Common Sense 4 Common People

Holier Than Thou

If you are a Greek reader, or a reader with Greek-reading abilities, or simply a reader who likes to look at pages with Greek characters (the "it's all Greek to me" type), then you might enjoy Holier Than Thou, a Greek blog with an English name. I find it 's overall stance quite piercing.

Psycho hacking

Hey Dave, gimme a break...

Guys I've had it with all these movie-hackers. Lately the wiz kid is necessarily the trustful and loyal companion to the movie hero who is out to get the bad guys. Whenever the hero faces any kind of difficulty he or she just calls the wiz kid and asks for the next hack, which is implemented in minutes. The only flavor I haven't seen yet is the psycho hacker... "Wait boss, let me retrieve his location from the satellite so that I get the pass code. I just wrote a new piece of software that reads minds..."

The whole thing, apart from being silly, I believe has started being dangerous. Why? Because it brainwashes the masses into believing that in the online world hackers wreak havoc, and almost anyone, anytime they like, in no time at all, can get full access to anyone's computers, be it government, be it industry, be it press, be it yours. Couple this with the publicity that any serious hack gets and soon you'll get people scared to use their credit cards or even worse people that are willing to sacrifice their privacy and freedom so as to be "safe".

May be something like this exists already, but I think a site for ridiculing the techno bubble in all these movies would be a good idea.

I thought I knew it all

When I was young all I knew about computers could fit in my head. It was not much but at the time I believed it was and since it could all fit in my head, well... I thought I knew all there was. I was not wise but thinking I knew it all I believed I was wise.

Twelve years later, after having worked with several technologies and libraries, all I know does not fit in my head any more. I think I should be much wiser now (I ought to be ;-)) but since I definitely believe that I don't know it all and I have a better view of the enormity of my ignorance, I feel less wise now. This is something I feel, it's a feeling. It might not be reasonable but it can't easily be reasoned with.

Am I alone in this?