Chris's Wiki :: blog/sysadmin/SysadminsAndSuperstitions Commentshttps://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog/sysadmin/SysadminsAndSuperstitions?atomcommentsDWiki2008-12-31T12:09:07ZRecent comments in Chris's Wiki :: blog/sysadmin/SysadminsAndSuperstitions.From 83.145.208.36 on /blog/sysadmin/SysadminsAndSuperstitionstag:CSpace:blog/sysadmin/SysadminsAndSuperstitions:87426140445ed7e6f989ae4889665c0b9d7e6c65From 83.145.208.36<div class="wikitext"><p>Indeed a good post, and a post worth revisiting, perhaps from a less theoretical point of view?</p>
<p>Maybe few anecdotes?</p>
<p>Superstitions in common ways of doing things? Perhaps not so much in relation to 'cargo cult programming', but administration [programming] idioms and their implicit beliefs?</p>
<p>Superstition with the 'ideal type' (in the sociological sense) of the 'big picture'?</p>
<p>Superstitions in security? Computer security, the great unknown, the ideal type for system administrators' superstitions?</p>
<p>- j.</p>
</div>2008-12-31T12:09:07ZBy rdump on /blog/sysadmin/SysadminsAndSuperstitionstag:CSpace:blog/sysadmin/SysadminsAndSuperstitions:5747bc1bba330653ece42b24e7bd6d1bf3addf38rdump<div class="wikitext"><p>This effect applies not just in system administration, but more widely in the procedures and bureaucracy of the organizations we live in.</p>
</div>2008-12-21T19:48:40ZBy Chris Siebenmann on /blog/sysadmin/SysadminsAndSuperstitionstag:CSpace:blog/sysadmin/SysadminsAndSuperstitions:3a99892adbc1d062c280c51ffa390f8781b6aaf0Chris Siebenmann<div class="wikitext"><p>Whoops, fixed. That makes a handy illustration of the limits of
spellcheckers, since I spelled the word correctly and just used
the wrong one. (Insert speculation about <a href="https://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog/SpellingDigression">linguistic processes
at work</a>.)</p>
</div>2008-12-21T17:47:26ZFrom 87.79.236.202 on /blog/sysadmin/SysadminsAndSuperstitionstag:CSpace:blog/sysadmin/SysadminsAndSuperstitions:9722c9ce0df1b3ca3419fa74f959d8b08a48b3a0From 87.79.236.202<div class="wikitext"><p><code>s/confidant/confident/</code></p>
<p>(Feel free to delete this comment.)</p>
</div>2008-12-21T15:08:49ZFrom 71.65.56.124 on /blog/sysadmin/SysadminsAndSuperstitionstag:CSpace:blog/sysadmin/SysadminsAndSuperstitions:e74e5a5f75a20ffc064053b90009c71366ad4620From 71.65.56.124<div class="wikitext"><p>Nice post. I agree that too often sysadmins have strange superstitions and rituals. Maybe the Sysadmin equivalent of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult_programming">cargo cult programming</a>. I suspect that good documentation is the magic bullet for a lot of these types of problems. </p>
<p>Sysadmin superstitions also reminds me of this:
<a href="http://catb.org/jargon/html/magic-story.html">http://catb.org/jargon/html/magic-story.html</a></p>
<p>--Matt<br>
<a href="http://standalone-sysadmin.blogspot.com">http://standalone-sysadmin.blogspot.com</a></p>
</div>2008-12-21T14:28:05Z