No offense but, all this quibbling over whether the techs did the right thing and were they snooping, is irrelevant. Techs routinely HAVE to check out systems thoroughly to avoid the 2-3+ hour process of reinstalling Windows and every damn piece of software a user might have installed.
Give you an example. One of my users, like most end users, blindly double-clicks on an.exe attachment from someone he doesn't know. The executable starts adding and replacing replacing files in the oddest of directories, including the Windows folders, with copies of itself and WinVNC (for remote control), and modifies the registry to load these executables at start-up. So I look in the registry to see what loads at start-up and see winvnc.exe is being loaded from the \my documents folder. Norton, with the latest updates doesn't catch it, because WinVNC is a perfectly legit app. So, the simplest thing, for me and the end-user, is to surgically remove WinVNC and the copies of the trojan and explain (yet again) some basic rules regarding attachments. My point is, sometimes you HAVE NO CHOICE as a tech to check out the PC and follow the trail of the problem. This business about techs having no business looking at user's data folders is hogwash and those saying it have never been responsible for maintaining a network of computers.
I worked for a web-dev company several years back. Back then, I was the sole admin for the company-web, sysadmin, fax repairman. The management went through some restructuring and a new business manager decided to split webmaster and sys-admin functions. I was interested in the webamaster position since I had been doing it for over a year anyway and thought that that was the direction I wanted to go. The new bus-manager decided to hire someone else twice my age for twice my salary.
After 3 weeks the new webmaster took another position for more money leaving the company high and dry. Of course, they asked me to take the position THEN but after feeling slighted, I had started looking elsewhere- and, found a really great position where there was growth potential and a young, hungry staff.
I declined the position and left. My former company found someone else(s) to do both positions and it wasn't long before I was getting daily calls: what's the router password? Who's the contact for this contract? How does this script work? etc.
I guess my point is: virtue is it's own reward. In every case I gave support and sometimes spent a few hours walking the new guys through something. I had no obligation to do so; I was still a little bent about being passed over for the job I was already doing. But it later came back. About 2 years ago I was applying for a position and the guy who interviewed me was my former boss (who actually supported my position). He said he was amazed that I still did the right thing in spite of all that had happened. Two months after I got THAT job I quit for more money elsewhere. Wait, um...nevermind...
I know I'm gonna be carpet bombed for this but here goes:
I just installed Redhat 8.0 this weekend thinking 'finally'. I've tried just about every distro since since 6 and I'll be damned if I can't find an easy way to install A SIMPLE PIECE OF SOFTWARE without having to install a bunch of different libraries to get it to run.
Really, all I wanted to do was install a program that would let me watch a movie in my DIVX collection and I needed either: ffmpeg, mplayer, or any other software that would let me watch my movies. Ok, I can do this. After downloading said programs, I couldn't run them because they needed library X that wasn't installed. Alright. I find the missing lib and THAT won't install because IT needs another lib. Argh! Whatever, I'm done.
If you want to use linux because it's free, God bless ya'. But you better know a little something about linux before you begin and keep in mind; the time you spend educating your users must be a factor.
I realize that I am exposing my ignorance here but really, how hard does it have to be to install a program that comes with everything you need to run it, and creates a shortcut after it's installed?
I've said it before and I'll say it again, until someone unites Linux and makes it as simple as Windows to install programs, what chance does it have to defeat M$?
Disclaimer: I truly loathe MS and their licensing practices, and would LOVE to switch to ANYTHING else.
I disagree. Take Halflife or Doom for example. Arguably 2 of the best FPS games around- not because they have spectacular graphics, but because you can modify them. Secondly, a game console is a limited purpose device; you play games on it or watch DVDs. And while there may be many who want the gaming experience of an Xbox, many more want a machine that lets them check mail, write documents, check out porn, surf, AND play games.
When patches or additions become available for a game simply download and install them. With a console, these features are a long way off. Perhaps we'll see a merger of the 2 in the future but until that happens, I think the life of gaming PCs is alive and well.
The cost of music has steadily risen over the past 10 years, the media giants are ripping off the artists, and pushing legislation that would wipe fair use out of existance. To add insult to injury, the industry lables the consumer as a criminal for making copies to use in the car, at work, on a second or third computer. These are rights we had before napster.
Instead of working out a system of fair use that gives the consumer what he's always had, the industry tries to bury technology, and take away your ability to make copies of your own music. THIS PISSES PEOPLE OFF and of course pissed off people are just so darned unpredictable! They may even (gasp) download an mp3 they didn't pay for.
"Hmmmm...$20 for 1 or 2 good songs, or those 1 or 2 songs for free? What was the first choice again?"
By adjusting their business model to make things convenient for the consumer, and charging a REASONABLE price for their product, everyone wins. Of course, there will always be people swapping songs, just like way back when tapes were relavent, but DEAL WITH IT. Yeah, you'll probably loose sales at first but the potential revenue gained from digital downloads -and being able to use those downloads anywhere- would more than make up for those losses.
Lastly, I'm not saying it's ok to download copyrighted music because the music biz sucks, but until sanity is restored, my rights as a consumer are protected, and the artists get their fair shake, I say fuck 'em.
Big Business not getting their fair profits? Boo-fucking-hoo...
Ok, assuming this is true, it would be grossly irresponsible to put millions of dollars, the reputation of NASA, and the hard work of thousands of designers and engineers at risk simply for nostalgic notions of friendship. Did he test his dead-friend\epoxy mixture to see how it would withstand the pressures of space flight?
Reading stuff like this kinda pisses me off because I would very much like to see man get to Mars in my lifetime. It's hard enough to muster public support for space programs these days.
Of course, this whole rant is moot if it is, indeed, an urban myth...
True, one in 5 million visitors will click through a pop-up (or reply to spam for that matter) but I think there's a null effect involved, too. What kind of "branding" do you create when your product is synonymous with pop-up or spam? Doesn't the very nature of using spam\pop-ups qualify you as a non-respectable business? Short sighted business-folk.
I tell you the time is finally ripe for a RESPECTABLE penis enlarging business to take the market by storm!
only the people who are afraid of having their warez/MP3 collection deleted or who are pirating Windows itself that are afraid of these remarks in the EULA
Not necessarily so. There are obvious privacy concerns over a EULA change like this, not to mention it sets a dangerous precendent. Once MS does it, then everyone else can\will, too. That being said, I think I understand the reasoning (or the justification) behind it: Lazy sysadmins that don't patch their servers, or worse, untrained part-timers in the office given the responsibility of maintaining a server. And let's face it, these are the people that kept Code-Red going for so long.
All I'm saying is that if everyone responsible for maintaining Wintel servers actually maintainted them, there would be little need for automated unattended updates. There are so many unattended machines out there...
I think that many/.'ers have a lot of hate for all things MS- and sure, there's a lot to hate. But people forget that most users out there are complete idiots when it comes to using a computer. These are the people that MS makes it's products for.
Grandma couldn't possibly install Redhat on her PC, even as easy as it's become. And MS made incredible inroads in the corporate world because there are so many sysadmins out there that assumed that role because there wasn't anyone else in the office to do it.
It irritates me to see so many posts on/. that hate MS just to hate MS. Opensource is great, but it ain't quite ready for the prime-time. The ease of use just isn't there yet. Besides, MS wouldn't have a monopoly in the first place if they didn't fill a niche.
Personally, I'm glad that a lot of the software you need to view multimedia and the web is included in the latest version of windows. It saves me the hassle of trying to talk my grandma through installing flash over the phone.
Slashdot Mirror
That'd be great! Unless you work in a photolab....
Give you an example. One of my users, like most end users, blindly double-clicks on an .exe attachment from someone he doesn't know. The executable starts adding and replacing replacing files in the oddest of directories, including the Windows folders, with copies of itself and WinVNC (for remote control), and modifies the registry to load these executables at start-up. So I look in the registry to see what loads at start-up and see winvnc.exe is being loaded from the \my documents folder. Norton, with the latest updates doesn't catch it, because WinVNC is a perfectly legit app. So, the simplest thing, for me and the end-user, is to surgically remove WinVNC and the copies of the trojan and explain (yet again) some basic rules regarding attachments. My point is, sometimes you HAVE NO CHOICE as a tech to check out the PC and follow the trail of the problem. This business about techs having no business looking at user's data folders is hogwash and those saying it have never been responsible for maintaining a network of computers.
After 3 weeks the new webmaster took another position for more money leaving the company high and dry. Of course, they asked me to take the position THEN but after feeling slighted, I had started looking elsewhere- and, found a really great position where there was growth potential and a young, hungry staff.
I declined the position and left. My former company found someone else(s) to do both positions and it wasn't long before I was getting daily calls: what's the router password? Who's the contact for this contract? How does this script work? etc.
I guess my point is: virtue is it's own reward. In every case I gave support and sometimes spent a few hours walking the new guys through something. I had no obligation to do so; I was still a little bent about being passed over for the job I was already doing. But it later came back. About 2 years ago I was applying for a position and the guy who interviewed me was my former boss (who actually supported my position). He said he was amazed that I still did the right thing in spite of all that had happened. Two months after I got THAT job I quit for more money elsewhere. Wait, um...nevermind...
I just installed Redhat 8.0 this weekend thinking 'finally'. I've tried just about every distro since since 6 and I'll be damned if I can't find an easy way to install A SIMPLE PIECE OF SOFTWARE without having to install a bunch of different libraries to get it to run.
Really, all I wanted to do was install a program that would let me watch a movie in my DIVX collection and I needed either: ffmpeg, mplayer, or any other software that would let me watch my movies. Ok, I can do this. After downloading said programs, I couldn't run them because they needed library X that wasn't installed. Alright. I find the missing lib and THAT won't install because IT needs another lib. Argh! Whatever, I'm done.
If you want to use linux because it's free, God bless ya'. But you better know a little something about linux before you begin and keep in mind; the time you spend educating your users must be a factor.
I realize that I am exposing my ignorance here but really, how hard does it have to be to install a program that comes with everything you need to run it, and creates a shortcut after it's installed?
I've said it before and I'll say it again, until someone unites Linux and makes it as simple as Windows to install programs, what chance does it have to defeat M$?
Disclaimer: I truly loathe MS and their licensing practices, and would LOVE to switch to ANYTHING else.
Ok, let the flaming begin...
When patches or additions become available for a game simply download and install them. With a console, these features are a long way off. Perhaps we'll see a merger of the 2 in the future but until that happens, I think the life of gaming PCs is alive and well.
Instead of working out a system of fair use that gives the consumer what he's always had, the industry tries to bury technology, and take away your ability to make copies of your own music. THIS PISSES PEOPLE OFF and of course pissed off people are just so darned unpredictable! They may even (gasp) download an mp3 they didn't pay for.
"Hmmmm...$20 for 1 or 2 good songs, or those 1 or 2 songs for free? What was the first choice again?"
By adjusting their business model to make things convenient for the consumer, and charging a REASONABLE price for their product, everyone wins. Of course, there will always be people swapping songs, just like way back when tapes were relavent, but DEAL WITH IT. Yeah, you'll probably loose sales at first but the potential revenue gained from digital downloads -and being able to use those downloads anywhere- would more than make up for those losses.
Lastly, I'm not saying it's ok to download copyrighted music because the music biz sucks, but until sanity is restored, my rights as a consumer are protected, and the artists get their fair shake, I say fuck 'em.
Big Business not getting their fair profits? Boo-fucking-hoo...
Reading stuff like this kinda pisses me off because I would very much like to see man get to Mars in my lifetime. It's hard enough to muster public support for space programs these days.
Of course, this whole rant is moot if it is, indeed, an urban myth...
I tell you the time is finally ripe for a RESPECTABLE penis enlarging business to take the market by storm!
Not necessarily so. There are obvious privacy concerns over a EULA change like this, not to mention it sets a dangerous precendent. Once MS does it, then everyone else can\will, too. That being said, I think I understand the reasoning (or the justification) behind it: Lazy sysadmins that don't patch their servers, or worse, untrained part-timers in the office given the responsibility of maintaining a server. And let's face it, these are the people that kept Code-Red going for so long.
All I'm saying is that if everyone responsible for maintaining Wintel servers actually maintainted them, there would be little need for automated unattended updates. There are so many unattended machines out there...
Do Macs require you propagate their OS with a Mac machine?
Uh, what else runs on a mac?