Has anyone else noticed how resistant some computer users are to change? God forbid they should have to learn a different way of doing something. And then there are the ones who just refuse to accept that the computer simply will not do some totally ridiculous thing that they believe it should do.
Case in point: I recently had the pleasure of speaking with a gentleman (and I use that word very, very loosely) who could not believe that Mac OS X will not log him out automatically if he should forget to do so. Mac OS 9, he informed me, did have this feature. Well that's just peachy. Guess what, douche bag? OS X is not OS 9. Ok, so I didn't actually say that. What I did was calmly and reasonably inform him that OS X does not provide this particular feature.
This can't be right, he told me. Mac OS X is supposed to be better. But how can it be better when it doesn't stop me from being a moron the way OS 9 did?
Observe the following snippet of this call, during which the ball of brilliance on the other end of the phone presented me with a scenario that was apparently supposed to prove his case.
Him: I have multiple users on my Mac, and if one person is using the computer and they leave and forget to logout, the screensaver will come up after a few minutes. If one of the other user comes along to use the Mac, they can't get to their account because when they move the mouse to take down the screensaver, it asks for the first user's password. So there's no way for this other person to use the computer, because the first user wasn't logged out automatically. Me: Well, you can configure it so the screensaver doesn't ask for a password. That way, if another user comes along, they can log you out and login to their own account. Him: Then other people could access all the stuff in my user account, right? Me: That's right. Him: Then there's no point in having multiple users. Me: Then you'll need to remember to logout.
And so on. A large part of the conversation consisted of him saying "Then what's the point of having multiple users?", as if the sheer repetition would somehow make his stance seem logical (And by the way, I don't believe for a second that security was really a major concern for this jackass. Most likely he just wants to keep his wife from finding his extensive porn collection).
Logging out when you're finished is one of the requirements of working on a multi-user system. Expecting the system to automatically log you out if you forget is just ridiculous. If you're working in an environment where security is a real concern, then you need to either logout when you leave the computer, or have the screensaver password-protected. If there are other users on the machine who will need to use it when you're not there, then you need to logout when you're finished working. That's all there is to it. And if you forget to logout, and someone messes with your account, then you have no one to blame but yourself, you dumb bastard.
So, back to my story. This turkey just would not accept that OS X is not going to read his mind and know that he intended to logout before leaving the computer. Finally he requested to speak to one of our fabled "product specialists", about whom he had been told during a previous call on this issue (yes, sadly enough, he had called with the very same question earlier that day, and had been given the very same answer). At this point I handed him over to the tier 2 tech support, so that yet another support agent could tell him the same thing I had just finished explaining. I should have stayed on the line for a while just to hear the tier 2 agent shoot this idiot down, but that might have been more fun than I could handle in one day.
