[conspire] Re: conspire Digest, Vol 20, Issue 1

[Ross Bernheim]

On Jan 1, 2005, at 11:59 AM, conspire-request at linuxmafia.com wrote:

> looks like bigvalley.net cut us off at the new year.
> This necessitates an emergency since my parents
> totally ignored many months of warnings about the need
> to change our i.s.p. since bigvalley.net no longer
> supports w98, pity since it's more secure than xp in
> practice. Despite my telling anyone on the phone i
> don't feel authorized about any changes in service,
> the blame does not belong with bigvalley.net .
> This is worth mentioning as many times the kin of a
> "computer expert" feel entitled to have everything
> work perfectly no matter how recklessly they act.

Clueless users fall into two large groups. "Oblivious and
uncaring" and "those who have an inkling and someone
to call". Other users fall into a range of cluefulness. Un-
fortunately Clucifer is rather overworked these days.

>       Back to my folks, they appear to have acted as
> if the "@bigvalley.net" accounts would last forever
> despite many warnings: my number 408.xxx.xxxx and you
> may need to use it if things don't get better.

Hopefully Clucifer will appear with a clue by 4 and a
healthy swing.  :-)

I spent a couple of hours in the Apple Store in Palo
Altoid land the last couple of days and your parents
are probably no worse than a much larger percentage
of the population than most of us somewhat clued geeks
realize. It has made me aware that to reach the great
masses, we need to rethink our approach to technology
and how we present information.

Ross Bernheim