(forw) [TAG] Value by acquistion cost: a case study

Wed Nov 16 11:51:52 PST 2005

Rick Moen wrote:
> Just in case y'all need something else to chew on.

I'd be happy to provide slave DNS service for you, Rick, and for any 
BayLISA member.  I would expect to earn some points for my reputation, 
as you point out. :-)  Though in their defense I have to say that 
renumbering nameservers is a bitch, and I try hard to avoid it.

See http://www.imap-partners.net/support-faq-dns.shtml for why we think 
DNS is important for mail delivery.

> 
> ----- Forwarded message from Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> -----
> 
> Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2005 11:13:51 -0800
> From: Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com>
> To: tag at lists.linuxgazette.net
> Reply-To: The Answer Gang <tag at lists.linuxgazette.net>
> Subject: [TAG] Value by acquistion cost: a case study
> 
> I've received, so far, no reply to this note to NOC staff at a former
> employer:
> 
> ----- Forwarded message from rick -----
> 
> Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2005 20:34:36 -0800
> To: dns-admin@[$COMPANY].com
> Subject: Secondary nameservice for zone linuxmafia.com: was switched off
> 
> Folks, I noticed that NS1.[$COMPANY].COM, IP=[$SOME_NUMBER], recently
> ceased doing authoritative nameservice for my domain, linuxmafia.com, 
> which you guys had been providing as a courtesy for many years.
> 
> (My primary DNS is at NS1.LINXUMAFIA.COM, IP=198.144.195.186.)
> 
> In the event that the shutoff was deliberate, then I guess we're done, 
> though I'm quite surprised to have had no notice.
> 
> In the event that it was accidental:  I've always appreciated the favour,
> and would be delighted if you could switch it back on.
> 
> All the best,
> Rick M.
> 
> ----- End forwarded message -----
> 
> 
> Some would call this yet another example of "You get what you pay for",
> using the societally near-ubiquitous assumption that things should be
> valued (to a first approximation) at acquisition cost.  Favours you pay
> money for are assumed valuable; favours you pay nothing for are assumed
> valueless.
> 
> Those assumptions are so ingrained in most people, in most
> circumstances, that it's common for audiences to give me the hairy
> eyeball when I explain the above:  They start worrying that I'm about to
> go all Marxist (or some other form of leveller) on them.
> 
> However, in the open-source world, and to some degree in the larger
> technical community too, the coin (or, at least, one important coin) in
> which we hope to get paid for our efforts is _reputation_:  When we do
> things right in working with others, we enhance our own reputations for 
> competence, usefulness, and reliability.
> 
> Consequently, we tend to apply a _different_ value system -- valuing
> things (and people, and companies, and arrangements) at their _use_
> value as opposed to acquisition cost.
> 
> If that distinction still seems unclear, consider the Linux and *BSD
> kernels:  Is your kernel worthless because you did (or could) acquire it
> free of charge?  Don't you, in fact and in contrast, assign value to it
> on the basis of what it can be used for?
> 
> I won't name the former employer, because I look after the interests of
> people I work with (and have worked with), and guard their
> confidentiality, even when they've piled up a long record of behaving
> like colossal prats, but let's just say that you'd be surprised that a
> company that well known would be so inept.  (This particular firm also
> remains massively important to many open-source projects, which is
> somewhat horrifying to contemplate.)
> 
> o  Prior to this episode, the firm changed the hostnames of all its
>    authoritative nameservers, when the firm changed its name -- and 
>    neglected to notify the people for who they did secondary DNS
>    (so that zonefiles could be updated).
> o  Then, they changed the IPs of all those nameservers, once again
>    without notifying people for who they did secondary DNS, and
>    breaking that nameservice.
> o  Recently, I found out from my own rechecking that they simply 
>    shut off that secondary DNS entirely -- again, without notice.
> 
> My three other secondary nameservers are run by individuals,
> acquaintances in the technical community.  They would never have 
> committed any of those errors, and neither would I -- because _we_
> would not want to be treated that way ourselves, and because 
> we'd not want to gain a reputation for being screw-ups.
> 
> 
> That having been said, I believe there might be an unfilled need
> for easily-configured cronjobs to check one's domain for (1) pending 
> expiration, and (2) various third-party DNS and MX screwups.  I need to
> research that issue, if only because I need to add information on the
> subject to the Linux User Group HOWTO, which I maintain for the Linux
> Documentation Project.  Any suggestions will be welcomed.
> 
> 
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> ----- End forwarded message -----