My wife's phd is in a sub-field of geometry. At $ob she does data analysis that 
involves proper statistics. (Think high tech industry, ISO, N-sigma, etc.) I've 
only worked as a one-man band on a handful of systems, but I've never (in 18 
years) had occasion to ask her for mathematical expertise. I point this out 
only to make it clear that I have particularly easy access to full-on math 
skills, but I've never used them.

So my thought is (from my micro-sized shop experience):

It's the basics that matter; The conceptual stuff like how 
mean-time-between-failure leads to your RAID failure being more likely when you 
replace a disk that leads to your choice of disk technology/solution. Also, 
stuff like base-2, -10, -16 basic arithmetic/conceptualization. Sampling 
choices like, not "what's the fastest response from the software", but the 95%, 
99% response averages, etc… not how to compute that stuff, but what does it 
mean in the logging/monitoring system's reports. Basic ideas like cascade-style 
failure exists (like broadcast storms et al), or complex systems have 
non-linear responses; again, not how to compute and analyze, but just that 
these features/behaviour are there and are not intuitive.

--Craig Constantine, http://constantine.name


On Sep 17, 2013, at 10:51 AM, Matt Simmons <[email protected]> 
wrote:

Hello everyone! 

For a long time, I've thought that I'd like to go back and get more math, 
because I feel like I could use a lot more of a background in statistics than I 
have, and I'm sure that there are a lot of other things I'd be able to apply. 

So I thought I would ask you group of folks....if you were going to build a 
conference tutorial course with the title "Math for System Administrators", 
what would be included? 

And if you think the idea is terrible, I'm interested in hearing that, too. 

Thanks in advance! 

--Matt 

ps - I'll probably crosspost this to a couple of lists. Apologies if you get it 
more than once. 

-- 
LITTLE GIRL: But which cookie will you eat FIRST?
COOKIE MONSTER: Me think you have misconception of cookie-eating process.
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