merlyn@... (Randal L. Schwartz) wrote:
> Going back to a parallel... if I wander by an open doorway that I
> think should ahve been locked, am I permitted to call the supervisor
> without being arrested for trespassing?

The logical extension to this analogy is that having noticed the door is
open, we step just inside the room to have a quick look - to see whether
the rightful occupant is in the room, or whether there's signs of anything
wrong, etc. At this point one of two scenarios happen.
First, someone appears out of nowhere and spots us in the room. Suitably
embarassed, we try to explain what we're doing. Depending on our stature,
we either get thanks, or arrested for attempted theft.

The second scenario is that after having had a quick scan of the office to
ensure everything is ok, we report it (mentioning the fact that we looked
inside), and again get thanked for our trouble or arrested.

The problem is that few people can resist the urge to 'have a quick look',
be it computers or corridors, and as soon as we do, we leave ourselves
reliant on colleagues/employers/juries making a value judgement about our
*intentions* rather than our actions.

And as we all know, 9 times out of 10 our colleagues say "thanks for
checking my office", and 9 times out of 10 they say "he's running crack
- call the police!". For some reason 'hacking' invariably receives the
worst of all possible interpretations. :-(

[ Oh no - fors-discuss is heading for another analogy-fest ;-) ]

* Dave Mitchell, Senior Technical Consultant
* Fretwell-Downing Informatics Ltd, UK. Dave.Mitchell@...
* Tel: +44 114 281 6113. The usual disclaimers....
*
* Standards (n). Battle insignia or tribal totems

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