Bob, While most of what you say makes perfect sense; the responsibility to maintain a PC is in the hands of the PC owner - whether it's updating an O/S or AntiVirus Software or if it's updating RAM, new Hard Drive etc. when necessary/warranted.
There are many technicians out there who could do the updates/upgrades for any end/home user if the home user themselves feels that it is a daunting task. As for ensuring that the home user knows or finds out about the problems; we have a wonderful tool at our disposal which carries up to the minute news and, for the most part, help on how to fix the problems in simple step by step format. It's the Internet. I agree that the way the O/S is built is partially to blame - hell, we all know that Micro$oft has been building security weak O/S's since they've been around but at the same time once a hole is found, it is noted and there are areas where the end user can download a patch in a very short time. The problem is that people, in general, are lazy. They want everything done for them and if it's not done for them they feel more than happy to blame someone else rather than initially accepting the responsibility of owning and operating a PC just as they would, to use your analogy, owning and operating a vehicle. Most people rather use the Internet for porn or shopping or cameras *smirk* rather than use it as the great information tool that it is. There in lies part of the problem. Familiarity breeds contempt and as such, people become ignorant to the fact that there are malicious bits floating around out there can attack and disable their PC's. To borrow again from your analogy; sure, we wouldn't blame an automobile driver for an accident if there was a manufactured defect in the car itself; but if the driver/owner never changes the oil, or changes their tires when they go bald, or adjusts the mirrors/seats before driving and an accident occurs, we certainly can't blame the automobile manufacturer. Cheers Dave > -----Original Message----- > From: Bob Walkden [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2003 4:42 AM > To: John Coyle > Subject: Re: OT Virus warning (no hoax beleive me) :-( > > > Hi, > > Thursday, August 14, 2003, 12:54:09 AM, you wrote: > > > In today's environment, if you are > > running XP and you're not checking for updates on a daily basis, you got > > rocks in your head! > > probably the overwhelming majority of people running Windows are > ordinary, non-geeky types who haven't a clue that there is such a > facility, who don't know what a worm, a firewall, port, rpc or > whatever is, who don't want to know, and shouldn't need to know, any > more than they need to know any of the technical crap about their > fridge, washing machine, TV or car. Loading the responsibility for > this onto the PC owners, rather than onto Microsoft who wrote such crap > in the first place, is like blaming car drivers for crashes when the > manufacturers build their cars wrong. > > I have 20+ years of IT experience and I still got hit by the worm. > When I first got XP I kept getting a lot of damn stupid pop-up ads > from pornographers through the background messenger service. It took > me a couple of days to figure out how to turn it off. Other people I > know put up with it for a very long time, completely baffled by what > was going on. It only stopped when I turned it off for them. > > PCs are a consumer goodie, they're not just for geeks, yet the people > who write these overblown, excessively complex operating systems - and > it's not just Windows - seem to expect everybody who uses them to know > everything there is to know about them. This is unrealistic, not to say > arrogant, and is no doubt responsible, at least partly, for the widespread > fear & loathing of computers and of IT people. We're long overdue in our > industry for a major change of attitude. We shouldn't expect people to be > computer-literate, we should build systems that are people-literate. > > -- > Cheers, > Bob mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > >
