-Carbon-Copy From dfwsage-owner at utdallas.edu Thu Feb 12 08:55:20 1998 From: dfwsage-owner at utdallas.edu (dfwsage-owner at utdallas.edu) Date: Thu, 12 Feb 1998 10:55:20 -0600 (CST) Subject: DFWSAGE Meeting on 2-23-98 Message-ID: <199802121655.KAA04670@velcro.utdallas.edu> Everything you ever wanted to know about NFS (v2,3,4, webNFS, etc) Gene Saunders SunSoft Monday, Feb 23, 1998 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM University of Texas at Dallas McDermott Library Room MC 3.224 Like last month, this meeting will be on the 4th Monday. In March we will start meeting at our new day (2nd Monday). Coffee will be available afterwards for those that want it. Directions and maps are located at the DFWSAGE page: http://dfwsage.utdallas.edu/ Hope to see y'all there! From zwicky at pterodactyl.neu.sgi.com Wed Feb 18 00:27:59 1998 From: zwicky at pterodactyl.neu.sgi.com (zwicky) Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 09:27:59 +0100 Subject: SAGE, certification, and you In-Reply-To: Your message of "Tue, 17 Feb 1998 20:53:10." <199802180153.UAA18195@rigel.dartmouth.edu> Message-ID: <199802180827.JAA10340@pterodactyl.neu.sgi.com> >During our January meeting, the SAGE Board did its annual planning and >goal-setting exercise. Often, nothing earth-shattering occurs. This time, >however, we took the Certification bull by the horns and have made a Plan. Exactly what is that plan? As in, what are its goals, its timelines, and the people who're carrying it out? What's in this e-mail is >We kept coming back to the mission statement phrase "advancement of systems >administration as a profession" and what that implies. After a rather >vociferous debate we agreed (some more cheerfully than others) that a >"profession" entails certification - careers without such things are >generally referred to as "trades" (think of the difference between >MDs and morticians, for example). Doctors are not certified. They are *degreed* and *licensed*. A brief review of the web turns up the information that being a mortician requires a license, which in turn requires both an apprenticeship and a mortuary science degree, which in turn requires an undergraduate degree, preferably in biology -- so the difference between MDs and morticians appears to be mostly that one of them works with dead people, which is lower status than working with live people. Also that one of them requires even more time in education and apprenticeship than the other, but note that the one you call a trade requires 6 years more of education, 2 more degrees, and 1 more apprenticeship than system administration. It looks like we have a long way to go. This is one of the world's poorest arguments, on a whole bunch of fronts. Give it up. Here are some believable arguments in favor of certification: 1) It provides employers, who are not often knowledgeable about system administration, with an objective standard of evaluation. 2) It provides system administrators with a way of objectively evaluating their own skills. 3) It provides a basis for educational programs. 4) It's a whole lot cheaper than a college degree, and provides some of the same advantages to its holders. 5) A number of people are easily impressed by certificates. Why shouldn't we get to impress them, too? Elizabeth Zwicky From hargiss at michelob.wustl.edu Wed Feb 18 08:21:19 1998 From: hargiss at michelob.wustl.edu (Jeff "Forest Creature" Hargiss) Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 10:21:19 -0600 (CST) Subject: SAGE, certification, and you In-Reply-To: <199802180153.UAA18195@rigel.dartmouth.edu> Message-ID: Being a new member, .... :) I joined SAGE to gain knowledge in sysadmin tasks that I do not normally have to do. There is so much to a unix system, and I generally only have to learn the parts that don't work right. What about the other 80% that I do not see? I would very much like a structured certification program. I can teach myself what I am missing, but it is hard to judge what is more important [task-wise], or in what order. I have experience in unix, but mainly from a networking stance. I am sure there is a lot more out there besides OpenView :) If you are counting votes, add me to the YES column. Thank you for your efforts! ================================================================================ www.hargiss.com www.kokomo.com dod#829 A 32-bit patch for a 16-bit GUI shell running on top of an 8-bit operating system written for a 4-bit processor by a 2-bit company who cannot stand 1 bit of competition. -Rev. Pee Kitty, on Windows 95 From dphi at ix.netcom.com Wed Feb 18 08:58:04 1998 From: dphi at ix.netcom.com (Dale Phillips) Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 08:58:04 -0800 Subject: SAGE, certification, and you In-Reply-To: <199802180153.UAA18195@rigel.dartmouth.edu> Message-ID: <3.0.3.32.19980218085804.016a1120@popd.ix.netcom.com> One more view to add to the pot. I am a SCO ACE and a MCP. And I still Can't get my FreeBSD or Linux box to talk through the MS proxy server on NT. (any clues?) The only thing certification *should* mean that you don't know it all. Our knowledge base is very fluid. If Certification leads to higher pay (like the ASE tests for auto mechanics) then I am for it. If it just to "add credibility" count me out. System Administration will always be on a lower rung just as a mortician is "lower" than a doctor. We do not have control over this. I would MUCH rather see something like the Interactive Perl course by Orwart coupled with web quizzes and chat rooms. Where the continuing education units are optional. System Administration is not rocket science, nor is it engineering. It is like acquiring a second language. You learn by speaking it to others who know it better than you. It is every bit as complex as rocket science, but it is not a linear form of learning - as is math. If a real and valid solution is to be pursued. Do what Bell & Howell did to create BSEE's. Create your own school and get the best names in our business to teach classes. (Then roll them into video/web stuff) my 2 cents worth... -dp--------------- Dale Phillips dphi at ix.netcom.com From tina at systemexperts.com Wed Feb 18 09:08:11 1998 From: tina at systemexperts.com (Tina M. Darmohray) Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 09:08:11 -0800 Subject: SAGE, certification, and you In-Reply-To: <199802180153.UAA18195@rigel.dartmouth.edu>; from Pat Wilson on Tue, Feb 17, 1998 at 08:53:10PM +2230 References: <199802180153.UAA18195@rigel.dartmouth.edu> Message-ID: <19980218090811.45473@iwi> On Tue, Feb 17, 1998 at 08:53:10PM +2230, Pat Wilson wrote: > > > Listen up, folks - this is important! > > During our January meeting, the SAGE Board did its annual planning and > goal-setting exercise. Often, nothing earth-shattering occurs. This time, > however, we took the Certification bull by the horns and have made a Plan. > > We kept coming back to the mission statement phrase "advancement of systems > administration as a profession" and what that implies. After a rather > vociferous debate we agreed (some more cheerfully than others) that a > "profession" entails certification - careers without such things are > generally referred to as "trades" (think of the difference between > MDs and morticians, for example). I've never hired anyone because they had a certificate in anything. Education and experience is why you hire someone. Sometimes the education comes first, sometimes it is part of the experience, usually it is ongoing. I don't believe SAGE members, or the SA profession, would be best served by SAGE/USENIX spending their resources generating, and administering?, certifications, merit badges, or any other SAGE-unique way of naming education and experience. Rather, I think the limited resources should be focused on high-leverage areas, where we're not providing infrastructure, just building on it. To me, that means we work with existing educational organizations to get "sysadmin" courses, majors, AA programs, even certificates!, etc. in place. We don't reinvent the infrastructure and we don't rename what we want: system administrators with education, experience, or both. In any case, I'd argue that you can't certify or merit anyone who doesn't qualify because they don't have the knowledge. -- Let's put the cart back behind the horse and figure out some ways to educate. If we accomplish that, we could *always* revisit "certification". Tina From brownmic at plhp002.comm.mot.com Wed Feb 18 11:00:54 1998 From: brownmic at plhp002.comm.mot.com (Michael Rogero Brown) Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 14:00:54 EST Subject: SAGE, certification, and you In-Reply-To: <19980218090811.45473@iwi>; from "Tina M. Darmohray" at Feb 18, 98 9:08 am Message-ID: <199802181900.OAA24566@plhp049.comm.mot.com> > > > > We kept coming back to the mission statement phrase "advancement of systems > > administration as a profession" and what that implies. After a rather > > vociferous debate we agreed (some more cheerfully than others) that a > > "profession" entails certification - careers without such things are > > generally referred to as "trades" (think of the difference between > > MDs and morticians, for example). > > I've never hired anyone because they had a certificate in anything. > Education and experience is why you hire someone. Sometimes the > education comes first, sometimes it is part of the experience, > usually it is ongoing. > You might, but I've heard of people being turned down as Netware admins only because they didn't have that CNE certification, despite years of experience elsewhere as NetWare admins. This is the 'dark side' of certification, that someone who is qualified being turned down because of a lack of certification. This is why some are opposed to certification. Especially when it takes big bucks to pass the classes or tests needed to get that certification. > I don't believe SAGE members, or the SA profession, would be best > served by SAGE/USENIX spending their resources generating, and > administering?, certifications, merit badges, or any other > SAGE-unique way of naming education and experience. Rather, I think > the limited resources should be focused on high-leverage areas, > where we're not providing infrastructure, just building on it. > To me, that means we work with existing educational organizations > to get "sysadmin" courses, majors, AA programs, even certificates!, > etc. in place. We don't reinvent the infrastructure and we don't > rename what we want: system administrators with education, > experience, or both. > > In any case, I'd argue that you can't certify or merit anyone who > doesn't qualify because they don't have the knowledge. -- Let's > put the cart back behind the horse and figure out some ways to > educate. If we accomplish that, we could *always* revisit > "certification". > > Tina > -- Michael Rogero Brown | Disclaimer: I speak only for myself. Unix/NT Systems Support | Any opinions expressed are my own Motorola, LMPS | and do not reflect the opinions of email: emb021 at email.mot.com | Motorola. From jrl Wed Feb 18 11:14:03 1998 From: jrl (Jim Lawson) Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 11:14:03 -0800 (PST) Subject: discussion on certification Message-ID: <199802181914.LAA24537@usenix.ORG> Could we please move this discussion to sage-members. sage-announce is not the correct forum for discussions. From pomeranz at netcom.com Wed Feb 18 15:08:56 1998 From: pomeranz at netcom.com (Hal Pomeranz) Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 15:08:56 PST Subject: BayLISA Meeting (Thurs, 2/19, 7:30pm): Large Installation Netnews Message-ID: <199802182308.PAA20030@netcom8.netcom.com> -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- IMPORTANT NOTE: We're meeting at Cisco Building H, Mesa Verde conference room instead of the usual location in Building J. Building H is on the other side of Tasman from Building J, at the intersection of Tasman and Vista Montana. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Meeting starts at 7:30pm. Please do not arrive before 7pm. Thursday, February 19th, 1998 Cisco Building H, Mesa Verde Conference Room Large Installation Netnews (panel discussion) This will be a panel discussion of the many issues of running a large news site. The intent is to touch on a number of points that might be useful to know about for any news admin. The speakers are: Danhiel Baker, of SuperNews Nick Christenson, of Earthlink Networks Landon Noll, of Silicon Graphics, Inc Each speaker will be giving a small talk, and then will field questions as a group. The abstracts for the individual talks are available at www.baylisa.org. Hal Pomeranz, President BayLISA From Brent at Covad.COM Mon Mar 2 09:10:48 1998 From: Brent at Covad.COM (Brent Chapman) Date: Mon, 2 Mar 1998 09:10:48 -0800 Subject: Internet Security Conference, 6-9 April 98, San Jose Message-ID: The Internet Security Conference will be held 6-9 April 1998 at the DoubleTree Hotel in San Jose, California, USA. The conference will offer workshops, tutorials and conference sessions for networking professionals looking to understand and implement IP-related security mechansims for their organization. Topics to be presented include VPNs, Firewalls, IPSEC, SHTTP, SOCKS, S/MIME Intrusion Detection, Security Methodologies, Windows NT Security and Biometric Authentication. An outstanding faculty of engineers, researchers and practitioners (including Fred Avolio, Tina Darmohray, Dan Geer, Marcus Ranum, Jon Rochlis, and myself) will be lecturing and presenting practical information to help attendees reach their Internet computing security goals. Vint Cerf, Senior Vice President for Internet Architecture and Engineering at MCI, had this to say about The Internet Security Conference: "Understanding the role of security in business networking applications is fundamental to growth in the use of Internet for commerce. This conference is plainly aimed at providing attendees with a broad grasp of principles and products needed to achieve security in the practice of online commerce." The Internet Security Conference is intended for Intranet/Network Managers and Administrators, Security Consultants, Systems Analysts, CIOs, IS/IT Managers, and other Internet computing professionals. The conference will be held 6-9 April 1998 at the DoubleTree Hotel in San Jose, California, USA, right at the entrance to the San Jose International Airport (the DoubleTree used to be the Red Lion Inn). For complete information browse http://tisc.corecom.com, or call (408) 354-2500, (800) 798-2928 or email tisc at corecom.com. -Brent -- Brent Chapman Director, Network Architecture Brent at Covad.COM Covad Communications Company 408/490-4578 http://www.covad.com/ From dfwsage-owner at utdallas.edu Tue Mar 3 18:36:22 1998 From: dfwsage-owner at utdallas.edu (dfwsage-owner at utdallas.edu) Date: Tue, 3 Mar 1998 20:36:22 -0600 (CST) Subject: DFWSAGE Meeting on 3-9-98 Message-ID: <199803040236.UAA06867@velcro.utdallas.edu> This month, we continue along the NFS thread: Topic: NetApp Technology Briefing -Underlying Technology -Multiprotocol Support(NFS, CIFS, HTTP) -Certified by Oracle -Fibre Channel -MultiVolume/MultiRAID NetCache Software and the NetCache Appliance Presenters: Roger J. Anderson and William Griffith of Network Appliance Time: Monday, March 9, 1998 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM Location: University of Texas at Dallas Multipurpose Building Room MP 2.220 (***) Please note the room change. This is where we met originally. Directions and maps are located at the DFWSAGE page: http://dfwsage.utdallas.edu/ Hope to see y'all there! From barb at usenix.org Mon Mar 16 09:56:24 1998 From: barb at usenix.org (Barb Dijker) Date: Mon, 16 Mar 1998 10:56:24 -0700 Subject: [official] letter of clarification re certification [long] Message-ID: <3.0.1.32.19980316105624.00ddb4bc@labyrinth.com> This letter is from the SAGE certification subcommittee: Kim Trudel, Tim Gassaway, and Barb Dijker. We hope to respond to the concerns addressed on sage-members regarding the recent certification announcement "heads-up" posted 2/17. In addition, we would like to provide general information regarding direction and framework. The SAGE certification subcommittee met on 3/7 and 3/8. Not the least of our agenda was summarizing, considering, and addressing the feedback recently received via sage-members mailing list and others send directly to the board. The information here is organized by specific concerns that members have raised as we understand them. The discussion on the list has been extremely constructive and focused on some key issues. Thank you! 1) The Plan The "Plan" as referenced in the announcement (2/17/98) was merely: appoint a subcommittee. That "Plan" included a meeting of the subcommittee and results of that meeting for consideration at a future SAGE board meeting before we continue the process. The initial outcome of the subcommittee will look more like a real plan, some preliminary concepts of which are incorporated in the comments below. 2) Motivation The certification effort is not motivated by the survey. The survey merely confirmed what SAGE was hearing from the membership. As many have noted, certification has been discussed at SAGE board meetings almost every time since SAGE's founding 6 years ago. There have been some relatively recent developments that have pushed this effort to the point where it is now, more than ever, appropriate, necessary, and feasible. SAGE board members have done considerable research in the area of certification. Whether the members are aware of it or not, there are bodies certifying system administrators in a non-vendor specific way. It is happening. We can either let others do it for us, or we can do it right... by setting skills requirements and influencing education. The primary motivation for SAGE embarking on certification at this time is the unprecedented demand in the market for system administration professionals. Certification is by far not our only means of addressing this problem. But it can serve to set goals of education and standards of skill requirements for at least entry level positions. To borrow from Elizabeth's posting dated 2/18: 1) It provides employers, who are not often knowledgeable about system administration, with an objective standard of evaluation. 2) It provides system administrators with a way of objectively evaluating their own skills. 3) It provides a basis for educational programs. 4) It's a whole lot cheaper than a college degree, and provides some of the same advantages to its holders. It is important to note here, and expanded later below, that in no way is the core certification being contemplated by SAGE intended for existing practicing system administrators with more than 3 years of experience. SAGE is addressing core/entry skill sets. Many professions, from nursing to day care to jewelers, engage in certification efforts. Certification, specified by the profession itself, serves to set a standard of excellence at the designated certification level. There is no evidence we have found to support reduced salaries or a standard of mediocrity. Generally the opposite tends to be the case. Finally, the argument that certifying system administrators is too hard simply doesn't fly anymore. System Administration is the not the first nor only profession that relies heavily on "soft skills" such as communication, problem solving, and the like. There is an entire industry of professionals who devise methods of assessing skills. It may take more than a multiple choice test, but it is neither hard nor impossible to assess such skills. Methods of skills assessment have improved considerably over the years. 3) Relative Prioritization Certification is not being pursued by SAGE at the expense of any other efforts. Most specifically, efforts in the area of education are at the top of our list, and certification goes hand-in-hand with that effort. We expect that given SAGE certification, many educational bodies will then have the detailed skill requirement goals they need to help them to develop appropriate curricula to satisfy those requirements. Part of the effort of certification will include the logistics to make that available and marketing, for lack of a better word, to ensure the information reaches educational bodies. For perspective, in 1997 SAGE spent about $85K in publications including the booklet series and ;login:. That is not going to diminish. In fact the 1998 budget for such "educational" publications is over $110K. We anticipate three booklets published this year: hiring, education, and site audits. SAGE had already planned to do a direct mailing to educational institutions, for the purposes already discussed on this list, as part of the education and certification goals. In addition, some ambitious members are prototyping a mentoring program that the board is involved with and hopes to adopt next year. Other things on our short term goals list: - sponsor another K12 event like the Maryland Virtual High School event last year - locals focus (clarify/expand policy/benefits, more groups) - establish "speaker's bureau" to facilitate technical talks for locals and other groups - expand relationships with outside groups (like we did with UGU) Given that "educational" publications accounts for about one third of SAGE's budget, it is not unreasonable to spend a few $K, if any, to round out education goals with a certification effort. If more dollars are required, they will not come at the expense of other programs, existing or future. 4) Authority, Mandate, etc. The Board sees itself as a steward of the organization, responsible for general oversight and long-term planning and strategizing. In doing so we respond to industry and community demands as well as the desires of existing members. The goal of certification is to provide skills requirements and assessment for budding system administrators for their benefit and the benefit of the rest of the community and the profession as a whole. We are pursuing certification a result of member interest and community/industry demand. SAGE would not be doing this if we thought it was opposed by a majority. The survey was in part to confirm our understanding of our implicit authority. We can poll, survey, or vote the issue to death. However, the SAGE board's duty is to interpret the needs of and act on behalf of the membership and the broader community it is formed to serve. SAGE is uniquely positioned to specify certification for our profession. Certification is most successful and beneficial for the community when specified by the profession. SAGE (US) is the largest and most globally represented group of system administration professionals. SAGE is the only such organization of which we are aware in the US. While SAGE does not represent the entire system administration population, it represents a significant population. Most professional organizations without mandatory licensure or certification do not represent 100%, or any where near, of their practicing population. One might argue that it is incumbent upon SAGE in this unique position to specify certification if it is to be done. There are certainly other SAGE and SAGE-like organizations around the world, most notably SAGE-AU. While we can't pretend to represent those organizations, it would seem a bit wasteful and redundant to reinvent the wheel N times, one for each regional SAGE. We hope to gain participation globally to prevent confusing or conflicting certification of system administrators by "the profession" itself. 5) Communication It should be obvious at this point that we haven't actually _done_ anything yet. No one has been left out of the process. Every single one of the messages posted to sage-members were read by everyone on the certification subcommittee (through at least 3/1). The certification subcommittee has developed a communication strategy for the upcoming process to ensure that the system administration community has appropriate opportunity for information and feedback. SAGE certification will not be successful unless it truly serves the broader sysadmin community and the employers they serve, not just SAGE members. The communication strategy is as follows: a) Appoint an Advisory Council - < 20 people representative of the community for tight and detailed feedback loops, care will be taken to ensure representation is both diverse and global. Details on the Advisory Council will be emailed separately. b) Develop and post (via web) a FAQ on the project. c) Provide regular informational dissemination at project milestones in ;login:, sage-announce, and comp.org.usenix. d) Schedule certification BoFs at upcoming conferences. e) Do at least one directed mailing to all members to ensure membership awareness. The topic of certification will of course be included in SAGE efforts in general to reach out to the larger system administration community beyond its membership: vendors, other groups, educators, etc. 6) Framework and Basic Logistics The initial announcement did not include any conceptual details. The following should correct some common misconceptions about what SAGE means when it says "certification." - Certification assesses primarily core skills. We'd like to structure the program in such a way that concentrations in specific areas, such as security, webmaster, postmaster, newsmaster, or performance tuner, may also be incorporated into the program. The specifics concerning skill set, and how this may relate to the existing SAGE Job Descriptions, will be defined over the coming months. Again, the certification program is entirely optional and not intended to target seasoned sysadmins. - Certification will be de-coupled from education, i.e. it is a distinctly separate event. Therefore, there is no requirement for expensive books or courses. This also allows wide implementation of satisfying educational curricula, from home study to university and commercial programs. This also means that certification is not just attending a specific set of courses but rather requires passing a skills assessment. - Certification is not required in any way, shape or form. 7) Testing Pitfalls Unfortunately poor examples of "certification" abound in our industry. We recognize that and plan to work hard to ensure that any skills assessment in this certification program will: - be of merit, i.e. have meaning, not be guessable, etc. - explore assessment methods beyond multiple choice tests - assess concepts and comprehension thereof, not trivia - not be vendor specific MSCE, Sun, and Cisco certification are an examples of certification that are specifically designed to certify product knowledge. They are specific to a topic, not a profession. Thus they primarily test knowledge, not necessarily skills. Skills are the application of knowledge and what is important in system administration. 8) Hiring Impact Unfortunately SAGE has little if any control on how certification might be used by employers. Certification of system administrators, no matter who implements it, is bound to be misunderstood or misused by some. This will happen even if (especially if?) SAGE does not produce a certification program. What we can do is encourage, through things such as the upcoming Hiring & Interviewing booklet, appropriate and complete means of assessing job candidates which may include certification, but is not certification alone. SAGE can educate and encourage sound and reasonable hiring practices, but can not enforce them. 9) Legal Liability Certainly a potential for legal liability exists. Legal counsel will advise SAGE so we can make an informed decision whether the liability risk is acceptably minimized. Many states have laws which prevent employers from requiring testing which has not been developed by certified test writers. For this reason, and because professional test developers will undoubtedly do a much better job than we can, SAGE will need to engage outside professionals to develop certification skills assessment mechanisms. Such organizations provide liability safeguards through validation using proven mechanisms. Most offer services which are touted as "legally defensible." Examples are http://www.proexam.org/, http://www.humrro.org/, and http://www.chauncey.com/. Other sites that might be of interest: http://www.iccp.org/ http://www.ibm.com/certify/ http://www.learningtree.com/us/certific/735.htm http://suned.sun.com/suned/index.html Thank you for your time and valued feedback. We appreciate the comments we have received. We expect to continue this dialog on sage-members, particurlarly as the certification framework is more fully defined and reaches specific milestones. Kim Trudel Tim Gassaway Barb Dijker From dfwsage-owner at utdallas.edu Sun Mar 29 21:33:24 1998 From: dfwsage-owner at utdallas.edu (dfwsage-owner at utdallas.edu) Date: Sun, 29 Mar 1998 23:33:24 -0600 (CST) Subject: DFWSAGE Meeting on 4-13-98 Message-ID: <199803300533.XAA03278@velcro.utdallas.edu> In April, we visit the topic of SPAM and Sendmail. Topic: Selected Client/Server Measures for SPAM-proofing Your Networks Presenter: Marc St.-Gil University of North Texas Time: Monday, April 13, 1998 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM Location: University of Texas at Dallas Multipurpose Building Room MP 2.220 Directions and maps are located at the DFWSAGE page: http://dfwsage.utdallas.edu/ Hope to see y'all there! From jimd at starshine.org Mon Mar 30 18:10:09 1998 From: jimd at starshine.org (Jim Dennis) Date: Mon, 30 Mar 1998 18:10:09 -0800 Subject: Marc Andreesen to speak @ SVLUG Message-ID: <199803310210.SAA00459@canopus.starshine.org> All, This is not a SAGE or BayLISA event --- however it is free and is probably of interest to SF Bay Area and Silicon Valley Usenix and SAGE and BayLISA members. Marc Andreesen (of Netscape fame) will be speaking at the Silicon Valley Linux User's Group meeting on April 1st. This is *not* an April Fool's joke. Details can be found at the SVLUG web pages at http://www.svlug.org. I hope to see lots of you there. Last month's event with Linus Torvalds was an overwhelming success. I will not normally post SVLUG or BALUG announcements to this or any other non-Linux specific venue --- except when I think the event is very likely to be of interest to our membership. I will also refrain from any such postings if the consensus is that it is inappropriate. -- Jim Dennis (800) 938-4078 consulting at starshine.org Proprietor, Starshine Technical Services: http://www.starshine.org PGP 1024/2ABF03B1 Jim Dennis Key fingerprint = 2524E3FEF0922A84 A27BDEDB38EBB95A From bkuhn at ebb.org Tue Apr 7 20:19:52 1998 From: bkuhn at ebb.org (Bradley M. Kuhn) Date: Tue, 7 Apr 1998 23:19:52 -0400 Subject: A local SAGE in the Cincinnati, OH, USA area Message-ID: <19980407231952.54480@ebb.org> I apologize for sending this sage-members and sage-announce, but it seems that these mailing list would have more reach than the sage-locals list has. To All Interested Parties: There is an effort underway to start a local SAGE (System Administrator's Guild) for the greater Cincinnati, OH, USA area. A small web page is up at http://www.ebb.org/cinti-sage In addition, a mailing list (cinti-sage at ebb.org) has been created. You can subscribe by sending a message with the contents "subscribe" to cinti-sage-request at ebb.org All system administrators who live in work in the greater Cincinnati, OH and/or Northern Kentucky area are encouraged to join the mailing list and begin discussions about getting the group started. Thank you for your time, and we look forward to seeing you on the list. -- - bkuhn at ebb.org - Bradley M. Kuhn - bkuhn at acm.org - http://www.ebb.org/bkuhn PGP RSA KEYIDs: 4712130D (bkuhnLessSecure) / AA746581 (bkuhnMaster) Full public keys at http://www.ebb.org/bkuhn/pgp From dfwsage-owner at utdallas.edu Fri May 1 05:12:09 1998 From: dfwsage-owner at utdallas.edu (dfwsage-owner at utdallas.edu) Date: Fri, 1 May 1998 07:12:09 -0500 (CDT) Subject: DFWSAGE Meeting on 5-11-98 Message-ID: <199805011212.HAA01484@velcro.utdallas.edu> Topic: Seven Steps in a Firewall Methodology Synopsis: As more and more companies are joining the Internet community, the risks of membership in the Internet club are rising. To protect the intellectual property and company assets from hackers, crackers, and cyber-thugs, many companies are deploying firewalls to provide greater security. But how do you deploy a firewall? What kind of firewall is right for the company? Do you even need a firewall? These are just some of the questions confronting IT managers and system administrators when it comes to Internet security. There is a light at the end of the tunnel and it's not a locomotive driven by some pimply-faced seventeen year-old cyber-punk. Armed with "The Seven Steps in a Firewall Methodology", you can successfully navigate the pitfalls and traps of putting up a firewall and not have you and your company end up as road kill on the Information Super-highway. Presenter: Gary Smith Texas Instruments Gary Smith has been intimately involved with computer security and firewalls beginning in 1992 when the major semiconductor company he was employed by decided to get on the Internet. Gary designed, built, and maintained the company's firewall and consulted on security and firewall techniques to other parts of the company. "The Seven Steps in a Firewall Methodology" grew out of the need to propagate the lessons learned in deploying a firewall to Information Security staff and prospective firewall administrators. When he's not beating back the wily hacker, Gary is an avid cyclist and Sherlock Holmes enthusiast. Time: Monday, May 11, 1998 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM Location: University of Texas at Dallas Multipurpose Building Room MP 2.220 Directions and maps are located at the DFWSAGE page: http://dfwsage.utdallas.edu/ Hope to see y'all there! From bigmac at gnac.com Thu May 21 15:22:39 1998 From: bigmac at gnac.com (Bryan McDonald) Date: Thu, 21 May 1998 15:22:39 -0700 Subject: GNAC Open House - May 27th, 1998 Message-ID: <005f01bd8506$f72384c0$df01a8c0@brain.main.gnac.com> Back in Feb. GNAC held a open house for the Bay Area system administration community here in Redwood City at our corporate offices. At the time we were hoping to get to know new people, and gather new friends and old to see our new offices. Well, we got a lot of good feedback from the people who attended, and were asked more then once if we would be doing it again, so we are. At the end of this month, on May 27th, at 7pm, we are going to have another open house. As we did last time, we are bringing in a speaker for an hour long presentation, then we will have food, drinks, and good conversation for everyone who attends. If you are interested in coming to our open house, please RSVP (so we can make sure we have enough food and drinks for you all!) by replying to this email, which should automatically go to rsvp at gnac.com. We will send directions in reply to confirm your RSVP. Our speaker for this event will be Phil Cox from the Computer Incident Advisory Capability (CIAC) organization, a DOE funded security group. You can learn more about CIAC at: http://www.ciac.org Phil will be presenting a talk called "Current Exploits In-depth." He will discuss the most current/common type of exploits that CIAC encounters, how they are utilized, and how to prevent them. Directions for coming to the event can be found on our web pages at http://www.gnac.com/openhouse/ or you cen send email to rsvp at gnac.com for more information. GNAC Management and Staff http://www.gnac.com ============================================================================= Bryan McDonald, Program Manager Global Network and Computing, Inc bigmac at gnac.com (650) 569-4622 (650) 569-4697 [FAX] From toni Wed Aug 5 13:55:21 1998 From: toni (Toni Veglia) Date: Wed, 5 Aug 1998 13:55:21 -0700 (PDT) Subject: False use of USENIX/SAGE/LISA names Message-ID: <199808052055.NAA16063@usenix.ORG> Recently USENIX has had a rash of reports of past LISA attendees receiving phone calls and/or email from someone purporting to be from USENIX/SAGE and stating there will be multiple editions of the LISA (Systems Administration) Conference this year (for instance, in Chicago in August and Ontario, Canada in September). The purpose is to obtain contact info for sysadmins; you are asked to provide colleagues' names. These names go directly to recruiters who may or may not be the source of the original fraud. LISA takes place December 6-11, 1998 in Boston; there are not multiple editions. (Conference info is at http://www.usenix.org/events/lisa98) Please be aware of this fraud and do not give out your or colleague's information. We need your help putting a stop to this. Please try to get a name and phone number from the caller and encourage him/her to contact you by email, then try to get a traceroute. Please email notice of possible incidents to office at usenix.org. -The USENIX Association Staff From edwin at cs.uu.nl Thu Oct 15 05:01:03 1998 From: edwin at cs.uu.nl (Edwin Kremer) Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1998 14:01:03 +0200 Subject: SANE'98 - 1st Int'l System Administration & Networking Conference Message-ID: <19981015140103.B29861@cs.uu.nl> ============================================================================ | REMINDER: the early registration deadline for the SANE'98 conference is | | October 19th, 1998 and that's just about 5 days from now! | | (early registration may save you upto appr. NLG 200 / US$ 100) | ============================================================================ At the SANE'98 WWW site: http://www.nluug.nl/events/sane98/ you'll find full program details, registration information, hotel information, registration/reservation forms and much more, regarding the SANE'98 conference to be held on November 18-20 in Maastricht, The Netherlands, and organized by the NLUUG and co-sponsored by USENIX and NLnet Foundation. ---------------- Important dates: ---------------- Early registration deadline October 19th, 1998 !!!!!!!!!!! SANE'98 conference 18-20 November 1998 Some quotes from the "Letter from the Program Co-Chairs" (see the web site for the full story): The conference kicks off on Wednesday with your opportunity for in-depth study! Choose among three tracks of tutorials, covering performance tuning, security, IPv6 and general UNIX systems administration and led by experienced and respected instructors: Bill Cheswick, Adrian Cockcroft, John van Krieken, Walter Belgers, Hans van de Looy and Evi Nemeth. During the second and third day of SANE '98 you will (after the provoking keynotes) be able to choose from two tracks of interesting presentations of both refereed papers and invited talks. Hear about experience reports, (b)leading edge developments, the use of open source software, commercial uses of UNIX and so on. You will find a remarkable line-up of speakers, including Wietse Venema, Rob Kolstad, Eric Troan, Phil Zimmermann, Ian Jackson, Brad Knowles and many, many more. In the late afternoon of the second day of the conference there will be Birds-of-a-Feather sessions where you can meet colleagues with similar interests and even the widely acclaimed guru's. Thursday and Friday you can also stroll along the exhibition area, where vendors will demonstrate their latest hardware and software products they hope will help you do your job more efficiently and effectively. Looking forward to see you in Maastricht! Best regards, Edwin Kremer SANE'98 program co-chair -- Edwin H. Kremer, systems- and network administrator. Dept. of Computer Science, Utrecht University, The Netherlands [WHOIS: ehk3] -------------------- http://www.cs.uu.nl/people/edwin/ ----------------------- From jimd at starshine.org Fri Dec 4 14:28:29 1998 From: jimd at starshine.org (Jim Dennis) Date: Fri, 04 Dec 1998 14:28:29 -0800 Subject: BayLISA: December: Cool & Short Message-ID: <199812042228.OAA01756@canopus.starshine.org> ------- Blind-Carbon-Copy X-Mailer: MH 6.8.3 Subject: BayLISA: December: Cool & Short Date: Fri, 04 Dec 1998 14:28:29 -0800 From: Jim Dennis Bcc: Blind Distribution List: ; BayLISA Monthly Meeting Announcement Large Installation System Administrators of the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley December 17, 1998: Short but Cool SysAdmins, Geeks, Technophiles of all ages, You are all invited to the last monthly BayLISA meeting of 1998 --- only thirteen of these to go before the Y2K! This month's meeting will include a selection of several "short but cool" presentations on items of interest (and possibly some *use*) to system administrators. The exact list of topics is secret, and new ideas are vying for their places. However, some of them might be: * E-mail appliances * Ham radio APRS * A sneak preview of a new Palm computing device * Highlights of the upcoming Linux 2.2 new features * Best of the Boston LISA Conference (If you have any items of potential interest, please contact me (arch at baylisa.org) or the BayLISA board of directors --- at the address listed on our web site). The meeting starts at 7:30pm at TechMart in Santa Clara, CA, USA (This is near the Cisco campus and Great America). The BayLISA group meets on the third Thursday of every month to discuss topics of interest to systems and network administrators. Meetings are free and open to the public, funded by the support of our membership. Details can be found at: http://www.baylisa.org - -- Jim Dennis (800) 938-4078 Secretary, BayLISA Board ------- End of Blind-Carbon-Copy From paw at northstar.dartmouth.edu Mon Dec 21 11:03:34 1998 From: paw at northstar.dartmouth.edu (paw at northstar.dartmouth.edu) Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1998 14:03:34 -0500 Subject: VOTE in SAGE elections! Message-ID: <199812211903.OAA08953@phibes.dartmouth.edu> SAGE election materials should be in your hands soon, if they're not already. Use them - VOTE. We've provided a mailing list (sage-nominees at usenix.org) for you to ask the candidates your burning questions, and each candidate has a (longer) positition statement on the SAGE web site at http://www.usenix.org/sage/people/candidate_statements.html This election may determine the outcome of the certification debate, as well as the future of SAGE as *the* professional systems administrators' organization, so make your voice heard. Vote for the 7 folks who will best represent your views in the next 2 years. Elections are often decided by a handful of votes; if you don't play, you can't complain later. So - take your time to consider the choices, and then VOTE! Ballots are due at the Usenix office by 1/22/99; look for results shortly after that. We're counting on you. Pat Wilson SAGE lame duck Chair, '99 Nominating Committee paw at usenix.org || paw at dartmouth.edu