On Fri, 31 Mar 2006, Jim Wickman wrote:
> At 12:05 PM -0500 3/31/06, Tom R. no spam wrote: > >I would like to point out, in a friendly way, that non-techy > >people may have to learn some techy stuff to be able to protect > >themselves. It's like when you start driving a car, you have > >to learn some automobile-techy stuff to be able to enjoy > >safely the new tool; > ~~~~~~~~~~ . . . > Your analogy about autos flops. The amount of techie knowledge > required is minimal. The auto -- and a lot of other highly > complicated devices -- are appliances. . . . > Take all the energy you put into condescension and focus it on > explaining how to make a rational decision about Allow - allow until > quit - deny and stuff like that. I could, but as I tried to point out, what is the right explanation depends a lot on the individual and on his/her desired use(s) of computing, both now and predicted into the maybe unknown future. Autos, etc are appliances now, but were not so at a point 10 - 20 years after they 1st came into reasonably wide use, when people were still working out best practices for themselves rather than learning them by growing up around adults who were skillful users or by taking driver ed in high school. I'm thinking of things like ignition key versus set magneto and choke then hand crank or versus key plus choke plus starter button; or rules of the road like "drive on the right (or left in UK, Japan, Cyprus, etc)" or "vehicle on the right at an intersection has the right of way"; or rules of prudence like don't leave your keys in the ignition when you leave your car; and so on. I'm not trying to make some absolute point, just to point out that it's a special skill to make important complex stuff both work and seem simple, as people who have tried working in tech support can verify. Even to get a clear description of a problem from someone can be a problem, but is needed before trying to explain. _______________________________________________ Littlesnitch-talk mailing list Littlesnitch-talk@obdev.at http://at.obdev.at/mailman/listinfo/littlesnitch-talk
