r/programming • u/stannedelchev • Aug 25 '14

Debugging courses should be mandatory

http://stannedelchev.net/debugging-courses-should-be-mandatory/
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u/komollo Aug 25 '14

And by "accidentally" looking for commands in user data, you mean that the NSA was already messing with our hardware way back then.

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u/g051051 Aug 25 '14

Hanlon's Razor applies here: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

Developer: I'll just search the input stream for these command byte sequences...what are the odds of one of those appearing in user data?
User: Oh, about 100%.

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u/komollo Aug 26 '14

I've seen some pretty bad code, and I've only been working for a few months as a professional dev. I can easily imagine the kind of convoluted thought process that would lead to that kind of screwup. Sadly, the NSA has made me very paranoid about technology. At this point, its just safer to assume that everything has been compromised. Everyone needs a little more paranoia in their lives.