I Just Joined USENIX

I'm speaking at the USENIX Security conference next week, delivering two days from one of my training classes. I've been teaching at USENIX for two years, beginning with USENIX Security 2004.

When attending USENIX conferences I always get a few free copies of ;login: magazine. I've written about this magazine before. One of the best aspects of it is the conference proceedings section. It's a great way to read summaries of academic papers on security and system administration topics.

Because I'm working on submitting an application to pursue a PhD in computer security, I decided I needed to get serious about what's happening in the academic side of security. (Byt the way, I've started a NSM Research blog to capture thoughts and links to papers as I progress. I don't suggest reading it, since it's mainly for me. Anything worthwhile I will publish here. I detest keeping bookmarks, so blogging makes more sense.)

One way to get serious about security academics is to subscribe to ;login:, and I did that by joining USENIX. It's $115 per year, but I consider that a small investment in order to gain access to this great academic resource. It's true that ;login: issues are made public one year after they are published, but being one year behind won't help me when I prepare my research proposal.

A second reason I joined is that I continue to teach at USENIX, and I figured it was time to show I support the organization!

Are any of you USENIX members?

Comments

Anonymous said…
It's about time Richard!

I joined a while back, and thoroughly enjoy login. . .

I find the content enormously interesting. . . the book reviews, comparing technologies, 'how to utilize this pkg to do this', etc.

I think it has a lot less academic feel to it than you say though. Think about recent articles like using rcs as a sysadmin. . .

I agree that the cost of USENIX membership is well-worth it for login alone.
9:10 PM
Anonymous said…
I let my membership lapse when I stopped doing full-time UNIX administration several years ago.

USENIX is easily worth the $$. I am surprised you weren't a member already. It has its academic side, assuredly, but the practical benefits for the serious user of UNIX are there as well.

This was the first "computer organization" I joined, maybe in 1991(?). Its high-water mark has not been reached by any others, although the ACM might give it strong competition. I don't feel myself to be enough of an engineer or computer scientist to join the ACM, but perhaps that will change.
10:09 PM
Anonymous said…
You bet!
12:58 AM
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