Uptime vs. security (was: [offtopic] Government and technology)

[Ira Abramov]

Quoting Shlomi Fish, from the post of Sat, 07 Feb:
> On Friday 06 February 2009 23:42:54 Ira Abramov wrote:
> >  23:40:21 up 512 days,  9:49,  2 users,  load average: 0.89, 0.83, 1.11
> 
> That's a nice uptime. However, weren't there any newer kernels released since 
> with important security updates? Won't that potentially jeopardise your 
> system?

So far I believe all the fixes were to local exploits (of which I'm less
worried) and maybe once to a remote exploit when using a feature which I
do not.

I am hoping Lenny becomes stable soon, though it could have been cool to
have a 550 day uptime :-)

> 	Shlomi Fish (who is using Mandriva Cooker on his home machine, which 
> recommends rebooting for every upgrade of the kernel, glibc or dbus, etc.

I haven't used Mandrivel in years, and the Microsoft doctorine is ok for
home stations I suppose..

> and who is shutting down the computer at night anyway, to save on
> electricity.)

Not really an option on a hosted, busy webserver... however, ideally at
home I would either hibernate or use the power and CPU cycles for good,
like installing BOINC and have it look for HIV cures and useful
proteins. All you have left to worry about are spinning disks, which I
hope will be affordably exchangable with SSD within 4-5 years. If you
are worried about such issues like unsustainable technologies, I suggest
you look into the platform of Hayeruka-Meimad, I'm trying to help
relevant agendas and solutions into bills.

Yom Tov,
Ira.

-- 
Not the mama
Ira Abramov
http://ira.abramov.org/email/