How computer users ask to be doomed to viruses and spyware (23 Jun 2004)

Usability Views Article Details

How computer users ask to be doomed to viruses and spyware (23 Jun 2004)
Instead of learning about computers, we rely on the software industry to save us from ourselves by deploying ever more layers of code: spam filters, virus detectors, spyware removers. Although these tools certainly help, they don't tackle the central problem of computer illiteracy. They actually make things worse. We become the dupes of software companies, who make all manner of outlandish claims about the efficacy of their goods, which consumers have few ways of assessing. I've often called tech support and been told a computer problem was "my fault," only to later discover, doing online research, that it was actually a software bug.

Article URL: http://slate.msn.com/id/2102856/

Read 23 more articles from Slate sorted by date, popularity, or title.

Next Article: Ann Kirschner on Marketing and Distribution of Online Learning

Some of the people who make up the Userati group

This site is a labour of love built by Chris McEvoy