|
|
SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR OF THE WEEK: Week of May 30, 2006
| location: |
| Ottawa, ON, Canada |
| site: |
| Workstream, Inc |
| servers: |
| 200 |
| workstations: |
| 250 |
| sysadmins on staff: |
| 3 |
| site overview: |
| Corporate Head Office and Datacenter |
| job title: |
| Sr. Unix Systems Administrator |
| time at this job: |
| 3 yrs |
| | |
| years as a sysadmin: |
| 13 |
| first computer: |
| Timex-Sinclair TS1000 (Sinclair ZX81 for North America) |
| first OS: |
| VMS |
| favorite OS: |
| Unix (pretty much all flavours) |
| first computer with root/administrator access: |
| '286/12 running SCO Xenix |
| first programming language: |
| Pascal |
| favorite programming language: |
| Perl |
| most often used programming language: |
| Perl |
| first sysadmin job, computer and os: |
| firewall administrator, Mac Centris 660AV running OS 7
with a telnet client
|
| ideal sysadmin job: |
| data center design |
| favorite sysadmin tool: |
| leatherman (hardware), ssh (software) |
| most interesting sysadmin tool: |
| nmap |
| sysadmin tool I couldn't work without: |
| ssh |
| education: |
| BSc Computer Science |
| when I was growing up, I wanted to be: |
| a scientist (I sort of got there) |
| If I wasn't a sysadmin, I'd be: |
| bored |
| when friends and family ask me to
“fix” the computer or
“fix the internet”, I say: |
| Sorry, I don't do windows. |
| when I first meet someone,
and they ask what I do, I say: |
|
“systems, network and security administration” |
| system administration is ...: |
| 25% art, 25% science and 51% inspiration
(math isn't my strong suit)
|
| advice to a junior admin: |
| learn proper troubleshooting techniques and check the
cables.
|
| advice to a senior admin: |
| just because the new guy suggested it doesn't mean it
won't work. Don't forget to check the cables.
|
| | |
| favorite food/cuisine: |
| thai |
| pizza topping: |
| not tofu |
| work music: |
| pretty much anything (except country) |
| crisis music: |
| classical |
| ___ gets me through the work day: |
| Tea gets me through the work day: conversation, new toys
and interesting challenges help too.
|
| hobby/other job: |
| video editing, security consulting, web hosting |
| | |
| my office is: |
| a cube |
| co-workers say my desk is: |
| cluttered |
| learned the most from: |
| my first manager |
| wish list: |
| no more “reality” shows |
| daily web sites: |
| freshmeat and userfriendly |
| Is the Sarbannes-Oxley Act (“SOX”)
good for system administration? |
|
Having just gone through the exercise of both sox and sas70, I'd have to
say not really. It only addresses the financials and portions of
accountability and doesn't address a significant enough portion of the
actual profession. SAS70 is much more comprehensive and is geared
towards the entire IT environment. You can pass a sox audit and still
have a terrible environment.
|
| editor: |
| vi |
| mail user agent: |
| thunderbird |
| web browser: |
| firefox |
| gui or cli: |
| cli |
| computers at home: |
| 25 |
| (primary) home computer and OS: |
| Apple powermac G5 running OS X |
| oldest hardware in your garage or basement: |
| TRS-80 Model 100 portable computer (still works) |
| anything else? |
| More O'Reilly books than I can keep on my shelves. |
|
delicious
digg
technorati