[efh] Demonstrating code in the ACTLab?

[jtl333]

Allucquére Rosanne Stone wrote:
>>>  By the way, we hope to go dual boot to Linux on most ACTLab machines
>>>  next year.  We were ready this year, but the tech staff asked us to
>>>  slow down so they could explore the situation, particularly to find a
>>>  way for UTIT, Microsoft-like, to control all Linux boxen remotely as
>>>  they do now with Macs and PCs.
>>>       
>> Eeeagh.  Is mass SSH with public-key authentication not good enough
>> for them?
>>     
>
> Absolutely not.  Are you sitting down?  Each time you log off, they 
> RELOAD the ENTIRE OPERATING SYSTEM.  This is true for all UT lab 
> machines, Mac or PC.  It is an insurance-driven thing, meant to 
> protect the university from lawsuits arising from identity theft. 
> Hence we encourage people to work from their own laptops.  These are 
> strange times, my friend...
>
> (p.s. I'd assume it's not quite so draconian...they probably reload 
> only the user-accessible stuff: binaries, apps, config directories, 
> and desktop.  They probably do a checksum on the kernel and reload it 
> if the checksum has changed.  But what else is there, really?)
>
> _______________________________________________
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> efh at actlab.utexas.edu
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>
>   
not to get too geeky, but the ACTLab Computers work this way:

PC:  reloaded every semester (though they claim they are reloaded every 
week)
Mac:  I believe these are rebuilt every login (or at least every week)

hopefully we can battle them to take us off UT's "official build", I 
have been talking to the lab about this.  Don't get your hopes up.

Spring Break 2007!

Joey