10/19   First! Soda was rooted, and thus so was motd. --toulouse
        \_ Soda was down several days last week and /etc/motd.publicd was
           gone.  What happened?
           \_ Someone surreptitiously replaced an executable. We discovered this
              within a few hours of it happening then decided to shut soda off
              and do a complete rebuild. --toulouse
              \_ which executable?  Not sshd again?
              \_ Curious, why the total rebuild?  Wasn't there a "fresh"
                 snapshot made when soda was first virtualized years ago-
                 couldn't we just revert to that?  Or is that what happened?
                 or did they manage to hack thru to the esxi layer with some
                 wacky cloudburst thing?
              \_ Good job catching this. Are you running tripwire? -ausman
                 \_ I don't know. Mikey discovered it by running 'strings' on
                    an executable that was behaving weird. --toulouse
                    \_ do you know how they got in?  which binary was it?
        \_ Rooted? Where did you hear that? -ausman
           \_ I'm on rootstaff. --toulouse
        \_ ugh, lots of stuff gone, my motd archiver broken (wheres rcs now?)
            -ERic
            \_ use git
           \_ Right, soda had to be completely rebuilt. We didn't have any
              info on how motd was structured. Sorry. However, we're thinking of
              writing a python daemon which would use inotify to POST updates on
              /etc/motd.public to some URL. Want to work with us on this? How
              can we help you get motd working how you like it? --toulouse
              \_ git to push to github
              \_ No backups?
                 \_ We have backups.  Need something in particular restored?
                    \_ No, but with backups you should be able to restore
                       the system to its previous state (including MOTD).
                       \_ Which would be a very bad idea on a rooted system.
                          If you restore everything to exactly the way it was,
                          then you restore to a compromised state.  Unless you
                          knew *exactly* when it was rooted.
                          \_ You just need to look at them to figure out
                             how things were set up.
              \_ MOTD doesn't need to be revived.  Spend your time doing
                 something more interesting to engage community in
                 discussion.  -tom
                 \_ I agree. -ausman
                    \_ It's easy to agree, but I'm not hearing any suggestions.
                       Every time we've suggested moving to a newer medium we
                       get a groundswell of crufties complaining on how motd is
                       sufficient and they'd never use $ALTERNATIVE. What would
                       you use? --toulouse
                       \_ twitter
         \_ It would be great if we could replace Motd with something
            non Facebook.  I really do not like the trend of news and
            www forums being replaced with Facebook connect.  Also...
            I don't have a fb account right now. - long time motd poster
            \_ I don't have a facebook account either.  -another poster
                       \_ Facebook. -ausman
                          \_ twitter
                          \_ Are you kidding me? I'll get a Facebook account
                             when hell freezes over. I would not have
                             expected someone with an IT background to
                             recommend this alternative.
                             \_ It is what people use, it is pointless to
                                use a medium that undergraduates are not
                                interested in. Who are you? -ausman
                                \_ Undergraduate here.  I'm not interested in
                                   Facebook *or* MOTD -- any other bright
                                   ideas?  :)
                                   \_ Eureka Streams http://goo.gl/VnUU
                                   \_ What do you use for online collaborative
                                      communication?
                                      \_ I don't, I am too worried that the
                                         NSA or Mossad will evesdrop on my
                                         communications. I use one time pad
                                         encrypted messages delivered by
                                         carrier pigeon.
                                         \_ I hope you killed the pigeon
                                            afterward.
                             \_ Thus proving my point. Some people really do
                                live with *that* much paranoia. It comes with
                                the territory. --toulouse
                                \_ Look, it's clear that MOTD is providing
                                   zero value to the CSUA.  Whether the next
                                   thing you do is phpBB, or facebook, or
                                   blog or whatever, it will provide more
                                   value to the CSUA.  The fact that someone
                                   will whine about whatever you decide is
                                   something you'll have to learn to deal
                                   with in technology.
                                   Here's some free strategic planning
                                   consulting for you:
                                   The goals of a CSUA messaging
                                   system should be to:
                                   * Build community among CS undergraduates
                                   * Encourage discussion of both technical
                                     and non-technical topics
                                   * Provide connections to industry
                                     sources for networking and jobs

                                   There are a dozen ways to accomplish those
                                   things, and MOTD ceased to be one of them
                                   10 years ago.  -tom
                                   \_ messaging/forum systems come and go with
                                      time. Motd has been around a long time
                                      with few changes. I'd hate to see us
                                      adopt and abandon it for the forum of the
                                      moment. They all come and go within a
                                      relatively short time.
                                        motd,wall,irc,fn,usenet,phpb,myspace,
                                        yahoogroups,now facebook? -Eric
                                        \_ On the other hand, much of the CSUA
                                           has already abandoned motd.  We
                                           clearly haven't learned from history
                                           and are doomed to repeat it. -ERic
                                        \_ I don't really see the argument
                                           that we should keep a dead forum
                                           because whatever we change to will
                                           eventually die.  That's like saying
                                           that you shouldn't buy a new
                                           computer because you'll need a
                                           better one in just a few years. -tom
                                           \_ every tmie we switch we lose
                                              people and/or history. I'm not
                                              saying we shouldn't switch, just
                                              try to minimise the losses, and to
                                              switch to a medium with as long
                                              a lifespan as possible. -ERic
                                              \_ Sure.  -tom
                \_ Did blojo invent the motd?  I just had lunch with him.
                   I totally forgot to mention the CSUA or Soda in any way.
                   \_ The MOTD predates blojo
        \_ Get a good raison d'etre.  Forum choices will follow.