One of the big problems with trying to communicate with people outside of IT is that – well, people have misconceptions about what computers are and what you can do with them. From the technical support people who are supposed to “see your screen” to the idea that computers can read your thoughts… well, to many people, computers are like magic to them, so they endow computers with magical properties.
It’s kind of a modern folklore, if you will, not too dissimilar from when people believed that witches’ hexes made cows sick, or that sneezing let demons into your body and caused sickness and madness. It’s a sad but true fact of human nature that we’re more likely to believe superstition than to admit ignorance.
But it doesn’t help when popular culture presents some of these “technological superstitions” as fact.
Recently, there’s a YouTube video going around – a clip from the CBS TV show “Numb3rs,” talking about IRC. It gets the name right – “Internet Relay Chat,” but everything else…
I recently created a video which shows the clip and explains why they get it so wrong. To you and I, this may seem like “explaining the joke,” and in doing so, losing the humor. But to someone who is unfamiliar with IRC or the Internet, it shows why you shouldn’t take your technology cues from so-called “technology”-themed crime dramas.
SSL enabled IRC servers aren’t exactly uncommon in certain circles. Aside from that, I totally get what you mean