[sub] [Sussex] re:- Phil Turners last post

[Steve Dobson]

Hi Nik

On Sun, Mar 07, 2004 at 10:58:50AM +0000, Nicholas Butler wrote:
> wow, well that caused some controversy... so lets recap what Nik 
> actually Typed.

Please do - I admit that I haven't read every posting in this thread.
Windows virus just aren't a problem to my Linux only network at home :-)

> 1. Attaching and sending files with an emails is creating badness on the 
> network
> 2. Attaching a File and storing at with the originating MTA would be better.
> 3. One copy of the file which can be put up and pulled down allows 
> sysadmins to target potential viruses being sent out and remove the link 
> immediately they cant delete files in another users inbox.
> 4. Dont stop users attaching files to an email  , but dont let them send 
> out 100 copies of a file since its a big waste of bandwidth when you 
> consider that the recipient will effectively have to download that file 
> either as a Attachment or a link. Allow a user to send 100 links, but 
> let the MTA manage setting up the link,  and let the server manage the 
> attachment and the access to that attachment.
> 5. Fix the MTA to let it know where attachments are and how to manage them.
> 
> 6. Plain text emails never hurt anyone except by flames .
> 
> 
> now i will stand back and throw in the match ....

Yes there are times when sending a link is the best way to disseminate
a document's content.  But your solution will not work in every situation.
There are times when the best way *is* to attach the file and send it.
E-mails are used for a hold range of compunction needs, from a simple
thank you for a present, to complex project discussion.  The *only*
reason that e-mail can do all this is because of it's flexibility.

Nik, what if 3ait and uThink where involved in complex talks about a new
kill app that would take over the world and establish our two companies
as the only two plays in the market.  Our two companies do not have a
secure link, and therefore there is not a server that both our MTA 
share.

If you wanted to send me your latest changes to the-master-plan.txt are
you going to have that placed on a public FTP server for all to read?
Even if you encrypt the document it is still weaker then encrypting it
and sending it as an attachment in an e-mail.

Should a rival company (Mark H's for example) learn of our plans he only
has to go to that public server to pull all versions of the master plan.
A single point of attack.  True, he still has the problem of breaking
the encryption, but he has that problem with the e-mail transfer as well
(as you would, of course, have encrypted the file before sending).  The
e-mail attachment is stronger because, unless Mark can perform a
man-in-the-middle attack he can not gain access to the plans.

And that leads me to another problem with you system. When does the 
document become obsolete, and therefor eligible for purging?  Don't
you think it is likely that users will copy the document onto their
local machine, just in case it is delete on the server before they 
have finished with it?  Lets face it, they *will* copy it!  We will
be right back a square zero [I code in C and therefore all indexes
start at zero not one :-)].

To summarize: The more flexible a system is the more it can be shaped in
ways never envisioned by the inventors.  Did the guys who said "Wouldn't
it be cool to connect two computers together so they could exchange
information?" have any idea that that would grow into the Internet?
That not having a presence on it would be come to be seen as a handicap.
Or that having a network of computers at home would not be considered
abnormal.

When systems are flexible it not only becomes possible to use them in
better, more inventive ways, but also in dumber and more stupid ways too.

It must, therefore, be a priority to educate people to use those systems
in a manner appropriate to the task at hand.  But I do admit that we will
never fully succeed.

To summarize the summary: Flexibility leads to invention and the creation 
of wealth, but people need to be educated to use the tools at their 
disposal wisely.

To summarize the summary of the summary: People are the problem!

Steve