HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: bill@bilver.uucp (Bill Vermillion)
Subject: Re: EXABYTE Tape costs
Organization: W. J. Vermillion - Winter Park, FL
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 11:28:12 GMT

In article <1992Oct07.020715.6300@trebor.uucp> root@trebor.uucp (Bob Stockler) writes:
>fmt@mbf.UUCP (Mike Trimberger) writes:
>
>>                            And yes, as described previously in these
>>hallowed halls of Usenet, there is a manufacturing difference in both
>>the case and the tape itself between Video- and Data-grade tapes.  

>I'm not a natural born cynic, but the "manufacturing difference" that makes
>the most sense, from the manufacturer's point of view, is that different
>packages should be used to contain the *same* basic product.

>Consider making 3.5" diskettes.  Isn't it more economical to produce one
>category of media, and then enclose it in squares of plastic with an extra
>hole or not, according to the volume of one or the other type required to
>supply forecast sales demand?

Bob - it may be more economical, but there is a definate media
difference in HD 3.5s vs 720k type media.  The coercivity is different,
and the holes signify to the drive what amount of write current to
apply when writing the disk.

I am not aware there is a difference in Video vs Data-grade for
currents, however there are different type video media that uses
different holes in cassettes to indicate different drive/record
characteristics.  eg  VHS/S-VHS,  8mm/HI8  Beta/ED-beta.
And the writing characteristics do differ.  It might be more economical
up to the point the customers return the media because it doesnt work,
then it get very expensive.




-- 
Bill Vermillion - bill@bilver.oau.org  bill.vermillion@oau.org
                - bill@bilver.uucp 
                - ..!{peora|ge-dab|tous|tarpit}!bilver!bill

Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin
From: williams@nssdcs.gsfc.nasa.gov (Jim Williams)
Subject: Re: WANTED: Unix administration horror stories !
Organization: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1992 15:26:29 GMT

Well, I guess I'll throw in a couple of stories too.  The first isn't
really a horror story, more of an unexpected failure mode.

Story One is about The Sun 3/260 That Froze Solid.  One day a user
reported that the Sun 3/260 he was using was "dead".  On inspection, I
found the Sun at the console prompt and the keyboard totally
unresponsive.  The L1-A sequence did nothing.  So I power cycled it.
Nothing. A blank screen, no activity.  I was ready to call service,
then decided to try rebooting with the normal/diag switch set to diag.
On looking at the back of the pedestal, I saw that the ethernet cable
had been pressed up against the reset switch!  ARGGGHHHH!  The user
had pushed the machine back just enough to press the switch and keep
it pressed.  (I don't recall if there was a "watchdog reset" message
on the console when I found it, but I was new enough to Suns that that
would not have been a dead givaway.)

Story Two involved connecting an HP laserjet to a Sun 3/280.  This
sucker just would NOT do flow control correctly.  I put a dumb
terminal in place of the HP and manually typed ^S/^Q sequences to
prove that the serial port really was honoring X-ON/X-OFF.  But for
some reason the ^Ss from the HP didn't "taste right" to the Sun, which
ignored them.  Switching the HP serial port between RS422/RS232 had no
effect.  It evenually turned out to be some sort of flakeyness with
the Sun ALM-II board.  Everything worked fine after I moved the
printer to one of the built-in Zilog ports.  Death to flakey hardware...

Cheers!
Jim
-- 
Spoken: James W. Williams			Company: Hughes STX
Internet: williams@nssdcs.gsfc.nasa.gov		Phone: +1 301 286-1131
USPS: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; Code 633; Greenbelt, MD 20771
Maryland Car Tags: DEV CAR
From: jerry@incc.com (Jerry Rocteur)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin
Subject: Re: Detecting logout of User
Summary: logging out
Date: 8 Oct 92 20:47:07 GMT
Organization: InCC.com Perwez Belgium

In article <1992Oct7.151512.12308@unix.brighton.ac.uk>, mre1@itri.bton.ac.uk (Mark Evans) writes:
> 
> I want to detect when a user finally logs out of a machine
> so that I can perform some file sorting routines. I only want
> to do this when the user finally logs out of the machine, not
> when they quit a shelltool or application. 
 
 In your /etc/profile put:  

 trap "......" 0

 Where ....... is a command or script file, stick this at the top of
 your /etc/profile and document it so the next guy knows what you're
 up to.
-- 
 __^__                                                              __^__
( ___ )------------------------------------------------------------( ___ )
 | / | Jerry Rocteur                         Email: jerry@InCC.COM  | \ |
 | / | Independent Computer Consultants  Division de DELRA s.p.r.l  | \ |
 |___|                 Perwez Belgique Europe                       |___|
(_____)------------------------------------------------------------(_____)
   ^                                                                  ^
From: tmike@cmptrc.lonestar.org (T. Mike Howeth)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin
Subject: Re: temparary superuser
Date: 11 Oct 92 22:11:02 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: CompuTrac Inc., Richardson TX

In article <1992Oct8.002114.23261@RedBrick.COM> mmt@RedBrick.COM (Maxime Taksar) writes:
|What I'm trying to say is that giving a user an account on a machine,
|this is GIVING PERMISSION to expreminent (pay close attention here).
|If you leave security holes lying around, you're giving permission
|to experiment as root.

No, you are giving permission to experiment within the confines of the account.

|I see.  So you're going to play gestapo with your users?  I
|certainly understand the concept that crackers are a Bad Thing,
|but why be downright paranoid?  When I see some suspicious
|activity (such as numerous "su root" failures in the logs),
|I will go and speak with the user and get an explanation.
|It's amazing how much "suspicious activity" is caused by an
|honest mistake or a buggy script.
|
I will play gestapo whenever necessary to ensure that someone does not disrupt
the business of our company, whether intentional or unintentional.

|I'm not paranoid about someone cracking one of my systems.  Why?
|Because I make sure to use good security practices.

I assure you that you are overconfident in your security practices.

|Yes.  They're tools.  However, you don't tend to find
|explosives on nearly as many people's desks as computers.
|Even so, experimentation and comfort with explosives is
|just as necessary as with computers.  What's necessary is
|a proper environment where nothing will be damaged because
|of it.

Our system, for one, is not here as an educational tool.  We DO provide
education to our users, but that does NOT mean that our systems are here
to diddle with in general.

|The original poster wouldn't be able to get root priveleges
|to experiment on the system, assuming he didn't have permission
|and the system was properly set up and maintained.

Not a very pragmatic view!  (Of course, the original poster is CLEARLY 
undereducated in this regard)

|You want to talk about rm -rf /?  I have only one word in response:
|Backups.
|
|With proper backups, even the nasty, recursive rm (which
|can simulate a complete disk failure) isn't devastating.

I don't know what YOU do with YOUR system, but a loss of one day's work
HERE is VERY expensive.  Recovery is just NOT a good option by a long shot.
From: robjohn@ocdis01.UUCP (Contractor Bob Johnson)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin
Subject: Re: Admin/User Ratio
Date: 16 Oct 92 04:05:26 GMT
Organization: Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma

In article <1992Oct15.160619.11636@menudo.uh.edu> sears@tree.egr.uh.edu writes:
>In article <1992Oct14.211908.17756@srg.srg.af.mil> mjarriel@atria.srg (Michael  
>Jarriel x4751) writes:
>=>Currently we have about a 50:1 ratio and are
>=>surviving.  I would like to get to a 25:1 position. 
>
>He, he... 50:1 is a dream.... In my cluster we have 262:1 (users:admin) and  
>56 workstations....   Oh joy, oh bliss...

Oh, man!  If only we had such luxury!  We have 4-1/2 administrators and
4,605 users.  Figure out the ratio for yourself.  I'd keep mum, Mike,
or management might just double the users and let you do all the admin
chores by yourself ;-).

Bob Johnson, Systems Administrator
Tinker AFB, Oklahoma
From: rickert@cco.caltech.edu (Keith Warren Rickert)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin
Subject: Re: WANTED: Unix administration horror stories !
Date: 15 Oct 1992 03:42:58 GMT
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
NNTP-Posting-Host: sandman.caltech.edu

Well, there was the time one of the /dev/tty* things got messed up,
and I decided to remake all of them from some big nasty
script that came with the system.
Unfortunately, that script deleted all the old /dev files,
but remade them in the current dir...which in this case
happened to be /etc. :(
Needless to say, they didnt do much good there, and when I
later tried to login and got a out of tty's error....ugh.
Lucky there werent any long jobs running, so I could
reboot it to single user mode (using a tty def that is apparently in
PROM or some such...*whew*) and remake the tty's correctly.

Keith
Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin,alt.folklore.urban,rec.games.int-fiction
From: dmoskowi@jarthur.claremont.edu (Denis "Tesser" Moskowitz)
Subject: Re: Floppy Disk Labels
Organization: Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA 91711
Distribution: usa
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1992 23:22:22 GMT

In article <Bw10EF.1oz@acsu.buffalo.edu> boyd@acsu.buffalo.edu (Daniel F Boyd) writes:
>In article <1992Oct7.203555.12778@unet.net.com> jrs@zippy.unet.com 
>(John Switzer Frame 3.0) writes:
>> I think it was Persoft Communications who shipped their software with a
>> take-off on the typical disk jacket that showed all the things that you 
>> shouldn't do to a disk (expose to heat, magnetic fields, touch the disk 
>> with your fingers, etc.). The Persoft jacket, though, included pictures of
>> someone eating a disk, putting it in the toaster, etc. This was back in 
>> 1985 or 1986. 

Beagle Brothers had an amusing jacket like this... it included icons for
Don't feed this disk to alligators
Don't fold this disk into an airplane
Don't use this disk to hold toilet paper rolls
don't fly this disk like a kite
and a few others (well, 5) that I can't remember right now.  Anyone got one?
-- 
Denis/Tesser M Moskowitz        Jen feroca malbona kuniklo; rigardu liajn
dmoskowi@jarthur.claremont.edu  sovagxajn vangharojn, kaj liajn ungojn kaj
This Is Realtime!               lian faldan voston.
Organization: K.U.Leuven - Academic Computing Center
Date: Tuesday, 13 Oct 1992 14:22:39 +01
From: Paul Bijnens <FFAAC09@cc1.kuleuven.ac.be>
Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin
Subject: Re: WANTED: Unix administration horror stories !
 <FISCHER.92Oct12004045@steiner.iesd.auc.dk> <168.28180@incc.com>

In article <168.28180@incc.com>, jerry@incc.com (Jerry Rocteur) says:
> - xargs places file names one after each other <whatever file1 file...
>   which means you can have trouble with large file lists as all files
>   will not be acted upon

Read that manual page again please: xargs limits the number of arguments
in different ways (number of args, and total number of bytes).  There
is NO problem with large file lists, it is designed to handle just
this kind of problems.
However, be carefull if there are filenames with newlines in them:

  $ mkdir '/tmp/
  '

Now you have a directory called "/tmp/\n"

  $ mkdir '/tmp/
  /etc'
  $ touch '/tmp
  /etc/passwd'

Now we have a file called "/tmp/\n/etc/passwd", then we can do nasty
things like:

  $ find /tmp -print | xargs rm -f

Or just wait till cron runs that command.  That's why for the
cron cleanup script it is safer (but a little less efficient) to say:

  $ find /tmp -exec rm {} \;

>   I have had so many problems with xargs that I only use it when my
>   list of file is modest!

Read that manual page again then.
--
Paul Bijnens             -- MS-DOS is the world's most widespread virus.
Linguistics dept., K. University Leuven, Belgium
Polleke@cc1.kuleuven.ac.be
From: adennie@sweetjane.hyperdesk.com (Andy Dennie)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin
Subject: Re: WANTED: Unix administration horror stories !
Date: 14 Oct 92 17:08:05 GMT
Reply-To: andy_d@hyperdesk.com
Followup-To: comp.unix.admin
Organization: HyperDesk Corporation, Westboro, MA

In article <MERLYN.92Oct13102124@romulus.reed.edu>, merlyn@ora.com (Randal L. Schwartz) writes:
>In article <JOHN.92Oct13092153@sekrit.WPI.EDU> john@sekrit.WPI.EDU (John Stoffel) writes:
>>
>>	   find <whatever> -print | perl -ne 'print; chop; unlink;'
>
>Simpler:
>
>	find <whatever> -print | perl -lne 'print; unlink;'


Simpler still (although I hesitate to try to one-up Randall :-) )

find <whatever> -print | perl -lnpe 'unlink;'

--
  o o|  Andy Dennie, HyperDesk Corporation     andy_d@hyperdesk.com
  o o|  2000 West Park Drive, Suite 300        Phone: (508) 366-5050 x109
  ---+  Westboro, MA 01581                     Fax:   (508) 898-3841
Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin
From: sears@tree.egr.uh.edu (Paul S. Sears)
Subject: Re: Admin/User Ratio
Reply-To: sears@tree.egr.uh.edu
Organization: University of Houston
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 16:06:19 GMT

In article <1992Oct14.211908.17756@srg.srg.af.mil> mjarriel@atria.srg (Michael  
Jarriel x4751) writes:
=>I am looking for statistics or ratios that correlate
=>users to system administrators in a Unix based network.
=>
=>10:1 20:1: 50:1 or such.  
=>

10:1???  A realistic impossiblity..

=>How many would be sufficient to survive?

Users or admins???  I think that 2 admins for a cluster of 50-75 workstations  
and 200-400 users is a pretty reasonable ratio.  Note that I said  
reasonable...

=>
=>How many would be sufficient to be comfortable?
=>

I am very comfortable working solo.  For example, I know exactly what _always_  
goes on in my cluster.  I don't have someone else making changes here and  
there and not documenting them.  I hate comming across changes that I know I  
didn't make, but I cannot find any reference to.  And different admins have  
different styles for administration.  I know that my style would not always  
mesh with someone else's.  There are usually more than one satisfactory  
solution to a problem...  The best solution is usually a matter of pride :-)

=>
=>I am doing another nasty justification to management
=>to justify resources and could use help.
=>
=>Currently we have about a 50:1 ratio and are
=>surviving.  I would like to get to a 25:1 position. 
=>

He, he... 50:1 is a dream.... In my cluster we have 262:1 (users:admin) and 56  
workstations....   Oh joy, oh bliss...

=>Mike Jarriel
=>ARINC Research Inc                   mjarriel%srg@uunet.uu.net

--
Paul S. Sears                *  sears@uh.edu (NeXT Mail OK)
The University of Houston    *  suggestions@tree.egr.uh.edu (NeXT
Engineering Computing Center *  comments, complaints, questions)
NeXT System Administration   *  DoD#1967 '83 NightHawk 650SC 
          >>> SSI Diving Certification #755020059 <<<
"Programming is like sex: One mistake and you support it a lifetime."
From: kelley@epg.nist.gov (Mike Kelley)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin
Subject: Re: WANTED: Unix administration horror stories !
Date: 12 Oct 92 16:41:50 GMT
Reply-To: kelley@epg.nist.gov
Organization: NIST



Sometimes you just can't win . . .

We have a cluster of HP workstations and, once upon a time, were using
1/4-tape as the backup medium.  This was very slow and cumbersome, as
we were forever increasing the amount of disk space on our system, and
we decided to purchase HP's optical jukebox to use both as large
removable media and as the primary backup device.

We had been experiencing occasional problems with the 1/4-inch tape
backups, but HP's hardware service engineer convinced us that the
problems were resolved.  A complete backup was performed prior to
installation (by the HP engineer) of the jukebox.  Two unfortunate
things happened.  First, the problems on our backup tapes were due to
intermittent hardware problems on the tape drive which were not
discovered by the extensive diagnostics performed on the tape drive.
Second, the engineer installed the jukebox with the same hardware SCSI
address as our root file system.

As you may have anticipated, the attempt to mediainit the first
optical cartridge resulted in a rather ungraceful failure of the root
file system.  This was compounded by the fact that much of the data on
the backup tapes was not recoverable.


-- 
Mike Kelley
Bldg 220, Rm B206
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, MD 20899
(301) 975-3722  FAX (301) 926-2746
INTERNET:	kelley@epg.nist.gov
BITNET:		mkelley@nbsenh.BITNET
Xref: sparky comp.unix.admin:5713 comp.sys.mac.system:12830 comp.sys.mac.misc:17854
From: lam@mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu (Ken Lam)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin,comp.sys.mac.system,comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Mac to Unix Printer
Date: 16 Oct 92 19:08:49 GMT
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana

paulwo@informix.com (Paul Wolmering) writes:

>hi,
> i need the ability to have a MAC print to a unix postscript printer over
> ethernet. the unix postscript printer is attached to a sun. 
> 
> is there any public domain software out there that works well?

u need to have the UNIX admin install CAP which will allow the UNIXbox to
fileserve and act as a laserwriter queue.


--
Ken Lam                                                     (803)-884-7615 (H)
System Administrator                                        (803)-792-4969 (W)
Senior Systems Consultant                                   (803)-792-5446(FAX)
lam@jove.cofc.edu <===============email===================> lam@sparky.musc.edu
From: david@MARIE.STAT.UGA.EDU (David Gundlach)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin
Subject: Re: Teaching System Administration (was "Re: temparary superuser")
Date: 11 Oct 92 20:48:55 GMT

Summary: one machine, or a whole lab?
Expires: 
Followup-To: 
Distribution: usa
Organization: UGA Statistics Department
Keywords: UNIX x86 free lab teach sysadmin

And then, pjh@mccc.edu (Pete Holsberg) said...
% In article <Bvv745.8Kt@news.cso.uiuc.edu> lam@mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu (Ken Lam) writes:
% =pjh@mccc.edu (Pete Holsberg) writes:
% =
% =>one UNIX machine, an AT&T 6386, that is the host for all our C and UNIX
% =>courses, our email link and our Usenet link to the outside world. Do I
% =>dare let students do *anything* on such a machine?
% =
% =Do you have any 386/486s?
% 
% None that can be spared to be UNIX-only machines.
% 
% =If you do, then you can really get some hands on
% =experience installing and using either LINUX or 386BSD.  Both are non
% =commercial available thru ftp and can easily used to give a unix admin course
% 
% Hmmm...a 386SX costs about $1500 and I'd need 20 or $30,000 to start the

1) $1500 is a bit on the expensive side, actually...
2) If you were to use your 6386, what would you use for the other 19
machines in the lab?  Or, conversely, why not just make the students
all live on the same 486 (a 486/50 with plenty of RAM [8-12+ mb] and a
decent disk is running at RISC chip speed and making about 20 MIPS),
as they would have done on the 6386 anyway...

% lab. That's pretty expensive for a free UNIX! ;-)

He said 'UNIX', not 'UNIX machine' ;-)


:-D
--
David Gundlach				david@marie.stat.uga.edu
System Support and Integration		david@rolf.stat.uga.edu
UGA Statistics				david@castor.cs.uga.edu
University of Georgia			david@groucho.dev.uga.edu
706/542-3289 or 706/542-5232		BITNET: statuga@uga

"I think, therefore I am wrong." -- 	me



Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin
From: gpb@gpb-mac. (greg berryman )
Subject: Re: EXABYTE Tape costs
Organization: SPS
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 13:38:35 GMT

root@trebor.uucp (Bob Stockler) writes:
: fmt@mbf.UUCP (Mike Trimberger) writes:
: 
: >                            And yes, as described previously in these
: >hallowed halls of Usenet, there is a manufacturing difference in both
: >the case and the tape itself between Video- and Data-grade tapes.  
: 
: I'm not a natural born cynic, but the "manufacturing difference" that makes
: the most sense, from the manufacturer's point of view, is that different
: packages should be used to contain the *same* basic product.
: 
: Consider making 3.5" diskettes.  Isn't it more economical to produce one
: category of media, and then enclose it in squares of plastic with an extra
: hole or not, according to the volume of one or the other type required to
: supply forecast sales demand?
: 
: Disclaimer:  this only applies to manufactures as enlightened as I am.

Did you ever notice the word "certified" on a data-grade tape?  This means
that the tape has been tested for dropouts and the like.  Takes time and
hardware not needed for video grade tapes.

As far as diskettes go, higher density disks are made with a thiner oxide
coat so that a lower field strength from the head during writing may be 
used.  This keeps the adjecent tracks from affecting each other.  There are
also other diferences in the makeup of the oxide particles.

Disclaimer:  My opinions, not Motorola's.  And, no I don't make magnetic
media; I just use it. 

--
Greg Berryman       gpb@gpb-mac.sps.mot.com
Motorola Inc.       Austin Texas
Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin
From: root@trebor.uucp (Bob Stockler)
Subject: Re: Detecting logout of User
Organization: Bob Stockler
Date: Fri, 09 Oct 1992 00:23:25 GMT

mre1@itri.bton.ac.uk (Mark Evans) writes:

>I want to detect when a user finally logs out of a machine
>so that I can perform some file sorting routines. I only want
>to do this when the user finally logs out of the machine, not
>when they quit a shelltool or application. 

Put a trap in "/etc/profile" to do it for all users, or traps in
"$HOME/.profile" for selected users, such as:

  trap ' sort filename ; trap 0 ; exit ' 0 1 3 15

These may not be the signals you want to trap, but it should work
as a starting point.

Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin
From: npm@dale.cts.com (Nancy Milligan)
Subject: Modem Lament
Organization: Titan Linkabit
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 21:40:51 GMT

This is driving me slightly nuts-o.  I have a Telebit T2500 modem on
a Sparcstation running Sun OS 4.1.1 and I have xmodem version 3.2 which
I got from an archive server some where.  I also have sz 1.23.  I even
have pcomm 1.2.9.

The thing is, I can't seem to get ANY of these xfer protocols to 
work reliably with a PC running the (supposedly) same protocol.  

I've tried doing this from tip:

~C sz 1b filename

just seems to hang.

I've tried doing this too:

~C xmodem sb filename

Yet there is ONE pc out there I can seem to do Xmodem 1K with.  Does
anyone have any idea why this isn't working?  

My thanks to the net-intelligensia.
--
Nancy P. Milligan 				npm@dale.cts.com
Titan Linkabit					cts!dale!npm
3033 Science Park Road
San Diego, CA 92121
Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin
From: bvs@nrc.com (Bill Versteeg)
Subject: printer output to telnet session on SCO
Summary: need to print to telnet terminal server under SCO
Organization: VerSteeg CodeWorks 
Date:  7 Oct 92 17:58:39 GMT

A friend of mine has a telnet terminal server with a printer
hanging off of one of the ports. It speaks only telnet (no lpd).
He wants to have his SCO Unix box send printer output to the 
terminal server via a telnet session.

Does anyone know how to do this? Is there a script that does it?

Bill VerSteeg
bvs@ver.com

-- 
Bill VerSteeg
VerSteeg CodeWorks
bvs@nrc.com
Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin