J. Pournelle: Insightful one moment, clueless the next

Post #6,103 by DonRichards 8/21/01 2:51:56 PM Reply	J. Pournelle: Insightful one moment, clueless the next His latest editorial over at [link\|http://www.byte.com/documents/s=857/byt20010816s0003/0820_pournelle.html\|Byte] discusses the case of the Russian programmer arrested at the instigation Adobe for creating the decryption tool that allows "fair use" of purchased eBook content. Some selected quotes- [quote] Sklyarov is unlikely to be convicted if this case ever comes to trial. In addition to heavy-duty Constitutional issues, there are a number of practical legal matters. Take, for example, the issue of "effectiveness." Suppose, for example, that Congress makes it a Federal crime to pick a lock. You now "secure" your cabinet with a paper clip. If I remove your paper clip, can you accuse me of picking your lock? The DMCA covers only "effective" protection; if your software can be broken by a single programmer in Russia, how was it "effective?" snip Sklyarov is free on bail, but forbidden to leave Northern California. I predict that if the case ever comes to trial the law will be thrown out, either on Constitutional grounds or on the narrower principle that it is too hopelessly vague to be enforceable. If the matter is ever put to a grownup in the Department of Justice, the only question will be "How do we get out of this with a minimum of egg on our faces?" It's worse for Adobe. Brad Templeton, Chairman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, suggested to Adobe (once he found a grownup to talk to) that not only ought they withdraw from the case (they did that) but also offer to pay for Sklyarov's defense. That would show they had learned a lesson. Of course they declined to do that. I'm willing to bet they will one day wish they had. At a minimum, Adobe has made sworn enemies of a number of people I certainly would not want to have as my enemies. Many very clever people will now be devoted to the principle that Adobe will never, ever, have an unbroken encryption scheme: . . . [endquote] He then rambles on about his seemingly endless troubles with highspeed internet access-- dull, I won't bore you with details. Next comes a write up on virus outbreaks concentrating on the most recent stuff. [quote] July was the month of the virus and worm. First came Code Red, which only affected servers, and was so badly written that it was killed off by a simple address change on the whitehouse.gov server. That was a warning. Code Red phase II, which wasn't really related to the first one except for a similarity in names, was much worse and, as I write this, still eats a lot of time and resources. Both of these affected Microsoft IIS servers, and the patch for fixing the security hole in those servers, had been out for a month. Any IIS Administrator who hadn't bothered to download and apply that patch and reset the server \ufffd it took all of five minutes at the slowest possible hookup speed \ufffd deserves an exciting new career in concrete breaking. I have no sympathy for worm farmers, but I have even less for "professionals" who can't be bothered to do what they are paid for . . . [endquote] I suppose it never occured to him that IIS is not necessarily under the control of an administrator or, for that matter, even known to be installed. "When it crosses my mind to do something, I don't ask why, I ask why not. And usually there's no reason not to, so I just go ahead. It's given me the strangest collection of hats"
Post #6,215 by wharris2 8/22/01 1:41:28 AM Reply	In his defense he doesn't claim to be an expert, but a user. Email him about the "invisible" IIS and he'll probably note it or publish it somewhere. I've found Jerry to be more entertaining than informative, myself. Pick your poison - he's certainly not one you want to go to when looking for info about the latest worms/viruses/etc. French Zombies are zapping me with lasers!
Post #6,381 by Brandioch 8/22/01 8:50:59 PM Reply	Which is my problem with him. How many years can you write about a subject and STILL be a "newbie" or "user"?
Post #6,383 by Andrew Grygus 8/22/01 8:56:17 PM Reply	In Jerry's case . . . . . he's adequately demonstrated he can be a cluless newbie for as long as it takes. A lifetime if necessary. [link\|http://www.aaxnet.com\|AAx]
Post #7,119 by mhuber 8/29/01 4:48:06 PM Reply	It has been a while, hasn't it? I remember reading his stuff before DOS was dominant... His stuff (at least in the past, I haven't read it lately) teaches that you can mess around with computers without utterly destroying them by mistake, and to try different things. Personaly, I think reading his stuff is good for newbies and pre-newbies, as long as they aren't in a situation where some admin is going to have to suffer for the learning experiences that he inspires. Not much real information, but inspiring in a "if this guy can do it, I can" way. White guys in suits know best - Pat McCurdy
Post #7,174 by static 8/30/01 1:05:32 AM Reply	I think he is determined to remain that way. It was amusing reading about his first attempt to network his computers: he didn't know you had to terminate each end of 10Base2 co-ax. But think how many others would have tried to network two computers and had that exact problem if Jerry hadn't done it and publically admitted to it? He does have that advantage and for no other reason, really, am I happy to see him continue to write about his computer mis-adventures. Wade. "All around me are nothing but fakes Come with me on the biggest fake of all!"
Post #7,176 by Ashton 8/30/01 1:29:29 AM Reply	Simply: many more Jerrys in world than 'us' And that seems unlikely to change much; have to be weird to even know what (say), "seven significant figures" means (across a large scale of implications, in that 'means') As the techno- advances, the social gap widens: ergo Windoze and the marketing of such: See ? ya don't need to know shit. Don't listen to them long-haired awful GEEKS what Know Stuff.. yer OK Billy-Bob, Just Like You Are! Here! have a free demo of Open Sockets; on us. We'd Best Get Used to the Phenom.. no?
Post #7,201 by mhuber 8/30/01 10:52:18 AM Reply	Yeah, but a lot of 'us' start out Jerrys We just get over it in a decade or two. He has a target audience and a particular voice and style. If he got to be an expert, he'd lose all of that. White guys in suits know best - Pat McCurdy
Post #7,258 by Ashton 8/30/01 3:51:10 PM Reply	Think you're closest; I met him at a SF show In fact - handed him a sample of Tweek, the "contact enhancer" which cures intermittents - he tried it; it worked (first on a flaky KB contact IIRC) and named it, Product of the Year.. just after the original HP LaserJet. (Not a bad product to be "second-best" to, no?) While you can't tell much in 5 min (!) he grokked the rather subtle means by which this substance works = an oily long-chain polymer with the unusual property that it is an 'insulator' at normal atmo pressures, but under the (v. high local micro-level) pressure of a metal-metal contact: it is a conductor. None of the other so-called 'cleaners' had such properties. (By now I think it's been ripped off, but the theft cloaked in the ever-convenient 'trade-secret' category of.. ingredient-withholding) Anyway he possessed enough general knowledge of physics and materials - to see the implications, quickly. So I'd have to guess that at least some of his 'insouciance' is er feigned (??) too.. Like Jack Benny's penuriousness: an exact opposite to his actual character. (Also, like me - he may just be too slothful to do enough of the homework in some situations: and tries to fake it. Like when I look at the 750+ pp. re "Administering W2K" and notice: the book is merely about the Differences between NT and W2K! And the Real manual is 8000 PAGES on CD. Ugh. Billy would totally envelop All Available Time, were we stupid enough to Believe in HMS Barbarian and those who sale er sail in her) Cheers, A.
Post #7,291 by static 8/30/01 9:02:45 PM Reply	I think he's smarter than most people give him credit for. I mean, he and Larry Niven - both separately and together - create science fiction worlds made out of real science. Wade "All around me are nothing but fakes Come with me on the biggest fake of all!"

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