Kevin Vranes has a phud in Physical Ocean- ography and Cli- matology. He now studies sci- ence policy and politics at the I thought this weekend's front page NY Times article on the ignorance of technology users was also part of a phony, mocked-up newspaper article, so dumb was the premise.
But no, it was sadly real. Here's what happened:
An LA couple got a shiny new cable modem. Not wanting to be bothered by having to jack in into the modem directly, they buy an equally shiny, new wireless router.
Not know what the hell you're doing? That's OK, by default it's all ready to go.
RTFM? Hell no!!
So what happens is as predicable as the latest Orac anti-anti-vaccine rant (j/k). Everybody in the neighborhood jumps on the new, free internet connection.
What happens next is maybe less predictable. Couple sees their connection speeds go to hell. Couple realizes that everybody is jumping on their hub. Couple gets mad. Couple....
Couple ReadsTFM and figures out how easy it is to protect their connection? Hell no!! Couple sympathetically gets their picture on the front page as the latest example of technology laziness.
Oh well, they finally did RTFM and figured out how to close access. (Last two paragraphs of story.)
Comments
# 1 | Chris F. | March 6, 2006 1:59 PM
Ho hum. Before reading the NYT article, I was looking forward to laughing at these people. I love stories of dumbasses who are too lame to RTFM and who then complain that they shouldn't be bothered with ReadingTFM in the first place. I didn't think that this article put these folks in this category. They were negligent in not turning on their wireless security, but they didn't really seem to be bitching and defending their laziness. They were just initially ignorant of the consequences of having an unsecured network.
# 2 | paul | March 6, 2006 4:13 PM
Who R's TFM any more? I'm a geek and for the most part I don't, except when something goes wrong. What surprised me about the article was the whinging of the people who freeload on others' networks.
# 3 | Not Shitashi | March 6, 2006 4:40 PM
What about the meta-dumbasses who do RTMFingM but then protect their precious wi-fi with passwords like "default", "linksys" and ... "password"?
Sometimes I try those pw's on a secure connection just for kicks... And if it works, then I just get an extra evil thrill from sticking it to these 'tards.
# 4 | Kevin Vranes | March 6, 2006 6:55 PM
NS - I hope you're running port scans and hole xploits also, just in case you can sniff out a bank acct # or two.
paul - totally agreed. but those who most need to RTFM in the article are the guys who aren't RTFMing. their fault. who are they going to blame when they get their ID stolen?
CF - shoulda RTFM before they even installed the wireless router. plugging and turning on without a second thought is dumbassed. that's why they get my derision.