Yeah, well, no one's paying me or anyone else to post here, so don't demand a "professional" response if you don't like casual verbiage.

So I suppose KISS is the reason you're preferring a flagrantly unsafe way of reducing X's access controls over saying `xhost +localhost`? I find that hard to believe.

You must have completely overlooked where I said that doing things badly on the small scale leads do doing things badly on the larger scale.

...and well, this is that "real world" you speak of.

...and this is why we've got plenty of distros around. I'm perfectly fine with people who don't want to learn how to manage a Unix system using a distribution that does it for them. It definitely seems to me like what was being argued was that the dumb response (pulling the ethernet) was being preferred to an intelligent response ("simply type `su` not `su -`"). Dumb responses to problems aren't conducive to people using Slackware and surviving it. Little things that you'd think were just a long-shot at someone finding is exactly what the script kiddies and their perpetual horizontal scanning are looking for.

If my boss posted to LQ, I probably would respond to him as we do everyone else on LQ--because on LQ he's just another user. He is not my boss in this setting. I'll also say outright that I'm definitely not suffering from the "disinhibiting effect of Internet pseudo-anonymity". What one gets from me here is what one gets from me in person. Never does anyone have to guess where they stand with me or how I feel about their problem. I treat them like adults and peers until they prove otherwise (and even then it only takes a tiny glimmer of intelligence to win me back over). Bugs and mistakes are things to be reviled and avoided, and people who write bugs and mistakes are not the same as what they create (so, no reviling). I do see a number of people running around who can't seem to separate their mistakes from their ego, and that is a barrier to learning as I'm sure you've noticed. If you find a way to break people of this, please let the rest of us in on it.

That having been said, this doesn't appear to have any bearing on the problem at hand, which was that bad advice was given. In a more figurative sense, bogons were emitted, and bogons must be eliminated because they harm people. It's simple quantum bogodynamics.

I think the 'Dummies' series are for people who don't know a bloody thing and they're great starters, but... There are some subjects that are not appropriate for these books, nuclear reactor operation being an obvious one, but system administration is probably another one. These are both subjects that are too complex to safely give cartoonish, oversimplified answers to because the results can all too easily become full-blown nightmares. But hey, this wasn't about some general problem, but a very specific one--that bad advice was given.

...and it's funny you should bring up the subject of the Dummies books because "then the question is a very dumb one" is pretty much their type of answer, and is why I use it. It'll stick in a reader's head and hopefully protect them from making the mistake it was directed to at some point in the future. Even if they can't remember the difference between `su` and `su -` they are likely to remember that someone, somewhere told them that running `xhost +` is very, very bad and that they're probably trying to solve the wrong problem by doing so. Simply put, they are "asking the wrong question", much like "Can I disable the low oil warning light on my car's dashboard by removing the fuse for the instrument panel?" is entirely the wrong question to be asking in every case. The "right" question in this case being "where is the nearest place I can get an oil change?" and it's obvious, once you know the engine is likely to just plain blow up if it's not addressed quickly.

No problems here. I linked the quantum bogodynamics thing above because well, worse than language barriers sometimes are cultural barriers, and most people who weren't on USENET during the early 90's probably won't understand what I mean by 'bogons'. 'Endless September' is another cultural phrase that refers to a community's state that gets closer and closer the higher the bogon levels get.

Now, have we wandered far enough off topic yet? (If anyone needs more detailed explanation of bogons and so forth, just PM me.)

I let this go for awhile now, just to see if anyone would say anything. Since it looks like that's not happening, I'll say it.

This is also not true.

Guys, the actual origin of the spoof graphic shown at http://evildagmarx.deviantart.com/ar...-31337-8276301 (that version of it that I made, at any rate) was something I used to sit on IRC and just spot-check people joining IRC channels by using xv to spawn a tiny 96x96 iconized version of it to their display as an icon that would cover the window-whatsis that Afterstep/Windowmaker use. With horrifying frequency I'd hear people commenting that their little corner graphic just changed for an unknown reason. Let me assure you that if you disable X's security, it stops asking questions of people trying to connect. A masquerading router would keep people out at any rate, but again, this is one of those things where assumptions can and will cost you. Not everyone has one of these between them and the mess of the Internet.

For this, X can listen to the localhost interface only, since that's where the tunneled connections are coming from. The ssh client also copies over the environmental variables I mentioned, among other things, so that your tunneled connection can actually work.

If any of you have been doing `xhost +` to enable ssh tunneling of X sessions, stop it.

Hi,

I really think you have missed my point. Yes, professionalism is something you don't toggle like a bit. You are or your not. Sure no one is getting paid to answer here but the exchange will enhance all that participate. You and myself included. Speaking casually and mixing will cause some confusion with a lot of people. Just like math, the rules are there for a reason.

As for the unplugging issue. That will work when needed. No one said you were not correct about the xhost or the fact that some should use the 'man' to understand the command set better. The issue to isolate was my point as a means to get the machine operable without the concerns you introduced. You cannot tell me that you install with the init enabled without some form of safeguard. That I would find hard to believe! If you are working on a machine that has been installed and then perform commands that endanger or are potentially dangerous then the person deserves the problems if they are aware of the hazards. Nobody can take a Slackware blue pill and have instant knowledge or satisfaction. Research must be done.

As users we all come in different levels of abilities. Most that are communicating on forums of this type are not at the level of expertize we are speaking about. That's the KISS reasoning that some will understand. To present information in too much detail will most certainly confuse the 'joe user'. Not to say that one should not warn about potential hazards but alternate ways of doing things are there to make others aware of the situation(s).

If my boss was on the forum, he would be addressed in the same manner. But you failed to see what I was addressing in that we verbally communicate differently than written text. Therefore the tone will be somewhat different for each of our responses which is dependent on who we are addressing.

I did not over look anything in our exchange, just feel that my presentation was to what I desired to communicate or exchange.

Yes, we are drifting from the thread but this has been a good exchange and beneficial to all.

Stuff and nonsense. People all over the place behave differently based on their current setting. What "rules" are these you speak of? All I see is someone continuing to waste people's time by kvetching about me not catering to their ego. Yes, I am done with being "nice" about this. Your personal attack was utterly unacceptable, and now you purport to dictate how I and everyone else should behave. Ask around and you'll find that I'm the guy who'll take a punch in the face before I'll let someone tell me what to do for such worthless reasons.

This paragraph has virtually no bearing in the context of what was been discussed here. I suggest that instead of making such bizarre statements to try to justify your personal attacks that you just STFU and get on with your life. A user was told something very stupid to do, I called foul on it, and then the whining began. Whining is not productive. I was trying to address your complaints in an effort to clear the air, but now it's pretty obvious that you have no interest in the technical problem--you just want to whine until no one can say anything negative about anything at all. Bugger that. If we can't tell people when something they're doing poses a clear and present danger to themselves and others, we might as well hang it up, close the forum, and direct all future questions to Microsoft's technical support department.

No, you are just not making any sense at all and are therefore wasting everyone's time. Don't expect any further responses from me. Clearly it's not worth my time since all you're going to to is spin off on tangents and spout platitudes and universals that don't actually have any bearing on the issue at hand.

Hi,

If your feeling are hurt from my statements then I apologize. I made no threats or wrote in the manner you seem to speak of.

I have un-subscribed from this thread therefore rant all you want. I thought the exchange was relative within the discussion we were having. You seem to read things into my response therefore I will not continue communications with you.

My original problem was w/ permission to some administrative tasks.

Looks like "jazzor" was the only one who read past:So I really wasn't taking the xhost stuff seriously. Nothing to do w/ my problem.

Thanks to onebuck and evilDagmar, I know xhost can be dangerous. I also know what to do (thanks onebuck) if I ever decide I need it (but not why I would need it).

Thanks to evilDagmar I know there's a difference between 'su' and 'su -', but that's about all the help I got from evilDagmar.

By the way, I'm writing this from Arch Linux, and although I've got problems, I'm loving it. Bye bye slack.

lynnevan