18:55, Tuesday 20 May., 2003 Link

See, I keep coming back to what Danny said: "While I manage to fend off pop-up windows with Mozilla, and spam with Spamassassin, most people don't know about those programs". A bookmarklet to help you buy CDs by independent labels [via boingboing]? Or scanning barcodes with a cellphone to search for hidden product information?

So it's one experience for the people who know how to use the machinery, how to play the game, and a thoroughly unpleasant one for the people who don't know who to ask, or can't understand why they should even have to carry four bits of expensive electronics to avoid having their allergy triggered by badly designed packaging.

That's the worst kind of exclusionary tactics, isn't it? Using equality as an excuse to not teach those less able? And hypocritical?: living an online life unharrassed by blocked adverts, but paid for by those same ads on the eyeballs of those we don't let into our club? We use our knowledge for access to good, free software, but leave the rest to fend for themselves, having to put money into the hands of those we claim we're against. If we say we're pathfinding, exploring for the future, is that the same as dodging the responsibility to open these new abilities to everyone else? The people who have the knowledge have the best time; some people - inevitably - have less, and don't have such a good time. That's the way of the world, isn't it. That's the way it's always been.

Yeah, except: this time we said it would be different. Remember?