Terrorism and Hitler, was: Triple DES

[Derek Atkins]

"Ted Roche" <tedroche-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> writes:

> On 6/14/07, someone wrote:
>
>> Not understanding security code is a BIG no-no, and IMNSHO should be
>> a firable offense.
>
> This being the second or third time someone has taken the liberty of
> "firing" someone else on this board, I wanted to ask if we could
> consider a moratorium on job terminations for a while here, folks.

If I can get someone fired by stating on this list that doing
something extremely dangerous should be a firable offense then I've
got a LOT more power than I ever thought I had!  Either that or
people take me a lot more seriously than I thought people did.  ;)

> I am fortunate my boss does not read this forum, else I would have
> been fired a couple times this week.

Oh?  You've written cryptographic code without understanding what
you're doing?

> I'd appreciate it if no one offered to fire anyone, unless they have
> done it a few times in the real world, in meat space, and felt what it
> was like to tell someone else their job was over, they were going to
> have to find another way to feed the kids, they might lose their
> house, face humiliation in front of their friends and collegues, and
> there was a chance their career was ruined. This isn't something you
> do because you don't like the color of their shirt, this is something
> you do that might gravely wound another human being. And if you do it
> wrong, there's a good chance they can come back with lawyers, guns and
> money and ruin your life, too. But that's another rant.

Actually, I have fired people in real life.  No, it's not pleasant.
It's even less pleasant when the person is a friend of yours (and was
a friend before they got hired into the position).

> A co-worker, employee or client screwing something up is a chance for
> education, correction, and making the situation better. And sometimes
> that co-worker is you.

The education starts before implementation, and IMHO ends after
deployment.  There's a big difference between an honest mistake
(e.g. put the ++ in the wrong place) versus just not understanding the
fundamentals and not asking someone who does.  Imagine a surgeon
performing a surgery for the first time; now imagine them performing
that surgery on you, your spouse, your kids, or your parents.
Wouldn't you rather have that sugeon to have performed that surgery
before?  To really understand how to do it and all the potentential
complications?  Or would you trust your life (or their life) to
someone who only copied the instructions off the web somewhere?

-derek

PS: I hope you had a wonderful weekend!  :)
-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord-DPNOqEs/LNQ at public.gmane.org                        PGP key available

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