I can't wait for my self-driving car. Go to sleep in the car Friday night, wake up in Vegas/SanFran/Wherever in the morning. Visting mom would be a lot less of a chore. It's 8 hours of driving round trip for a visit that lasts a few hours at most. (I can't stay in her smoke-saturated apartment any longer than that.) Not far enough to make flying a viable option, no train station on her end. If I didn't have to pay attention to the road, I could play a game, read a book, watch a movie, read slashdot, take a nap, etc.
Having been a computer geek for 20 years (actually, 23 now that I do the math (God, I'm old!)), what I might do does not figure into my purchasing decisions. I know what I intend to do with a given device and I know what is necessary to perform those tasks. I know how much storage I will need. I know what kind of processor I will need. I know how much RAM I will need. I know how many pixels will be needed to efficiently display the data I'll be accessing. I know what operating system will be needed to run the software I'll be using. I know what interfaces I will need.
So you people who don't know what you need can go ahead and overbuy all you want. Lug around that 17" laptop with two 320 gig hard drives so you can do instant messaging and update your myspace blog from Starbucks. Hopefully you'll manage to get that seat by the outlet before your battery dies and I'm sure insurance will cover the hernia operation.:)
I guess you don't understand the purpose of a class action. The purpose is never to benefit the consumer. The purpose is to punish the target of the class action. That is a valid purpose in a situation like this where the individual losses of the consumer were negligible but, in aggregate, add up to a significant amount.
No reasonable person is going to file an individual lawsuit against Microsoft because of this because the amount of money they could recover (if they win) is less than the value of the time it would take to file in small claims court, prepare the evidence, take a day off work...heck, it's not even worth the effort of typing it all out. But does that mean Microsoft should be off the hook? No. That's where the class action comes in.
I think the limiting factor is the limited intelligence of the end user combined with the ridiculous complexity of connecting and configuring everything. Long gone are the days when you plugged the coax into the back of your TV and that was it.
"Hrm. Your cable box has a DVI port and the TV is HDMI. Best Buy will charge you $100 for that cable. Let's order it online for $15 and use component for now. Plug the component video output of the cable box into the component input of your TV. No, that's composite. The red, blue, and green ones labeled Pr, Pb, and Y. Not that red one. That's audio. the other one. I know it looks the same but it's not. The group that's together, outlined by that line. Okay, now plug in the audio. Oh. Your receiver only takes coaxial digital audio and the cable box only has optical. Well, we can get an adapter but it'll cost you a hundred bucks in the store if they even have one. Order it online for $20. We'll hook up the analog audio for now. Okay. Everything's plugged in and it's time to configure the settings. What resolution is your TV? You don't know? Where's the manual? Okay, we'll look it up on the manufacturer's website. Okay. 1366x768. That means you need to set the cable box to 720p. No, there is no 768 setting. Press setup, advanced, output formats, and select 720p. No, not 1080. You don't have a 1080 TV so programs broadcast in 720 will be scaled up to 1080 then back down to 720 and will look really bad. JUST SET THE DAMN THING FOR 720! THE GAME STARTED 10 MINUTES AGO!!!"
Now you're ready to watch some TV.
Of course, that's assuming the audio system was already set up and configured properly. Somebody should build a canonical flowchart of possible AV configurations just to show how complicated it really is.
If it turns out to have any form of DRM, I won't even download it for free. I bought some ebooks back in the 90s. They had DRM. One company folded before I got around to unlocking my books. I lost my keys from another company and was unable to get them replaced when I moved to a new computer. Another checked in with their server to validate my system every time I booted the computer. Guess what happened when they migrated to a new authentication system. Meanwhile, all of my paper books still work just fine.
The funny thing is that the more popular books will be available in non-DRM format very quickly. Fans type them up in well-formatted PDF and RTF versions within days of release. Sometimes they're available online before the paper hits the shelves. Adding DRM to ebooks isn't going to prevent the distribution of pirated copies. Once the words are published in a way that they can be seen, they can be copied. If they're worth the effort of copying, they will be copied.
I became a department manager by accident once. Not IT but management is management. All I wanted to do was get a couple people up to speed on my job so I could quit. I wasn't sure if I was going to quit but one particular task was done by me and only me and I needed to make sure there was someone who could take over. 15-20% of their business would have disappeared overnight without a backup. So I got my boss to give me a couple people part time "in case I get hit by a bus or something". 2 grew to 4 grew to 6.
One evening, I complained to a friend that I hadn't had time to take a breath all week but I hadn't cranked out one single report. It's all balancing work loads, handling exceptions, checking regulations, project tracking, prioritizing. "I'm exhausted but I haven't done a damn thing all week." "Dude, you're a manager."
Um...They were asked to fix the hard drive. Depending on what the problem was, the names could have been seen during a virus scan, file system check, data migration, spyware scan,... do I need to go on?
I refuse (politely decline) to do work on the side for co-workers specifically because I don't want to worry about seeing their fetishes flash by me during a virus check.
Did everyone read the instructions? Good.
on
Your Worst IT Workshop?
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· Score: 2, Interesting
My worst one was an online 2k3 server admin class using a combination of gotomeeting and teamspeak. Supposed to be 5 8-hour sessions, one day a week. Before the class started, we were given instructions to install VMware, download their edu-licensed images of 2k3 server and XP, and perform a few basic steps to get them ready for class. Basically, set up a virtual network in VMware and configure the sessions. Minimum specs of broadband connection, 1 gig of memory, a P4 CPU, and XP were listed in the instructions.
Nobody bothered to prepare. The first 8 hour session was pissed away with the instructor and tech support walking people through downloading, installing, and configuring VMware and the pre-packaged system images. I was flabbergasted. These people can't even follow simple directions. Nor could they follow the live remote session while the instructor walked through the process of installing the software and configuring it. "Click this then this then that and hit next." "I'm lost. Can you help me when you're done with Fred? Thanks." And by "help", they mean "do it for me".
These "students" couldn't even install a frickin' application and they thought they were ready to handle running servers? That's like showing up at a cockfight with an egg and hoping people will wait for you to catch up. Nevermind the guy on dialup or the one with a P3/500 and 192 megs of RAM. Thank Jebus I was taking the "class" at home. I stuck my 2/3 full Heini keg in a bowl of ice and finished it off while watching movies and listening to the class session babble in the background.
Oh, and there was the unix class with an instructor who didn't know unix. That was pretty lame. A student would sit at the class' VT100 terminal and test her material real-time. Nod if she was right, and she'd move on. If not, "Oh. Okay. I'll figure out the right answer after class.". Yes, I said VT100. With the green phosphor screen. What of it? (Actually, may have been any of the VT1xx terminals. I don't recall the specific model, just the shape and the fact that it was from DEC.)
I used to work with a narcoleptic and it was hilarious (at times). I'd go to get an ETA for one of his projects and he'd be standing in front of his workstation sound asleep. Standing. Like a big ol' horse. One time, a coworker found him in a precarious position. He was getting something off a shelf and fell asleep. His hand was still up and barely bracing a rather heavy item that was tilted out over his head.
You really can't see the BFD? He has Product A installed on his machine. He installs Product B but hasn't run it yet. He tries to update Product A. The update system says, "You need to buy a legitimate copy of Product A."
You really don't see what's wrong with that? Seriously?
1) Product A is Product A. If it's legit and has passed all validation and activation checks, it should work. It should be updated. End of story.
2) If Product B's lack of activation is an issue, any related message should state that Product B's activation is the issue. Telling him to purchase Product A (which is in no way failing validation or activation checks) is just stupid.
3) Microsoft has a history of problems with their activation and validation procedures. This is a given. If you have 5 different legitimate Microsoft products installed, activated, and validated on your system and the process breaks for one, does it make sense to bring down the whole system? Say I've got Flight Simulator installed and my system crashes while I'm playing. It gets corrupted. It no longer passes validation checks. Should I be locked out of Vista, Office, Visio, and Money updates? Should I have to worry about Vista going into "reduced functionality" mode?
And those "dawn to midnight" powerhouses are working themselves to death. Great example for employees. I had one of those bosses a while back. Worked 12 hours a day in the office and another 3 or 4 at home. On vacation, he'd work a few hours in the business center in the morning and a few hours in the evening. Had a massive stroke in his mid 30s and nearly died. He was heading for a divorce before that happened. I don't know who was "leaving" who but I can't say I blame is wife if she felt neglected. Great guy, well respected by employees and clients, but what's the point if all you have is work and the stress kills you? Close enough, anyway.
These days, an executive/owner/boss like that is a big warning flag for me. It shows they're afraid to delegate and don't trust managers to handle their projects and departments. "I have to be involved in every aspect or it will all fall apart."
Yes, there are times when an extraordinary push is required. But, when that level of effort becomes the norm with 50+ hour work weeks and weekend hours year-round as the baseline, that's not acceptable to American workers.
Yes, I expect my evenings and weekends to be free. If I'm hired to work 40 hours a week, that's what I expect to work. I'll put in a few extra hours here and there and work the occasional sat/sun but nobody's getting 10+ hours of my time for free week after week after week. Fortunately, I now work for a company that seems to have a good grasp on the concept of separating work and personal time. I've had my boss' boss come down to my office and say, "What the heck are you still doing here?!? It's 5:30!". I've been given the bum's rush as early as 5:10. "I'm setting the alarm. You have 60 seconds. 58. 57. 56."
It's usually "buggy whip" manufacturers that are cited in this type of reference. However, it's not a great argument as there must still be at least one buggy whip manufacturer in the world because someone has to be making the whips that are being sold today. I assume the rest transitioned into making props for the sexually deviant.
I spent a few hours thinking about how to set my mom up like this then realized building a non-screw-up-able system was the easy part. The hard part would be preventing her from giving her name/address/SSN/DOB to anyone who asked. My mom has absolutely no scamdar.
I've seen a couple of studies that show elderly people are very likely to fall for confidence scams. It's as if the part of the brain that questions the legitimacy of suggested business dealings atrophies with age. People who would have been wary at 30-40 will sign over blank check to a stranger at 70-80.
While the internet can give elderly people a window to the world, the information flows both ways. They may sign up for the trial membership on some "quilting" website for $1.99 which rolls into the uncancellable $49.99/month fee. An "intro class" can do some good but people who are living in a retirement/assisted living environment are there for a reason (or several reasons). If the reason is dementia or Alzheimer's, good luck getting the warnings to stick.
I wouldn't recommend dropping nursing home residents on the internet unsupervised any more than I'd recommend letting them wander around [insert notorious crime-ridden urban area] without chaperons.
A few years ago, I received an email filled with bouncing hearts from a person at a client company. WTF?!? I had no idea who this person was. I didn't recognize the name and knew I'd never communicated with her in any way in the past. I sent her the information she'd requested being careful to use the most neutral, professional prose I could muster. Then I looked at the code on her email and saw it was pulling images from one of those "free emoticons" sites. Turns out she'd installed a toolbar that added a bunch of crap to all of her outgoing emails. It was early February so it was adding valentine hearts to everything. Sure enough, after valentine's day, it switched to shamrocks. Apparently someone told her about it because the graphics disappeared before switching to bunnies and eggs.
Or ATI's. It's the cable company. I'd bet quite a large sum of money on that statement.
Go read some Tivo forums that cover the Series 3 unit. There is story after story after story about the nightmare of getting cablecards installed and configured properly.
Cablecards are standardized. The device itself (provided it is compliant with the CableLabs standard (which it MUST BE to be certified)) is irrelevant. All the installer needs to do is know how to bring up the cablecard info screen and speak enough English to read a few numbers to a person at the other end of the phone. The person on the other end of the phone needs to enter those numbers correctly and provision the card properly. (Meaning they have to enter the card's ID number properly, enter the device's ID number correctly, and authorize that matched pair to access whatever content the subscriber is allowed to view.)
It doesn't matter if the device is a television, set-top box, DVR, computer, etc. Totally irrelevant. The only unique part of this process is getting the device ID from the subscriber's device. That is all the specialized training an "installer" needs to accomplish the installation. The person entering this information on the other end of the line doesn't even need that tiny little bit of specialized training. They're doing money-work. Enter the numbers, assign the content privileges, click ok.
It's astonishing how many ways the cable company can find to fuck (can I say fuck here?) up this simple process.
Why wouldn't they train their people properly? Simple. They can get $2-3/month for a cablecard rental. They get $10-15/month for a DVR or STB. While, technically, they do support cablecards (as required by FCC mandate), they intentionally make the process as painful as possible so people will give up on cablecards and tell their friends how horrible cablecards are. "Never buy anything that uses a cablecard. They don't work."
Piece of cake. New company policy: Forward all those calls to you (or, better yet, an intern) and ask the caller to meet you at some upscale restaurant with mandatory valet parking. "I'll meet you at the bar." Don't show up. They'll get stuck with at least the valet charge + tip. They'll probably have a drink or two at the bar. There's another $20.
"Your door is ajar. Your door is ajar. Your door is ajar." It's not a jar! It's a door! It always was and it always will be.
And I remember when a local store installed their new laser scanning checkout stations. Those had voice systems that read your purchases for all to hear. "Eggs, ninety nine cents." You can imagine how well that worked out. "Preparation-H, three dollars ninety nine cents. Extra-absorbent tampons, four dollars ninety nine cents." (I have no idea what those items cost either now or back in the 80s.)
You want an automotive metaphor (of a sort)? Okay. Let's say Microsoft manufactured travel trailers. For years, they've been hyping the new line they're developing. Let's say it's called the Regal. So Microsoft spends all this time hyping the 35-40' range with 4 slide-outs, jacuzzi tub, sun deck on the roof, in-motion satellite TV and internet, etc. Ford, Chevy, and Dodge ask Microsoft to tell them which trucks are capable of towing these new trailers. Microsoft gives their blessing with a generic "Regal Capable" designation that translates to, "This truck will be able to tow a Microsoft Regal trailer."
People buy the trucks anticipating the purchase of a Regal trailer as soon as they're released. Release day comes. There's the 35 and 40' models but they're much heavier than the trucks can handle. "What's going on? You said these trucks could tow a Royal trailer!" "Oh, they can. But only the 20' model over there. No slide-outs on that one. No jacuzzi tub. No sun deck. No satellite TV, no internet. But it's got a cooler and a 13 inch TV/VCR combo unit!" "But that's not the trailer that everyone's been talking about." "Didn't you read the fine print?"
Homer: So I realized that being with my family is more important than being cool. Bart: Dad, what you just said was powerfully uncool. Homer: You know what the song says: "It's hip to be square." Lisa: That song is so lame. Homer: So lame that it's... cool? Bart and Lisa: No. Marge: Am I cool, kids? Bart and Lisa: No. Marge: Good. I'm glad. And that's what makes me cool--not caring, right? Bart and Lisa: No. Marge: Well, how the hell do you be cool? I feel like we've tried everything here. Homer: Wait, Marge. Maybe if you're truly cool, you don't need to be told you're cool. Bart: Well, sure you do. Lisa: How else would you know?
My first copy of linux was received on a tape mailed across the country. We dragged (drug?) our CPUs down to the campus computer lab where we pulled the files off the tape with a VAX then transferred the files to our PCs using a null-modem cable. (We couldn't afford NICs in those days.)
A 200 meg attachment is nothing! A good 10 years ago, a client asked us if we could provide data in a database format similar to one she was using for another project. Boss asked for a sample. The next morning, I noticed the partition with the mail spool directory kept filling up, emptying, filling up, emptying. Finally figured out it was because someone was trying to send a message with a monster attachment. Moved the spool to a bigger partition. It kept growing and growing and growing and growing. Eventually, the entire 430 meg file came through and was delivered. It took a heck of a long time over our 128k ISDN connection.:)
I was kinda proud that the mail server I'd built from spare parts was able to handle it (once it had enough room to store the file).
Unless "made plans to terminate my current job" = "told my old boss to go screw him/herself", he should just walk away. There will be other jobs. This company's already shown that they're going to overpromise and underdeliver. Today, it's the relocation package. Next, they'll hint at performance bonuses that never materialize and reviews that are just short of what he needs for that big raise. They'll promise training that never happens, new equipment and resources that never arrive.
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I can't wait for my self-driving car. Go to sleep in the car Friday night, wake up in Vegas/SanFran/Wherever in the morning. Visting mom would be a lot less of a chore. It's 8 hours of driving round trip for a visit that lasts a few hours at most. (I can't stay in her smoke-saturated apartment any longer than that.) Not far enough to make flying a viable option, no train station on her end. If I didn't have to pay attention to the road, I could play a game, read a book, watch a movie, read slashdot, take a nap, etc.
Um...That's what Tivo is for. I don't know what day/time anything airs anymore. I just watch what I feel like watching when I feel like watching it.
Having been a computer geek for 20 years (actually, 23 now that I do the math (God, I'm old!)), what I might do does not figure into my purchasing decisions. I know what I intend to do with a given device and I know what is necessary to perform those tasks. I know how much storage I will need. I know what kind of processor I will need. I know how much RAM I will need. I know how many pixels will be needed to efficiently display the data I'll be accessing. I know what operating system will be needed to run the software I'll be using. I know what interfaces I will need.
:)
So you people who don't know what you need can go ahead and overbuy all you want. Lug around that 17" laptop with two 320 gig hard drives so you can do instant messaging and update your myspace blog from Starbucks. Hopefully you'll manage to get that seat by the outlet before your battery dies and I'm sure insurance will cover the hernia operation.
I guess you don't understand the purpose of a class action. The purpose is never to benefit the consumer. The purpose is to punish the target of the class action. That is a valid purpose in a situation like this where the individual losses of the consumer were negligible but, in aggregate, add up to a significant amount.
No reasonable person is going to file an individual lawsuit against Microsoft because of this because the amount of money they could recover (if they win) is less than the value of the time it would take to file in small claims court, prepare the evidence, take a day off work...heck, it's not even worth the effort of typing it all out. But does that mean Microsoft should be off the hook? No. That's where the class action comes in.
I think the limiting factor is the limited intelligence of the end user combined with the ridiculous complexity of connecting and configuring everything. Long gone are the days when you plugged the coax into the back of your TV and that was it.
"Hrm. Your cable box has a DVI port and the TV is HDMI. Best Buy will charge you $100 for that cable. Let's order it online for $15 and use component for now. Plug the component video output of the cable box into the component input of your TV. No, that's composite. The red, blue, and green ones labeled Pr, Pb, and Y. Not that red one. That's audio. the other one. I know it looks the same but it's not. The group that's together, outlined by that line. Okay, now plug in the audio. Oh. Your receiver only takes coaxial digital audio and the cable box only has optical. Well, we can get an adapter but it'll cost you a hundred bucks in the store if they even have one. Order it online for $20. We'll hook up the analog audio for now. Okay. Everything's plugged in and it's time to configure the settings. What resolution is your TV? You don't know? Where's the manual? Okay, we'll look it up on the manufacturer's website. Okay. 1366x768. That means you need to set the cable box to 720p. No, there is no 768 setting. Press setup, advanced, output formats, and select 720p. No, not 1080. You don't have a 1080 TV so programs broadcast in 720 will be scaled up to 1080 then back down to 720 and will look really bad. JUST SET THE DAMN THING FOR 720! THE GAME STARTED 10 MINUTES AGO!!!"
Now you're ready to watch some TV.
Of course, that's assuming the audio system was already set up and configured properly. Somebody should build a canonical flowchart of possible AV configurations just to show how complicated it really is.
She doesn't get a "no parents allowed" computer any more than she gets a "no parents allowed" room. Get a clue, man.
If it turns out to have any form of DRM, I won't even download it for free. I bought some ebooks back in the 90s. They had DRM. One company folded before I got around to unlocking my books. I lost my keys from another company and was unable to get them replaced when I moved to a new computer. Another checked in with their server to validate my system every time I booted the computer. Guess what happened when they migrated to a new authentication system. Meanwhile, all of my paper books still work just fine.
The funny thing is that the more popular books will be available in non-DRM format very quickly. Fans type them up in well-formatted PDF and RTF versions within days of release. Sometimes they're available online before the paper hits the shelves. Adding DRM to ebooks isn't going to prevent the distribution of pirated copies. Once the words are published in a way that they can be seen, they can be copied. If they're worth the effort of copying, they will be copied.
I became a department manager by accident once. Not IT but management is management. All I wanted to do was get a couple people up to speed on my job so I could quit. I wasn't sure if I was going to quit but one particular task was done by me and only me and I needed to make sure there was someone who could take over. 15-20% of their business would have disappeared overnight without a backup. So I got my boss to give me a couple people part time "in case I get hit by a bus or something". 2 grew to 4 grew to 6.
One evening, I complained to a friend that I hadn't had time to take a breath all week but I hadn't cranked out one single report. It's all balancing work loads, handling exceptions, checking regulations, project tracking, prioritizing. "I'm exhausted but I haven't done a damn thing all week." "Dude, you're a manager."
I, for one, don't want my pornography that highly defined.
Um...They were asked to fix the hard drive. Depending on what the problem was, the names could have been seen during a virus scan, file system check, data migration, spyware scan, ... do I need to go on?
I refuse (politely decline) to do work on the side for co-workers specifically because I don't want to worry about seeing their fetishes flash by me during a virus check.
My worst one was an online 2k3 server admin class using a combination of gotomeeting and teamspeak. Supposed to be 5 8-hour sessions, one day a week. Before the class started, we were given instructions to install VMware, download their edu-licensed images of 2k3 server and XP, and perform a few basic steps to get them ready for class. Basically, set up a virtual network in VMware and configure the sessions. Minimum specs of broadband connection, 1 gig of memory, a P4 CPU, and XP were listed in the instructions.
Nobody bothered to prepare. The first 8 hour session was pissed away with the instructor and tech support walking people through downloading, installing, and configuring VMware and the pre-packaged system images. I was flabbergasted. These people can't even follow simple directions. Nor could they follow the live remote session while the instructor walked through the process of installing the software and configuring it. "Click this then this then that and hit next." "I'm lost. Can you help me when you're done with Fred? Thanks." And by "help", they mean "do it for me".
These "students" couldn't even install a frickin' application and they thought they were ready to handle running servers? That's like showing up at a cockfight with an egg and hoping people will wait for you to catch up. Nevermind the guy on dialup or the one with a P3/500 and 192 megs of RAM. Thank Jebus I was taking the "class" at home. I stuck my 2/3 full Heini keg in a bowl of ice and finished it off while watching movies and listening to the class session babble in the background.
Oh, and there was the unix class with an instructor who didn't know unix. That was pretty lame. A student would sit at the class' VT100 terminal and test her material real-time. Nod if she was right, and she'd move on. If not, "Oh. Okay. I'll figure out the right answer after class.". Yes, I said VT100. With the green phosphor screen. What of it? (Actually, may have been any of the VT1xx terminals. I don't recall the specific model, just the shape and the fact that it was from DEC.)
I used to work with a narcoleptic and it was hilarious (at times). I'd go to get an ETA for one of his projects and he'd be standing in front of his workstation sound asleep. Standing. Like a big ol' horse. One time, a coworker found him in a precarious position. He was getting something off a shelf and fell asleep. His hand was still up and barely bracing a rather heavy item that was tilted out over his head.
You really can't see the BFD? He has Product A installed on his machine. He installs Product B but hasn't run it yet. He tries to update Product A. The update system says, "You need to buy a legitimate copy of Product A."
You really don't see what's wrong with that? Seriously?
1) Product A is Product A. If it's legit and has passed all validation and activation checks, it should work. It should be updated. End of story.
2) If Product B's lack of activation is an issue, any related message should state that Product B's activation is the issue. Telling him to purchase Product A (which is in no way failing validation or activation checks) is just stupid.
3) Microsoft has a history of problems with their activation and validation procedures. This is a given. If you have 5 different legitimate Microsoft products installed, activated, and validated on your system and the process breaks for one, does it make sense to bring down the whole system? Say I've got Flight Simulator installed and my system crashes while I'm playing. It gets corrupted. It no longer passes validation checks. Should I be locked out of Vista, Office, Visio, and Money updates? Should I have to worry about Vista going into "reduced functionality" mode?
That's the BFD.
And those "dawn to midnight" powerhouses are working themselves to death. Great example for employees. I had one of those bosses a while back. Worked 12 hours a day in the office and another 3 or 4 at home. On vacation, he'd work a few hours in the business center in the morning and a few hours in the evening. Had a massive stroke in his mid 30s and nearly died. He was heading for a divorce before that happened. I don't know who was "leaving" who but I can't say I blame is wife if she felt neglected. Great guy, well respected by employees and clients, but what's the point if all you have is work and the stress kills you? Close enough, anyway.
These days, an executive/owner/boss like that is a big warning flag for me. It shows they're afraid to delegate and don't trust managers to handle their projects and departments. "I have to be involved in every aspect or it will all fall apart."
Yes, there are times when an extraordinary push is required. But, when that level of effort becomes the norm with 50+ hour work weeks and weekend hours year-round as the baseline, that's not acceptable to American workers.
Yes, I expect my evenings and weekends to be free. If I'm hired to work 40 hours a week, that's what I expect to work. I'll put in a few extra hours here and there and work the occasional sat/sun but nobody's getting 10+ hours of my time for free week after week after week. Fortunately, I now work for a company that seems to have a good grasp on the concept of separating work and personal time. I've had my boss' boss come down to my office and say, "What the heck are you still doing here?!? It's 5:30!". I've been given the bum's rush as early as 5:10. "I'm setting the alarm. You have 60 seconds. 58. 57. 56."
It's usually "buggy whip" manufacturers that are cited in this type of reference. However, it's not a great argument as there must still be at least one buggy whip manufacturer in the world because someone has to be making the whips that are being sold today. I assume the rest transitioned into making props for the sexually deviant.
I spent a few hours thinking about how to set my mom up like this then realized building a non-screw-up-able system was the easy part. The hard part would be preventing her from giving her name/address/SSN/DOB to anyone who asked. My mom has absolutely no scamdar.
I've seen a couple of studies that show elderly people are very likely to fall for confidence scams. It's as if the part of the brain that questions the legitimacy of suggested business dealings atrophies with age. People who would have been wary at 30-40 will sign over blank check to a stranger at 70-80.
While the internet can give elderly people a window to the world, the information flows both ways. They may sign up for the trial membership on some "quilting" website for $1.99 which rolls into the uncancellable $49.99/month fee. An "intro class" can do some good but people who are living in a retirement/assisted living environment are there for a reason (or several reasons). If the reason is dementia or Alzheimer's, good luck getting the warnings to stick.
I wouldn't recommend dropping nursing home residents on the internet unsupervised any more than I'd recommend letting them wander around [insert notorious crime-ridden urban area] without chaperons.
A few years ago, I received an email filled with bouncing hearts from a person at a client company. WTF?!? I had no idea who this person was. I didn't recognize the name and knew I'd never communicated with her in any way in the past. I sent her the information she'd requested being careful to use the most neutral, professional prose I could muster. Then I looked at the code on her email and saw it was pulling images from one of those "free emoticons" sites. Turns out she'd installed a toolbar that added a bunch of crap to all of her outgoing emails. It was early February so it was adding valentine hearts to everything. Sure enough, after valentine's day, it switched to shamrocks. Apparently someone told her about it because the graphics disappeared before switching to bunnies and eggs.
Or ATI's. It's the cable company. I'd bet quite a large sum of money on that statement.
Go read some Tivo forums that cover the Series 3 unit. There is story after story after story about the nightmare of getting cablecards installed and configured properly.
Cablecards are standardized. The device itself (provided it is compliant with the CableLabs standard (which it MUST BE to be certified)) is irrelevant. All the installer needs to do is know how to bring up the cablecard info screen and speak enough English to read a few numbers to a person at the other end of the phone. The person on the other end of the phone needs to enter those numbers correctly and provision the card properly. (Meaning they have to enter the card's ID number properly, enter the device's ID number correctly, and authorize that matched pair to access whatever content the subscriber is allowed to view.)
It doesn't matter if the device is a television, set-top box, DVR, computer, etc. Totally irrelevant. The only unique part of this process is getting the device ID from the subscriber's device. That is all the specialized training an "installer" needs to accomplish the installation. The person entering this information on the other end of the line doesn't even need that tiny little bit of specialized training. They're doing money-work. Enter the numbers, assign the content privileges, click ok.
It's astonishing how many ways the cable company can find to fuck (can I say fuck here?) up this simple process.
Why wouldn't they train their people properly? Simple. They can get $2-3/month for a cablecard rental. They get $10-15/month for a DVR or STB. While, technically, they do support cablecards (as required by FCC mandate), they intentionally make the process as painful as possible so people will give up on cablecards and tell their friends how horrible cablecards are. "Never buy anything that uses a cablecard. They don't work."
Piece of cake. New company policy: Forward all those calls to you (or, better yet, an intern) and ask the caller to meet you at some upscale restaurant with mandatory valet parking. "I'll meet you at the bar." Don't show up. They'll get stuck with at least the valet charge + tip. They'll probably have a drink or two at the bar. There's another $20.
"Your door is ajar. Your door is ajar. Your door is ajar." It's not a jar! It's a door! It always was and it always will be.
And I remember when a local store installed their new laser scanning checkout stations. Those had voice systems that read your purchases for all to hear. "Eggs, ninety nine cents." You can imagine how well that worked out. "Preparation-H, three dollars ninety nine cents. Extra-absorbent tampons, four dollars ninety nine cents." (I have no idea what those items cost either now or back in the 80s.)
You want an automotive metaphor (of a sort)? Okay. Let's say Microsoft manufactured travel trailers. For years, they've been hyping the new line they're developing. Let's say it's called the Regal. So Microsoft spends all this time hyping the 35-40' range with 4 slide-outs, jacuzzi tub, sun deck on the roof, in-motion satellite TV and internet, etc. Ford, Chevy, and Dodge ask Microsoft to tell them which trucks are capable of towing these new trailers. Microsoft gives their blessing with a generic "Regal Capable" designation that translates to, "This truck will be able to tow a Microsoft Regal trailer."
People buy the trucks anticipating the purchase of a Regal trailer as soon as they're released. Release day comes. There's the 35 and 40' models but they're much heavier than the trucks can handle. "What's going on? You said these trucks could tow a Royal trailer!" "Oh, they can. But only the 20' model over there. No slide-outs on that one. No jacuzzi tub. No sun deck. No satellite TV, no internet. But it's got a cooler and a 13 inch TV/VCR combo unit!" "But that's not the trailer that everyone's been talking about." "Didn't you read the fine print?"
Homer: So I realized that being with my family is more important than being cool.
Bart: Dad, what you just said was powerfully uncool.
Homer: You know what the song says: "It's hip to be square."
Lisa: That song is so lame.
Homer: So lame that it's... cool?
Bart and Lisa: No.
Marge: Am I cool, kids?
Bart and Lisa: No.
Marge: Good. I'm glad. And that's what makes me cool--not caring, right?
Bart and Lisa: No.
Marge: Well, how the hell do you be cool? I feel like we've tried everything here.
Homer: Wait, Marge. Maybe if you're truly cool, you don't need to be told you're cool.
Bart: Well, sure you do.
Lisa: How else would you know?
A 200 meg attachment is nothing! A good 10 years ago, a client asked us if we could provide data in a database format similar to one she was using for another project. Boss asked for a sample. The next morning, I noticed the partition with the mail spool directory kept filling up, emptying, filling up, emptying. Finally figured out it was because someone was trying to send a message with a monster attachment. Moved the spool to a bigger partition. It kept growing and growing and growing and growing. Eventually, the entire 430 meg file came through and was delivered. It took a heck of a long time over our 128k ISDN connection. :)
I was kinda proud that the mail server I'd built from spare parts was able to handle it (once it had enough room to store the file).
Unless "made plans to terminate my current job" = "told my old boss to go screw him/herself", he should just walk away. There will be other jobs. This company's already shown that they're going to overpromise and underdeliver. Today, it's the relocation package. Next, they'll hint at performance bonuses that never materialize and reviews that are just short of what he needs for that big raise. They'll promise training that never happens, new equipment and resources that never arrive.
Walk away, dude. Walk away.