This is a rant that I couldn’t keep to myself any longer. And since many will see this on Friday if at all… well lets have fun!
It seems that “average” and “intelligence” is a contradiction in terms. This appears obvious to me in many situations, but IT is like a magnifying glass on the problem. I know everybody makes mistakes, it just seem to me that many ARE the mistake.
CASE AND POINT…
For those who won’t bother to read my profile, I’m a lawyer who likes to keep informed about IT since he has choices to make in the domain. Summed up, compared to people I know, I’m pretty much the power user and solve my own damn problems.
What is weird is that friends call me to fix their dumb computer. Remember, I’m a lawyer and they call me to fix their computer. They even call me during office hours! At which point I half-jokingly tell them it will be at least 100$/hour to fix the problem… one day, I’ll charge it for real.
In particular, yesterday I had a friend that told me he downloaded a file from limewire that was infected with a trojan. He knew it was infected because he had just enough brains to scan it with AVG. But he “mistakingly” executed the file anyway by “clicking on the wrong button”, whatever that means.
Now, I’m thinking that I NEVER had an infection on windows with only a good router and a drop of intelligent paranoia. But this moron, clicked the wrong button! (insert “F” word at end of phrase)
QUESTION 1: Is this what you IT guys face on day to day? If so, you’re not better off than lawyers…
I hear many complaints about windows not being secure, the comment usually ending with “compared to linux”. But my friend would probably just type in his root password for nothing more than a window asking for it…
QUESTION 2: Would a perfectly patched OS really change anything?
Considering the “average” behaviour of many people, I don’t even think you can “educate” them. You can “train” them, like I would do for a pet, but “educate”?!?!?
QUESTION 3: Does user education work for you IT guys?
I know this rant probably comes off as pumpous, but hel people, I work in law and some morons call me up at the office to solve their petty IT problems… so please cut me some slack about this rant!
I would wish that, if there is a God, he would go open source so that we could patch the “average brain” and perhaps raise the IQ a little. I’d love to see pseudo code on this one, if someone cares to pitch in.
Something like…
public class CriticalThinking{
/* You have to start somewhere */
public CriticalThingking(action){
boolean goodidea;
boolean = thinkFirst(action);
if(goodidea){
this.doIt();
}else{
break; //or just DONT do it
}
catch(irrecuperable_moron_error e){
/* no point in a stack trace, throwing yourself off a bridge will always solve the problem */
System.throwyourself.offabridge;
}
}
public boolean thinkFirst(action){
boolean b;
try{
criticism = instatiate ThoughtProcess;
b = criticism(action);
}catch(noBrains_available_error e){
System.out.print(“admit to being cattle”);
b = null; //as in hopeless idiot null
}
return b;
}
}