Michael Halcrow wrote:
On Mon, Nov 29, 2004 at 04:11:42PM -0700, Josh Coates wrote:I don't think the analogy with insulation and lights holds in the realm of computers. At the risk of sounding elitist, the average user probably doesn't have enough expertise to trace the causal chain. For example: I just came home and my roommate told me his internet connection wasn't working (root cause: Installing SP2, btw). The fix was a terribly complicated and esoteric _reboot_the_machine_ but he'd never even thought of that. And if we're talking about people that are getting infected by email viruses... Well, I'm not holding my breath for them connecting the dots.
also - charging per byte isnt going to stop anyone from clicking on
a virus infected email attachment. this is folly.
Folly? We humans are creatures of causality. When bad things happen to us, we start looking for a reason. Once we find (what we think is) that reason, we alter our behavior to stop the bad things from happening. That is why were are even here to have this conversation. When A/C bills go up, people follow a chain of deduction, and then install better insulation (akin to installing a more secure operating system) and keep their doors closed (akin to not running untrusted programs). As it now stands, the consequences of clicking on untrusted attachments are minimal (a slightly slower machine/connection). If those consequences become more monetary in nature, then people will tend to follow the causality chain so that they can stop losing their cash.
Mike
Jared
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