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| Author |
Message |
seeker
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SEEK THe FACT
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Oct 7 02:52 UTC 1997 |
Does anyone want to know which one of the staffers deleted the /etc file ?
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| 93 responses total. |
robh
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response 1 of 93:
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Oct 7 11:29 UTC 1997 |
Nope, not particularly. I'm sure whoever-it-is is plenty embarassed
now without having to put up with harassing e-mail and tels. As long
as they learn form it and move on, I'm happy.
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n8nxf
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response 2 of 93:
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Oct 7 11:43 UTC 1997 |
I see no reason to make it public.
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dpc
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response 3 of 93:
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Oct 7 13:45 UTC 1997 |
I'd kind of like to know, but not very much. I would be vastly amused
if it was the same staffer who said, as part of the "whither the Sun
670?" item, that Grex staff was so *very, very careful*, making a
contrast with the supposedly wild and crazy M-Net staff. 8-)
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jep
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response 4 of 93:
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Oct 7 13:54 UTC 1997 |
I would much rather not know. A mistake was made, and then corrected.
That's all I want to know. (The "corrected" part is the important part.)
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richard
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response 5 of 93:
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Oct 7 15:26 UTC 1997 |
I dont think "staffer x" should be forced out in the open, but he/she
should want to reveal himself/herself in the interst of full disclosure
and honesty. Noone is going to make a big deal out of it. We
allmakemistakes.
It would just be in keeping with the idea of Grex being a completely openb
and above board place that things like this shouldntbe kept secret. Then
again the staffconf isclosed, so maybe there are lots of secrets not
security related that are kept by staff.
I think if I was "staffer x", I'd feel obligated to explain-- not just to
staff, but to everyone here just what happened and why. I wouldnt be
comfortable just sitting in the shadows and letting other staff cover for
me.
And I'd want to reveal myself if only tobe able to personally publicly
thank Marcus for fixing the problem and getting my assout of that mess.
It is about honesty andopenness.
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richard
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response 6 of 93:
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Oct 7 16:16 UTC 1997 |
"Staffer x" should also reveal himself in fairness to the other
staffers. They dont deserve to have the finger of blame pointed at them
for something they didnt do.
Yet in the future, if a staffer has problems with a user or users, they
might well say, "....yeah right, I bet *YOU* were the staffer who
deleted the entire password file back in October" .etc
Staff doesnt need to collectively take the blame for one person's honest
mistake.
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richard
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response 7 of 93:
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Oct 7 22:12 UTC 1997 |
In fact, for staffer x to sit back and let the rest of the people on staff
cover forhim and share theblame, when they did nothing wrong, seems to me
to indicate a certain levelof contempt for his fellow staffers.
He shouldnt wantany of them to individually or as a group feel any heat
for this now or in the future..
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robh
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response 8 of 93:
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Oct 7 22:16 UTC 1997 |
Or maybe it's a sign of solidarity among *all* staffers?
Maybe they know that they will be collectively accused of doing it,
and accept that? Like the Minbari, who cannot lie, except
to protect the honor of another.
<look out, robh is quoting B5 now>
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scott
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response 9 of 93:
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Oct 7 22:21 UTC 1997 |
Perhaps we should dock that staffer's pay? ;)
It really doesn't matter, long term. All the staffers are people who mean
well, so singling one out for some kind of censure is pointless. If staff
doesn't trust that staffer, they will recommend that to the Board.
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mta
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response 10 of 93:
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Oct 7 23:19 UTC 1997 |
It seems to me that no member of staff deserves any amout of "blame",
richard, whether they were the one with the finger-slip this time or
not. These things can happen. It could have been any of us.
Eventaully, if GREX lasts long enough, it's a good bet that it will.
The staffer in question did what was possible to recover as soon as the
error was noticed and called in help immediately and in a responsible
manner. That's all that's required.
If this were to become a habit, you can count on corrective measures
being taken. Otherwise, it's fixed now and it's over.
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orinoco
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response 11 of 93:
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Oct 8 00:27 UTC 1997 |
(Just think how embarassing it would be if all _your_ silly typos were
pulicized)
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valerie
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response 12 of 93:
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Oct 8 02:49 UTC 1997 |
This response has been erased.
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arthurp
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response 13 of 93:
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Oct 8 03:31 UTC 1997 |
I'll apologize to everyone ahead of time, but Richard shut the Fuck up!
How can you be such a dork sometimes, and minutes later say something
reasonable? Part gymnist?
Anyway, these things happen. I lost all of my root filesystem at home
do to a similar typo. I actually thought about doing what Marcus did
with inodes and stuff, but decided it would be easier to re-install, and
remember the contents of all those files than it would be to learn how
to do what Marcus did.
Further I did exactly what I expect happened at work one day. I meant
to delete *.* on a floppy diskette, but I forgot that current path was
the windows directory, not a:\. Re-install again. Guess it's a good
thing I wasn't around grex that day or it would have been me...
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srw
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response 14 of 93:
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Oct 8 04:08 UTC 1997 |
Richard practices.
Not quite as disastrous a type, but I remember once, when I had had root
for not too long, I started up some miscellaneous job, and then
something came up, so I went to kill it off.
I should have typed kill %1, which kills job number 1, but somehow the
% did not get into the command. The effect was kill 1, which kills
process number 1. This effectively took grex out of multiuser mode.
Since I had been dialed in, I was instantly disconnected, as was
everyone else. Someone had to go to the warehouse and reboot it. We were
down for quite a while before this could happen. I didn't even have keys
at the time. It was pretty embarrassing. I can talk about it now,
because it was years ago - before the dungeon even.
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srw
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response 15 of 93:
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Oct 8 04:11 UTC 1997 |
s/type/typo/ - I can't even type "typo" right. sheesh.
Fortunately, that won't kill the system.
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scg
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response 16 of 93:
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Oct 8 04:24 UTC 1997 |
We all make mistakes from time to time. I've never wiped out anything that
important, but I've certainly done my share of screwing up other things that
then needed to be fixed. It's part of running a complex system. The
important part is beign able to put things back together after something like
that happens. In other words, we, the whole staff, need to make a collective
effort to do much more frequent backups.
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janc
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response 17 of 93:
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Oct 8 04:37 UTC 1997 |
Right. The typo was something any one on staff could have done. It would
have been a minor problem except that we hadn't done a backup since March.
Any one of the staff members (except maybe Mike O'Leary) could have made a
backup at any time since March. None of us did. So the fact of the matter
is that it is perfectly fair for the staff to take the "blame" for this
problem collective, and assign the "credit" for fixing it to Marcus
individually. We all caused it. Marcus fixed it.
So, I'm perfectly happy with the current assignment of blame and credit. It
hits the spot.
Assigning blame is only useful if it helps identify a problem and fix it.
We're going to be a lot more careful about backups. That's about as much of
a fix as we can make.
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richard
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response 18 of 93:
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Oct 8 14:24 UTC 1997 |
I said I thought it was obviously an innocent mistake. I just think
since it isnt serious, there is no point covering up p the identity
of the staffer who did it.
We shouldnt have people on staff who arent honest and forthright about
what they did. I suspect some ofyou might feel differently if
Marcus and staffer x had kept this to themselves and hadnt even
told anyone else on staf who he was. Why can this stafferbe
more honest with everyone else on staff and not with the rest of
us who use grex?
Why is total honesty not the best policy?
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valerie
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response 19 of 93:
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Oct 8 14:44 UTC 1997 |
This response has been erased.
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jep
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response 20 of 93:
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Oct 8 15:39 UTC 1997 |
I don't think there is a "cover-up". Just a towering lack of concern for
making someone take the blame for a mistake that has been corrected.
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richard
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response 21 of 93:
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Oct 8 18:40 UTC 1997 |
This is not about "making someone take the blame" I have never
suggested that "staffer x" be turned in by anyone. I was only saying
that this staffer himself should *want* to accept the blame, because it
*was* his mistake, even if it was corrected. It wasnt just a minor
mistake. This person deleted the most sensitive files on grex, and even
if it was an accident, you cant trivialize it after the fact. You cant
say, "well it could have happened to anyone" It didnt happen to anyone.
It happened to this person.
And he doesnt want to give his name, say "I caused grex to be down for
three days and ruined Marcus's weekend, and I'm sorry".
It would just be the dignified thing to do.
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mta
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response 22 of 93:
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Oct 8 18:50 UTC 1997 |
What makes you so sure that it was a "he", Richard? Do you assume that
Valerie and I are above such errors? or do you assume that, as women,
no one else on staff would trust us with enough responsibility to have a
chance at such an error?
Sheesh. All, right, shall I turn over my keys, Richard? Would you feel
better if someone took the fall?
I will publicly apologize that GREX was down and that Marcus had to
spend so much time cleaning up. I'm very sorry.
Now, can we drop it??? Please?!
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richard
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response 23 of 93:
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Oct 8 19:12 UTC 1997 |
Because every reference to this staffer has been "he", "him" I just
think that when major staff errors occur, the staffer in question should
come forward.
Why am I attacked for asking for something so simple and logical and
dignfied?
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scott
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response 24 of 93:
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Oct 8 19:39 UTC 1997 |
Because you contradict yourself within a single paragraph?
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