I used to work for Shaw Cablesystems up here in Canada. While I was working there, they did this exact practice. It was handled by the AUP team, a Caller would call up Tech Support and say "Hey, my Internet isn't working, what gives?", the AUP team would say "Well, you've been (Spamming our Customers with Junk Mail, Participating as part of a Botnet, Etc)" and would offer solutions to how to fix this. If they were using our in house Anti Virus software, there was a team of Techs who would walk the customer through some fixes, reconnect the Internet so they could VPN in to fix it, or worst case scenario, send one of our own techs to go fix it. Getting the Internet turned back on was the easy part.
Seriously? THAT'S the real problem nowadays? It's not climate change or world hunger or war, it's how we can move people around our dense urban environments as fast as possible? Aren't we all moving fast enough already? I mean, maintenance and obesity aside, do we really as a society NEED to get everywhere that much faster? Everyone seems to need instant gratification these days. People have Facebook so they can get instant feedback from friends on when they are hanging out, Employers provide Blackberries so they can call their employees instantly so there is no where they can't be reached. People seem to want things now now now all the time. It seems pretty hard to just stop and smell the roses when you're whizzing by them at thirty miles per hour.
I wonder how this is going to affect Gold Farming in WoW. It's a relatively known fact that the majority of Gold Farmers are in China. While this can't be proven, it's the theory I subscribe too. I also subscribe to the theory that the majority of that majority are minors, who are being paid, probably very little, to farm gold. I wonder if this ban is going to have a positive affect on the problem of gold farming? It's probably too hopeful to think so, I'm sure they'd just find ways around this law. But it's worth thinking about.
Re:Getting back to the topic...
on
Time To Dump XP?
·
· Score: 1
I couldn't agree with you more. My most recent job was offering direct technical support to Real Estate Agents with our software. Of course, this naturally extended beyond just supporting our software directly and ended up with us supporting our users on most things on their computer. Email, Word Documents, etc. The company didn't want us to have some sort of Remote Desktop we could use, so we had to do it the old fashioned way. Putting aside the questions that were directly about how to do something with our product, I'd say the majority of questions were from users that had had "something change" and they don't know how to fix it. We're talking things like "Outlook" is not longer on the start menu (in the default mail client section) it's been replaced with Outlook Express, so "All their mail has gone missing" or Internet Explorer has been uninstalled (It's not on the desktop anymore). When you suddenly make huge sweeping changes like jump from XP to 7 or Outlook 2003 to 2007, it actually costs these people dozens of hours of productivity, if not more.
You are SIGNIFICANTLY overestimating the general public, leading me to believe you have never worked in a technical support call center. Remember how when you install Windows, it gives you an Icon at the top of the start menu that says "Internet" and then if your default changes, that icon changes? Surely, those of us in know laugh at this as a potential problem, but I can't count the number of people who claim they have "lost" their browser or (more commonly) they can't open Outlook, and instead Outlook Express is opening, and they don't know why. And do you think the average user is going to click on the "custom" button when installing IE8? Are you kidding? That "custom" button to them, means "crazy details I'm not supposed to touch"; but just because they don't know this and that about computers, doesn't make them any less deserving to not have their settings pulled out from underneath them. They're the ones who really suffer from things like this. Not us on Slashdot, who spend 20 times more time typing up the complaint than actually fixing the issue.
~2 Cents
I watched a "How's it Made" episode on combination locks. Knowing how a lock is made, didn't make it any easier to break into one. If the code is made correctly, the passwords can't just be bypassed. You can't just change the code and load it in for a fun filled night of hacking any more than you can with a closed source OS. That's how I'd explain it to a customer.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, because who better than your ISP to protect your children from the dangers of the Internet.
I used to work for Shaw Cablesystems up here in Canada. While I was working there, they did this exact practice. It was handled by the AUP team, a Caller would call up Tech Support and say "Hey, my Internet isn't working, what gives?", the AUP team would say "Well, you've been (Spamming our Customers with Junk Mail, Participating as part of a Botnet, Etc)" and would offer solutions to how to fix this. If they were using our in house Anti Virus software, there was a team of Techs who would walk the customer through some fixes, reconnect the Internet so they could VPN in to fix it, or worst case scenario, send one of our own techs to go fix it. Getting the Internet turned back on was the easy part.
"Paleontologists Discover World's Horniest Dinosaur" I was really disappointed when I realized what they meant by "horniest"
Seriously? THAT'S the real problem nowadays? It's not climate change or world hunger or war, it's how we can move people around our dense urban environments as fast as possible? Aren't we all moving fast enough already? I mean, maintenance and obesity aside, do we really as a society NEED to get everywhere that much faster? Everyone seems to need instant gratification these days. People have Facebook so they can get instant feedback from friends on when they are hanging out, Employers provide Blackberries so they can call their employees instantly so there is no where they can't be reached. People seem to want things now now now all the time. It seems pretty hard to just stop and smell the roses when you're whizzing by them at thirty miles per hour.
I wonder how this is going to affect Gold Farming in WoW. It's a relatively known fact that the majority of Gold Farmers are in China. While this can't be proven, it's the theory I subscribe too. I also subscribe to the theory that the majority of that majority are minors, who are being paid, probably very little, to farm gold. I wonder if this ban is going to have a positive affect on the problem of gold farming? It's probably too hopeful to think so, I'm sure they'd just find ways around this law. But it's worth thinking about.
I couldn't agree with you more. My most recent job was offering direct technical support to Real Estate Agents with our software. Of course, this naturally extended beyond just supporting our software directly and ended up with us supporting our users on most things on their computer. Email, Word Documents, etc. The company didn't want us to have some sort of Remote Desktop we could use, so we had to do it the old fashioned way. Putting aside the questions that were directly about how to do something with our product, I'd say the majority of questions were from users that had had "something change" and they don't know how to fix it. We're talking things like "Outlook" is not longer on the start menu (in the default mail client section) it's been replaced with Outlook Express, so "All their mail has gone missing" or Internet Explorer has been uninstalled (It's not on the desktop anymore). When you suddenly make huge sweeping changes like jump from XP to 7 or Outlook 2003 to 2007, it actually costs these people dozens of hours of productivity, if not more.
Basically, grammar is less a formal series of rules for better writing, and is more a formal series of rules for petty "one-upmanship" among writers.
Good grammar is the difference between "I had to help my uncle Jack off a horse" and "I had to help my uncle jack off a horse."
You are SIGNIFICANTLY overestimating the general public, leading me to believe you have never worked in a technical support call center. Remember how when you install Windows, it gives you an Icon at the top of the start menu that says "Internet" and then if your default changes, that icon changes? Surely, those of us in know laugh at this as a potential problem, but I can't count the number of people who claim they have "lost" their browser or (more commonly) they can't open Outlook, and instead Outlook Express is opening, and they don't know why. And do you think the average user is going to click on the "custom" button when installing IE8? Are you kidding? That "custom" button to them, means "crazy details I'm not supposed to touch"; but just because they don't know this and that about computers, doesn't make them any less deserving to not have their settings pulled out from underneath them. They're the ones who really suffer from things like this. Not us on Slashdot, who spend 20 times more time typing up the complaint than actually fixing the issue. ~2 Cents
I watched a "How's it Made" episode on combination locks. Knowing how a lock is made, didn't make it any easier to break into one. If the code is made correctly, the passwords can't just be bypassed. You can't just change the code and load it in for a fun filled night of hacking any more than you can with a closed source OS. That's how I'd explain it to a customer.