Unix as a Second Language

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Sandra Henry-Stocker has been administering Unix systems for more than 25 years. She describes herself as "USL" (Unix as a second language) but remembers enough English to write books and buy groceries. She currently works for TeleCommunication Systems -- a company that builds innovative technologies to make critical connections happen -- where no one else necessarily shares any of her opinions. This blog offers advice for everyday Unix systems administration and some clever ways to approach more challenging problems. Send comments and suggestions to mailto:bugfarm@gmail.com.

by Sandra Henry-Stocker

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  • Unix How-To: Give Me That Old-Time Security!

    Posted Aug 04, 2010 - 02:29 pm

    Even in the wild frontiers of today's Internet, good basic system security provides extremely valuable protection against security breaches. In today's column, I'm going to rant about some basic security rules of thumb that every Unix sysadmin ought to consider.

  • The Many Benefits of a Clean Desk

    Posted Jul 28, 2010 - 11:22 am

    One of the security policies that has taken hold across a wide range of businesses is the "clean desk" and often the "clean desk and clear screen" policy. Intended to keep both PII (personally identifiable information) and company proprietary information away from prying and wandering eyes, policies such as these have more advantages than first glance might suggest.

  • Unix How-To: Time-Saving Aliases

    Posted Jul 21, 2010 - 08:00 am

    Unix users are always looking for ways to make their systems a little easier to use or themselves more productive. In today's column, we'll look at a series of helpful aliases that might preserve a few of those brain cells for harder tasks.

  • Unix How-To: Tricks for Working with Filenames

    Posted Jul 14, 2010 - 06:00 am

    In this week's column, I answer two readers' questions about working with Unix filenames. One asks how to easily remove all files in a directory except those that match a particular pattern. The other asks how to force the names of files to be all lowercase. The answers may be easier than you think.

  • Unix How To: Useful Shortcuts for Unix Geeks

    Posted Jul 07, 2010 - 02:13 pm

    In this week's column, we're going to take a look at several commands that might save you some time. Each of these commands is easy to use and easy to remember, but just far enough off the beaten track that you might not have used them before.

  • Book Review: PHP: The Good Parts by Peter B. MacIntyre

    Posted Jun 30, 2010 - 08:00 am

    When I first read this title, I had my doubts. Could a book that purported only to cover the "good parts" of a language really do justice to the language? Or would it be like telling your kids only about the "good parts" of sex, not mentioning the risks and responsibilities that go along with sharing intimacy? After reading the book, I'm impressed with the book and its approach. The book is good enough and substantive enough in its 150+ pages to get someone new to PHP both excited about the language and coding some useful PHP applications in short order.

  • The Big Move Toward Collaboration

    Posted Jun 23, 2010 - 11:20 am

    If only one thing impressed me at last week's FIRST conference in Miami, it was the extent to which the security community is moving toward collaboration. The FIRST community, now in its 23rd year, has long been about collaboration. Even so, this year's event highlighted companies, organizations and even international law enforcement deeply exploring the ways in which they can collaborate further and better to hold the line against the increasingly virulent opposition -- the bad guys.

  • Security Conference: My First FIRST

    Posted Jun 16, 2010 - 01:35 pm

    The 22nd annual Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) conference is meeting this week in Miami. While this is my first opportunity to participate in any FIRST activity, these conferences have obviously been ongoing since 1988. With a focus on detecting and responding to security incidents and the convention of moving to a different location each year -- last year in Kyoto, next in Vienna -- the conference in unsurprisingly international.

  • Unix Commands to Try When You're Bored

    Posted Jun 09, 2010 - 04:47 pm

    Not every Unix command sparks with novelty. After all, the OS has now been around for roughly forty years and the spark wears off. But there are some commands that pick up from where the basics run out of steam. Jump on a Linux box and try these out when you have a little free time. You might surprise yourself with some new tricks for your bag of Unix goodies.

  • Unix How-To: awk is still a very handy tool

    Posted Jun 02, 2010 - 02:38 pm

    Awk does a lot more than select a column from a file or an input stream. It can select columns from selected rows. It can calculate totals, extract substrings, reverse the order of fields and provide a whole lot of other very handy manipulations. Whether you squeeze your awk permutations onto the command line or prefer to build them into scripts, the language is clever and versatile and well worth using even as it joins the ranks of middle-aged computer utilities.
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