Re: swen and direct nntp-harvesting

From: N. Miller (anonymous_at_discussions.microsoft.com)
Date: 10/17/03 

Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2003 20:36:58 -0700

In article <uCN0F15kDHA.1072@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl>,
Bill_Sanderson@msn.com.plugh.org says...
> My benchmark is my mother in law...

Hmmm. I have an ex-girlfriend who undertook to add memory to her computer.
She had never opened a computer before, but was game to try. She didn't
quite get it right, but only because she feared using too much force; didn't
quite seat it properly. Of course, it didn't work, but a visit set that
straight.

I have a suspicion that what your dear mother-in-law has is a lack of
inclination. Unfortunately, the Internet was created by geeks for geeks, and
it was never really intended as a mass medium. That it works at all with so
many who can't comprehend how to connect properly is a testament to the
original design concept of the Arpanet to build an information network that
would fall apart at the first misconfiguration of attached hardware.

To build a properly safe and secure information network that the majority of
people disinclined to fathom its inner workings can hook up to would require
revamping of protocols. And such a system was tried; WebTV. Alas, there
apparently weren't enough non-geeks to make it take off. The second closest
thing for the disinclined is larger, more stable, and more robust; America
Online. Alas, they still require a certain amount of handholding, but nobody
they know who will hold their hands really wants anything to do with AOL. I
certainly can't afford a second machine, and a second ISP account, just so I
can try things out the AOL way, then tell the non-geek how it works. So, we
have what we have.

Welcome to the Internet. It is the epitome of raw anarchy, and a real-world
proof that William Golding was right. 

-- 
Norman
~Win dain a lotica, En vai tu ri, Si lo ta
~Fin dein a loluca, En dragu a sei lain
~Vi fa-ru les shutai am, En riga-lint
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