THE MAGAZINE OF USENIX & SAGE June 2002 volume 27 • number 3

inside: USENIX NEWS

& The Advanced Computing Systems Association & The System Administrators Guild news

USENIX MEMBER BENEFITS the standard to which we now have to As a member of the USENIX Association, And So It Goes perform. you receive the following benefits: In the meantime, the latency between FREE SUBSCRIPTION TO ;login:, the Association’s by Daniel Geer magazine, published seven times a year, invention and exploitation is shrinking – President, USENIX which fundamentally is a good thing in featuring technical articles, system adminis- Board of Directors tration articles, tips and techniques, practical the bigger scheme of things. The human columns on security, Tcl, Perl, Java, and dynamics of scheduling new workshops operating systems, book and software around emerging topics and disciplines reviews, summaries of sessions at USENIX conferences, and reports on various stan- (which is exactly where we can do the dards activities. most good) are such that USENIX pretty

ACCESS TO ;login: online from October 1997 much cannot get anything effective done to last month www.usenix.org/ [email protected] in under 9-12 months despite the fact publications/login/login.html. that, just as in business, there is a really ACCESS TO PAPERS from the USENIX Confer- substantial and growing first mover A little like writing your own obituary, ences online starting with 1993 advantage to that professional society this is my last column as President of www.usenix.org/publications/library/ that best calls trends right, that has the index.html. USENIX. We have term limits here and, first meeting on a new topic at exactly THE RIGHT TO VOTE on matters affecting the all in all, that is a good thing. I may still the right time in exactly the right venue. Association, its bylaws, election of its direc- find something to do around here, but I tors and officers. welcome the new Board and President Knowing when to strike, what to strike, OPTIONAL MEMBERSHIP in SAGE, the System Kirk McKusick and wish them well. and who needs to be involved are at the Administrators Guild. critical core of the risk-reward tradeoff Over the time I’ve been associated with DISCOUNTS on registration fees for all that USENIX as a business lives within. USENIX conferences. USENIX an awful lot of changes have But let me be clear about something: For transpired. In that regard, USENIX mir- DISCOUNTS on the purchase of proceedings those of you who have something to say and CD-ROMS from USENIX conferences. rors changes going on in society in gen- and who want to create vehicles for SPECIAL DISCOUNTS on a variety of products, eral due in large part to technical change knowledge transfer, USENIX is books, software, and periodicals. See – our communications are overwhelm- absolutely remarkable. No other profes- http://www.usenix.org/membership/ ingly electronic when they are not face sional society relieves you of as much specialdisc.html for details. to face, distance is measured in either logistical detail. No other professional FOR MORE INFORMATION network latency or the dollar cost of air- society comes close to the price-per- line tickets, security is no longer a geek- REGARDING MEMBERSHIP OR formance value that USENIX delivers. only issue (which is arguably a fearsome BENEFITS, PLEASE SEE No other professional society has meet- development), it is much cheaper to ings where the signal-to-noise ratio is http://www.usenix.org/ retain electronic data in full than to more favorable. membership/membership.html selectively cull it, and it is the capital markets rather than tenure committees Sure, I am a true believer, but I invite OR CONTACT that ultimately sort technologies into you to try to get something together [email protected] winners and losers. under the umbrella of any other group and compare it to what you can get done Phone: 510 528 8649 Running an organization like the here. Measure your experiment in how USENIX Association is getting harder at much time you have to put in versus least insofar as our core mission is con- how much intellectual value you get out. cerned. We exist to accelerate the Measure it by looking at the quality of advance of knowledge in our field, what our Proceedings and don’t take my word Mike O’Dell famously called “moving for it, use CiteSeer (http://www.citeseer. information from where it is to where it org) to confirm that when measured by is not.”The reason running USENIX citation frequency USENIX meetings are well is getting harder is that our success tops. Yeah, USENIX is cliquish but at no to date does nothing so much as raise other society can you expect to talk to

64 Vol. 27, No. 3 ;login: the actual authors of the tools you can’t is your time while all you have to risk is Newly elected directors will take office live without. your reputation. Expensive and scary? at the conclusion of the next regularly EWS Sure, but consider the alternative. scheduled board meeting which will Want to call the USENIX regulars elitist? be held June 14, 2002 in Monterey, No problem as far as I am concerned I’ve asked each of the current USENIX California. USENIX N since every bit of elitism in these here officers to do something that has not parts is earned. USENIX is about getting been part of the USENIX managerial Ballots Received: 1295 things built and recognizing those who tradition heretofore and that is to write Invalid Ballots: 17 get it done. Just as the IETF is the domi- a report on their term of office, what got Participating Ballots: 1278 nant standards organization because of done and what didn’t. This is not an easy its simple creed, “Rough consensus and thing to do – USENIX is a lot more PRESIDENT: working code,”so, too, our simple idea is complex than it seems or, to put it dif- Marshall Kirk McKusick 1100 that USENIX is where you go for that ferently, that it looks simple from the Abstain 159 working code; it’s where you go if you outside is a triumph rather than just No Selection 19 want to know what actually works rather something that you can buy at the store TOTAL 1278 than what might be theoretically inter- like milk. VICE PRESIDENT: esting. As such, it is actually hard to write in Michael B. Jones 679 Were it not such a low bar, I’d point out one document something that is read- Trey Harris 543 that we have an awful lot better taste in able by the mildly curious, meaningful No Selection 56 what is “novel, non-obvious and for the serious student, reassuring for TOTAL 1278 reducible to practice” than the US Patent the well-wisher, and a counterweight to & Trademark Office does, not to men- the heckler. That it is hard to be at once SECRETARY: tion that we are becoming more selective universal and concrete is precisely why it Peter Honeyman 758 in our selection process in the face of a is a good thing to try, even when the real Steve Simmons 479 rising volume of submissions. role of an individual Board member is No Selection 41 much more like an adverb than a noun, TOTAL 1278 As I have said here several times before, i.e., we modify more than we pre-empt. I’d like to urge those of you with ambi- TREASURER: I’ll finish my report when my term is tion to remember that it is never too Lois Bennett 1117 actually over, which will be about when early to choose whether you are going to Abstain 126 you read this. Read it if you care but lead, follow or get out of the way. I’d ask No Selection 56 don’t if you don’t. all USENIX members to recognize that if TOTAL 1278 you want something to happen the In the meantime, I want to thank you all surest way to get it to happen is to real- for the opportunity to lead over the past DIRECTORS: ize that you have more leverage here decade and a half, and just as it is the Jon “maddog” Hall 829 than you are going to get anywhere else. duty of a teacher to be surpassed by his Tina Darmohray 688 Samuel Johnson observed that knowl- students, it is now your job to prove that John Gilmore 662 edge is of two sorts, where you know a you’re better than I was. Avi Rubin 656 thing yourself and where you know Godspeed. Ted Ts’o 530 where to find out about it. Æleen Frisch 401 Let me tell you a secret of career success: Peg Schafer 357 That secret is simple – You can either Darrell Long 282 (on your own) go out and scour the 2002 USENIX Adam Moskowitz 206 countryside for knowledge, or you can Clem Cole 192 (by serving on USENIX program com- Board of Directors James Yaple 117 mittees) get the countryside to bring its best work to you. I recommend the pro- Elections Results gram committee approach; you will find The results of the elections for Board of that it concentrates the interesting traffic Directors of the USENIX Association for like nothing else, and all you have to pay the 2002-2004 term are as follows. Names in bold are the elected officials.

June 2002 ;login: 2002 BOD ELECTION RESULTS 65 Association’s Committee on Women Summary of the (http://www.cra.org/craw/) for $10,000. News from NUUG USENIX will also be a sponsor for the USENIX Board of CRA’s Snowbird Conference in July by Jon Petter Bjerke 2002. Jon Petter Bjerke is a NUUG board Directors Actions member and NUUG’s primary con- It was agreed to fund $10,000 for stu- tact with USENIX. [email protected] by Ellie Young dent stipends for the Internet Measure Workshop 2002 which is being co-spon- NUUG is the Norwegian User Executive Director sored by ACM SIGCOMM, SIGMET- Group, established in 1984 as the Nor- [email protected] RICS, and USENIX. wegian arm of the EUUG (later to become Europen). In the last several The following is a summary of some of SAGE years Europen has existed only as a the actions taken by the USENIX Board The following statement was approved loosely joined group of European of Directors between mid-November and posted on the USENIX and SAGE “UNIX” groups. 2001 and April, 2002. web sites for a 2 weeks period in Decem- ber ’01: “The USENIX board wishes to The NUUG mem- Conferences apologize to Barb Dijker and Peg Schafer bership of about BSDCon: It was decided to sponsor for dismissing them from the SAGE 300 has been receiv- another BSDCon in approx. 18 months Executive Committee without appropri- ing ;login: on a sub- (Fall of 2003), with a goal to improve ate due process.” scription basis for a the quality and attendance, while keep- A hiring committee to hire a SAGE number of years, ing costs low. Gregory Neil Shapiro will Executive Director was formed (Dan and in the annual serve as program chair. Geer, David Parter, and Ellie Young.) A meeting of June FAST: After a successful inaugural con- SAGE/USENIX relationship oversight 2001, NUUG ference in January, it was decided that committee composed of respective decided to join the another conference will be held in 2003 liaisons (Parter and Hume), Young, and USENIX Associa- with Jeff Chase as program chair. others to be announced was formed. tion as affiliate members. As of Jan- Kernel Summit II: It was agreed Finances uary 2002, our members joined that USENIX will co-sponsor another Sponsorship and exhibit packages rec- USENIX, and a few also signed up for summit with OSDN in June 2002. ommended for 2002 were approved. SAGE. Mobisys: An agreement between ACM The recommendation that an outside NUUG organizes a monthly technical SIGMOBILE and USENIX to co-spon- accounting firm (Burr, Pilger and evening, each on a different subject of sor a conference on mobile systems, Mayer) conduct the audit of the Associa- interest. We have also held full-day tuto- applications and services was signed. tion’s 2001 finances was approved. rials and national conferences, often with invited speakers from the USENIX Good Works The 2002 budget was discussed and side of the Atlantic. We are participating Open AFS Project: It was agreed that approved. in the yearly NordU conferences as well. USENIX will commit $35,000 to this effort contingent upon the receipt of Apart from NUUG, Norway has several matching funds from at least two other special interest computer groups, many donors. USENIX will oversee the distri- of which focus on Linux and open bution of funds to the Open AFS council source developments. Some of these of elders (currently CMU, U/Michigan groups share space on the NUUG Web and MIT), and also publicize the donors’ server, and events are announced in a support of the OpenAFS development. common calendar. We are also looking for other ways to cooperate with and It was agreed to fund once again the Sta- support local or special interest groups. tus of Women in Computing’s mentor- ing program of the Computing Research

66 Vol. 27, No. 3 ;login: As a result of taking part in the EUnet Shampoo-Banana, I was an eager UNIX ing. I decided to commemorate the initiative of EUUG since the mid-1980s booster. UNIX Version 5 (and, later, Ver- occasion. I don’t remember much at all EWS and establishing it as a commercial com- sion 6) was at the same time so interest- about the technical content of the meet- pany in the early 1990s, NUUG received ing and so hard that I couldn’t imagine ings, but I remember this. considerable money when EUnet was anyone in computing not being as USENIX N I lived in Chicago at the time, and so did sold in 1998. NUUG decided to put enthralled as I was . . .unless, of course, a man named Phil Foglio. Phil was a these assets into a separate entity, and they worked for IBM, the then-current comic artist, later to become rather the NUUG Foundation was established Evil Empire. famous. [Foglio is very active as an in 2000. The foundation is actively look- The conference was organized by Steve artist. Among his credits is Girl Genius.] ing for projects to support, both nation- Holmgren and Greg Chesson, who knew He was in school at the time. I knew him ally and internationally. We recently Ken Thompson from Berkeley days or slightly, through Chicago science fiction selected the first such project: the some such. Steve and Greg were respon- fandom, in which I was active. One day “Skolelinux” (Linux for Schools) project, sible for having imported UNIX to the Phil called me up. His apartment was an effort to provide schools with a reli- U of I campus downstate, where it apparently equipped with a wall safe. able and easy-to-handle Linux distribu- replaced the home-grown software on His roommate, the only one of the two tion, with all relevant programs ANTS, the ARPANET Terminal System, of them who knew the combination, had supported in the two variants of the which ran on a PDP-11. ANTS’ sole win- locked a prop Star Trek phaser in the Norwegian language (Bokmål and ning feature was that it had ants sten- safe and blown town. Phil knew that I Nynorsk) as well as the northern Sami ciled all along the top panels of the was, at that time, a bonded locksmith, language. Participation from the other cabinet. It ran like it was full of ants, too. and wanted me to open the safe. Nordic countries may lead to Danish UNIX was a big step up. On the Chicago and Swedish versions of the project. I knew how to open garden-variety pin- campus, I had just hired on as a research tumbler locks, but I’d never tackled a References and further reading (mostly assistant to a gigantic project ($3 mil- safe before. I knew that there was an ele- in Norwegian): lion) to build a medical information sys- mentary manipulation algorithm that tem, based on what is probably the worst NUUG: http://www.nuug.no/ worked on the cheaper sort of combina- grant proposal I have ever read. It was The NUUG Foundation: tion padlocks, but I figured a safe would funded out of desperation by govern- http://foundation.nuug.no/ be proof against that. Still, I was willing ment officials who had a record amount Linux for Schools: to give it a try. So expectant of failure of money to spend in a hurry due to the http://www.linuxiskolen.no/ was I that I brought along another lock- Supreme Court decision that told Dick smith, a friend of mine, for moral sup- Nixon what part of the purse-strings he port. Twenty-Five Years did not control. I am amazed to this day that it worked. I I was the lone man on the Chicago cam- opened the safe in under fifteen min- Ago in USENIX pus running UNIX, and I dimly remem- utes. I should have written down the ber pestering the daylights out of both by Peter H. Salus name of the manufacturer, to make cer- Steve and Greg as I came up to speed. I tain that I never purchased a safe from USENIX Historian seem to remember that I had founded them. [email protected] and was running the UNIX User’s Group Software Distribution Center by I had agreed with Phil to take payment The June 1977 meeting of the UNIX the time of this conference, so, hope- in trade. In return for my success in User’s Group (not yet USENIX), was fully, I was less of a pest by the time it returning his phaser to him, he prepared held at the University of Illinois at rolled around. full-color artwork to my specifications, a Urbana-Champaign. Knowing that Mike now rather famous picture of a PDP-11 Ken and Dennis Ritchie were both O’Brien (the amanuensis of Mr. Proto- cabinet in a maze of pipes, complete scheduled to be in attendance. I think I’d col) had been there, I asked him for his with pitchfork-carrying demons run- met them before, either at one of Mel recollections. Here they are. (My ning along the pipes. There was a rain [Ferentz]’s get-togethers in New York or addenda are in [].) barrel with “/dev/null” written on it, but one of Lew Law’s get-togethers at Har- no front panel, due to contradictory At the time of the 1977 UNIX User’s vard. I seem to recall both of those specs on my part as to exactly which Group combined East-West meeting in occurring before the big national meet- panel held all the buttons and lights.

June 2002 ;login: 25 YEARS AGO IN USENIX 67 At that time, T-shirt “art-to-order” poster showing how much better Of course, it was also at that meeting printing houses were few and far was than that stovepipe clattery amateur that I was recruited to come work for between. I found a ma-and-pa operation UNIX stuff, and the original artwork The Rand Corporation, which turned in suburban Chicago, quite a drive from passed into oblivion, along with the out to be the making of my career. Yes, my place as I recall, who used a 3M color entire Digital Equipment Corporation. in that respect I have mighty fond mem- copier to make T-shirts. They were very ories of the Urbana meeting. At some point the USENIX board of helpful in turning Phil’s artwork into the directors gave Phil Foglio some money [I’m afraid that it would be absurd for first UNIX T-shirts ever produced. to compensate him for the unexpected me to add to this. Mike, many thanks.] Because the printing process reversed success of his artwork. [It was in 1986, the artwork, they whited out Phil’s when I was Executive Director of trademark signature and carefully USENIX. — PHS] He never complained forged it in reverse, so that he would get to me personally, but had been heard to proper credit. gripe that he never saw a dime from the The first four shirts produced were art. I’m glad they did this. I’d never intended for Ken, Dennis, me, and my expected the art to go beyond the first wife. Only these four shirts were pro- four shirts, frankly. duced with red piping on the sleeves and It remains an open question as to the collars – all shirts made after this had degree of influence that all this had on white collars and sleeves. I still have the BSD . Kirk McKusick says mine and my wife’s. As I recall, only Ken that John Lassiter created the original made this meeting. I gave him his shirt, BSD Daemon artwork without reference and one for him to take back to Dennis. to Phil’s work, and I believe him. It’s an I recently asked Dennis about that, and obvious visual pun. However, I still he could not recall ever having received regard the BSD Daemon as a cultural his shirt. I suspect that the embarrass- child of the first four shirts I produced ment at being caught out in this after all at the Urbana meeting, even if there is these years is responsible for Ken’s recent no direct connection. retirement. Henry Spencer wore a shirt produced The ma-and-pa operation produced sev- with that artwork for many years, and eral hundred shirts with this artwork in was by many years the last survivor to do the years that followed. They retained so, until the shirt reached the stage the artwork in their files to fulfill future where he was in danger of being picked orders. They told me that their largest up for vagrancy. My own are in better single order came from , where shape, partly because I long ago ceased about 40 shirts were ordered for a pic- to fit into either mine or my wife’s. nic. The only other clear memory I have of Years later, Armando Stettner of DEC the Urbana meeting is of standing asked me about that artwork. He wanted around Steve Holmgren’s driveway, at to obtain the rights to it, in order to use one of the few keggers of any sort I’ve it in a marketing campaign for Ultrix. I ever attended. Considering who all was dug out the phone number of Ma and there, it has to rank right up there in Pa in suburban Chicago (I lived in Los terms of “semi-famous people con- Angeles by this time) and found out that nected with UNIX all in one place doing they had ceased operation years before something non-technical.”I recall being and were on the point of throwing as nerdy as possible and also trying des- everything out. They returned the art- perately to think of something semi- work to me, and I sent it on to Armando intelligent to talk to Ken about. It was stating that as far as I knew, I owned the many more years before I became social- rights, and he (and DEC) could have ized, I’m afraid. ‘em. The artwork was used in an Ultrix

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