On 05/22/2011 12:39 AM, Bob Sneidar wrote:
I confess now, that when I was a teenager, I shoplifted. I hung out with a "friend" who's
father was pretty high up in the FBI, and my friend assured me that nothing serious would ever
happen to us, which of course meant, "him."
We stole candy and model airplane kits mostly. Our reign of crime lasted about
3 weeks, when as you may have guessed, I got caught. They had me in a side room
telling me that their new policy was to not call the parents of a juvenile, but
instead to call the police directly and let them sort it all out.
This was of course a scare tactic to drive the foolishness out of me, and they very
reluctantly called my mother (father was not around by then) and had her come and pick me
up, with the stern warning that this was my "last chance".
So having been as scared as I had ever been in my life I swore off shoplifting.
My point is this: Even after all of that, I found it INCREDIBLY DIFFICULT TO
STOP! For a couple weeks after that resolution, I STILL continued to pick
something up and stuff it in my pocket.
It took an incredible act of will to really stop. Getting something for nothing can be a
very addictive thing. I believe this is the problem with street people, with those who
make living off welfare a way of life, with those who lie, cheat and steal to get what
they feel is "coming to them". And with Software pirates.
So what will change their mind? Something terrible that almost ruins their life. I don't
suggest that you be the one to make this happen. I only suggest that the problem is not
one of practice, but of principle. Clean their computer if you like, but you will not
drive the "shoplifter" from them, anymore than beating a fool 7 times in a day
with an iron rod will drive the foolishness from them.
Bob
This was extremely well-put. or, as our "old friend" George W. Bush put
it; "hearts and minds"
(awful pity he didn't display much of the former). I think in the case
of this particular young person;
they are well aware of
1. the morality of the situation
2. horribly uninformed as to:
2.1. The availability of Open Source solutions to everything they
are certainly
likely to need at university.
2.2. the fact that the myth of "everything that isn't Windows-based
is horribly
difficult to use" is only a myth.
They, like most 19 year olds, have parents who are not really
up-to-speed with computers, so
just go for the lowest common denominator; which, in Bulgaria, means
pirate Windows
and pirate everything else.
Thank you very much for the account of your own personal "saga"; it
illustrates the point very well
indeed.
Sent from my iPad
On May 21, 2011, at 2:50 AM, Richmond Mathewson<richmondmathew...@gmail.com>
wrote:
This is one of those messages which normally starts off
"somebody I know has this problem"; which means of course it really
refers to oneself.
The situation really refers to a friend of my older son's whose parents have
given
them a laptop for University (this young person is going to study in Germany),
and
(as is the norm in Bulgaria) had a friend install PIRATE Windows, MSOffice,
Uncle
Tom Cobbley and all on the thing.
Morality aside . . .
My son has told this person that they (the parents) are "silly bu**ers" sending
their
child off to Germany with a laptop packed to the gills with Pirate software. I
have
offered to scrub the laptop and install a friendly Linux distro with Office
Libre,
Uncle Richard Stallman and all.
This person; having grown up in Pirate-software land cannot see that their
might be
risks (legal!!!!) about merrily turning up at a Uni' in German with a laptop like
"that".
Would be grateful for advice.
sincerely, Richmond Mathewson.
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