Jarrett Billingsley wrote:
On Mon, Apr 6, 2009 at 3:31 PM, dsimcha <dsim...@yahoo.com> wrote:
Yeah, I've always wondered why some people put so much emphasis on the 10% of
computer security that's highly technical in nature when 90% of the problem of
computer security is between the keyboard and the chair.
ComputerIlliterateFriend: Hey Jarrett, can you come over and fix my computer?
Jarrett: What's it doing?
CIF: It's popping up all sorts of dialog boxes telling me I need to
get Spyware Aweseom Remover and stuff, and it's running really slow,
and my files keep disappearing.
Jarrett: And where have you been on the internet?
CIF: Oh you know, normal sites.
Jarrett: Like?
CIF: Porn, more porn, horse porn, warez. I also used Limewire to
download *every song and program ever made*, and I make it a habit to
click on interesting-looking [read: violently-flashing] ads.
Jarrett: ...
CIF: What? Did I do something wrong?
Seriously. It's like sleeping with every prostitute on the East Coast
and acting surprised when you have seventeen STDs.
I think this is a large exaggeration. People of all walks of life are
exposed to dangers when using a Windows machine. My father-in-law knows
virtually (no, literally) nothing about computers, but I taught him
enough to double-click an icon on the desktop to read the news off a
reputable site. He virused the computer without typing (he has no notion
of address bar etc.). So I moved him to an ubuntu box.
Whenever the endless debate of windows vs. linux vs. mac comes up, I
repeat my comment: if you are a programmer, you better acquire some
experience in each. For Windows/Mac it's not as easy because they may
cost money, but now with virtual machines, good distributions etc. I
think there is no excuse for a programmer to not seriously looking into
Unix.
Andrei
