syslog

This month, I'm happy to announce that Gwen Clark has joined Sys Admin magazine as Managing Editor. Gwen comes to us with a background in journalism and experience at CMP in marketing, circulation, and customer service. Those of you who've submitted proposals or manuscripts recently have already corresponded with Gwen. She has quickly made a difference in smoothing out the workload, and I'm very pleased to have her on the team.

Also, don't forget the first ever Sys Admin Technical Conference happening in Baltimore on May 7th and 8th. Online registration is under way, and early bird registration ends March 30. If you sign up by then, you'll save $250 off the regular price.

This 2-day conference includes courses for both beginners and experienced systems administrators from industry experts including Hal Pomeranz (the technical editor for Sys Admin), Randal Schwartz (author of the Perl Advisor column), as well as Æleen Frisch, Richard Bejtlich, and Tom Limoncelli. To find out more and to register for the SA Tech conference, please visit:

http://www.sysadminmag.com/events/

For a sample of Randal Schwartz's expert advice, check out his Perl Advisor column in this issue. In his column, Randal not only shows how to include a file or share code between programs but, in his inimitable way, also explains why the simplest approach may lead to problems later.

Note that Amy Rich is taking a well-deserved break from writing her monthly Q&A column, so it does not appear in this issue. Rest assured, however, that Amy's column will be back in June with practical solutions to your tricky administration problems.

For future issues, we're considering proposals for articles on information security, storage, server management, performance tuning, and advanced Linux administration. If any topics within these areas appeal to you, please send a proposal to Gwen Clark, our new managing editor at: SAeditors@cmp.com. And, of course, if you have questions or feedback, you can contact me directly at: aankerholz@cmp.com. Gwen and I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely yours,

Amber Ankerholz
Editor in Chief