[517] in SIPB bug reports
Re: xscreensaver timeout bug
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Sat May 13 19:45:15 1989
Date: Sat, 13 May 89 19:45:20 EDT
From: Theodore Ts'o <tytso@ATHENA.MIT.EDU>
To: Ron M. Hoffmann <hoffmann@BITSY.MIT.EDU>
Cc: bug-sipb@ATHENA.MIT.EDU, hoffmann@BITSY.MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: Ron M. Hoffmann's message of Sat, 13 May 89 16:04:59 EDT,
Reply-To: tytso@athena.mit.edu
Date: Sat, 13 May 89 16:04:59 EDT
From: Ron M. Hoffmann <hoffmann@BITSY.MIT.EDU>
Does this mean that if I run the screensaver out of the sipb locker
(I don't like keeping my own copies of things so that people don't
say to me, gee, it's fixed in the current version...) on my private
workstation, I'll get abused?
I think this is a misfeature. I think this is a bug.
Some other people thought this was a bug as well, and there has been
much discussion and, well, flamage, on the SIPB list. Unfortunately,
jik went ahead and made the modifications before any consensus was
reached, thus presenting us with a {\em fait accompli}.
In his defense, there are some reasons for making the change. Apparently
a lot of people have been abusing xscreensaver by locking a public
workstation for a long time, and this is causing problems during the end
of the term. And if there were two version of the program available,
people in the public clusters would just use the private workstation
version.
However, I don't believe that the new version of the xscreensaver will
solve things. First of all, it annoys private workstation owners a lot,
as you've discovered. Jik's attitude has been "tough". Second of all,
people will just get their own private xscreensavers and we will lose
control of people will be running. Finally, doing this means that we
have to be fascist with respect to source code. If there's one thing
we've learned, it's that challenging MIT students by technology or by
hiding of information is STUPID. All it takes is one person to keep an
unmodified copy of the program in his or her locker, and it's done for.
If you want, I'll give you a copy of the unmodified sources. If you
want to compile them and put the binary in a publicaly accessible place,
go right ahead. It points out how stupid this whole idea is.
- Ted
