11/26   Is there any reason to give directory world Readable permission but
        not eXecute permission?  I encountered this on a public ftp site.
        Is this just a mistake or are they trying to block access?

[Thanks for deleting a lot of crap]
        \_ no, you can't get into that directory on the porn site.
        \_ well, with just read, you can list the names of the files in the
           directory, but that's about it. i don't know if that's considered
           useful.
           \_ No you can't, unless you mean read in the sense of od/cat/etc.
              \_ Yes, you can. Try it. You can use ls to list the filenames,
                 but you won't be able to stat the file for more details.
                 \_ You try it.
                    % ls -ld bar
                    drw-------  2 xxx  csua  512 Nov 26 22:38 bar/
                    % ls bar
                    % chmod 700 bar
                    % ls bar
                    baz
                    \_ Your ls program is too smart -- it's trying to get extra
                       information about the files, which fails.  Try /bin/ls.