From dumber to Dilbert

The other shoe has dropped in the saga of the KCMO Public Library and the patron who wants to access an IRC chatroom over the public wireless connection but can't because port 7000 on that connection is blocked.

I wonder if the responder actually bothered reading back his reply to himself before posting it. I mean, esentially he seems to be saying, "It's the patron's fault he or she can't do what he or she is trying to do even though the reason he or she can't do it is indeed due to something we're doing."

Furthermore, the fact that they are not blocking port 7000 on the connections for their computers makes the responder's rationalization for blocking it only on the connection for patron-owned equipment ludicrous. Since when have they been responsible for my computer?

If I'm stupid enough to want to get on a motorcycle without a helmet, you can reasonably argue that I should be prohibited from doing that since the rest of society may ultimately have to help foot the bill for the consequences. If that same stupidity, however, keeps me from protecting my own computer against malware (or-sorry, but I am going to go there-from buying one less susceptible to malware to start with) and as a result my laptop melts down and runs all over the floor, the library's only insistence should be that I bring a mop with me to clean up the mess.

You know, this is really sad. KCMO up until now had been doing the best job with public library Wi-Fi. This kind of cluelessness is what we had come to expect from Johnson County and their woeful effort before we gave up on it.

One hopes that this really is just the result an ego-fueled Dilbert moment, and that cooler heads and common sense will prevail before it goes any further.