Perhaps. However, for better or worse, diversity is in direct competition with standards compliance.
Really? You mean all those STD-10 (RFC-821) compliant mail servers are exactly identical? So we may as well all use <insert your favourite mail server here>?:-)
But seriously, you've got this backwards. Standards compliance permits diversity, by providing a common ground for diverse elements to interact over. It doesn't matter if your mail server is written in C, Perl, INTERCAL, or PostScript, it doesn't matter if the processing work is being done by a Pentium, an Athlon, a G4, or a Benedictine monastic order, as long as you speak SMTP, welcome to the club. And, with dozens of different servers out there, it's doubtful you can take all of them down with one exploit.
Speaking of which, anyone know of any buffer overflows you can use against a Benedictine monastic order?:-)
The fact that in this case, one of the branches of that big MUA tree has... questionable ideas about acceptable behaviour... is supposed to be dealt with by a little thing called ``survival of the fittest''. In theory. In practice, it seems you can suck rocks, as long as you breed like wildfire.:-(
@>-`--,-- I do have a cause. It's obscenity. I'm for it. --Tom Lehrer
If the people who installed your security system called to advise you that `John Smith', even though his ID seemed legitimate, was not a representative of their company, and should not be permitted to maintain your system, would you be complaining?
It's the same situation here. Alex de Joode, and by extension, openssh.org, even though the host name seems legitimate, are not related to OpenSSH. If you are sufficiently concerned about security to be looking at OpenSSH, this fact matters.
The problem is, ``boycott'' was a bad^Wpolitically unwise^W^Wbad choice of words.
I have been in meetings with the Bill Gates and the Warren Buffets and Jay Walker, and Jeff Bezos, and Jerry Yang, and all these people, and they don't know where it's going either. They're making judgments. They're making educated judgments about how they're going to fashion the future,
Because, of course, the future has to fashioned by corporations. Really. The Corp is mother, the Corp is father.
but I'm telling you: the future is like walking down some unlit corridor, and it gets darker and darker as you move into it. And after a while you're moving on instinct alone.
lamp \'lamp\ n
a vessel with a wick for burning an inflammable liquid (as oil) to produce artificial light
any of various devices for producing light or heat
a celestial body
a source of intellectual or spiritual illumination
(Webster's Ninth New Collegiate)
Valenti's problem is that the lamp that illuminates the dark tunnel of the future is being held by a 16-year old Norwegian boy currently in jail, not by the old boy's club he socializes with. Maybe if he asks nicely, we'll show him the way out.
Darn, I wish I could come up with a good way to use the third definition under lamp right now. IANAOrator.
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Really? You mean all those STD-10 (RFC-821) compliant mail servers are exactly identical? So we may as well all use <insert your favourite mail server here>? :-)
But seriously, you've got this backwards. Standards compliance permits diversity, by providing a common ground for diverse elements to interact over. It doesn't matter if your mail server is written in C, Perl, INTERCAL, or PostScript, it doesn't matter if the processing work is being done by a Pentium, an Athlon, a G4, or a Benedictine monastic order, as long as you speak SMTP, welcome to the club. And, with dozens of different servers out there, it's doubtful you can take all of them down with one exploit.
Speaking of which, anyone know of any buffer overflows you can use against a Benedictine monastic order? :-)
The fact that in this case, one of the branches of that big MUA tree has... questionable ideas about acceptable behaviour... is supposed to be dealt with by a little thing called ``survival of the fittest''. In theory. In practice, it seems you can suck rocks, as long as you breed like wildfire. :-(
@>-`--,--
I do have a cause. It's obscenity. I'm for it.
--Tom Lehrer
Which would, of course, constitute divulging Microsoft ``secrets''. Q.E.D.
@>-`--,--
I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me.
-- Hunter S. Thompson
Well, put the pieces together...
M-I-T-N-I-C-K... :-)
If the people who installed your security system called to advise you that `John Smith', even though his ID seemed legitimate, was not a representative of their company, and should not be permitted to maintain your system, would you be complaining?
It's the same situation here. Alex de Joode, and by extension, openssh.org, even though the host name seems legitimate, are not related to OpenSSH. If you are sufficiently concerned about security to be looking at OpenSSH, this fact matters.
The problem is, ``boycott'' was a bad^Wpolitically unwise^W^Wbad choice of words.
Well, speaking as a Canadian, I can reassure you that from what I've seen, Canadians aren't offended by ``Blame Canada.'' Not even Anne Murray. :-)
Because, of course, the future has to fashioned by corporations. Really. The Corp is mother, the Corp is father.
lamp \'lamp\ n
-
- a vessel with a wick for burning an inflammable liquid (as oil) to produce artificial light
- any of various devices for producing light or heat
- a celestial body
- a source of intellectual or spiritual illumination
(Webster's Ninth New Collegiate)Valenti's problem is that the lamp that illuminates the dark tunnel of the future is being held by a 16-year old Norwegian boy currently in jail, not by the old boy's club he socializes with. Maybe if he asks nicely, we'll show him the way out.
Darn, I wish I could come up with a good way to use the third definition under lamp right now. IANAOrator.