Conspiricy Theory ..

[JohnYayas]

I agree. It's all semantics. Most technical people understand that today the term "virus" has morphed to include worms and trojans, as well as adware, spyware, and other forms of malware. But I agree with James; originally a virus meant one thing, and a trojan meant something else. Not everyone remembers the roots of the concept.

Fred Cohen coined the term and here is a link to something he wrote about them. Notice nothing is said about floppies. He did academically create one and used a floppy disc boot sector as a means to spread it. But that was only the transport mechanism. It did not define what a virus.
http://all.net/books/virus/part2.html

[steve-o]

That's why I've always said : (to quote myself from the early 90s) " Computers are an excellent source of entertainment, but we should never rely on them too heavily for critical needs or applications." I still maintain that posture, and I never will do online banking, or any secure applications. I was trained by the military, and was a telecom tech for more than a decade after that, and although telco landlines aren't 100% secure, they are a lot better than bank acct nos and pins floating around in cyberspace. My imho 2 cents worth.

[james]

Whoever said computers make our lives easier was totally wrong. They don't make anything we did without them easier. They do however make it possible to do things we could never do any other way. Unfortunately, computer science is not yet taught as though it was as important as ordinary reading, writing and arithmetic, as it should be. If concepts of computer science were taught right along with numbers and the alphabet and such in pre-school and kindergarten, then people would just grow up knowing all of this like it was common sense and a true extension to human knowledge in general. Some day it will be that way. Computers are certainly here to stay and will always be en ever increasing part of our every day lives.

[JohnYayas]

My life is definitely easier due to computers. I don't have to subscribe to magazines or bother with the post office for the most part. I don't have to dig through countless books to find information I need. I don't have to keep redialing my friend's busy signal when I want to give him a message. As far as you comment that they don't make anything we did without them easier... that's a bit self serving because we did things without them because we didn't have computers to do it. It's like saying, tractors didn't make farmer's lives easier because it is still just as hard to plow a field with a mule. WTF?

People are also not taught about carpentry, auto mechanics, music, biology, physics, etc right along with numbers and alphabet. But, they are integral parts of our lives and I would argue that they are moreso than computer science. The average person just needs know how to start a car and when to have it serviced just like the average person only needs to know how to turn on the computer and click on things.

Computer science is for computer scientists and it is their job the take or invent technology to make it easy for the non-computer scientists. It would be nice if everyone was a computer expert but it would also be nice if everyone knew how to fix their own car, play the piano, manage their own finances, and the list goes on.

[steve-o]

Oh, yeh, I love computers, I just don't trust 'em And I also like to try to do everything myself like you said John. I fix my car, write and play my own music, build my own lasers, design and build my own circuits, plumbing, electrical, you name it-I'll try to do it (not always sucessfully, but I'll still try it, lol) Ive screwed up plenty of computers along the way too but I've learned a thing or 2 too

[dnar]

Oh, yeh, I love computers, I just don't trust 'em

Oh the irony...

I was just emailing a member of our local hackerspace, about an RFID front door lock just designed, built, coded and installed... Members keep leaving the lights on in the space, so I suggested the RFID control system turn the lights master switch OFF when locking the space...

This was rejected due to the premise "technology correcting human behavior" was not acceptable (like it's never been done before, lol).

My response to this objection was simple - "people are morons". Which could have been expressed with a slightly more politically correctly statement, such as "Computers don't make mistakes, people do."

But then again, I am just an Australian suffering the human condition.

[james]

To err is human. To really f**k up takes a computer.

James.

[steve-o]

Slightly off-topic, first a golden oldie then a newer one..

http://buddychai.com/Misc/Cars.html

http://crazynairobian.com/v.php?id=733

[james]

Right now, I think one of my favorite things a computer can do is translate other languages into English. That is really amazing. I also get a kick out of writing something in English, translating it to some other language and then translating that back into English. If the original text has a lot of colloquialisms, it can make for some funny reading.

[JohnYayas]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/powerf...135931201.html