[Novalug] What is your "Linux admin IQ?"

[Paul D. Bain]

	Infoworld has a "Linux admin IQ test:"

	http://www.infoworld.com/t/linux/linux-admin-iq-test-066

I am especially interested in whether any of you who 
_HAVE_SECURITY_CLEARANCES_ can best my score. Here is _my_ score:

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/7720/linuxadminiqtestpauldba.png

OK, smug, security-cleared MotherFu's, can you best my score?

	I suspect that a few of you can best my score, including, for example: 
Jim Cottrell, G. Pryzby, Brad Alexander, William Ball, Chuck Moss, David 
Niemi. But I doubt that most of you with _SECURITY_CLEARANCES_ can do 
so. Which would tend to buttress my belief that many of you have jobs, 
even as I languish in the unemployment line (nearly 16 months now), 
solely because you have clearances, not because you are knowledgeable 
with respect to Linux.

	Don't believe me? OK, then take the test.

	DISCLAIMER: I concede that I got lucky on a few of the questions. I did 
not know the answer (to some questions) and had to proceed by process of 
elimination. I eliminated two of the choices and then guessed as to the 
two choices that remained.

	BTW, some of the questions are "trick" questions. Read them 
_carefully_. _Every_ word.

	Truthfully, this test is not a good measure of Linux competence. Not at 
all. Some of the questions related to historical trivia and do not 
relate to competence as a Linux administrator. If I were designing such 
a test, I would proceed differently. I would want to know, for example:

(a) What is the most important trend in IT today (TMITIITT)?

(b) How do you stay abreast of TMITIITT?

(c) How do you trouble-shoot? What are the steps in your 
trouble-shooting methodology?

(d) When trouble-shooting, which resources would you use and in what 
order? Why?

(e) How do you measure an IT professional's intelligence?

IMO, one of the most important differences between a good administrator 
and an average one lies in their trouble-shooting ability. I have had a 
few bosses who had considerably more experience than I but who could 
_not_ trouble-shoot. They lacked the necessary, fundamental knowledge, 
e.g., the primary differences between TCP and UDP. Furthermore, they 
were not very smart. Nice guys. But not very smart.

-- Paul Bain