Xref: utzoo news.sysadmin:1313 news.admin:3943 Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!osu-cis!att!cbnews!wbt From: wbt@cbnews.ATT.COM (William B. Thacker) Newsgroups: news.sysadmin,news.admin Subject: Re: Getting Even Message-ID: <2049@cbnews.ATT.COM> Date: 10 Nov 88 13:33:10 GMT References: <367@execu.UUCP> <265@acheron.UUCP> <1636@pikes.Colorado.EDU> <5343@medusa.cs.purdue.edu> <36111@clyde.ATT.COM> Reply-To: wbt@cbnews.ATT.COM (William B. Thacker) Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 76 In article <36111@clyde.ATT.COM> rcj@moss.UUCP (Curtis Jackson) writes: >In article <5343@medusa.cs.purdue.edu> spaf@cs.purdue.edu (Gene Spafford) writes: >}Consider an analogy: >} >}Locks built in to the handle of a door are usually quite poor; >}deadbolts are a preferred lock, although they too are not always >}secure. These standard, non deadbolt locks can be opened in a few >}seconds with a screwdriver or a piece of plastic by someone with little >}training. >} >}Now, if you have such a lock on your door, and you wake up in the >}middle of the night to find that a stranger has broken into your home >}and is wandering about, bumping into things in the dark and breaking >}them, how do you react? Do you excuse him because the lock is easy to >}circumvent? Do you thank him because he has shown you how poor your >}locks are? Do you think *you* should be blamed because you never got >}around to replacing the lock with a better one and installing a >}burgler alarm? > >Dr. Analogy here -- this one doesn't wash, either, Spaf. >It's better than most, though -- let's see if we can make it accurate. >Add the fact that there are many people who have a key to the door of >your house, that there are many people coming in, leaving, and wandering >all over your house at all hours of the day and night. They aren't in >your bedroom, because you have a super-good lock that only a few select >people have keys to ;-) but they're everywhere else all the time. >They're watching your TV, using your phones, reading your books, using >your appliances, etc. > >In addition, you have a separate door that allows *anyone* in -- it >isn't even locked! And there's an honor-system book exchange in the >separate area of the house that it opens onto! > >NOW, are you going to be as upset if you find someone you don't know >wandering around in your house in the middle of everyone else? Well, Well, while we're bashing analogies... yours is even further off the mark, Curtis. Consider that those many people with keys to your door are all your close friends, who you know you can trust; and that they contributed many of those books in your exchange. When your TV breaks down, one of them fixes it. You don't just give a key to anyone. Now, the door to your book exchange isn't locked; its hidden behind a secret panel. Maybe *you* didn't even know it was there. Certainly, it's impossible for 90% of the population to find. Finally, some stranger goes to school for four years, studying architecture. He gets the blueprints for your house and studies them, too, until he finally discovers that secret door. Instead of sending you a letter describing the door and advising you lock it, he decides for something a bit "showier". Thus, the next morning, you wake up to find strange, muddy bootprints all over your house, and all the rooms are filled to the ceiling with styrofoam peanuts. Sure, it only takes you a day or so to clean the place up, and he could have done more, but... In a related matter : What ever happened to Captain Midnight, the gentleman who commandeered HBO's satellite a few years ago ? I seem to recall that he was caught, but I don't know what happened after that. Seems to be rather an analogous case. ------------------------------ valuable coupon ------------------------------- Bill Thacker att!cbnews!wbt "C" combines the power of assembly language with the flexibility of assembly language. Disclaimer: Farg 'em if they can't take a joke ! ------------------------------- clip and save --------------------------------