Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ames!amdahl!pyramid!octopus!pete
From: pete@octopus.UUCP (Pete Holzmann)
Newsgroups: news.admin
Subject: Re: Malicious posting worries (was re: A counter-example...)
Keywords: Be Practical
Message-ID: <272@octopus.UUCP>
Date: 1 Jul 88 16:55:16 GMT
References: <266@octopus.UUCP> <3331@s.cc.purdue.edu>
Reply-To: pete@octopus.UUCP (Pete Holzmann)
Organization: Octopus Enterprises, Cupertino CA
Lines: 40

In article <3331@s.cc.purdue.edu> rsk@s.cc.purdue.edu (Rich Kulawiec) writes:
>>And my response is: these 'unpleasant possibilities' exist right now
>>in many forms on the net. They are worries that we must all live with.
>
>I do not agree that we "must all live with" these problems.  Further, I
>feel that a partial solution to the problem is to stop carrying binaries.
>A total solution would be to stop carrying source code as well.  I am
>unwilling to accept the loss of functionality that this latter would
>entail, while I am willing to accept the risk that it poses.  However,
>in the former case (binaries), I am not willing to accept the
>functionality/risk tradeoff.

Ahh, now you understand. There is always a functionality/risk tradeoff.
For you, who have no use for the binaries, they pose a risk without any
functional usefulness. For me, binaries are often important and useful.

You find source code useful enough that you are willing to read it before
compiling, then live with the risk that maybe there was a gotcha after all.

I find binaries useful enough that I am willing to try them out on an
isolated machine, then live with the risk that there's a problem after all.

And my original statement IS true. We all must live with 'unpleasant
possibilities' until the day that someone finds a way to eliminate all
program bugs.  Practically speaking, buggy software is much more of a problem
on the net than malicious software. I'm sure that software bugs have caused
MUCH more aggravation than viruses ever will! Sure, a few people get trashed
by a virus. How many get trashed by program bugs? How many get trashed by
their own operator error?

Functionality/risk tradeoffs are in the eyes of the beholder. Please put
yourself in the other guy's sandals before assuming that the functionality/
risk tradeoffs he lives with are intolerable.

Pete
-- 
  OOO   __| ___      Peter Holzmann, Octopus Enterprises
 OOOOOOO___/ _______ USPS: 19611 La Mar Court, Cupertino, CA 95014
  OOOOO \___/        UUCP: {hpda,pyramid}!octopus!pete
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