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“Subject: Urgent Warning”

daniel.haxx.se

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Re: “Subject: Urgent Warning”

#101

Post by smithkl42 »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #46
madaxe_again wrote: post #24

Ah, this sort of thing is as old as the moon. We run an eCommerce platform, have a variety of clients using it, they have a number of customers. At least once a week we get an accusation either from a client or an end-user of some outlandish nefarious behaviour, usually due to some complete lack of understanding of the nature of technology. Way back when, we responded, tried to help, tried to explain, but it tends to…

> Anyway. When you have a conversation with an idiot, nobody watching can tell which one of you is the idiot. A friend of mine who works as a college professor has a fun approach to deal with the kinds of random cranks who contact him out of the blue seeking someone to validate their wild Time-Cube-style theories and "research": he responds to each one by providing an introduction to the previous one. Apparently, he…

This is basically the plot of Umberto Eco's book "Foucault's Pendulum".

Re: “Subject: Urgent Warning”

#103

Post by cristoperb »

DanBC wrote: post #77
EdwardCoffin wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This idea terrifies me even more than it amuses me. The notion of the long-term influence that could be gained by a network of cooperating Time-Cube-style theorists is enough to give me nightmares.

See also the Freemen on the land who pass incoherent legal information on to each other.

(American readers may be more familiar with the similar "Sovereign Citizen movement": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_citizen_movement)

Re: “Subject: Urgent Warning”

#104

Post by ghaff »

mwcampbell wrote: post #76
rakoo wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you bellow at a stranger because you don't understand something, you're an idiot, sorry. If you think everyone has to know everything before seeking help, then you are the idiot, sorry. The woman probably doesn't know what a software is, other than a "Download" button on a website and an icon on the toolbar. Do you expect those people to differentiate between the software and the libraries underneath ? Of course…

But Daniel replied once with an explanation of why his name was in the software credits, and the user persisted in blaming him for her problems.

Yes, but she probably didn't really understand his explanation. Look, I get that some people are, from my point of view, obtuse at best. I've had people convinced that I had some affiliation that I didn't or that I added them to some mailing list that I didn't (and unable to comprehend that they could follow the unsubscribe link to get off it). But they're not necessarily idiots. I've provided enough technical support over the years to family (iPad is the best gift, for me, I gave ever) to appreciate that many otherwise bright people really just don't understand how this tech works.

Re: “Subject: Urgent Warning”

#105

Post by kbenson »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #46
madaxe_again wrote: post #24

Ah, this sort of thing is as old as the moon. We run an eCommerce platform, have a variety of clients using it, they have a number of customers. At least once a week we get an accusation either from a client or an end-user of some outlandish nefarious behaviour, usually due to some complete lack of understanding of the nature of technology. Way back when, we responded, tried to help, tried to explain, but it tends to…

> Anyway. When you have a conversation with an idiot, nobody watching can tell which one of you is the idiot. A friend of mine who works as a college professor has a fun approach to deal with the kinds of random cranks who contact him out of the blue seeking someone to validate their wild Time-Cube-style theories and "research": he responds to each one by providing an introduction to the previous one. Apparently, he…

In the case or people threatening legal action against you, putting them in touch with each other may not be the wisest move.

Re: “Subject: Urgent Warning”

#106

Post by slig »

emilburzo wrote: post #59
Walkman wrote: post #19

I'm starting to believe to use my real name for my email address was not a very wise choice (kissgyorgy@me.com).

Oh wow, I never thought about how Hungarian names sound in English. A website where you input a name and it spits out if it contains profanity in any language would be useful. But yeah, you should definitely change it.

There's one made by a HN user: WordSafety http://wordsafety.com/ "Show HN" thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10117297

Re: “Subject: Urgent Warning”

#107

Post by DenisM »

webapper wrote: post #20
elthran wrote: post #6

Definitely agree with one of the comments on the blog - the domain (haxx.se) really doesn't help the author's case here when trying to explain to a layperson.

On my SaaS application's file submission page, I have a small paragraph directed toward administrators along the lines of: If you'd like to batch upload your files, download curl from (haxx.se url), and use the following command line, bla bla bla. Having this link to "haxx.se" is a relatively high volume source of comments by my users.

Host it yourself, that's what I do.

It also helps with curl changes breaking something or other. Once upon a time curl has optimized something, and it triggered a bug in AWS EC2 network driver.

Re: “Subject: Urgent Warning”

#108

Post by kbenson »

nradov wrote: post #44
jerf wrote: post #27

About nine years ago now, I worked for a small security startup that managed to make its way up to PCI certification for scanning websites before keeling over dead. It died the "just one more feature before we can release" death, so you've never heard of it. You've probably never even heard of the company that bought it/put it out of its misery. I'm pretty sure the customer base never exceeded the low single digits.…

Ha ha yes. I worked for a healthcare startup and for a while the email to webmaster@ went to my inbox. We sold software to large provider organizations and didn't deal with patients at all. This was very clear on our web site. Yet I routinely received emails from random people seeking medical advice: heart disease, indigestion, headaches, diabetes, etc. It was kind of shocking the level of private personal details so…

I think the easiest way to describe the role of a web/software developer in these cases is to say you are the equivalent of an outsourced secretary, and one that has no access to any useful information regarding the issue at hand at that.

Re: “Subject: Urgent Warning”

#109

Post by mturmon »

jerf wrote: post #27

About nine years ago now, I worked for a small security startup that managed to make its way up to PCI certification for scanning websites before keeling over dead. It died the "just one more feature before we can release" death, so you've never heard of it. You've probably never even heard of the company that bought it/put it out of its misery. I'm pretty sure the customer base never exceeded the low single digits.…

The Museum of Jurassic Technology in LA has an exhibit of letters written by interested citizens to the astronomers at Mt. Wilson observatory in the early decades of the 20th century (http://mjt.org/exhibits/letters/letters.html). Mt. Wilson was famous at the time because Edwin Hubble had just discovered extra-galactic light sources, and the Big Bang, while observing with the 100-inch telescope there.

Most letters are just routine congratulations and thanks. But others have the tone you mention. A sample from 1928:

http://mjt.org/exhibits/letters/26ezekielp.1dropped_image.gi...

http://mjt.org/exhibits/letters/23ezekielp.2dropped_image.gi...

People have been having fevered imaginings about little-understood technology for a long time.

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