Article a lire pour nous, O survivant de l'informatique!

[Aristiana]

NY Times, www.nytimes.com/2004/02/0...5VIRU.html

Geeks Put the Unsavvy on Alert: Learn or Log Off
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!"

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."


Clo.

[MoonZar]

avant que je me tappe le roman.. c'est une joke ou c'est un texte sérieux ?

Mox @)—‘--,--
OverGod of MoonZar
info@MoonZar.com

[Aristiana]

Et dans la discussion qui a suivit sur Slashdot.org, quelqu'un a parfaitement résumé mon opinion...

A computer should more aptly be treated like a motor vehicle; yeah, you can go have some fun in it but you'd better drive defensively and know how to operate the thing properly. You don't just take it out of the box and start pressing buttons.

Right! This is exactly the analogy I had in mind. The difference is there's very little people can do to be malicious to a car in the same way as a virus wreaks havoc on your PC, short of letting the air out of the tires or other foolish stunts. Perhaps a better comparison would be if someone went around randomly dumping sugar in the gas tank of anyone whose car didn't have a security system installed.

From the article...

"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."

Hmm...I wonder if he tinkers with his car? Me, I know the basics of how a car engine works, and sure, I understand electronics and wiring and so forth. But I have no clue what goes on in today's modern multi-processor-controlled engine -- it might as well be a black box to me. Actually, it is -- my car is a tool, a device to get me from point A to point B in reasonable comfort.

But I happen to know that there are certain rules of the road to be obeyed, and, if those are not obeyed, then the consequences could be rather painful and/or expensive. What are those rules? Why, I had a nice little booklet that laid the fundamentals out. Had to prove I understood it, too, by taking a test. Oh, and I also had to be passed by an examiner who observed me driving for half an hour before I was allowed on the roads by myself.

And I also know that, on a regular basis, that car needs certain maintenance -- oil changes, fan belt replacements, that sort of thing. If I can't or don't want to do it myself, I have to take it to someone and pay them to do it. Fine by me -- I can earn more by working for half an hour than it costs me to pay someone to have the oil changed, and I'd just as soon not get my hands dirty.

Make sense? After all, isn't a modern PC, with all the complexities of a modern OS and a modern suite of applications, just as internally nebulous to the casual user as is a car? The difference is we pay heaps for cars and are told repeatedly we have to take care of them on a regular basis or that money will be wasted. Oh, and we're carefully checked for basic skills and knowledge before being turned loose in a car.

Computers, though -- they're sold at a (relatively) cheap price and the vendors never advertise that, hey, guess what, you actually need to take care of the thing. (And geeks like Zack Rubenstein perpetuate the myth that anyone can fix a PC with little effort. Come on, a show of hands of all those whose learning-by-experience includes a few good late night sessions of try to fix, break, try to fix again, break even worse, before you finally figure it out. I sure wouldn't risk doing that with a car.)

Clo.

[Aristiana]

C'est tres sérieux. Ca parle des gens qui s'y connaissent, qui en ont marre de se faire écoeurer par la famille et amis pour réparer les ordis... Disons que pour moi, c'est un baume sur le coeur!

Clo.

[Mijan]

Clo fait comme moi.

Fait le plus ou charge le montant. Les petits gamasins chargent 40$ de l'heure pour remonter des PCs. Quand ils vont avoir payer 120$ pour faire remonter leurs maudits PCs une couple de fois... ils vont faire attention.

Mijan

[Jaerofthelake]

j'approuve claudine ,pour moi aussi c'est un baulme...





The loremaster

[Sszvein]

En effet, il y a rien de plus chiant que de réparer l"imprimante pour des niaiseries 12 fois la même journée, mais c'est aussi hautement irréaliste. D'abord, les ordi ont toujours fait peur, ils donnent l'impression d'être vraiment compliqués, et puis, quand tu te retrouve devant un blue screen, tu veux plus y toucher pour être sûr de pas faire une autre niaiserie. Ensuite, les gens sont paresseux, quand tu achète un micro-onde, un magnétoscope ou même une console, ils sont supposés bien fonctionner, sinon téléphone le fabricant et dis-lui que c'est censé être garanti.
Le monde de la consommation est comme ça, je ne crois pas qu'il y ait un jour une distinction entre les ordinateurs et les autres appareils, même s'il les ordinateurs sont infiniment plus complexes et vulnérables que la pluparts du reste.

Courage et patience.

Sszvein-sama