nanog mailing list archives

Re: Legislative proposal sent to my Congressman


From: Lyndon Nerenberg <lyndon () orthanc ca>
Date: Mon, 3 Oct 2016 19:06:09 -0700


On Oct 3, 2016, at 6:52 PM, Lyndon Nerenberg <lyndon () orthanc ca> wrote:

It's the closed software that is fscking everything up right now.  A little sunshine on the code base will go a long 
way towards those people not losing their Ferrari's after all.

Or coming from a more legalistic view, if they lock things down that hard, they cannot possibly blame anyone else for 
having "rooted" the gear, therefore no passing the buck.  They would have to admit that it was their - and only their - 
code that was responsible for inflicting the damages.

I've been in the tech biz for 30+ years, and have worked for a wide range of organizations over that time.  The only 
common denominator across them all (small, large, and everything between - commercial and not) is that rapid response 
high level organizational change ONLY happen when the executives see the possibility of an imminent, significant, 
personal loss.  That might be monetary loss, or loss of reputation.  But it must be personally hurtful.  When the 
reaper appears on the horizon, it's amazing how quickly they see the path to redemption.


The sooner we all admit this is not a *technical* problem, the sooner we will eradicate it.

--lyndon


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