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Geeks of the World: Arise!
Random Chaos
Actually Carefully-selected Order in disguise
in Zocalo v2.0
[url]http://nytimes.com/2004/02/05/technology/05VIRU.html?hp[/url]
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[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Random Chaos [/i]
[B][url]http://nytimes.com/2004/02/05/technology/05VIRU.html?hp[/url] [/B][/QUOTE]
I don't want to register, so could you just copy/paste the text here?
[QUOTE]
[b]Geeks Put the Unsavvy on Alert: Learn or Log Off[/b]
By AMY HARMON
Published: February 5, 2004
When Scott Granneman, a technology instructor, heard that one of his former students had clicked on a strange e-mail attachment and infected her computer with the MyDoom Internet virus last week, empathy did not figure anywhere in his immediate response.
"You actually got infected by the virus?" he wrote in an e-mail message to the former student, Robin Woltman, a university grant administrator. "You, Robin? For shame!"
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As MyDoom, the fastest-spreading virus ever, continues to clog e-mail in-boxes and disrupt business, the computer-savvy are becoming openly hostile toward the not-so-savvy who unwittingly play into the hands of virus writers.
The tension over the MyDoom virus underscores a growing friction between technophiles and what they see as a breed of technophobes who want to enjoy the benefits of digital technology without making the effort to use it responsibly.
The virus spreads when Internet users ignore a basic rule of Internet life: never click on an unknown e-mail attachment. Once someone does, MyDoom begins to send itself to the names in that person's e-mail address book. If no one opened the attachment, the virus's destructive power would never be unleashed.
"It takes affirmative action on the part of the clueless user to become infected," wrote Scott Bowling, president of the World Wide Web Artists Consortium, expressing frustration on the group's discussion forum. "How to beat this into these people's heads?"
Many of the million or so people who have so far infected their computers with MyDoom say it is not their fault. The virus often comes in a message that appears to be from someone they know, with an innocuous subject line like "test" or "error." It is human nature, they say, to open the mail and attachments.
But computer sophisticates say it reflects a willful ignorance of basic computer skills that goes well beyond virus etiquette. At a time when more than two-thirds of American adults use the Internet, they say, such carelessness is no longer excusable, particularly when it messes things up for everyone else.
For years, many self-described computer geeks seemed eager to usher outsiders onto their electronic frontier. Everyone, it seemed, had a friend or family member in the geek elite who could be summoned — often frequently — in times of computer crisis.
But as those same friends and family members are called upon again and again to save the computer incompetents from themselves, the geeks' patience is growing thin. As it does, a new kind of digital divide is opening up between populations of computer users who must coexist in the same digital world.
"Viruses are just the tip of the iceberg," said Bill Melcher, who runs his own technical support business in San Francisco. "When it comes to computers, a lot of intelligent people and fast learners just decide that they don't know."
Many of the computationally confused say they suffer from genuine intimidation and even panic over how to handle the mysterious machines they have come to rely on for so much of daily life. Virus writers, spammers and scammers, they say, are the ones who should be held accountable for the chaos they cause.
But as the same people equip themselves with fancy computers and take advantage of the Internet for things like shopping and banking, critics say that their perpetual state of confusion has begun to get tiresome. And while the Internet's traditional villains remain elusive, those inadvertently helping them tend to be friends and neighbors.
Some in the technocamp imagine requiring a license to operate a computer, just like the one required to drive a car. Others are calling for a punishment that fits a careless crime. People who click on virus attachments, for instance, could be cut off by their Internet service providers until they proved that their machines had been disinfected.
And some, tired of being treated like free help lines, are beginning to rebel. They are telling friends, relatives and random acquaintances to figure it out on their own.
"Go out, get a book," suggests Zack Rubenstein, 28, who has for years provided free technical support for his extended social network. "You went to college and you got a degree, you obviously can learn something. Play around with it; it's not going to kill you."
Mr. Rubenstein, a member of the technical support staff at a New York City law school he thought it best not to identify, is not at liberty to dispense such advice at work. Instead, he answers endless calls about malfunctioning monitors that turn out not to be plugged in, and broken printers that start working again as soon as he removes the single piece of paper obviously jamming them.
"Especially dealing with academics," Mr. Rubenstein added, "you'd think they'd have some ability to deduce or think problems through for a minute."
Not so long ago, he took pleasure in showing people around the brave new digital world that he moved in with such ease. Now that everyone has a technical question, he says, being a tour guide has lost its charm.
But his girlfriend, Miriam Tauber, 24, makes no apologies for her lack of computer knowledge. To her, computers are like "moody people" who behave illogically. If people like Mr. Rubenstein expect her to understand them, she suggests, perhaps they should learn to speak in a language she can understand, rather than ridiculous acronyms and suffixes.
"There are these MP3's and PDF's and a million other things that you don't even know what they are," Ms. Tauber said. "I don't feel like I need to figure out computers, because my instinct is there's just no way."
Still, if there is any evidence that the antagonism of the technical elite is having an effect, it may be in the mounting degree of shame among those who make obvious mistakes, or ask obvious questions too often.
When Julie Dillon, 33, had trouble installing a wireless card in her Macintosh laptop last weekend, for instance, she stopped herself from calling a friend three blocks away who works for Apple Computer because she knows he is besieged.
"There's this whole complicated interchange — are you calling them as a friend or are you calling them as tech support — and I definitely feel a little bit guilty," said Ms. Dillon, a musician in San Francisco. "It's a fine line that has changed because I remember a few years ago it was no big deal."
Instead, Ms. Dillon called Mr. Melcher, who has built his technical support business in part on referrals from friends who no longer wanted to handle the demands of other friends.
Ms. Dillon, who considers her laptop "a blessing" that helps her promote her music, said she was happy to pay for the help. She has also frequently received technical support in exchange for dinner, and, once, for a song.
Even parents are being left to fend for themselves as their children tire of dispensing advice.
David Hale, 25, a lawyer in St. Louis, said he had rebuilt his parents' virus-ridden computer from scratch several times in recent months before he learned that his father, Dale, was replying to every piece of his spam e-mail, asking to be taken off the spammers' mailing lists. Dale Hale, 47, also frequently clicked on pop-up ads that appeared to be messages from Microsoft telling him to upgrade his computer.
"It would cause fights between my parents because they would argue about whether a particular one was legitimate and I'm like, `It is NEVER legitimate,' " said Mr. Hale, who explained as patiently as he could that answering spam and clicking on pop-ups only invite more of the same.
After that, Dale Hale said, his son would sometimes become frustrated by his and his wife's questions. They in turn would get frustrated with their son's instructions, especially over the phone. Eventually they bought antivirus software.
"We've learned by the lumps and bumps," the father said.
(People who had installed the major antivirus software programs from companies like McAfee were largely protected from the MyDoom virus after downloading updates available a few hours after the virus's appearance on Jan. 26.)
Perhaps the one thing that technophobes and technophiles can agree on is that software companies like Microsoft should make things easier and more secure for all kinds of computer users. But Microsoft, whose Web site has so far withstood a continuing attack by the MyDoom virus, had a reminder for users, too.
"Responsibility is shared," said Scott Charney, Microsoft's chief security strategist. "With some of these viruses that require user action, people have a responsibility to be careful and protect themselves."[/QUOTE]
:rolleyes: Wow. Just wow. They bought antivirus software [I]eventually[/I].
[B]I basically forced my parents and siblings to use firebird and thunderbird. I didn't give them any choice in the matter. [/B][/QUOTE] Same thing here. :)
[B]You people do realize that geeks make virus to get back at people?? [/B][/QUOTE]
[img]http://iexploiter.com/episodes/ba/ba_and_friends.jpg[/img]
[size=6]I have a cunning plan...[/size]
One of my best buds is free IT consultant to every man Jack... parents, rellies everything.
I'm very careful to put offerings in his bowl when I go as consult his oracle...
...he likes thumb drives, a stick of RAM occasionally and little USB radios and such..:)
I'm no total end user, but with PC's my knowledge is alot more limited than on a MAC, I can do my own shit, reformats, reinstalls, tweakage to a reasonable degree, but when it comes to seriously screwing with its guts... I go talk to him, and I show some godamn respect. I know how much his time should be worth, and I'm acutely aware of the ammount of time he spends fixing stuff that the owner should know how to fix.
The modern world has rapidly become a place where you either know how to a computer[I]drive[/I] a computer rather than just operate one. (I use the same distinction some people use with cars. There are alot of car operators out there and very few drivers.)
Eh.... give it maybe 20 years and the Dino's will be in museums or fossilised...:)
heh heh
She tells me what she's looking for, and I run the searches and the queries... it's so much easier that way...
:D
Big reason I haven't been in the IT field in years...
;)
[B][size=6]I have a cunning plan...[/size] [/B][/QUOTE]
Heehee...*giggle*...BWAHAHAHA!
Ahh, Black Adder...my dad made me watch those when I was way too young...
-Φ
[B]After talking with them for a bit I'll find out they have Gator and Banzai Buddy and 20 icons in the sys tray.....argh. [/B][/QUOTE]
That's natural result of using IE.
Begin of January I went to one house cause their few weeks old computer was crashing constantly.
There was damn lot of spyware, dialers and hijackers in that machine when I cleaned those.
After five minutes on internet using IE there was already couple of them back on PC.
I installed Opera and few weeks later PC was still working without any problems and they haven' called me so I guess that it's still working.
So one the biggest reasons for these problems is that people use Microsoft programs and don't know that using them is anything but wise. (or they require lot of tweaking to get them more secure)
And not one of them works like another. So what I have learned to do is open up a web browser, type in the search string he needs, and point. Then walk out :D
Not that he doesn't know how to search for stuff...but he never does it from home! He always searches at work...and prints it out...and there are almost always better references then what he finds!
[B]So one the biggest reasons for these problems is that people use Microsoft programs and don't know that using them is anything but wise. (or they require lot of tweaking to get them more secure) [/B][/QUOTE]
We've talked this one to death, so I won't start yet another debate about it, but it's not just tweaking, but a basic understanding of what not to do. I use IE, but I've never had a problem with viruses/spyware, because I just don't do stupid sh!t. My family is fairly terrible about it (ever get those boxes prompting you to download (exact quote) "this plugin"? My sister always clicks yes...), but that's why they have their own PC. ;)
[B]My family is fairly terrible about it (ever get those boxes prompting you to download (exact quote) "this plugin"? My sister always clicks yes...), but that's why they have their own PC. ;) [/B][/QUOTE]
Why you don't force them to use programs in which they don't have that change to click yes?
[B]Why you don't force them to use programs in which they don't have that change to click yes? [/B][/QUOTE]
Because it's their damn PC, and I don't care what they do with it.
[B]Because it's their damn PC, and I don't care what they do with it. [/B][/QUOTE]
So you don't have to clean their PCs when they start crashing because of all spyware and other malware?
Or you just format it and restore programs from drive image?
Install Mozilla on your parent's computer. Force them to use it (get rid of all possible links to IE and hide the application completely so they can't find it). Then turn on the popup blocker so they don't see those popup ads.
It might help :)
Another thing that might help:
[url]http://www.mlin.net/StartupMonitor.shtml[/url]
Install that. Then tell them to always click No except when installing programs off CD :)
Actually, that is a good program for everyone to have. My parent's system caught the Blaster worm trying to install itself into startup with it...only hours after the worm came out before virus checkers had been updated. I have caught spyware that was being installed WITH legitimate programs that I wanted (and of course didn't tell me that spyware came with it).
[SIZE=3]So the lessen is: Get the program "Startup Monitor" by "Mike Lin" becuase it can save your system from Spyware and Viruses![/SIZE]
-Φ
[B]Install Mozilla on your parent's computer. Force them to use it (get rid of all possible links to IE and hide the application completely so they can't find it). Then turn on the popup blocker so they don't see those popup ads.[/B][/QUOTE]
I think that actually this would be better:
[url]http://www.litepc.com/xplite.html[/url]
(kick whole Idiot Exploiter out of computer)
[B]I think that actually this would be better:
[url]http://www.litepc.com/xplite.html[/url]
(kick whole Idiot Exploiter out of computer) [/B][/QUOTE]
One extra vote for XP Lite. Great program indeed.
"Executing a program...that means killing it? Like getting it out of the PC?"
LMAO.
My parents are worried about when I leave...I'm getting them familier with Ctrl Alt Del though.
-Φ
[B]Thank god my parents don't use e-mail much nor surfs the internet. [/B][/QUOTE]
...or smurfs the internet either... :p
Smurfing the Internet
-Φ
[B]I think my dad misses the good old days of his Amiga...[/B][/QUOTE]
He's not the only one. :)
[B]I think my dad misses the good old days of his Amiga... [/B][/QUOTE]
Yeah there are a few of us who feel that way... I couldn't continue to hold on though. I have 3 out in the shed rotting away... :(
The speed just is excrutiating any more...
:(