© 2003 Lawrence I. Charters
Washington Apple Pi Journal, Vol. 25, no. 3, May-June 2003, pp. 31-33.
You can learn amazing things on the Web. In
Did you hear that Microsoft was buying both Adobe and Macromedia, and would immediately stop the development of all their Mac products?
Did you hear that Dell was going to buy both Gateway and Hewlett-Packard, ending the PC wars through the simple means of eliminating all competitors?
Did you hear that, under the Patriot Act, the FBI can enter your home at any time, without notice or subpoena, and search your computer for terrorists? Not just information on terrorists, but actual terrorists hiding inside your computer?
While the World Wide Web has brought computer users a vast array of wonders and resources, it has also brought FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt). Almost anybody can set up a Web site, and say almost anything. People with dry, droll senses of humor write satirical or parody sites that are often misinterpreted as real. Outright propagandists write sites that distort things little and things big, in ways subtle and outrageous. The naive write sites that defy sense and science and present the impossible as established fact.
Is the World Wide Web just a web of lies?
Not always. But you need to apply the same rules of informed, educated skepticism to Web sources that you apply to any other source of news, be that television, radio, newspaper, magazines, or office gossip. Apply some simple rules for separating fact from fiction.
This is particularly true for computer information. (Actually, it is true of anything, but since the Washington Apple Pi Journal is a computer magazine, computers get first consideration.) You don’t want to entrust your computer’s care and feeding to bad information. So how do you separate fact from fiction?
Eight Simple Rules
- I want names. When you read something, be it a Web report, Internet news posting, or E-mail message, see if there is a name attached to the report. Great huge gobs of bad information are posted every day from anonymous sources. Much of this is outright misinformation spread by impish or sinister posters, but just as much if not more is posted by well-meaning people who tried to add 2 + 2 and came up with 7.
- Reputations are earned. If it is a Web site, look at the publisher’s reputation. Let’s face it: some publishers are more reputable than others. The Register, for example (http://www.theregister.com/), seems to delight in living up to its motto, “Biting the hand that feeds IT.” Some articles are so full of snide editorial asides that it is almost impossible to glean even a grain of valid information. Similarly, while some ubergeeks inhabit Slashdot (http://www.slashdot.org/), in fact almost anybody can post almost anything to the site, and at times it seems lurid writers of techno gothic fiction have overrun the site.
- Question and verify. If a specific claim is made, see if it can be verified. Does the article or poster in-elude a link to a source? Are specific facts given, or just vague hints? For example, several Web sites claimed in August 2002, and again in February 2003, that vendors had “cloned” an iPod work-alike, complete with a big hard drive and FireWire port, but at a lower price. Not one of the sites had a link to a picture, a place where you could purchase it, or even a price list.
- Take a test. Is it possible to test a claim? One of the most common types of Internet rumor is of the “When I do A, B results.” Whole Web sites seem to be devoted to such claims, usually without any evidence that anyone has tried to test the theory. So if someone claims (as someone recently did) that Microsoft Word always defaults to British English on Guy Fawkes Day (Nov. 5), set your Mac’s clock to November 5, launch Word, and see what happens. (Nothing. Which is, in a way, disappointing… )
- It’s a plot. Be particularly wary of grand, complex conspiracy theories. Fanatics tend to see the world as black or white, yet love to build elaborate, involved fantasies to house their simple beliefs. Over the past several years there have been reports that Apple laptop LCD panels dissolve in water; that Apple puts secret chips on Macs to track them via CPS (Global Positioning System) satellites; that the easy to use Mac interface presents fewer challenges to the user, and lowers the user’s intelligence; that Apple boosts its bottom line by building their computers in dirty sweatshops using underpaid, uneducated serfs who are virtually chained to the assembly line; that Apple secretly favors Democrats, or Republicans, or Arabs, or Israelis, or environmentalists, or warmongers, or some ethnic, political or advocacy group that is opposed by whoever is writing the Web page. Fanatics hold than anything less than a full refutation of a complex story is inadequate, and often “prove” things by building weak counter-arguments, then demolishing the counter-arguments, and using this success as “proof” of their own claims. Fanatics tend to feel betrayed by those who don’t fully accept their vision of reality – which is a pretty poor excuse for abandoning common sense.
- Silence does not imply consent. Just because a company doesn’t reject a rumor doesn’t mean they confirm it. If Apple has a “no comment” about some rumor just before Christmas or July 4, it might be that everyone who could comment is on holiday. Or that they think the rumor is a joke.
- We want corroboration! Did you hear the rumor that Microsoft was buying Connectix, maker of Virtual PC? A quick check of Microsoft’s Web site revealed, as usual, nothing (finding things on Microsoft’s site is a daunting task). But checking the Connectix Web site revealed that this rumor was fairly accurate (Microsoft purchased most of the company, but not all of it).
- Sense and sensibility. Checking internal consistency in rumors and reports doesn’t require anything more complicated than common sense and logic. For example, ever since the IBM PC was introduced in 1981, Apple has been rumored to be secretly working on making MS-DOS or Windows compatible computers. Given the fact that there are hundreds of PC-compatible manufacturers, and almost all of them are losing great gobs of money, is it likely that Apple would enter a crowded market to join them in losing money?
Bad news is good news
Aside from evaluating the source and validity of information, it is also essential to remember the context. This is particularly critical for hardware and software support issues. Many users, for example, limp by for years on badly out-of-date software (and hardware) because they once read a report that software patches, or newer versions of software, or more modern hardware, presented horrible new problems. Where did they get such ideas? They got them from software support forums on the Web, or from Web rumor and news sites.
Keep in mind, however, that virtually all posts on software support forums are from people having problems; those without problems don’t post messages, or even visit. News and rumor sites tend to be flooded with negative stories every time Apple releases a new software update or new model; these sites rarely if ever post corrections or clarifications, since new “news” crowds out the old.
This leads to some fairly bizarre circumstances. Of all the items a 21st-century person can buy, about the only one that can be substantially improved after purchase — often at no additional cost — is a computer. You can’t really do much to improve your microwave, your TV, your cell phone, or even your car. But a free or lowcost update can dramatically improve the power, performance or flexibility of a computer. Provided, of course, that the user actually takes action.
While millions of users are happily productive using updated or new hardware and software, other millions are jealously guarding their outdated systems, having once read reports that convinced them “new” meant “bad.” The problems they once read about may never have even existed, or may have been fixed long ago, or (more likely) were either exaggerated or taken out of context. But these users seem to place more faith in old rumors than in current technology.
Toilet paper and Power Macs
True story: comedian Johnny Carson sparked the first widespread consumer-generated shortage in the United States. On December 19, 1973, as host of the Tonight Show on NBC, he made a joke as the show opened: “You know what’s disappearing from the supermarket shelves? Toilet paper. There’s an acute shortage of toilet paper in the United States.” The joke was a mocking reference to a statement by a Wisconsin congressman who wanted to promote pulp paper industries by selling toilet paper to the federal government. The congressman complained that the government was slow to place bids for toilet paper, and federal workers were running the risk of running out.
Millions of viewers didn’t know anything about the congressman, but they did watch Johnny Carson, so they promptly went out and cleared supermarkets of toilet paper stocks. Television news stations, alerted to the inexplicable sales of toilet paper, went out and filmed empty shelves in supermarkets — which prompted even more panicked buying. Even though there was no shortage of toilet paper, a joke about toilet paper had created a genuine shortage. The nationwide shortage — entirely artificial — lasted three weeks.
At every stage of the ” toilet paper shortage,” there was ample available evidence that the “shortage” was a fiction. But millions of Americans made no effort to examine the situation skeptically, and instead managed to create fact out of fiction. Some people still had stockpiles of toilet paper years later.
When it comes to the care and keeping of your Macintosh, try to apply some useful skepticism and common sense. Don’ t avoid updating your hardware or software, or avoid trying new things, on the basis of toilet paper news. Those rumors you hear may be nothing more than a tissue of lies and half-truths.