[Dailydave] This guy cracks me up. Lyndon Sutherland

[surreal at delusory.org]

Obviously I can be rude when I'm disappointed. I apologize, fwiw.

Todd MacDermid wrote:
> ...
> Since I've been called out twice on this list that I've seen, I think
> it's only fair to point out that the Fnord code is available, and has
> been, for some time, at http://www.synacklabs.net/projects/fnord/
>
> Yeah, it's amazingly outdated now, but it was intended to be open,
> and we were not yet experienced in the ways of corporate legal
> ass-covery. We fought months to get it opened afterwards, and did
> get it out there. If you'd bothered to have joined the mailing list,
> you would have seen it announced there.

As far as I know, I generated 33% of the list traffic. 1 of the 3
messages, wherein I offered to write documentation if it was still
under development (March '03)

> Sorry you felt it was a waste.

Not a complete waste, but a big downer. Right until the Q&A at the end
of the presentation it was absolutely the coolest thing I'd seen at BH
'01. It went South with something very much like:
Q: "Where can I get it?"
A: "Hire some kernel developers and give them a year to work on it."

Well... fuck. By the time I learned the code had been released the 2.2
kernel was a relic. The upside was Jeff's statement that it wouldn't
happen again - for 5 years anyway. *sigh*

So... (quickly switching topics/threads) why would a
non-Linux-kernel-hacker, non-wifi-exploit-developing person such as
myself waste his time attending the deep, dark voodoo talks? In the
case of "Johnny" and David's talk, to find out what the newest and
hence "most likely to succeed" threat is, how to recognize if my
networks and users are under attack, and ideally, what to do about it.

For an exploit developer learning how to fingerprint cards and drivers
is vital. For a defender it's an intellectual curiosity. I did say,
after all, that "idiot" was too harsh. Thanks for the code and
additional info, Johnny. I'll stand by the "don't do that again,
please" though.

Back to lurking.

Surreal