Commentary on the seven words

[Karl Latiss]

On Fri, 2006-08-25 at 15:42 -0700, darrel barton wrote:
> Not to belabor it (but it's probably too late for that)
> 
> When I was an operating systems programmer (years ago, 16 bit mini's - in 
> assembler) we all too often forgot that the Operating system existed to 
> support the application, not the other way around.
> 
> Q: Why would you want to do that?
> 
> A (1) Because the application software we use is licensed Per Seat and 
> there is no discount or migration discount between {existing_platform} and 
> the {new_platform} and so it would cost my company close to a quarter 
> million dollars to migrate .. and THAT is why I want for FIX this problem 
> in my system rather than upgrade to a system that doesn't have this 
> problem.  (this was hypothetical)
> 
> A (2) Because the application that we run uses a telnet client that doesn't 
> support ssh - and that's why I can't run ssh on this system.   (this was 
> hypothetical)
> 
> A (3) Because the application ........   (that's the key phrase)
> 
> When I tell someone that I need to get from the 10th floor to the 1st floor 
> and I ask where the window is, he doesn't always do me a favor by assuming 
> that I'm going to jump.   I'm going to lower a rope to my counterpart on 
> the ground floor and then after securing it, I'll repel down -- JUST AS I 
> HAVE BEEN TRAINED TO DO FOR THE LAST 15 YEARS.      By saying "yanno, we 
> have elevators over there and stairs over here, but the window is down that 
> way ..."  he helps me.
> 
> But when you try to steer me away from the window, you're hindering my 
> ability to do my job.  I have a wife, two kids, a boss and an idiot 
> assistant that already do a nice job of THAT, thank you very much.
> 
> Think of it this way:  I know everyone means well and the help is ALWAYS 
> appreciated, but in a way it's kind of degrading to have to explain WHY I 
> want what I want in order to get that help.   Sometimes it seems like I 
> can't get the help I need (where are the windows, please?) until I can get 
> them to approve the fact that I need it.

The problem in mailing lists is largely that no-one can tell before hand
how much experience you may have in this area. And so, guessing that
someone asking about telnet (with no context) is perhaps less
experienced the answers seek to guide instead of simply instruct.

Perhaps questions that indicate your experience ("I know ssh is more
secure than telnet but I have a specific reason for this. How do I...")
would help you get a more direct answer.

The list caters to all levels of experience and, like everything that
caters to a broad audience, the lowest common denominator will be
assumed.

-- 
Karl Latiss <karl.latiss at atvert.com.au>
Atvert Systems