Talk:Daniel J. Bernstein

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"A selection of quotations from his messages to various mailing lists in 1997 follows."

  • Just because it's automatic doesn't mean it works.
  • Anyway, I'm interested in what works, not in philosophical bullshit.
  • (In response to another poster's assertion that "As today's unices are very stable, crashing operating systems are not an issue.") Don't be silly. Every minute there's a UNIX system crashing somewhere.
  • There's an engineering term for systems like that: "garbage".
  • I'm not interested in security through obscurity. I want real security mechanisms, solutions that work for _everybody_. Yes, that's a lot more difficult than randomly blowing away "suspicious" portions of the Internet mail infrastructure, but it's the Right Thing To Do.
  • Be careful what you wish for you just might get it.
  • That section of the fetchmail man page is wild speculation; it has never had any relation to reality.
  • From a security perspective, if you're connected, you're screwed.
  • I don't care where you think your resources are going. If you know, show me the measurements. If you don't, stop wasting my time.
  • CAPS has surpassed ETRN in the "Most absurd use of port 25" contest.
  • Some parts of RFC 821 are simply too absurd to tolerate.
  • Make up your mind. Do you want to declare that your filters are effective, or do you want to find out how effective they actually are?
  • In general, the Internet was not designed to accommodate deliberate failures to communicate.
  • (In response to another poster's assertion that Windows NT is easier to configure than an otherwise-similar Unix system) Indeed. With NT, I can usually see in a matter of minutes that what I'm trying to do simply can't be done with the available software.
  • Profile. Don't speculate.
  • Compression saves bandwidth. What a surprise.
  • I don't have much respect for the people who run the Internet, but as a practical matter there are certain lines that can't be crossed without their approval.
  • The average user doesn't give a damn what happens, as long as (1) it works and (2) it's fast.
  • I'm not saying that this is how things should be. I'm saying that this is how things are.
  • I do engineering, not religion.
  • Duh-duh-duh... Buffer Overflow!
  • I thank God for not making me a computer scientist.
  • It seems some people do not have atomically synchronized watches and some do
  • I will be starting the lecture in SEVEN ... SIX ... FIVE ... ...
  • This is UNIX. Stop acting so helpless!
  • The new glue is, unfortunately, ignored by recent versions of the BIND cache; the detailed technical explanation for this is that the BIND company is a bunch of idiots.
  • I have discovered that there are two types of command interfaces in the world of computing: good interfaces and user interfaces. Source
  • Unless you have a hundred unanswered questions in your mind you haven't read enough...
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