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Business schools redefine hacking to “stuff that a 7-year-old could do” (2005)

blogs.law.harvard.edu

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Re: Business schools redefine hacking to “stuff that a 7-year-old could do” (2005)

#41

Post by daleharvey »

qohen wrote: post #38
whatusername wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ITIL is pretty standard for managing IT Infrastructure. So standard in fact that http://www.google.com.au/search?q=itil maybe returns 1 result that isn't about ITIL in the top 50. If you can't google for something as basic as that - then maybe the bus. guy was right about you being lazy.

FWIW, Google.com has the Wikipedia link up top: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_Technology_Infrastr... Though it is interesting to see that ITIL originated in the UK, which might explain why not everyone has heard of it. BTW, here's an article from '05 describing ITIL use in the US (and ITIL's history): http://www.govtech.com/gt/articles/95672

My first job out of uni was developing itil training software.

It was soul sucking.

I am in the UK, but hadnt heard of ITIL prior to the job, noone I know that can program has heard of it, I occasionally meet some business guys that have though.

Re: Business schools redefine hacking to “stuff that a 7-year-old could do” (2005)

#42

Post by blasdel »

tptacek wrote: post #16
omnipresent1 wrote: post #10

I wonder how ApplyYourself found out which students took a peek? Were they dumb enough not to implement access at the Gatekeeper level but smart enough to some how keep a track, if someone did?

Keeping track of what URLs people are hitting is trivial on any application server.

That presupposes not just that ApplyYourself is in any way competent (evidence points to dubious), but that they are at all communicative with the admissions grunts.

Re: Business schools redefine hacking to “stuff that a 7-year-old could do” (2005)

#43

Post by whatusername »

daleharvey wrote: post #41
qohen wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW, Google.com has the Wikipedia link up top: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_Technology_Infrastr... Though it is interesting to see that ITIL originated in the UK, which might explain why not everyone has heard of it. BTW, here's an article from '05 describing ITIL use in the US (and ITIL's history): http://www.govtech.com/gt/articles/95672

My first job out of uni was developing itil training software. It was soul sucking. I am in the UK, but hadnt heard of ITIL prior to the job, noone I know that can program has heard of it, I occasionally meet some business guys that have though.

True. It's not a Programming standard - as it is a way to manage IT Infrastructure which should be HW/SW/staff/etc to promote the goals of the business.

Remember everyone - there's a whole world of companies out there who don't know or care what AJAX or Python or Ruby is. They want to make the stuff they need to make, server their customers, and use computers as what they really are - a tool that should make stuff easier - not harder. (And it's in those industries that there is a lot of opportunity).

Oh - and don't take this as a post glorifying ITIL.. I think it's overdone and too verbose for an awful lot of companies.. (what do you expect coming out of a gov dept.) What I haven't seen is much of an alternative.

Re: Business schools redefine hacking to “stuff that a 7-year-old could do” (2005)

#44

Post by gaius »

carbon8 wrote: post #40
sbt wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure. I think it's accepted that you go to business school to network with students with rich parents. A friend of mine applying said that if she didn't get into any of the top 5 programs, it wasn't worth going.

That's only harvard, but harvard is still the center of a lot of business research. Of course, the vast majority of people getting MBAs from top-tier schools got in through hard work throughout their lives.

That's not really true tho'. Typical career path is prep school -> Ivy league -> investment bank/management consulting -> MBA. Their careers are the result of who their parents knew when they were 5 years old...

Re: Business schools redefine hacking to “stuff that a 7-year-old could do” (2005)

#45

Post by gaius »

whatusername wrote: post #32
pguerin wrote: post #22

hahaha this reminds me of a discussion I just had today with a student at the business school of my university. He was pissed off at the "IT people" because they know nothing about management and never finishes on time their projects. The way he talked to me was as if it was all our fault and that we were simply lazy. He was agressive to me even if he never worked with me and told me to check the "new york" methodolo…

ITIL is pretty standard for managing IT Infrastructure. So standard in fact that http://www.google.com.au/search?q=itil maybe returns 1 result that isn't about ITIL in the top 50. If you can't google for something as basic as that - then maybe the bus. guy was right about you being lazy.

ITIL is pretty standard for managing IT Infrastructure.

It's pretty standard for managing the government IT infrastructure. They're what, GBP 20Bn over budget on the NHS alone... And it seems every week there's a story in the papers about them losing a million people's personal data. ITIL is a red flag on anyone's CV IMHO.

Re: Business schools redefine hacking to “stuff that a 7-year-old could do” (2005)

#46

Post by ryanwaggoner »

gaius wrote: post #44
carbon8 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's only harvard, but harvard is still the center of a lot of business research. Of course, the vast majority of people getting MBAs from top-tier schools got in through hard work throughout their lives.

That's not really true tho'. Typical career path is prep school -> Ivy league -> investment bank/management consulting -> MBA. Their careers are the result of who their parents knew when they were 5 years old...

Actually, that's really not true. At Harvard, for example, more than a 1/3rd of the students are international, only about 1/3rd come from PE / VC / IB, students come from almost 300 different undergrad schools, and there are people in every class who are first generation immigrants, first in their family to go to college, etc.

Re: Business schools redefine hacking to “stuff that a 7-year-old could do” (2005)

#47

Post by Goladus »

mscarborough wrote: post #2

Misleading headline, particularly the quotes. In this article no school said any such thing, only the author in creating an analogy. Synopsis: Business schools outsource their student application web app, said web app has bug that allows students to change GET parameters and see their acceptance status early. Exploit is posted to BusinessWeek forums, and at least some of those students who tried the hack were denied…

I was not mislead by the headline. It is open to more than one interpretation of course, but it is accurate (and sort of humorous) as written.

The whole point of the article is a discussion about the line between "exploit" and "incredibly boneheaded app implementation" and where the responsibility should lie.

Re: Business schools redefine hacking to “stuff that a 7-year-old could do” (2005)

#48

Post by asciilifeform »

nopal wrote: post #24

As progressively dumber programmers build progressively more complex systems we will see more of this kind of attempt to paper over coding mistakes with lawyers, sanctions, policies, and laws. How very true.

And this would have been the submission title, too, if it weren't for the nonsensical 80-character limit.
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