Re: Uptime vs. security (was: [offtopic] Government and technology)

2009-03-13 Thread Shlomi Fish
On Monday 09 February 2009 12:06:27 Ira Abramov wrote:
> Quoting Shlomi Fish, from the post of Sat, 07 Feb:
> > On Friday 06 February 2009 23:42:54 Ira Abramov wrote:
> > >  23:40:21 up 512 days,  9:49,  2 users,  load average: 0.89, 0.83, 1.11
> >
> > That's a nice uptime. However, weren't there any newer kernels released
> > since with important security updates? Won't that potentially jeopardise
> > your system?
>
> So far I believe all the fixes were to local exploits (of which I'm less
> worried) and maybe once to a remote exploit when using a feature which I
> do not.

I see. What is your IP address, again? ;-)

>
> I am hoping Lenny becomes stable soon, though it could have been cool to
> have a 550 day uptime :-)

"My uptime is bigger than yours."

>
> > Shlomi Fish (who is using Mandriva Cooker on his home machine, which
> > recommends rebooting for every upgrade of the kernel, glibc or dbus, etc.
>
> I haven't used Mandrivel in years, and the Microsoft doctorine is ok for
> home stations I suppose..

Well, I should note that it just recommends it. I can still happily run it 
with the older kernel/glibc/etc. (but I don't). Some of the kernel upgrades 
are from one -rc to another, so they may still be safe to use. And I'm on 
Cooker which is a rolling-version distribution that is constantly updated. I 
suppose the story would be somewhat different if I were using one of the 
releases.

>
> > and who is shutting down the computer at night anyway, to save on
> > electricity.)
>
> Not really an option on a hosted, busy webserver... 

Naturally.

> however, ideally at
> home I would either hibernate

Are you sure that hibernation saves roughly as much power as turning off the 
computer does? I think I saw a few recent Slashdot posts that hinted that the 
contrary was true.

> or use the power and CPU cycles for good,
> like installing BOINC and have it look for HIV cures and useful
> proteins. 

This is an option of course. Sometimes when I'm too lazy to turn off the 
computer, I smoke CPAN, etc.

> All you have left to worry about are spinning disks, which I
> hope will be affordably exchangable with SSD within 4-5 years. If you
> are worried about such issues like unsustainable technologies, I suggest
> you look into the platform of Hayeruka-Meimad, I'm trying to help
> relevant agendas and solutions into bills.

I see.

Regards,

Shlomi Fish

-- 
-
Shlomi Fish   http://www.shlomifish.org/
Understand what Open Source is - http://xrl.us/bjn82

God gave us two eyes and ten fingers so we will type five times as much as we
read.


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Uptime vs. security (was: [offtopic] Government and technology)

2009-02-09 Thread Ira Abramov
Quoting Shlomi Fish, from the post of Sat, 07 Feb:
> On Friday 06 February 2009 23:42:54 Ira Abramov wrote:
> >  23:40:21 up 512 days,  9:49,  2 users,  load average: 0.89, 0.83, 1.11
> 
> That's a nice uptime. However, weren't there any newer kernels released since 
> with important security updates? Won't that potentially jeopardise your 
> system?

So far I believe all the fixes were to local exploits (of which I'm less
worried) and maybe once to a remote exploit when using a feature which I
do not.

I am hoping Lenny becomes stable soon, though it could have been cool to
have a 550 day uptime :-)

>   Shlomi Fish (who is using Mandriva Cooker on his home machine, which 
> recommends rebooting for every upgrade of the kernel, glibc or dbus, etc.

I haven't used Mandrivel in years, and the Microsoft doctorine is ok for
home stations I suppose..

> and who is shutting down the computer at night anyway, to save on
> electricity.)

Not really an option on a hosted, busy webserver... however, ideally at
home I would either hibernate or use the power and CPU cycles for good,
like installing BOINC and have it look for HIV cures and useful
proteins. All you have left to worry about are spinning disks, which I
hope will be affordably exchangable with SSD within 4-5 years. If you
are worried about such issues like unsustainable technologies, I suggest
you look into the platform of Hayeruka-Meimad, I'm trying to help
relevant agendas and solutions into bills.

Yom Tov,
Ira.

-- 
Not the mama
Ira Abramov
http://ira.abramov.org/email/

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