Misc. Ramblings

Disclaimer: Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental. (Insert my disclaimer here and the standard one here)

One blogger seems to be saying people are just people and you can't expect them to learn how to do everything themselves. His examples include how most people would call a plumber when they had a plumbing problem rather than, I suppose, try to fix it themselves.

I agree there is a time to do that, but I think each of us needs to have a minimum amount of understanding of how things work. So, to a certain degree, yes you must learn how to do everything. At least, everything you need to get what you want.

Let me give you a purely hypothetical analogy that is not based on any person, living or dead, in the past, present, or future. Suppose someone buys a shiny new Mercedes S600. While they may be rich, that doesn't mean they know anything about how cars operate. But the salesperson shows how to do the basics like opening the door, starting the car, and putting it in gear. In other words, the bare minimum that anyone needs to know how to get the car ready to go.

But, for whatever reason, the new owner can't seem to understand the part about opening the door. I mean, why does she have to use a key, especially one made specifically for this lock? Why can't all locks be the same so that all keys would open them? That would make life much simpler for the owner as she wouldn't need to remember where she put her keys. Better yet, have no locks at all! Why do we need locks anyway, all they do is slow her down from getting in. Clearly, locks do not facilitate her desire critical need to drive the car.

But, with the help of the salesperson she drives off the lot and takes her car home. The next day, she wants to go shopping but can't seem to figure out how to open the door. Clearly, the problem is with the door since she is rich and, by her definition, she can never be the problem in any situation. She demands that the car dealer install a new lock - which, the dealer wanting to please their rich customer, does.

Of course, this doesn't solve the problem because she still can't open the door. Well, clearly the problem must be in the poor workmanship of the dealer when they installed the new lock. Surely the problem is not with the owner so she has her lawyer write a demand letter stating the entire door must be replaced. Again, the dealership wanting to keep their rich customer, does so.

But heck if she still can't open the door. Clearly she must have a "lemon". So she fires her original lawyer because clearly he is incompetent, bad mouths him to all her rich friends, and has a new law firm sue the dealership.

So what's my point? Think about PC security. If you don't know what a network is, if you don't know why passwords are required, if you don't even understand what the fuss is about security - YOU WILL NEVER FEEL THE NEED TO LEARN ANYTHING ABOUT IT. And as long as you feel that way, you will make life less bearable for the others that do understand.

Well, you say, so what? What does it matter to me? It matters to me because I'm the guy that has to figure out what is going wrong and fix it. Even as the the person who is having problems is giving me information that has nothing to do with what is wrong. No, the network does not have to be reinstalled. No, Lotus Notes does not need to be reinstalled. No, Windows is working as designed. No, I installed all of the above in working order before I set the PC on your desk.

What you have to do is reset an expired password.

If you don't understand, at least at a functioning level, how things work, please realize the problem lies within you, not everyone else. Any resemblance to someone with brains, living or dead is purely coincidental.

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!