Posted on 03/01/2005 3:11:14 PM PST by Graybeard58
The sky is falling!
Sounds like she was infected with one of those porn dialers that calls to some number in Africa. Wait until she gets the phone bill, she'll want to live like Lincoln in the "Land Of Lincoln".
Yeah, it's not worth it. I don't think this internet thing will catch on. It'll probably be obsolete in a couple of years.
you know what, I work with morons that click on every little pop up that comes to them, and then they wonder why they get spam emails.
It isn't the internet's fault, its the users and the abusers of it.
Sounds like the problem is a loose nut behind the keyboard. I wonder how many Citibank emails she's responded to.
I hate it when I get misdirected to different web sites. Every time on FR, when I click to read Ms. Dowd's latest wisdom, all I get are pictures of Catherine Zeta-Jones. What's up with that?
Good grief! Use whatever system you want, but get granny a Mac.
I just don't get it. I use Windows XP, IE 6.0, and just don't have these problems. Of course I also don't visit porn sites and don't click yes on popups; I'm not stupid enough to fall for phishing scams and I don't answer spam. But still, even though I run SpyBot and Ad-Aware weekly, they don't actually ever find anything.
Why is this so complicated, apparently, for so many people? It's just not that hard.
And poor Granny in this story never opened one attachment the origin of which she was unaware . . . never used Internet Explorer . . . had her firewall in place at all times . . . updated her virus definitions daily . . . of course she did.
All users do everything they possibly can to keep their PCs safe.
How do I know?
Because they tell me they do.
Okay, now I've read the entire article and feel qualified to comment.
EVERYONE quoted in the article a) is stupid or b) makes money off fixing stupid people's computers.
Every single mother's child of 'em.
The best thing for Grannies is to get them a mac. Keeps em' out of trouble without a lot of maintenance.
The problem is non-geeks, like grannies, don't know about that stuff, they use what's on the computer and don't configure anything that's not obvious. Computers are being marketed these days as an appliance, they're not supposed to be much more complicated than a top of the line microwave, you don't need to install a bunch of extra stuff to make your microwave safe.
Now there are good solutions to this within the business, like making firewalls and virus scanners part of default installs, but they're still going to run into problems with the average user just not being technically capable enough to run these things. In the end I think the backbone structure of the internet is going to have to find a way to start clamping down on these things, not sure how that's doable but they're going to need to find a way.
My 84 year old mother has had a computer for about 5 years. She keeps up with friends and family with email and she also navigates the net. If it weren't for her adult children who live nearby, she might have a problem. My sisters and their husbands keep it clean for her and up date virus protection, spy ware etc.
Like owning a car, if you don't know how to work on it yourself you'd better have someone you trust do it for you.
I am willing to be that Lipa actually clicked on a couple of those "please remove me from your list" links embedded in the spam mails. My wife, reasonably with it and a computer user for years, almost fell for that one. That one move opens the door to all sorts of problems.
One thing I find frustrating in the Net Industry is people don't want to read.
You can't do business in the virtual world without understanding how the Net works.
nah ive been back for almost 2 months now.....
I know they are, but it isnt just the old ladies they are looking for...they are looking for the computer illiterate first....
Agreed. Some people just do not deserve to own technology.
"Put the computer back in the box it came in and return it to where you bought it. You are too stupid to own one."
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