Santa Fe city government computers knocked out by worm

Mon Nov 17 21:20:47 UTC 2003

On Mon, Nov 17, 2003 at 09:40:01AM -0500, alex at yuriev.com said:
> > Valdis Kletnieks responded:
> > > > It doesn't take long for the average mechanic to learn that buying cheap
> > > > wrenches is a bad idea.
> > 
> > to which Alex replied:
> > > Do you take your car to McLaren service center? Why not? They definitely
> > > have better tools.
> > 
> > To which I say:
> > No, but if the mechanic I did go to had a habit of using tools that
> > regularly caused my car to halt and catch fire with me in it, I think I'd
> > switch mechanics until I found somebody that used more reliable tools.

Alex said:
> Again, for the end customer, the level of damage that they are experiencing
> is too little to bother.

I would definitely take exception to that statement, based only on the end
users of Wintel machines I hear from (the rest of my family). They come
fairly close to being average Windows end-users, have zero knowledge other
than 'click here', and the latest round of worms and the truckload of
critical security updates in the last month has had me on the phone trying to
walk them through WindowsUpdate at least half a dozen times in the past week
or two (as they're on dial-up, getting in from outside is a bit trickier).

My dad threatens to turn the computer into a pile of twisted aluminum on a
regular basis due to all the problems he's facing (some of which are due to
the typical Windows user experience, some are due to worms, some to dialup,
some to hardware (printer ink cartridges), all of which are exacerbated by
lack of knowledge and experience). This is not what I would qualify as a
level of damage "too little to bother" with.

Shoulda bought them a Mac last year ...
-- 
Scott Francis || darkuncle (at) darkuncle (dot) net
      illum oportet crescere me autem minui
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