Re: Cargo Cult sysadmining

[Joe Zeff <joe@xxxxxxx>]

On 08/06/2012 04:35 AM, Tim wrote:
> On Sat, 2012-08-04 at 21:30 -0500, Javier Perez wrote:
> > >Is there any list of Cargo cult sysadmin practices for Fedora?
> Just look at the feature list on the documentation, or websites, and the
> idiot admins will target them first.  And, if you have a desktop that
> still has normal menus, look through the system admin items for more
> ideas.

[sniping a long list of suggested practices]

It looks like I may have created a new use of Cargo Cult, based on Cargo 
Cult Programming.  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult_programming, 
http://foldoc.org/cargo+cult)  My thought was that disabling SELinux as 
a first step in troubleshooting any and every problem, even when there's 
no evidence that it's involved was equivalent to natives in New Guinea 
creating mockups of landing strips after WWII thinking that planes 
filled with cargo would land there.  Most of your suggestions, although 
bad ideas in and of themselves, don't have this (to me) important 
quality: IMO, to be considered cargo cult sysadminning, the practice 
must either have nothing to do with the problem it's intended to fix 
(Disabling your firewall because sshd doesn't start.) or is no longer 
relevant, such as most instances of reflexive disabling of SELinux. 
YMMV, and probably does, but I did think that I should put my original 
meaning for the term on the record.
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