Should Net surfers be licensed?

ThomasC · 09-12-2003, 01:15 AM

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A virus fouls your computer and you haplessly pass it on. Advertising software loads stealthily on your machine. Your password gets stolen because of your neglect. Or the music industry sues you because of something your kids or grandkids did on your computer. Barely a day goes by without someone, somewhere getting stung or stinging others through careless Internet use. Though many of these threats are preventable, relatively few of us take the necessary precautions. So why not institute mandatory education before people can go online? After all, motorists must obtain licenses before they can legally hit the road, and computers are much more complicated.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/965202.asp

Glenn Overholt · 09-12-2003, 02:19 AM

The statement is incorrect. Computers are NOT more complicated, thanks to Windows. (Can we Bill bash?)

Before Windows computers did require that the users knew a lot more, but today, they are almost plug and play.

Is this just part of the dumbing down of America?

Glenn

Eric_L · 09-12-2003, 06:22 AM

States don't want to license internet use, they want to tax it.

It would seem to me that before they license internet use, they should license free speech..... (sarcasm intended)

John Watson · 09-12-2003, 07:04 AM

The home computer as brought to us by Microsoft is the greatest agency of social chaos (narrow casting, niche generating, infobabble overload), and of social control (somebody knows what you're doing, and your up to your eyeballs in these klutzy high-maintenance machines, so you have no time for more important issues) that the world has ever seen

As for educating and licencing us, futile. Just look at what the SOB's with licences are doing out on the highways

Holadem · 09-12-2003, 07:21 AM

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So why not institute mandatory education before people can go online?

Why is there always some idiot who wants to control and regulate stuff?!

--
H

**HTF Ads**

Ricardo C · 09-12-2003, 09:26 AM

Small penis syndrome.

AllanN · 09-12-2003, 10:22 AM

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Is this just part of the dumbing down of America?

As far as technology goes I don’t think people are getting dumber. It’s just that technology has to be at a cretin level of user friendliness before the general public can handle it. People will always have the same level of comprehension. The technology is what needs to be "dumbed down" before people can use it. When I first got the internet, connecting to it was easy, just a simple phone number plugged into a terminal program. Now after I typed in a username and password, it was a different story. Someone without some UNIX knowledge would be completely lost back in the day, although I still have only enough *NIX knowledge to be a dangerous user.

Justin Lane · 09-12-2003, 10:36 AM

This article is a joke. I am sure the companies even mentioning such licensing would be the first ones in line to offer a training course for $99.99 to help you pass the licensing test.

This country was founded on individual freedom, namely "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness". It seems like every proposal now of days wants to more and more control our lives, reducing our freedoms, and hampering what the founding fathers considered inalienable rights.

J

Jack Shappa · 09-12-2003, 10:44 AM

Let's not go getting all elitest. People have different interests. I happen to enjoy computers and have since before the days of 300baud BBS systems, when I wrote and maintained my own Commodore 64 1-line BBS (whew ancient). To someone who wasn't into the hobby, it would be much more of an investment of time and energy than they'd ever want to put out. This doesn't make them dumb or cretins, anymore than you'd be a cretin for not being an expert in a different hobby. You're good at what you enjoy. Computers have finally reached a level where about anybody can use them, which is great. A computer savvy person can still get MUCH MUCH more out of a computer system than someone who is not, but remember mainstream acceptance gives us all many more choices at lower prices...

- Cryo

P.S. Ever go help a friend/neighbor/relative with their computer and it looks to you like a weedpatch would look to a gardener? No defragging, orphan files everywhere, START BAR that is 100 miles long with crap they don't even use, spyware installed, etc etc.

AllanN · 09-12-2003, 11:05 AM

I’m sorry if I came off as elitist. But that just seems to be the way with technology at least. The geeks and the early adopters are the first ones on the scene because they want to know how something works and will take the time to learn the ins and outs of a certain technology. Once that technology get to a level where it can be used without much effort, then the majority of people who are not as technically adept for whatever reason will start using it. This could be lack of interests or education. With the Internet it’s the fact that there are technologies (Windows, MacOS) that make it easier to get on and use the Internet. However technologies to protect non technical users have not evolved to a point where they are extremely user friendly yet. My point is that early adopters are usually more educated about technology because it is there passion. As technology evolves to the point where a user does not require much training to use it, what comes next is a mix of people who are just as intelligent but don’t care about that technology and people who are ignorant and stupid. I’m not saying that everyone that does not share a passion with technology is stupid, there are however just dumb people out there.

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P.S. Ever go help a friend/neighbor/relative with their computer and it looks to you like a weedpatch would look to a gardener? No defragging, orphan files everywhere, START BAR that is 100 miles long with crap they don't even use, spyware installed, etc etc.