I work in a very small shop (~30 employees)and do internal and external support. Our software product is fairly... erm... fragile, so I've dealt with roughly half of our user base (which totals about 500, from firms smaller than ours to BiG companies). I would absolutely love being able to work on users' machines remotely. Alot of the objections raised here have
been from the geek point of view (no, I don't want remote admin on my workstation either), or the sysadmin pov. Then there is the argument for educating your users. This is ideal for in-house support, but I walk over to my co-workers' desk to do show and tell. My external support customers rarely want to learn something about the software, or their OS, for that matter. And it shows. I can walk someone through bringing up a 'Properties' dialog and reporting the info I'm looking for in roughly the same amount of time that it would take to run a diagnostic app and complete a fix. And for Lusers who struggle with a 'Save As' dialog, working with me to fix their pooter is just frustration, not a nifty opportunity to learn something. Don't tell me I just need to be more empathetic the Lusers- I try to leave even the most clueless with a grin from some stupid joke, but I think most would be much happier if I could just pop in and fix things. and don't even get me started on the boundaries of traing people to use email packages I've never seen and teaching MCSEs how to change policies on their NT workstations... ("they can run 16 bit apps... there, I just ran Notepad!"/me- "*groan*"...)
A number of technical solutions have been offered here, including: a No Solicitors message to callers, possibly based on caller ID, Line Noise, and my favorite: error tri-tones (that beedle-ey-beeep you hear when you dial a number that is no longer in service) to fool predictive calling programs into putting you on a no call list. Legal solutions.... Aaaargh! I don't want another law to 'protect' me. And, excuse me, but politely telling the telemarketer to put me on a 'No Call' list misses the point: I've already answered a call I didn't want, and even if they all obeyed, I doubt that I could get on enough 'No Call' lists to make a serious dent in my phone spam. My local dial-tone provider (US West) offers a service for $8 a month that will tell anyone that doesn't transmit caller ID info to hang up if they are telemarketing. That,my friends, is the rub. Why can't telco's just transmit caller ID info for telemarketers? That's all I want! They can ring all they like, as long as I know not to answer. So Why doesn't that happen? 1. US West and their cohort would no longer be able to overcharge me for an ineffective blocking service and 2. Requiring that a 'Telemarketer Tag' be transmitted would be so effective in putting phone pests out of business that $millions in long-distance revenue would be lost. As long as Telcos and Pols are involved, no effective solution will arise, as such would be contrary to the self-interest of all those involved (except Joe Consumer. Poor Schmuck.)
Not to detract from ineffable coolness of Mr. Chaney, (and man, am I glad that this guy writes code, and not PR. Think of the damage this guy could do as a flack for the Darkside *shudder*) but... Hemos? I think the domain he paid for was passport.com, which handles authentication for Hotmail. Picky, picky, I know....
I see a trend in science that seems most pronounced in high energy physics. Where once we observed phenomena and developed theories to explain them, (ie Why do apples keep falling on my head?)modern physics generally starts with a theory and sets out to find a way to observe some correlated phenomena (I bet we can make tau neutrinos if we zap a detector that's behind 400 miles of solid rock and Cmdr Taco's head). So, I guess the question is, is this a good or bad thing? Is it still possible to do meaningful science by noodling aroung in the lab, or are real developments the domain of mathematicians?
Slashdot Mirror
I work in a very small shop (~30 employees)and do internal and external support. Our software product is fairly... erm... fragile, so I've dealt with roughly half of our user base (which totals about 500, from firms smaller than ours to BiG companies). I would absolutely love being able to work on users' machines remotely. Alot of the objections raised here have been from the geek point of view (no, I don't want remote admin on my workstation either), or the sysadmin pov. Then there is the argument for educating your users. This is ideal for in-house support, but I walk over to my co-workers' desk to do show and tell. My external support customers rarely want to learn something about the software, or their OS, for that matter. And it shows. I can walk someone through bringing up a 'Properties' dialog and reporting the info I'm looking for in roughly the same amount of time that it would take to run a diagnostic app and complete a fix. And for Lusers who struggle with a 'Save As' dialog, working with me to fix their pooter is just frustration, not a nifty opportunity to learn something. Don't tell me I just need to be more empathetic the Lusers- I try to leave even the most clueless with a grin from some stupid joke, but I think most would be much happier if I could just pop in and fix things. /me- "*groan*"...)
and don't even get me started on the boundaries of traing people to use email packages I've never seen and teaching MCSEs how to change policies on their NT workstations... ("they can run 16 bit apps... there, I just ran Notepad!"
A number of technical solutions have been offered here, including: a No Solicitors message to callers, possibly based on caller ID, Line Noise, and my favorite: error tri-tones (that beedle-ey-beeep you hear when you dial a number that is no longer in service) to fool predictive calling programs into putting you on a no call list.
Legal solutions.... Aaaargh! I don't want another law to 'protect' me.
And, excuse me, but politely telling the telemarketer to put me on a 'No Call' list misses the point: I've already answered a call I didn't want, and even if they all obeyed, I doubt that I could get on enough 'No Call' lists to make a serious dent in my phone spam.
My local dial-tone provider (US West) offers a service for $8 a month that will tell anyone that doesn't transmit caller ID info to hang up if they are telemarketing.
That, my friends, is the rub. Why can't telco's just transmit caller ID info for telemarketers? That's all I want! They can ring all they like, as long as I know not to answer. So Why doesn't that happen?
1. US West and their cohort would no longer be able to overcharge me for an ineffective blocking service
and
2. Requiring that a 'Telemarketer Tag' be transmitted would be so effective in putting phone pests out of business that $millions in long-distance revenue would be lost.
As long as Telcos and Pols are involved, no effective solution will arise, as such would be contrary to the self-interest of all those involved
(except Joe Consumer. Poor Schmuck.)
Not to detract from ineffable coolness of Mr. Chaney, (and man, am I glad that this guy writes code, and not PR. Think of the damage this guy could do as a flack for the Darkside *shudder*)
but... Hemos? I think the domain he paid for was passport.com, which handles authentication for Hotmail. Picky, picky, I know....
I think, therefore, I think... I think.
I see a trend in science that seems most pronounced in high energy physics. Where once we observed phenomena and developed theories to explain them, (ie Why do apples keep falling on my head?)modern physics generally starts with a theory and sets out to find a way to observe some correlated phenomena (I bet we can make tau neutrinos if we zap a detector that's behind 400 miles of solid rock and Cmdr Taco's head). So, I guess the question is, is this a good or bad thing? Is it still possible to do meaningful science by noodling aroung in the lab, or are real developments the domain of mathematicians?