[cap-talk] delegatable-with-probable-cost capabilites

[David Hopwood]

John McCabe-Dansted wrote:
> Even without a formal claim mechanism, I could see attaching a dollar figure
> to each capability being useful. If OK/Cancel dialog boxes included messages
> such as "Misuse of the right could cause $N in damage, delegate to Shadey713
> anyway?" then this could help computer novices quantify how big a risk they
> are taking when delegating obscure rights. (Presumably $N would have to be
> estimated by an administrator).

The *rn family of newsreaders used to display the following message before
allowing an article to be posted:

   This program posts news to thousands of machines throughout the entire
   civilized world. Your message will cost the net hundreds if not thousands
   of dollars to send everywhere. Please be sure you know what you are doing.
   Are you absolutely sure that you want to do this? [ny]

Of course few people ever paid any attention (even though the message was
probably technically true, given the cost of connections in those days).

It may be more useful to allow the administrator to specify an arbitrary
message, rather than a monetary value.

-- 
David Hopwood