It really does scare me

15-04-2009


So, regularish readers of The Bauble may know that I do not use Windows as my only operating system for computer related things. In fact I use something called Linux (well Mandriva to be precise but that is getting into nitty gritty). While I don't usually blog about how great an OS it is, I do like to blog about idiots that don't understand it in the real world.

Like these idiots at a Boston College.

The bit I love most about the article is:

...he was fixing for other students; the student uses multiple names to log on to his computer; and the student uses two different operating systems, including one that is not the "regular B.C. operating system" but instead has "a black screen with white font which he uses prompt commands on."

This just shows not only ignorance but a clear lack of understanding of how a computer works. It is people like this that probably still think the Internet works by magical elves pushing the pictures down the phoneline.

I really do believe that in this day and age if you do not fully, 100%, understand an aspect of technology then you should not be able to do anything such as confiscate it for legal purposes or sue a grandmother for downloading free music. It's stupidity like this that breeds more stupidity throughout the world. The campus security should have brought along a tech head with them BEFORE they took the laptop so that he could explain to them that they were talking out their asses.

My laptop doesn't even have Windows on it, it has Opensolaris and Mandriva. Christ I must be a damn suicide bomber.

Since when did being an individual, not conforming to the standard, instantly label you as a criminal or just a suspicious person?

I mean don't get me wrong, it is possible that he was up to something illegal or bad. But just because he isn't using "the only operating system that can possibly come on a computer" doesn't necessarily make it an open-and-closed case.

Blue_jester