Wednesday | 9 July, 2008
Computerworld

Networking

Contest challenges SysAdmins to sing
SysAdmin of the Year contest spawns call for singers and song writers
Denise Dubie (Network World) 31/08/2007 08:35:11

Computerworld Buyer's Guide - Vendors Matched to this Article
Related Features
  • +

    Your World. . . Hacked 02/10/2007 10:51:23

    As your business becomes more collaborative and global, the risks to your company’s trade secrets rise proportionally. Fortunately, there are new strategies to protect the data that allows you to compete
    The call to Bob Bailey, an IT executive with a major US government contractor, came on an otherwise ordinary day in October 2003. "Why are you attacking us?" demanded the caller, an IT leader with a Silicon Valley manufacturer. He wanted to know why Bailey's company had launched a denial-of-service attack against his network
  • +

    Process Trip 04/02/2008 13:07:03

    Why Maritz Travel revamped key business processes — and how business and IT came together to make it work
    When Rich Phillips became COO OF Maritz Travel about two and-a-half years ago, he sat down and took a hard look at the big industry picture
  • +

    How to Get Real About Strategic Planning 04/02/2008 12:50:59

    Everyone agrees that having a strategic plan for IT is a good thing but most CIOs approach the process with fear and loathing. In fact, the majority of CIOs (and the enterprises they work for) are faking it when it comes to strategic planning. Isn't it time we all got real?
    Oh, it must be nice to be the CIO of a FedEx or a GE or a Credit Suisse. Places where IT and the business are so tightly aligned you can barely tell the two apart. Where corporate leaders understand that IT is a strategic asset and support it as such
  • +

    Hiring Manager: Emphasize Integrity, Attitude 14/12/2007 11:18:07

    William Howell shares his hiring mistakes and his secrets for selecting the best job candidates, finding objective references and using LinkedIn as a recruiting tool.
    William Howell shares his hiring mistakes and his secrets for selecting the best job candidates, finding objective references and using LinkedIn as a recruiting tool.
Additional Resources
Executive Guides
Whitepapers
Zones
Zone logoZones provide focussed content from Computerworld and leading technology partners.

Newsletter Subscription

Sign up for our Computerworld newsletters!
Computerworld's twice-daily news service keeps you in touch with the latest, most important headlines from Australia and around the world.
Keep up with the latest virtualization technologies, products, news and features.
A daily service covering all the day's important news in networking.
RSS Feeds

So you think you can sing? If so, check out the latest contest from the group that created the SysAdmin of the Year award.

Now in its second year, the award encourages companies to vote for one of their own IT staff members to receive the honor. It was inspired by System Administrator Appreciation Day, an annual day of recognition for all the technical work that typically goes unnoticed. This year's SysAdmin of the Year contest challenges IT pros to display yet another of their talents: their song-writing and singing skills.

The Web site asks visitors: "Is your sysadmin a rock star?" And it seems some people believe they might be. For instance, lyrics posted on the song contest's Web site and credited to Eric "Maverick" Garner put the daily duties of a systems administrator to music. Here is a sample: "I download all the patches and fixes/ and countless system updates/ I push 'em out to all the servers/ so nobody escalates."

The chorus goes even further and sings the praises of the system administrator: "SysAdmin Rockstar, I'm your IT go-to guy/ SysAdmin Rockstar, I'll make it work, do or die."

Sponsored by IT search management vendor Splunk, the contest challenges potential candidates to "record your own vocal track and enhancements to the SysAdmin Rockstar song"; the company will award the creator of the best version a US$500 Amazon.com gift certificate; three runners-up each will get a US$100 Amazon.com gift certificate.

Judges include Jeff Bates, co-founder of Slashdot, Nagios creator Ethan Galstad and last year's SysAdmin of the Year Michael Beck, among others. Criteria for judging includes song originality, quality and degree of "sysadminism" -- or sense of humor regarding IT, according to Splunk officials.

The deadline for e-mailed song submissions in MP3 format is October 12.

This year's SysAdmin of the Year contest launched on the most recent annual appreciation day, which has been held on the last Friday in July since 2000. It wraps up with awards doled out at the Large Installation Systems Administrator (LISA) Conference in Dallas this November.

Prizes for SysAdmin of the Year include a Gibson Explorer guitar -- keeping with the rock star theme -- an Apple MacBook Pro, a trip to the LISA Conference and an enterprise license for Splunk IT management search software.

Other sponsors of the SysAdmin of the Year contest are SourceForge.net, Digg, NaSPA, LOPSA and Usenix's SAGE.

Computerworld Buyer's Guide - Vendors Matched to this Article
Market Place

Computerworld Member Login


 

Beyond Virtualisation - The Roadmap to 2012

CIO Breakfast Briefing
8:30am - 10:30am

Brisbane | 22 July | Sofitel Brisbane
Sydney | 23 July | Four Seasons Hotel
Canberra | 24 July | The Hyatt

Attend and discover:

  • What happens after virtualisation
  • The benefits automation drives
  • When automated infrastructures will emerge
  • What the roadmap to 2012 looks like
  • How to deliver an automated architecture
  • How to maximise your investment in virtualisation
Whitepaper

Tools and techniques for superior test management

In recent years, the field of application testing has evolved. While the pressure to deliver high-quality applications continues to mount, shrinking development and deployment schedules and high turnover rates for skilled employees make application testing challenging. Read on to discover how to combat these problems and complete your application testing successfully.

Enterprise IT Buyer's Guide
Find Technology Vendors Fast
 
Find vendors by name | Find by category
Sponsored Links