4 ms·
In other words: it still falls into the "you have to be stupid enough to allow total strangers behind the wheel of your car" category, they just don't need you
by rickmb 15y ago
In other words: it still falls into the "you have to be stupid enough to allow total strangers behind the wheel of your car" category, they just don't need you to hand over the keys anymore. Got it.
Stupidity is not a problem that can be solved through technology.
At least Apple now has a service to protect stupid people against themselves, it's called the "App Store". You know, with the kind of approval system we've all been bitching about.
As far as I'm concerned, self-inflicted malware is about as big a security issue as running with scissors. To treat it as some external force that needs to be dealt with by manufacturers, OS-makers, anti-virus producers or even legislators just perpetuates the real problem, turning it into a perpetual arms race that can not possibly be won, but at some point may cost us the freedom to install anything we want on our computers.
- mahrain 15y agoExactly, Mac users have so far been very safe from actual virusses and worms, and other malicious stuff sneaking onto your computer through security holes, however, this type is something you can't do anything against. It's the user consciously downloading and running a program. For this type of inexperienced users Symantec and McAfee make Mac products.
- derefr 15y agoJust as a thought: if there was an "Only run Mac App Store-distributed applications" switch somewhere in OSX's System Preferences, off by default, I know several people for whom I (as their tech-guy-cum-sysadmin) would flip it on in a heartbeat, and then never likely hear about this particular flavor of PEBKAC again.
- wesley 15y agoSystem preferences > accounts > parental controls > limit programs > allow app-store programs > all Deny all the rest.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- rbanffy 15y ago> Stupidity is not a problem that can be solved through technology. Wait a couple decades. Kurzweil may be on to something ;-)
- stcredzero 15y agoStupidity is not a problem that can be solved through technology. My reaction is: Never say Never. However, if you are going to try and solve stupidity through technological or scientific means, beware. A half-baked understanding of science can be a dangerous thing. Example: At Enron, the policy was to fire those who evaluated in the bottom 10% of the company. Jeffrey Skilling thought he was using the miraculous power of evolution to create a company of super-employees. What he actually did was to create a company of those skilled at gaming the system. This was like another attempt to evolve chickens to be super egg-layers. Instead of increasing the egg-laying of the whole population, only the egg laying of the dominant females was increased and overall productivity was decreased. http://lesswrong.com/lw/l8/conjuring_an_evolution_to_serve_you/ http://lesswrong.com/lw/l8/conjuring_an_evolution_to_serve_y...