[LINK] The Ethics (!) of Dodgy Web Designers

[Karl Auer]

On Wed, 2007-04-18 at 15:15 +1000, Craig Sanders wrote:
> well, that was an obvious exaggeration. the common attitude is really
> "if you don't know then go and learn it - it's not hard, it's not
> secret, all the information is freely available for those who need/care
> to learn it. if you can't/won't do that THEN you shouldn't be let near a
> database".

It's still wrong, even watered down like that. These days anyone can
grab a PC, get all they need to make websites (for *nothing*), buy
hosting for ten bucks a month, and go for it. They do not need to
understand one single thing about anything beyond the buttons to press
to make it go. And that is *good*.

The same is even true of compilers, operating systems, network analysers
- it's ALL out there to be played with, by anyone who wants to.

> no. that's bullshit(*). no matter how good the tools get, there will
> ALWAYS be a need to understand what the tools are doing and how they are
> doing it.

What the tools are doing, maybe, to some extent. How they do it? Most
definitely not. How many people out there know how DNS works? Doesn't
stop them writing programs that resolve names, all they need to know is
that they need to resolve names, and magic happens. They don't need to
know how PHP works, anything about MySQL, the details of the http
protocol or anything else to make websites that look good and are
useful. And if they want to they can even modify the components they are
using - recompile the database software, add features to Apache, twiddle
the way PHP works...

Your statement is the purest wishful thinking. While someone, somewhere
needs to have that understanding, such understanding is no prerequisite
for getting things done.

> tools can only do so much...you still need talent and understanding to
> make use of them.

That's exactly the point - you DON'T need either talent or understanding
to make use of them. Sure, you might make better use of them if you have
talent and understanding, but anyone with a bit of an idea and a basic
education can get a damn fine website up and running in a day or two
using off-the-shelf components that (and this is the good part) they
hardly have to understand at all! They can even play with how the bits
work internally! How cool is that?!?

> the best word processor in the world can't turn Joe Sixpack into a
> brilliant novelist

A crap novel maybe, but presented more beautifully than Hemingway could
ever have done.

> tools are not a substitute for human understanding, they're an
> aid to it. computers can help you, but they can't do your thinking for
> you.

Another straw man, and a cliche at that. I'm not asserting that they
can. I'm saying that most areas of computing that were once the province
of the specialist are now the province of pretty much anyone. What they
produce may be good, it may be bad, but produce it they can.

Regards, K.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)                   +61-2-64957160 (h)
http://www.biplane.com.au/~kauer/                  +61-428-957160 (mob)