syslog

I recently read an article by Michael Hawley on the Technology Review Web site, titled "Whither the Renaissance Man?" (http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/05/issue/megaphone.asp). In that article, Hawley writes "Our current age of information has rightly been called a second renaissance. But what ignites a renaissance? It has to do with bringing together ideas and cultures in fresh ways and with unprecedented intensity. ...the printing press, the new technologies that enabled its invention, and a burgeoning shipping trade were the Internet of their day. Ideas began to move en masse and with a momentum that was unimaginable before. ... The digital-media revolution enabled our current renaissance. From Ethernet to Internet to World Wide Web to Google, from silicon biology to nanoscience, worlds of ideas have collided. Just as a 16th-century Renaissance man felt empowered by a bundle of books in his saddlebag, a 21st-century renaissance woman with a laptop feels she has the entire store of human knowledge at her fingertips."

Hawley laments, however, that renaissance men and women are in short supply. He says, "such an intense global mix of cultures, ideas, and innovations, all apparently a mouse click away, would seem to demand broad educational perspectives. Yet most schools persist in turning out laser-focused young professionals."

That may be true, but some sys admins I know certainly could be described as renaissance men and women. I've noted before that sys admins tend to be generalists with highly diverse skills gained largely through self-training and experience, and most are continually seeking greater breadth and depth of knowledge and expertise in order to meet the changing demands of their jobs. This information is acquired from many sources, such as conference courses, books, online seminars, man pages and documentation, technical Web sites, and other outlets of the vast store of accumulated knowledge.

Sys Admin, of course, strives to contribute to this body of information by providing a diverse set of articles every month. This issue, for example, covers such topics as setting up a branded VPN, remote logging, monitoring LDAP performance, and migrating to Mozilla Thunderbird. Additionally, we've included a brief supplement focusing on spam management issues. These articles cover new features of SpamAssassin 3.0, tips for successful spam filtering, cleaning up mailing lists, and spam graphing and logging.

In his essay, Hawley asks "will the enriched pool of online knowledge promote more specialization, or will it promote more sharing among fields?" He says the answer is up for grabs, and I agree it's difficult to predict. In the meantime, however, we'll do our part by supplying some of the practical systems administration information you seek and providing a way for you to share your knowledge and experience with others. If you have ideas for future articles, suggestions for improvement, or other comments, please let us know.

Sincerely yours,

Amber Ankerholz
Editor in Chief