Computers for normal people
I don’t know how normal people do it. Computers suck enough when you’re a geek, but regular folk must go absolutely insane trying to get anything done. My uncle just brought his laptop over and it was riddled with worms. Sasser, Agobot and one other so far. Not to mention spyware and dialup issues galore. He’s a smart guy, but had absolutely no clue what to do about it. He called Microsoft, and after 7 days they faxed him instructions for removing Sassar. It says things like…
“Enable Advanced TCP/IP filtering on all interfaces to block un-solicited incoming packets”
You’ve gotta be shitting me.
I’m tempted to start a charity organization whose sole mission is cleaning up people’s computers, installing virus protection, firewalls, Firefox, AdAware and so on. Then spend a half-hour teaching them how to use them. Maybe there’s already an organization out there, but I – and most people I know, based on the state of their machines – have never heard of them.