nanog mailing list archives

RE: How much longer..


From: David Barak <thegameiam () yahoo com>
Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2003 06:42:37 -0700 (PDT)



--- "St. Clair, James" <JStClair () vredenburg com>
wrote:

 I've lived in the UK, and never had a license to
maintain or update the
engine.

But I bet that you DO have someone maintain the engine
in your car (and so do most people).


Additionally, I could drive on the M1 or M5 at
speeds rarely found in the
US, certainly not legally. You don't get any
additional training to do this
- its implied in your licensing. 

The "computers as cars" analogy applies to
commoditization of a utility. The
message is 99% of the world's computer users
(private and otherwise) view
their PC/laptop as a "gadget" like their phone or
TV. They plug it in, they
turn it on, it works. That is what the expect and is
all they will
culturally accept. Placing the burden on the user
will not work.


But the expectation is there that you will regularly
take your car to a mechanic for various maintenance
which will be nebulously explained by technicians
using words like "bearings," "valves" and "rings."

I believe that the model we need to follow is
something like this - train users that they need to
follow some { simple, quick } process for regular
maintenance, and then make sure that the mechanics are
looking for things which are out of order (i.e. you
brought the car for an oil change, but your air filter
is shot).  This could be an opportunity to say "you
have 4 ad-bots on your computer, which reduce
performance.  do you want them removed?"

-David Barak


=====
David Barak
-fully RFC 1925 compliant-

__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software
http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com


Current thread: