Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!pacbell!lll-tis!helios.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!agate!garnet!weemba
From: weemba@garnet.berkeley.edu (Obnoxious Math Grad Student)
Newsgroups: news.sysadmin
Subject: Re: "Morris did it"--the new excuse?
Message-ID: <17086@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 16 Nov 88 11:55:23 GMT
References: <16915@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <17025@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <1202@fig.bbn.com>
Sender: usenet@agate.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: weemba@garnet.berkeley.edu (Obnoxious Math Grad Student)
Organization: Brahms Gang Posting Central
Lines: 51
In-reply-to: rsalz@bbn.com (Rich Salz)

In article <1202@fig.bbn.com>, rsalz@bbn (Rich Salz) writes:
>In <17025@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> weemba@garnet.berkeley.edu writes:
>>I read in the paper about a researcher complaining that thanks to the big
>>bad Morris worm, he was unable to carry out a critical transfer of files
>>from one machine to another: his sysadmin was too busy that day because
>>of the worm.  My only reaction was what an incompetent bozo: is this re-
>>searcher just as non-functioning when his sysadmin calls in sick?

>You're suffering from what Alvin Toffler would call failure of imagination,
>or what others might call ignorance.

And you're suffering from what I call arrogant condescension.  For one
thing, you're the one who's not imagining things.

>[picture omitted]

>Both citron and papaya are Cronus machines.  When BBN shut down the
>gateway Thursday morning to avoid further contamination I was unable to
>do some work I wanted to do.

So that's how it's set up at your site.  Not all sites are configured the
same way, nor reacted as cautiously as your site did.  Try a little imagi-
nation.

>There's another possibility: you just assumed that the researcher
>understood what was going on and the mass media reported the technical
>story correct.

That's right.  In retrospect, I'm embarrassed to admit that I ever once
believed a technical comment in a newspaper at face value.  Nevertheless,
I *do* know researchers who are essentially helpless if the right people
are not around to do the little things for them, so the story did not and
does not sound all that outlandish to me.

>	         Or you just took the opportunity to express obnoxiousness
>at the slightest cause.

Or maybe I've seen and heard dozens/hundreds of horror stories about sci-
entists who are complete computer illiterates who bludgeon their way
through machines and programs at a very low efficiency, and so gotten
very cynical over them as a result.  More on this in a separate article.

>You've made some good points, but they're getting drowned in the screed.
>You'd be more effective if you toned down both the tenor and the volume.

Ah, fuck off.  You want to disagree with a point of mine, then go ahead
and do so.  What's the point of your being rude about it?  Really, Rich,
I expect better of *you*.

ucbvax!garnet!weemba	Matthew P Wiener/Brahms Gang/Berkeley CA 94720
"It is good to be Rich--the rabbi himself will speak at your funeral."