Re: man in the middle attack ?

[Panayiotis Karabassis <panayk@gmail.com>]

On 08/20/2012 11:48 PM, Ralf Mardorf wrote:
> On Mon, 2012-08-20 at 22:43 +0200, Ralf Mardorf wrote:
>> Hi Dr. Beco A.I. research, Cognitive Scientist and Philosopher Linux
>> Counter #201942,
>>
>> take an educated guess or ask one of your A.I. thingy to take an
>> educated guess.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Ralf
>>
>> PS: When I was a child one of my heroes was
>> http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Weizenbaum , he still is. Most
>> teachers are a PITA.
> 
> PS: "Weizenbaum bezeichnete sich selbst als Dissidenten und Ketzer der
> Informatik." I'm, unable to translate this 100% correct. But he was and
> for me he still is that way, especially regarding to guys with
> signatures similar to "A.I. research, Cognitive Scientist and
> Philosopher Linux Counter #201942" Barf!

Haha, now I have taken offence! :-) I do not think that the computer
science community is especially filled with pompous people. That's a
social issue. Quite a few c.s. professors I have known are expert
programmers. And perhaps someone simply wants to deal with computation
as an abstraction, that's far from useless. I was just trying to
understand where your critique was coming from.

I agree about teachers, but I think the problem arises when someone
starts to use his title and position and grandiose self-image to demean
and oppress people who are dependent on her/him -such as students- and
it doesn't look like this is the case.

Anyway, it's just a signature. He has configured his mail client to
include it in all messages, probably because people receiving it expect
to see it. Even though, 'Cognitive Scientist and Philosopher' is a bit
much, I would have gone for 'John Smith, Ph.D., Such and Such Lab.'

And... Debian is notorious for mistreating newcomers! I have had a
friend swear to never ask a question on Debian forums again, after the
reply to his first question.

P.S. Dr. Beco, please have the wisdom to be proud of the effort you have
given and the knowledge you have gained, but not of a piece of paper,
and the social privilege that comes with it.