I've seen some very strange things in my career. I find posts like this delightful, because I can point to them and say "see, here is proof that even code writ

I've seen some very strange things in my career. I find posts like this delightful, because I can point to them and say "see, here is proof that even code written with the best of intentions can still have bugs." Programmers tend to fall into (at least) two camps: the skeptics and the pragmatists. Sometimes when I report a finding, programmers accuse me in one way or another of messing something up because “that can’t possibly be failing.” Those are the skeptics, using incredulousness almost like a shield to protect their worldview. They tend to have an up-close/what’s right in front of them approach to programming, are prolific and usually take a positive stance on programming. At other times, reporting a finding is met with resignation, almost like “please work around it because we just don’t need this right now”. Those are the pragmatists, taking the long view/forest for the trees approach, knowing that programming is more than the some of its parts but also that it’s a miracle it even works at all. They are the daydreamers and sometimes are perceived as negative or defeatist. I was a pragmatist for as long as I could remember, but had a change of heart working with others in professional settings. I saw that certain things like databases or unix filesystems could largely be relied upon to work in a deterministic manner, like they created a scaffolding that helps one stay grounded in reality. They help one command a very mathematical/deliberate demeanor, and overcome setbacks by treating bugs as something to be expected but still tractable. But here is one of those bugs, where the floor seemed to fall out from under our feet. One day I mentioned that “SSL isn’t working” and about half the office flipped out on me and the other half rolled their eyes and had me track it down: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=694667 https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=694667 The gist of it is that OpenSSL was failing when the MTU was 1496 instead of 1500, because of path MTU discovery failing and SSL thinking it was a MITM attack and closing (at least, that is how I remember it, I am probably futzing some details). That was odd behavior to me, because I see SSL as something that should be a layer above TCP and not bother with the implementation details of underlying layers. It should operate under the assumption that there is always a man in the middle. If you can open a stream to a server, you should be able to send secure data over it. Anyway, we fixed the router setting and got back to work. All told I probably lost a day or two of productivity, because the office network had been running just fine for years and so I discounted it for a long time until I ruled out every other possibility. I’ve hit crazy bugs like this at least once a year, and regret not documenting them I suppose. Usually by the time they are fixed, people have forgotten the initial shock, but they still remember that you are the one weirdo who always seems to break everything.