Sunday, October 10, 2004

Computer Users Face New Scourge (washingtonpost.com): "washingtonpost.com - SAN FRANCISCO -- Chuck Harris remembers when the Internet was fun and he'd spend hours reading his favorite news sites, checking the church calendar, browsing the shops. Then, a few weeks ago, he lost control of his computer. It turned into a giant electronic billboard." (Via Yahoo! News - Technology.) Leaving worm-based infections aside, spyware and adware arrive on someone's computer when they download some freebie. People who would not let a stranger offering gifts through their front door are easily conned into downloading a file-sharing program, for example. Since studies suggest that around 90 percent of Wintel PCs are affected, this suggests a total mismatch between people's trust model for the net and their models for the physical realm. It would be interesting to understand why. One theory is that the metaphors people construct for the net are those of communication, not those of physical space and property. Traditional forms of communication may manipulate, but people tend to think that they are able to control the terms and effects of communication. But digital communication is very different when it allows the exchange of executable content. That's a totally different concept, maybe only paralleled in fantasy and myth (spells, secret words, ...). Given the metaphoric mismatch, good system and interface design would place clear, strong barriers on the unchecked exchange of executable content. From today's chaotic perspective, even moving to sand-boxed execution would be great progress. But there will be no magic "cures", whatever Mr. Gates might suggest. 11:48:10 AM