Re: [ba-poker] please stop using outlook and update your virus definitions

["David S. Heller" <david(deleted the rest)>]

> Designing for the lowest common denominator is what got us into all
> sorts of crap to begin with.

This may be true, but it is unrealistic to expect everyone to be as smart as
you, or as computer savvy as you.  It is a common misconception among
engineers that the user is the problem.  I hear this from engineers
frequently.

The user isn't the problem.  The problem is a lack of proper human factors
engineering.  The problem is that the engineer didn't design the product
with a realistic evaluation of the user in mind.

There are a huge number of people who are connected to the Internet without
any IT support at all.  They dial in or they get DSL from their phone
service or cable from their TV service, and they just do the best they can.
You cannot expect them to take the sort of steps that would protect the
Internet from viruses because they don't know how and they are not going to
learn.

What needs to happen is that all e-mail programs need to come with built-in
anti-virus software that by default scans all mail and by default updates
itself regularly.  When this happens, virus propagation will slow to a crawl
because the millions of people who don't know any better will have
anti-virus e-mail "out of the box".