[ale] Bobness and Jonathanness (and some PHP)

[Jonathan Rickman]

On Tue, 4 Feb 2003, J.M. Taylor wrote:

> So how does one pursue Bob- or Jonathanness? :)

In my case it comes from a natural paranoia, inherited from my father who
taught me early on in life that in most cases your parents are the only
folks in the world that can truly be trusted. I don't think he
intentionally taught this, but sometimes the most valuable lessons in life
are the ones that the teacher accidentally gives.  Everyone else has
competing interests and no matter how hard you try, that can't be
suppressed except in the case of your children.


> I've been a security focused admin and coder for a couple of
> years...what's the next level?  Certification?  Education?  Annyoing
> questions lobbed at Bob and Jonathan for the rest of my career? ;)

Based on my conversations with you, the next level for you would be to
turn to security full time. I don't get the impression that you're
interested in that. I got my start in the military and took that
experience to the non-profit sector, doing work for free...and basically
winging it for a few years. The clients were fully aware that they were
dealing with someone relatively inexperienced, but were willing to let
that slide since the service was free. I still do work for those folks at
no charge, to show my gratitude to them...for letting me learn hard
lessons, at their expense occasionally.

Honestly, the world could use more administrators like yourself. Keep
doing what you do. The security industry in general is a symptom of the
problem. Admins/coders like you are the solution. It never hurts to ask
questions, if for no other reason than to find out that you really did
know what you were doing all along. In some cases, you may very well end
up educating the "expert". I'll give you a clue, I've learned more about
system security from folks like you than from other so called experts.


--
Jonathan Rickman
X Corps Security
http://www.xcorps.net

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