👋 Hey there, I am Waylon Walker
I am a Husband, Father of two beautiful children, Senior Python Developer currently working in the Data Engineering platform space. I am a continuous learner, and sha
Been using UNIX since the late 80s; Linux since the mid-90s; virtualization since the early 2000s and spent the past few years working in the cloud space.
Location
Alexandria, VA, USA
Education
B.S. Psychology from Pennsylvania State University
Back when most Unix systems were concurrently-multiuser and before fingerd was banned from most Unix systems as a security-risk, you could set up a few world-readable files in your world-readable home directory that the finger-daemon would read. Most of the common fingerd implementations would read your .plan and your .project files. Some even let you set up a "face" file (also usable by some mail systems). If someone fingered you, those files would be used to display additional information about you.
Further, the fingerd service would read additional elements from the GECOS field of your /etc/passwd entry:
Building and room number or contact person
Office telephone number
Home telephone number
Even to today, if you've got a personal UNIX system, you can add all of the above to your /etc/passwd file and home-directory ...just that, both due to common security settings and the fact that most UNIX systems are now single-user, nobody does any more.
Effectively, the whole GitHub profile README.md is another example of "what's old is new, again".
It probably won't be long after corporate security groups become aware of the capability that employers that try to limit what employees put on LinkedIn will be adding personal GitHub README files to their social media policies.
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I'm Curious... what is a
.planBack when most Unix systems were concurrently-multiuser and before
fingerdwas banned from most Unix systems as a security-risk, you could set up a few world-readable files in your world-readable home directory that the finger-daemon would read. Most of the commonfingerdimplementations would read your.planand your.projectfiles. Some even let you set up a "face" file (also usable by some mail systems). If someonefingered you, those files would be used to display additional information about you.Further, the
fingerdservice would read additional elements from the GECOS field of your/etc/passwdentry:Even to today, if you've got a personal UNIX system, you can add all of the above to your
/etc/passwdfile and home-directory ...just that, both due to common security settings and the fact that most UNIX systems are now single-user, nobody does any more.Effectively, the whole GitHub profile README.md is another example of "what's old is new, again".
It probably won't be long after corporate security groups become aware of the capability that employers that try to limit what employees put on LinkedIn will be adding personal GitHub README files to their social media policies.