Just Ranting

What can i say other than "ARGH!"

Don't get me wrong i love my family and friends BUT...

They drive me nuts!

Sitting at my desk with my headphones on and listening to Industrial music so loud I'm sure you can hear the music in the next room and somebody walks to within 10 steps of me and starts talking to me as though I can hear them.... :mad:

When it comes to server administration I have maintained the same rules for users for the past 6 years or so... No root access, No more privileges than you need to complete your task, SSH/SFTP with an SSH key only and on a nonstandard port... The list goes on a bit. Yet people still question me and ask me to change things to suit them... :mad:

Driving in my car and somebody asks me for a lift... No problem, jump in.
They then take it upon themselves to turn my music off without even asking so that they can talk on the phone or worse, put their own favourite music on... :mad:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Shurandel

They then take it upon themselves to turn my music off without even asking so that they can talk on the phone or worse, put their own favourite music on... :mad:

---

Whow, that's so extremely rude! Stop the car and throw them out and the next time they do it don't even stop the car!

The last one would really bug me. The first two, however, not so much.

I couldn't fault someone for the first one because they could easily have no idea you're listening to music so loudly. You might be surprised how much you can't hear from outside a good set of headphones, or especially earbuds. The second one would depend on the situation.

It's not unreasonable to turn down the music in the car if it's too loud -- talking on the phone or not. In fact, I find it pretty inconsiderate if I get in a friend's car and they leave their radio turned up to 11. Changing the music or completely turning it off is a different matter and probably violates some sort of protocol. :p

Regarding server administration practices, getting questioned and asked to change is actually a good thing. The threat landscape is always changing, and some of the old practices no longer serve a purpose. That's not to say that you should just go and give everyone root. Do, however, re-evaluate the other controls that your users are complaining about. If you find that you can't articulate a justification beyond "it's best practice", you probably don't need it. A good security professional (and a good sysadmin) will only use controls that make sense in their environment and do not create a greater cost than the risk they are intended to mitigate.

Finally, uhm.... If you're listening to music through headphones and that music can be heard from the next room, the volume is WAY too loud. If you don't want to live the rest of your life with muffled hearing and a persistent ringing in your ears, turn it down. I've blasted my earphones back in my high school days, and less than decade later, I have the hearing loss. It's not as bad as it could be, but it still sucks.

If you want to get rid of the outside noise, invest in a good pair of cans that seal around your ears. Once your ears adapt to the silence, you can start listening with the volume turned way down and still enjoy your music.

People talking to you while you heave your headphones on? I just ignore them until they get my attention by stepping into my field of view or tapping me on the shoulder. It's not unreasonable to do the same -- unless, of course, you're in a situation where you're expected to be attentive to your environment, such as in a collaborative workplace, a service job, on a construction site, or driving a car.