The problem with that is you head down a rabbit hole fast.

If a security researcher writes a proof of concept exploit code that is then incorporated into malware is the security researcher now an accomplice?

What about the old Backorifice tool? It could be used for good or evil.

What about openssl? openssl can be used to encrypt the command and control communication for malware.

Or even windows iteself. Between windows and visual studio you have everything you need to write, distribute and run malware. Therefore is everyone involved in writing windows, Visual Studio, etc an accomplice?

I know personally in my 23 years of development everywhere I have worked women have been a rather small percentage of the developer workforce.
But I have not noticed any significant difference in the distribution of quality. I have met really good devs and really bad devs regardless of gender.

I would want to look at the complexity of the code in question before judging why there were more comments/changes.

More complex code will generate more comments. There will be more ideas on how to solve the problem. There will be more requests for documenting the tricky portions of the algorithm, etc.

Since the code is the secret sauce we will never get to see the CRs and comments involved to judge for ourselves why the difference was there.

Unfortunately I am not surprised. But it's not an India specific problem. I interview people from all over and end up rejecting very high percentages of them.
Where they come from (school, country, degree level, etc) has so little to do with how well people do that I just ignore all that. You can either think a problem through and code up a solution or you can't.

I would really love to take their test. Knowing what they ask and how well I got graded on it would definitely help me judge if this test has any chance of accurately measuring skill.

It's funny the climate deniers are like atheists:

I don't believe in God because I have never seen any evidence I will accept that he exists.

I don't believe in human caused climate change because I have never seen any evidence I will accept that humans are causing this.

In both cases the consequences if your wrong are rather unfortunate.

My biggest concern is by the time the last holdouts believe humans caused global warming we will be left with an uninhabitable desert planet with oceans devoid of any life.
Putting "I told you this would happen." on your gravestone isn't very satisfying.
If the conversation would turn to this is going badly, what can we do to improve the situation then we might avoid that.. Or at least delay it.

On geological time scales you are correct the planet is not doomed. Killing off the humans would probably be the best thing for the planet long term.

There isn't going to be a magic wand for this. But a multifaceted approach would help.

1) Standards body to oversee the software and protocols.

2) Standard IOT base software stacks and protocols. Ideally run as an open source style project with companies encouraged to give back to the software stacks. Maybe protection from being sued for security problems found if they are using the certified software stacks. i.e. we were using the certified software stack in a certified way is a valid legal defense. If your modifications are the problem you lose that protection. Makes getting your modifications into the base stacks very appealing to the lawyers, etc.

3) Certification program that takes completed devices and runs them through tests. Penetration tests of the completed devices. Manual and automated review of the software. Should be easy to fast track the software reviews if your building on top of one of the approved IOT base software stacks.

4) Require a way to easily update the software of the devices. The reality is forced updates are going to have to be required because most won't manually update the devices.

5) Require that a fully functional software stack be put in escrow for each device and revision of software. The company must provide support for the device or the the software base is released. Lack of support for the device is decided by standards board not the company. Fully functional means that someone can take the stack, compile it and successfully install it on the device. No hidden BS boot encryption keys that are missing, etc. If there are encryption keys like that then they have to be put in escrow with the rest of the software stack.

6) Media campaign to get people to buy only certified IOT devices.

Probably plenty more things that are good ideas/best practices. But this would be a start.

Would that matter?

I'm surprised they can find anyone who would claim to be a Hacker to work with them.

Low pay.
Poor track record sticking to the letter of the law, let alone the spirit of the law.
Do illegal things and hide them behind national security.

To me it is no different than the scientists that won't work on weapons technology for the military.

We can't trust them to use that kind of power responsibly at any level (local, state, or federal law enforcement).
The proper checks and balances are just not there.

Actually I would say that is calling bullshit on hidden agendas. From my reading of the situation Linus found it as offensive as when I see the RIAA/MPAA writing legislation for legislators who submit it as their own.

Now if the discussion had gone into his parentage and how many farm animals were involved that would be personal.

There is nothing there about having to coddle to the thin skinned either. Or a duty to be non offensive in the so many ways people get offended these days.

You may consider it a snide comment but it's the truth. Why haven't all of these people with sufficient merit put their weight behind a fork of the kernel?
There is nothing stopping a fork from being successful other than a lack of people with sufficient merit backing it.

The two are completely orthogonal.

LKML is only about the merits of the code you submit.. They don't care if your white, black, male, female, lesbian, bi, gay, transgendered, etc. This includes not caring if your the nicest person in the world, or an asshole.

If you want to build your own meritocracy that wants high coding standards as well as politically correct sanitized language in all discussions feel free.
There is nothing standing in the way of creating your vision of Open Source Utopia.

Part of the LKML meritocracy is the ability to deal with assholes criticizing you. It doesn't make it less of a meritocracy. However it sounds like it is a meritocracy you don't want to deal with.

In the real world there are assholes that stand in your way and you have to find a way to deal with them.

Creating a walled garden and not letting the assholes in is one way to deal with it. And perhaps that is what this fork will create. Time will tell.

Yes two have fallen, others will take their place.

If your going to contribute at such a highly visible level as the LKML you better be able to defend your design decisions and code. If harsh criticism will damage your fragile ego then you shouldn't be there.

Don't worry there are plenty of smart people out there that can and will defend their design decisions and code through the harsh criticism.

Okay let's say it is a road.

Netflix paid company A to move X trucks across the road.
Consumers paid company B to receive Y trucks to their house.

It is between company A and B to sort out what they will pay between each other.
If the cost is too high for company A they are free to pass the increased cost onto Netflix.

Just like NetFlix is free to go to company C to get a better deal.

To put this into a more concrete absurdity.. Let's say you have a gated community with an HOA. Guard shack, the whole works.
The HOA could pass a rule that in order for any packages from Amazon to be delivered Amazon must pay $10 per package to the HOA.
It is their road they are using. They can't get it unless they go by the guardshack, etc.
Just as absurd as Netflix paying the consumers ISP to get their internet traffic delivered.

Unfortunately this isn't a huge shock to me. Back in the 90's I remember trying to hook up a fortune 500 company to the internet. They were using public IPs on their internal network.. They complained when I told them they had to readdress their network.. I even dug up the various RFCs, who owned the public blocks they were using, etc.

There was actually a discussion along the lines of will we ever need to communicate with those companies? i.e. can we just ignore the problem.. In the end the argument that those places using public IPs wouldn't be able to communicate properly with the reset of the network got things going in the right direction..

I know where I work we have quite a few open heads for competent C++ or Java devs.

However most fail at the interview stage.. They can't describe data structures they claim to know.. They can't implement some pretty basic problems in a working manner.. They can't decompose a problem into a workable design.

It's fairly rare that we get older people on the interviews.. But the few I have interviewed they tended to fall short in data structures or coding.. They could usually decompose the problem into a workable design.

My guess is that older workers end up in psuedo manager positions.. They design and tell all the underlings what to do.. They spend so much time designing and answering questions from above and below that their dev skills get rusty. When they find themselves looking they don't brush up those rusty skills.. And of course no one ever tells you why they are saying no after the interview.

-Jerry
PS: If you looking for a job Amazon in Seattle is definitely hiring :)

I don't think anyone in the Patriot Guard Riders would object to widening the scope to include kids funerals the WBC protest.

I know I have to agree with the general sentiment.. There are some lines you just don't cross. Picketing a 6yo's funeral is a few hundred miles beyond that line.

Try RTFA:
>Not this phone. It sat by the cash register unclaimed all the next day. “I don’t know anything about this stuff, but I know enough to know this phone was different.”

So the phone sat in the bar for a day and then they tried to figure out who owned it. Sounds pretty reasonable to me.