thoughts.on.code

Bruce Schneier has posted about some felonious teenagers on his blog. The kids repeatedly bypassed their school-provided laptops security. Now they are being charged as felons. Bruce thinks that the punishment is too harsh. I agree. There is nothing good being served by ruining these kids’ lives just because they are arrogant teenagers (I’m assuming, having been one myself). But they do need to be punished.

What really concerns me is the apparent lack of responsibility of the parents. If parents do not accept responsibility for what their kids do, then all they are doing is teaching the kids that it is OK to shirk their responsibilities now and in the future. That is not good. We will be lawless in a few generations if this trend continues.

I read The Tao of Programming [link] again this last week. I first read this back in 1996 while going to school, and thought it was great - so great that I’ve had a copy at my desk ever since. Rereading it, I still find much of it funny, but one part that really spoke to me this time:

Thus spake the master programmer:

“A well-written program is its own heaven; a poorly-written program is its own hell.”

…

A program should be light and agile, its subroutines connected like a string of pearls. The spirit and intent of the program should be retained throughout. There should be neither too little or too much, neither needless loops nor useless variables, neither lack of structure nor overwhelming rigidity.

A program should follow the `Law of Least Astonishment’. What is this law? It is simply that the program should always respond to the user in the way that astonishes him least.

A program, no matter how complex, should act as a single unit. The program should be directed by the logic within rather than by outward appearances.

If the program fails in these requirements, it will be in a state of disorder and confusion. The only way to correct this is to rewrite the program.

How true is that!?!

Saw this linked on /. = “All speed camera fines in doubt”

Hahaha. The MD5 algorithm, which was thouroughly trounced a few months ago is being used to guarentee the integrity of speeding ticket pictures, or at least it was.

That is the problem with applications relying on cryptography - it gets broken. Relying on a single algorithm for 15 years, as they have done in AU for these speed cameras, is just asking for this type of problem. They have al lthis infrastructure that was built up over the years that now will need a revamp. I do not know how easy it is to change the algorithm the cameras use, but my guess is that it would require a lot of work.

Update: Bruce Schneier has blogged about this as well.

Bruce Schneier has a link to an interesting article on his blog about parents always assuming the worst of society. We see this everyday via the “news” media outlets.

This is yet another reason why our communities that Alexis de Tocqueville thought were so important to our country’s success are withering away. We can’t trust our neighbor, we can trust our spouse, we can’t trust ourselves. Its rather scary if you ask me.