[NOISE] Re: NYT on Netscape Crack

[Rob Vaughn <robv@teleport.com>]

Perry sez:

>I'll pay for the "I broke Netscape's Security" T-Shirt for the
>enterprising person that takes the time to find them in the object
>code. (See Sameer's page on the shirts he's developing as prizes for
>the Netscape flaw finders.)

I find it very ironic that a company that recently raised about a
gadzillion dollars through a public stock offering has been able to
sit back and let people find problems with their software for free.
Now people like Sameer and Perry are offering rewards for it.  Kudos
to them, but I think Netscape should be the one making an offer like
this.

A textbook author/prof who taught a class using his own book had a
great method for finding mistakes in the new edition: he had us buy
the current edition and gave us copies of each chapter of the new
edition as we got to it, then he offered a $10 reward for each typo or
mistake found, and a $100 dinner for two and credit in the new edition to
whomever found the most mistakes by the end of the semester.  I made $160
before I had to drop the class due to a schedule conflict.

In the end, he said he was able to find over 100 errors, and considered it
the cheapest and most thorough proofreading he'd ever paid for.  And the
class got a big charge out of it.

Netscape should be offering rewards for people who find problems with
their software.  They'll get a lot of hard work for almost free (since
you only get paid if you do find something) and in a year or two they'll
have one of the most solid applications on the market.  Lord knows it'll
help raise public confidence too.  If a tee-shirt motivates people, think
what $US 1000 reward would do.  Or $e 2000 in credit towards goods
purchased through Netscape commercial servers?

Rob V.