Hostnames

Assigning meaningful yet witty hostnames is an important task for every systems administrator.

When I recently took over a pair of webservers named nelson and milhouse, I immediately thought of Watergate-era US politicians, since I knew my new boss had studied politics at Berkeley. Only later did I realize that it was actually Matt Groening who was thinking of politicans when he was naming characters for The Simpsons. (The companion servers itchy and scratchy should have been a dead giveaway.)

Too bad, since the firewalls protecting nelson and milhouse would have been perfectly named haldeman and erlichman. haldeman in front, he’s the heavy.