Swimming in the Pensieve

One falls behind on a lot of current event-type stuff when one loses his bit-pipe to the wild, blue, ether. Irritating at the time, but the giggles one derives from catching-up on events in the technology sector certainly compensates for the pseudo-angst of the past month and a-half.

I ran across a fellow Linux user; situated, interestingly enough, in Austin, Texas; where I have a few relatives doing the 24/7 “oxygen-conversion-thing”. Take a gander at what he’s been confronted with, and how he chose to deal with the situation, at the two links below:

Helios Extracts Microsoft Stupid Tax From Windows User
What Part of Virus and Spyware Didn’t You Understand?

Both of the weblog entries are an absolute riot for the following reason: When people are adequately warned (that would include the full, gory, details of the consequences) not to do something–like click on a link to a malware trap site in the Slovak Republic–they will do it anyway; thus insuring that they suffer the forewarned consequences.

Be not afraid, ye windoze users, the weblog entries are completely safe. They contain nothing dangerous at all–simply a description of some really dumb people. If you have your wits about you, you will laugh yourself silly. If you don’t, you’ll read a description of said “dumb people” which probably applies to you, and you won’t like it in the least. In the latter case, it’s probably best not to click on the links and save yourself the consternation of an encounter with a mirror.

For the insatiably curious, here’s a screen shot of the site he links to…just to save you the trouble of hammering your windoze installation. (By the cavorting goats of Kaldi of Abyssinia, I swear that this a truly unremarkable sight to behold, BTW.)
Linux users: You have no worries at all…you have a real Operating System.

Why do I find his observations to be so hilarious?

Because they are an accurate reflection of human nature, as expressed at the lower-end of the I.Q. Bell Curve. In short: Stupidity is it’s own, best, punishment. Unfortunately, the rest of us bear the expense, burden and constant irritation of silica gel packets that declare their inedibility, and advertisements for costumes which caution prospective purchasers that the “Cape will not enable the wearer to fly.”

Really!?!? What if I jump from a really tall building, on a windy day? Would it make me fly then?

“Sure!” :::Reaching for the camcorder and pointing toward the World Trade Center in Long Beach::: “Tell you what. Give it a try and let me know how far you fly.” (Where did I put that address for submissions to America’s Funniest Home Videos?)

Lest you think Helios is some sort of heartless curmudgeon, please take a gander at his weblog entry which is chronologically situated between the above two entries: Linux Social Experiment…People have NO clue. The man is absolutely correct; which means that most people will unquestioningly believe the false headlines that this article refers to: US-CERT’s FUD.

The fact remains that it is not against the law to be stupid, or even ignorant. (The eugenics folks would just love it if it were.) A person has the fundamental right to be dumb enough to do things that will cause material and/or physical harm to his/her-self or his/her own property.

We, on the other hand, have the moral obligation–by virtue of the fact that we have to put up with just such people taking up space and wasting perfectly good oxygen–to laugh at him/her when the inevitable occurs. (Most particularly when they try to blame somebody else for what they did to their-own self.) Call it a “survival mechanism”, if you really need a sign to herald what we do at such times.

Let’s just say that it’s nature’s way of balancing the Cosmic Chi Ledger.

The most amusing aspect of the Helios Debacle is that, last night I sent a copy of the above-mentioned screen shot to an old school buddy who fancies himself a hot-shot windoze security expert–along with links to Helios’ weblog entries.

I suppose I should have known better than to wave a red cape in front of a bull like that, but he “Knows what he’s doing.” He certainly should have known better than to follow that link from Helios’ weblog. He was, after all, duly warned.

My sides are sore from laughing so hard.

So…Where do you want to go today?®