Computers are still too complicated. I just helped one of my nurses remove a nasty and tenacious bit of spyware, but only after several scans with an antispyware program. It finally fled the scene, but there’s no way my nurse could have identified those pop-up messages as spyware and downloaded the appropriate removal software without my intervention. Windows didn’t provide any helpful dialog box telling her “Hey, this is spyware and here’s how you remove it.” More importantly, her web browser allowed her to click on the link that downloaded the spyware in the first place. I’m certainly not expecting Windows (Vista, in this case) to have air-tight security, but it should spend less time freaking out when a new program is installed and more time focusing on real security threats.
Computers are great at scaling up to a user’s sophistication, but they still suck hard when it comes to holding the hands of users who don’t have the time or the inclination to become sophisticated.
