The lounge has PCs running Win95 and (alas) Microsoft telnet. This
application is a perfect example of why I believe the personal computer
revolution is over. This computer isn't for personal use. It's for
public use.
No matter how hard I try, when I run telnet and enter a hostname, that
hostname is held in the "pick list" so that a user can refer to it quickly
again in future. The problem is, I'm using this computer for half an hour
and then not again for perhaps six months (if ever). In the mean time,
lots of people who have no association to my home machine, come along and
see the hostname in the pick list. It has nothing to do with them, but
they'll try it out.
I can prove that this happens -- as I was telling Rachel recently, I get
telnet connections to my machines from airline lounges world-wide from
time to time!
It's time we stoppped trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.
Single user "personal" operating systems with no security and a cuddly
single-user mindset are great for my laptop. It doesn't suit as the
platform for what amounts to an "Internet kiosk".
Ben