From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Message-ID: <6e35c06204082009452cdbd7dc@mail.gmail.com> Date: Fri, 20 Aug 2004 09:45:41 -0700 From: Jack Johnson To: Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs <9fans@cse.psu.edu> Subject: Re: Long Political Rant. Was: [Re: [9fans] datakit] In-Reply-To: <4125F4BD.4070404@anvil.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit References: <4125F4BD.4070404@anvil.com> Topicbox-Message-UUID: d7be41de-eacd-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025 On Fri, 20 Aug 2004 13:55:25 +0100, Dave Lukes wrote: > I don't think it's the counter-culture that's changed: it's the world. I think you hit it here: > But the IT world has changed: > it's big, it's scary, it's got Bad Shit and Evil Empires and Loony > Factions with Disproportionate amounts of influence. To compound the broad, sweeping generalizations, I think we as geeks have done a disservice to the rest of the planet by not making this crap more accessible. Most of us make our living based on the fact that it's scary and complex and works well only when the planets align and the budget goes up by 15%. And we don't adequately train our children to discern quality and to trust judging quality for themselves, so we breed a culture where these choices are left to others -- many times with market forces being the only guide -- and the users have been (some would say appropriately) trained to say, "Thank you sir, may I have another?" rather than, "I'm mad as hell, and I can't take it anymore!" My folks need a new computer, and I often think that dropping a Windows computer in the lap of the average elderly person these days is like giving them a live grenade. Sure, training can help, throwing some more dollars at the problem for anti-virus and anti-spyware or some more time by utilizing some security templates and maybe scripting some updates and sanity checks, but who should have to do this to email their grandkids, look for Ford Galaxy rear bumpers and bank online? And who would subject entire generations to the same misfortune? But "Less is More" does not sell, and Microsoft Press does (to many of us geeks). The future means playing well with others, and for us that often means shilling the best of the worst to our friends, families, corporations and countries -- be it SOAP or [insert politician here] -- which, for some, is unconscionable. I know it is for me, and I do it every day. I'm too weak to be a conscientious objector and forego Service Pack 2 (for long), or replace Exchange with upas, or tell my co-worker their $1,000 is better spent on a financial consultant or a vacation with their family than that new Dell. I'm too weak to give up my Web browser (and lately my media player), even though I'd rather be at the movies. I am the problem, because worse than buying into the hype or stuffing my head in the sand I know my actions to not further myself, profession or society. It's likely I'm doing just a little bit of harm every single day.