[Gllug] MP crap shock

[itsbruce at uklinux.net]

On Fri, Oct 31, 2003 at 10:35:42AM +0000, Tim Gray wrote:
> Christopher Hunter wrote:
> 
> >It isn't really possible to underestimate the stupidity of our "elected 
> >representatives", when they are "elected" by a mostly stupid populace!
> 
> Thats note really a fair comment. He's talking about a post code type 
> email address b/c he doesn't know any better. I'm sure that everyone on 
> this list had made silly newbie mistakes before, I know I have.

Most people who don't work in IT have a misplaced confidence of the
power of computers.  They assume it's all complex and frighteningly
powerful.  E-mail, in contrast, is a very simple technology that was
designed to do no more than deliver messages with a measure of
reliability.  So people tend to be shocked if they find out how basic
e-mail is, particularly how easy it is to forge sender addresses etc.
Their next reaction tends to be that "something ought to be done about
this".  The argument that mail delivery is all that the mail delivery
system should care about, that verification of sender identity should be
done at a higher layer, usually does not impress as end users do not
think about computers in terms of clean implementation. 

-- 
Bruce

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