Insomnia

Interesting debate over at Gizmodo regarding the prank they pulled at CES this year. Seth Godin definitely thinks it is a crime.

I don't really like TVs in public places and if I didn't carry way too much stuff in my pockets already, I'd probably carry a TV-B-Gone with me when I go out. When I saw the video, I thought it was pretty funny. Pranks are often mean... this one is no exception.

However, the debate that it generated became more interesting to me than the prank itself. If you read some of the discussion on Gizmodo, you see a pattern emerge quickly: People who think that the pranksters are responsible and people that think that the exhibitors were careless. That they should have just "put some black tape" on the IR port.

This is interesting because it is a debate that I have heard often about computer security: Who's responsible for the protection of an asset? Better locks or stronger laws?

What is even more interesting is that it illustrates the difference between computer programmers (homo logicus) and the rest of the human race. Programmers like to have to plan for all edge cases. They think that anyone that doesn't is careless or lazy. And that it is their own damn fault if someone pulls a prank like this on them. If you go and read the discussion on the Gizmodo site now, you will see that distinction.

Labels: fun, tech

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