Re: On "fixing" Perl core modules "in place"

[Old_Gray_Bear]

Well, the first thing I'd do is revoke his (I am making an assumption here that the cowboy was is a boy) Root access on every machine in the company. Then I go to his manager and explain why I took these steps. If the manager has a difficulty with the idea, I move up to the next manager in the food chain. If I don't get support at some level, and they make me put the Jerk back, I smile most politely, acquiese, and immediately start circulating my resume. If I do get support, then the Jerk stays in User-privilege, and we re-build Perl on every machine he had Root access to. And if I am feeling really churchy, we charge the time back to the Jerk's project, as "virus remediation".

[tlm]

One point that I did not make sufficiently clear is that the person who instigated the change was not the one who actually carried it out. There were two people involved. One, Official A, who did not have root access, but who managed to persuade another one, Official B, who did have root access but not too much knowledge of Perl, to do the evil did.

To B's credit, the minute that I voiced my objection to the whole thing, he immediately reversed the change with a "what on earth was I thinking???" apology. Yes, it was a major goof, but very uncharacteristic of B. I can only explain it by A's insistence, and the fact that A is somewhat higher up in the food chain than B.

My big argument is with A, who kept advocating for the change and pressuring B to do it, even after B had come back to his senses.

[gloryhack]

I've done that very thing in the past, and ended up circulating my resume. While it's good advice, it's something one should undertake only after careful consideration of his financial standing. I wasn't fired, but came very close to it because after five minutes of the jerk standing just a foot away yelling at me I suggested (calmly, quietly) that if he continued making me feel threatened I might respond accordingly.

I didn't really want to work for HP anyway.