C J Campbell wrote:


"Andrew Gideon" wrote in message
online.com...
C J Campbell wrote:

You could not even go back to the days when only
research facilities and the military had Internet access.

Considering the economic damages caused by each major worm run, that
might
not be a Bad Thing. We'd lose a *lot*. But it might be better, in the
long run.


Better for whom?

You'd have to ask the economists that produce these numbers.

I submit that your protests are essentially the same as
those of the priests when Gutenberg started printing Bibles. Your high
priesthood is threatened now that the unanointed masses have access to
computers and networks.

That's foolish. Once upon a time, I was a software engineer with a nice job
that paid reasonably well. Then, this tool I'd used for year exploded in
popularity. As a result, my income surged. Despite the "hard times" and
"burst of the bubble" neither I, nor my other "long time in technology"
friends, were adversely impacted.

In other words, the exploion of personal computing, esp. involving
networking (my particular area of interest has always been in network
computing) has been *wonderful* for me.

So by what am I threatened?

No, what I see is a picture larger than myself. I see people that have
years of work lost because they don't do proper backups. I see people that
have monies and "identities" stolen do to poor system security (ie. the
latest IE spoof, or just the sniffers installed at a Kinkos). I see
reports of millions+ in damages cited for each of these major worm runs.

All of these are, in theory, preventable. But this would require education.
This would require that people understand that these are not toasters, but
machines of enough complexity that ongoing care and maintenance is
necessary. Unfortunately, that education could work against some company
bottom lines, and so a lie is put out instead.

Is the cost worth the benefit? I cannot say. So I *don't* say. But I
certain don't opine that the introduction of the Internet to the masses is
an unmixed good. There has been a definite cost. Worse still, it is a
cost that need not have been paid.

If you're looking for a priesthood protecting its own, I think you're
looking in the wrong direction.

- Andrew