[Ach] ancillary tools

ianG iang at iang.org
Sat Jan 18 10:38:10 CET 2014


What might be good would be a section on support tools.  What do sysadms
use and do because they are who they are, rather than because they need
to configure their machines to support the business?

For this weekend's ramble, I'm thinking here about things like:



Password protection.  I have thousands... and they are not properly
secured :(  But I don't see the easy alternate.

Communications with like people:  In the past I have used Skype for
everyone.  That's dead, cerca 2009.  What's the replacement?  I am
slowly ever soooo slowly converting people to Adium/OTR, but it's like
pulling teeth, I've got 3 done so far in 6 months :(  And no video/voice :(

Forums:  where do I get dynamic help?  My machine does X and needs Y,
where can I ask?

Communities:  where do I meet and talk to people like me?  There are
things like IRC rooms.  Then there are things like associations (like
CAcert).  Also local venues like CCC.  Where can I go?

Small cheap hardware:  I am somewhat obsessed by power consumption and
tiny machines, and I see no reason to purchase and power the big old
ironwork that we grew up with.  What machines exist that can be a drop
in replacement?  I know they exist, like the Utilite, below.  If the
boss can afford one big iron machine, he can probably afford 10 of
these.  This is probably a question of OS and peripherals.  Also, with
the emerging bios threat, this becomes more germane.



This is also a question of *directions* using the influence we have
gained to point people to better choices.

In the above, I'm thinking like 1 - 2 options.  Not a huge list.  Of
course everyone wants the advertising, but what makes a difference?
What is everyone already convinced on?  What's the skype-replacement for
everyone?

Of course this could be out of scope.  I feel there will be some that
think this is definitely a distraction or a battle we can't win... Speak
up, now's your turn ;)

Some other choices are found here:
https://www.prism-break.org/en/categories/mac/  So maybe another section
on "similar material" which falls outside our ambit?



iang



ps;  http://utilite-computer.com/web/utilite-pro-specifications



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