互联网与文化web.mit.edu
我们无法把电子邮件发送到 500 英里以外（2002）
We can't send email more than 500 miles (2002)
2015 — 2020，它一次次回到首页
黑点是上首页（≥ 50 分）的那次投稿，空心点是没冲上去的投稿，点越大分数越高。
导读
这是一则流传很广的 sysadmin 经典故事：一位统计学家报告说，邮件发不到 500 英里以外的收件人那里；系统管理员起初觉得荒唐，后来在 sendmail 配置中找到了原因。页面是这篇 2002 年幽默回忆的转载/存档。
为什么经久不衰：它把“用户报告听起来离谱”和“配置错误可能极其隐蔽”结合在一起，是调试文化里常被重读的经典。
HN 评论精选
当年造成 500 英里问题的顾问本人现身，说明是升级 sendmail 时引入的配置问题。
我这么多年下来变得更谨慎、成了配置管理的狂热信徒，也终于能放下尴尬：我就是那个把事情搞砸的顾问。背景是：统计系除了 Solaris 工作站还跑着各种系统，而 UNC-CH 内部另有一个更便宜、更熟悉微软产品的支持团队，统计系把支持预算给了他们。当那个团队需要 Unix 支持时，他们叫来了我的雇主 Network Computing Solutions，我就出场了。当时 UNC-CH 实际上没有防火墙（学术自由之类的原因），统计系的 Solaris 机器也没有定期打补丁。不速之客已经侵入了它们，最可能的入口是 sendmail——当时互联网上最臭名昭著的漏洞。由于我倾向于抹盘重装的做法不被接受——停机太久、计费工时太多——最显然的做法就是升级 sendmail。剩下的就是历史了。
thyrsus查看英文原文
I've had enough years to become wiser, become a fanatic for configuration management, and get over the embarrassment: I'm the consultant that screwed things up. Some background: the Stat department was running a variety of systems besides the Solaris workstations, and there was, within UNC-CH, a separate support organization that was cheaper and more comfortable with Microsoft products where Stat was sending their support dollars. When that organization needed Unix support, they called my employer, Network Computing Solutions, and I showed up. There was effectively no firewall at UNC-CH at the time (something something academic freedom something something), and the Stat Solaris machines were not being regularly patched. Uninvited guests had infested them, and it appeared the most likely entry point was sendmail - at the time, it was the most notorious vulnerability on the internet. Since my preference to wipe and reload was unacceptable - too much downtime and too many billable hours - the obvious thing to do was update sendmail. The rest is history.
提供原始故事、FAQ 和 HN 过往讨论的链接。
来源：https://www.ibiblio.org/harris/500milemail.html ；FAQ：https://www.ibiblio.org/harris/500milemail-faq.html ；过往提交：https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=500%20mile%20mail&sort=byPopularity&type=story 和 https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=http%3A%2F%2Fweb.mit.edu%2Fjemorris%2Fhumor%2F500-miles&sort=byPopularity&type=story（我似乎找不到同时包含两个 URL 的搜索查询）。
surround查看英文原文
Source: https://www.ibiblio.org/harris/500milemail.html FAQ about the story: https://www.ibiblio.org/harris/500milemail-faq.html Past submissions: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=500%20mile%20mail&sort=byPopularity&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=http%3A%2F%2Fweb.mit.edu%2Fjemorris%2Fhumor%2F500-miles&sort=byPopularity&type=story (It seems I can’t find a search query which includes both urls)
正是双方都认真追查，才让这个普通故障变成经典故事。
我喜欢这件事需要一场完美风暴：一个统计学家和一个系统管理员都各自用自己的方式执着地追查这个奇怪间歇性问题。这种事本可能发生一百万次，但故事会无聊得多：“嘿，我发邮件有奇怪的间歇性问题。”“嗯，我们用错了 Sendmail 版本。修好了，结案。”
drtz查看英文原文
I love that this took a perfect storm of having a statistician and sys admin both bent on finding the cause of a weird intermittent problem in their own way. This could have happened a million times where the story was a lot less interesting: "Hey, I'm having weird intermittent problems sending email." "Hmm, we're using the wrong version of Sendmail. All fixed, case closed."
用户认真做统计分析反而帮了大忙，不应被视作麻烦。
要是每一条我收到的 bug 报告都能由一位地质统计学家处理就好了……通常我收到的是“嘿，X 用不了”。我通常三种回复之一就能解决：“你电脑开了吗？”“你联网了吗？”“试试刷新。”我其实很惊讶，这个场景里的系统管理员居然觉得统计系做了研究并提交了一份记录详尽的错误报告是件坏事。
IgorPartola查看英文原文
If only every bug report that I received had been processed by a geostatistician... Usually I get a "hey, I can't get X to work". One of three responses from me usually fixes it: "Is your computer on?", "are you online?", and "try hitting refresh". I am actually surprised the sysadmin in this scenario thought it was a bad thing that the statistics department did their research and presented a well documented error.
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