Congratulations! High Command has accepted Your pilot license application.

Dismissed!

High Command

stop.

Welcome back, pilot!

Your pilot license application has been processed successfully. You are now authorized to begin your pilot training. Please keep a backup copy of this e-mail for future reference.

Detailed instructions on how to operate your training software can be found in the quickstart manual located in the software’s installation folder.

In order to improve the quality of the software, we require feedback from you on any issues or bugs you encounter while using the software. Please report these issues and bugs to the Beta Forum.

Dismissed, Pilot!

#Basics snipped for brevity....


   RewriteEngine on
   #RewriteBase /
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
   RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?q=$1 [L,QSA]


RedirectPermanent / https://www.foo.com/

Google results will tell you that disabling it in /etc/inittab or gconf-edit will do the trick. That’s just not the case.

You need to go to system > preferences > keyboard shortcuts and disable it there.

This completely disables it.

I went for a clean install after searching a bunch of forum posts, few of which helped.
Most said my memory was suspect, but my GTX260′s fan wasn’t spinning up so I figured that was the problem. Yay for more expensive.

Anyway, the problem with the re-install was applying service packs. What a piece of work this turned out to be.

I installed a spare 7600GT video card and removed half my RAM just to make sure RAM wasn’t the issue. The PC started failing to boot with the GTX installed leading me to the spare. With half the RAM (4GB) installed, everything was working ok except for the SP installs.

I finally got SP1 to install without some sort of 0×0 error or the “Windows Module Installer has stoppped working” error.

I did this with 3 simple steps:

1. Installed/Ran the Microsoft readiness utility
2. Disabled the Windows Error Reporting Service
3. Installing the stand alone SP1 executable

Now on to SP2.

###
# First we’ll change into the directory passed in the command line
###
$workdirectory = @ARGV[0];
#print (“$workdirectory\n”);
chdir (“$workdirectory”) || die “cannot cd to $workdirectory”;

###
# Lets get a numeric date for use in naming the zip files
###
$insanedate = `date /t`;
# print $insanedate;
$insanedate =~ /.*?(\d{2})\/(\d{2})\/(\d{4})/;
$sanedate = “$1$2$3″;
# print “$sanedate\n”;

###
# Time to backup the .bak files
###
# must include the extension in the form of *.ext
@baklist = `dir /b *.bak`;
if (!@baklist)
{
# Drop out of the script if there is nothing to backup!
print “No files to backup”;
die;
}
else
{
# This will create a zipfile with the current date.zip
`pkzip $sanedate.zip *.bak`;

###
# Take care of directory cleanup
###
@filelist = `dir /b /o:d *.zip`;
# The $keeperN files are the ones that will be (newest) saved,
# anything left in the list will be removed from the directory
if (@filelist)
{
$keeper1 = pop (@filelist);
$keeper2 = pop (@filelist);
# $keeper3 = pop (@filelist);
# print (“$keeper1″);
# print (“$keeper2″);
# print (“$keeper3″);

# DANGER Will Robinson!! DANGER!!
`del *.bak`;
# Activating the following del statement has the potential to
# do lots of damage. Please check working directory first!
foreach $leftover (@filelist)
{
print $leftover;
# `del $leftover`;
}
}
else
{
print “No zip files, CAUTION!”;
die;
}
}

I figured what the hell, I’ll read through the requirements to see what they are looking for. I get to about line 5 of the email, and right there, amidst all the other ludicrous requests is them asking for my “/etc/shadow report”. There is no “report” that can be yielded from the shadow file, other than brute forcing the passwords and seeing what comes up. I know for a fact that these jackasses aren’t bright enough to actually asking for that, so that must mean… The light comes on, WHAT IN THE *censored* DO THEY NEED MY SHADOW FILE FOR? IT’S GOT ALL THE GODDAMN PASSWORDS.

Well, I start thinking, could just be a test, seeing if I’ll just upchuck the guts to my servers without asking why. So, I grind out a short email to the ol’ manager stating the fact (adlib here) that I wouldn’t give that file to my own mother.

Gets to be time to go, and as usual, I do a quick round to make sure none of the developers need anything from the “server god” before I go home for the day. I pop my head into the manager’s office, exchange a little chit chat. He then informs that “they (meaning the audit firm) got a lot out of us last time and I’m sure there is something in the contract.” I about breached my BVD’s on the spot.

Now, I don’t want to make it look like my manager is the devil himself. He does try hard afterall, but that comment got me thinking there is no conductor on this train and I’m just behind the coal car. This is gonna hurt.

So, if I am, in the end, forced to surrender that file to the audit team, I do so under protest. Nasty, rioting in the streets type peaceful protest. If and when my servers are r00ted, every swingin’ richard better be there with me while I rebuild. Everyone down from the CIO of the Americas to the audit team.

**Edited by Request**