On Tue, Mar 30, 1999 at 01:04:26AM -0800, Russ Allbery wrote:
> In other words, to be blunt, this isn't a Windows problem. This is a user
> stupidity problem. The *only* effective long-term solution to these sorts
> of problems is to bludgeon people about the head with the idea that they
> should NEVER, EVER, *EVER* run *ANYTHING* that they get via e-mail, *even
> if it's from someone that they know*, without explicit confirmation of
> what it is and what it does, and that all of their programs need to be
> configured the same way. And that as annoying as warning boxes might be,
> they're there for a *reason*, and if they can't stand them, the answer is
> to disable all macros always, not turn them on.
>
While I agree with most of what Russ says I do have one caveat. A
warning box or message that appears too frequently is simply a
nuisance and one gets to click the OK button (or say 'y') without
thinking.
For example systems that alias 'rm' to 'rm -i' drive me crazy and, in
my opinion, *don't* protect the user from deleting files by mistake
because the 'y' response becomes automatic.
What is needed is something that alerts the user to something that is
unusual in some way. If the user normally doesn't get E-Mail with
executable attachments then a warning box/message is fine, but if
executable attacments (including macros) are the norm then some other
sort of mechanism is necessary, otherwise it will just become 'a
nuisance message that one always clicks'.
--
Chris Green ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Home: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Work: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
WWW: http://www.isbd.co.uk/
