Friday Feuilleton
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!
Comments
Now you have summed up in 63 words
"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."
why no matter what current OS Aunt Minnie has on her computer, her computer will be a haven for virus, worms and such.
Unfortunatley I see no answer to this. Business and home users alike want to use there computers but not have to think about them just like they do a toaster or any other appliance. If they have spam or virus problems let the geeks deel with it and they will get on with what using their "appliance".
Posted by: John | August 22, 2003 10:10 AM
The current Mercedes doesn't require a key to open the door. Nor to start the car. So your example is most certainly hypothetical.
I like the idea you're pushing though. That given something, the user of that something should have to take some responsibility to ensure, not just that they can use it, but that they don't damage other people, or other people's things while doing so.
Viruses are a good example. While it's true that MS should, perhaps, make Windows more secure, the user chose that computer, and that OS. Regardless of how much they blame MS, they should take reasonable steps to ensure that their virus ridden PC doesn't attempt to infect or damage my PC.
If they're unhappy with Microsoft because they don't think they're doing enough, then they can either stop using PCs, or change the OS.
If I tried to take my car's manufacturer to court each time I crashed, because the brakes didn't stop me in time, and obviously they should have put better brakes on it, then I'd lose every time. Pressure is put on the manufacturer to improve the brakes (ABS is becoming more common for example), however the overriding responsibility is mine to ensure that I use the car in a way that allows what is actually present (rather than what I desire) to stop me in time.
You could then extend that to the unfriendly geek view of: "if you can't understand it enough to use it safely, you just shouldn't use it."
Driving test anyone?
Posted by: Phil | August 22, 2003 11:23 PM