I worked there, from 1998-2001... If you submitted a ticket to abuse at videotron dot ca between during 2000 and 2001, there's a 98% chance I was the one replying to it.
We'd get intrusion emails from sysadmins, particulars, etc. We had a set of rule (sysadmins complaint had more weight than regular individuals, but we still took both into account).
If we received enough complaints (10 invidiual or 2 sysadmins iirc), you'd get a call from me or a colleague of mine, asking you to refrain. 2nd time would be a final warning, 3rd time was a complete disconnection of your Internet services.
We were getting complaints from RIAA back in the day, and would process those complaints with the same rule as sysadmins.
Agreed, back in the day, botnets and all were WAY less widespread than they are now, so I'd say that 75-80% of the time, it was the actual person who did the deed (guy's registered email adress is "leetdude at videotron dot ca" and the alias they caught him under on IRC was "leetdudeqc" for example), where nowaday, a lot of people do "bad deeds" unknowingly because their computer was zombified. But even then, after a single warning, you should get your shit together and get your computer fixed, cleaned, protected. A 30$ router and a 60$ AV/AS software works wonders (not PERFECT, but a lot better than an unpatched unprotected computer plugged in directly in the cablemodem).
Yea... I ordered a brand new PC for 2k$ this week including a 8800GTX. There's an unwritten law that states that in the next 48h I purchase something, someone will declare it obsolete.
The guys at the store will tell him "Look, this is a Celeron, made by Intel, the people who makes Pentiums". Not that fancy AMD hax0r thing. Anyway, that's my opinion, I may be wrong, but...
Maybe this'll come at a surprise, but geeks aren't the majority of the market when it comes to PC. Most households have one, and it's not most household that have a geek.
So, when Mr Smith, accountant that has a PC at home to surf the web, get his emails and play a few games of Tiger Woods golf asks himself is he wants a PC, what will he look for ? Brand recognition. Will I buy a AMD, or a Pentium ?
Sure, if he got a geeky nephew, the nephew will maybe direct him to a AMD processor, but if he's Joe 6pack average, and wants recognition, he'll go for what ? For that thing he heard a lot on the news, during the last 11 years, a... whatcha call it... PENTIUM.
He won't go for a Pentium 3.4 HT w/533fsb 1mb L2 cache. He'll go for a Pentium. PENTIUM. Doesn't matter wether it's a Celeron or a Dualcore; he wants a Pentium. For the same price, Joe Average will buy a 2.4ghz Celeron over a AMD 3800+ Dualcore (i dunno if those exist, it's a mere example; the CPU business goes too fast for me, I change my PC every 2 years because my 2yo PC still plays the games I want it to play and I'm not really up to date in the CPU technologies). Why ? You've guessed it : because it's a PENTIUM !
It's not like they could've typed "mac internet explorer" in their own search engine at the bottom of the frontpage and saw that the 5th link was that article from yesterday...
Yeah, because I'm sure India rules and laws are as strict as they are in the US and that the patients will be treated the exact same. Yeah.
That's where the issue is. In US and Canada, there is drug testing, but the people doing it aren't seen as lab rats; they're seen as human beings. In India, I wouldn't bet a dime that they give a flyin' fuck about the patients.
Considering that the planet is up to 6 billion people, that makes 600,000 people interested in what I do... I live in a town of merely over a million people, therefore, half the people I meet are interested in what I do. I think I'll lock myself in tonight !
(This is intented as (a poorly crafted attempt at) humor, mods, not a flamebait.)
Because when getting in front of the judge, you can say that you did everything you could outside of the courtroom to prevent this to getting to a courtoom, and failed because the other company refused to comply.
Otherwise you might end up in court, screaming, then when the defending party comes in, they will say "Oh, that's why I'm here ? Well, yeah, sure, why not, I don't mind, I'll do it". Then you look like a complete asshat who didn't want to resort to something OTHER than the court...
One of my friend is sueing someone for fraud (2000$) and as the policeman said, "Do everything you can (legally of course) to recover the cash. If talking doesn't work, THEN we'll file in a legal criminal complaint and it'll go to court. Because if you go to court and she simply agrees to pay, you look like the dumbass.
They started doing this BEFORE the increases in gas prices... But hey.
They try to make peolpe carpool more. They encourage this by saying "go ahead, carpool. If someday you're the passenger and the driver has to leave early/later than usual, we'll issue you a cab ticket worth 20$ so you can return home".
But hey, I work for an environmentally-friendly company... We don't all have the same chance.
Well, here in Quebec (I think the urinal publicity idea was invented in Quebec, how shameful for us...), I've seen it in a few bars. Ads in the bathroom stall have been around for years, in urinals since like '96 (around the time I got in college), and recently (like a few months ago) I saw a LCD screen onto a hand-dryer. Mind you, a small one with no sound, but still.
The eyelid thing in my post is far-fetched, but damn.
As for sponsored housing, soon, it'll be a concern, and not for the reasons you think. In many cities, there's more demand than supply for apparments. Here in Montreal, price have doubled on some trendy streets in the last 10 years... So, owners have FULL POWER over you. Don't like the conditions of your apartment ? The owner most likely has a WAITING LIST full of people who want your apartment. I was talking of that with a friend this weekend, his owner almost had the next-door apartment rented to a movie company that made porn flicks (they found somewhere cheaper)... They would've used the apartment to make movies. Talk about noisy neighbors. But hey, you're not happy, move out, there are 20 people who want your apartment, one of them is not gonna care about it...
So, someday, the owner of a 35 apartment building WILL put ads in his apartments, WITHOUT lowering your rent, and if you're not happy, go away, he'll rent it to someone else who won't mind.
Man, someday, they'll take your newborn, surgically remove their eyelids, then using the e-paper technology, they'll implant some kind of organic e-paper on the inside of your eyelids. This way, with your eyes open, you'll see the everyday publicity, and with your eyes closed, you'll still see publicity.
I'm being a tad sarcastic, but fuck. I was pissed when I saw ads in bathroom stalls, then I was ultra-pissed when I saw some in front of the friggin' urinals, but then the other day, I saw a LCD screen on a hand-drying machine... !!!
Someday I'll go in front of one of those bra ads and jerk off in front of one, and if I get caught, I'll say "hey, I've jerked off on porn that was way less suggestive a few years ago, I thought this was a masturbation-venue."
Don't mind me, I'm bitter. But I'm tired of omnipresent sex everywhere (no I'm not religious or stuck-up or anything, I got porn on my comp like every one of you (doh), but does EVERYTHING need to be about tits and asses ?)
This isn't intended as flame or anything, it's intended as being someone who vents off cuz he's pissed at publicity.;-)
Buick wanted to name a car LaCrosse. It's a sport, I know, but in Quebec, "crosse" is slang for masturbation (je me suis crossé) and for a fraud (I sold him that 5$ item for 25$, je l'ai crossé). They finalled renamed it I think...
My mom get her new comp, a P75. No modem, no cdrom, no soundcard, 3k (CDN$). I had a 8088 IBM XT before that, so the upgrade was kinda HUGE...
Well, Win95 came with the beast (something like 24 disks). Tried to update the video driver, failed. Reboot, 4 colors 640*480. DAMN. Reinstalled the driver, works fine, BUT... I can't get it higher than that. Why ? Because I click on the sliding bar, puts it in 800*600 16bits colors, then... CLICK ON THE X AT THE UPPER RIGHT PORTION OF THE SCREEN. Dang. The OK button was hidden below the start menu, and I thought the X did the same. TOok me a week to accidentaly drag the window... hey, I was 14 and all my computer knowledge was DOS 3.3 .;-)
A year after, I bought a modem, wanting to go online. USR 14.4 modem external... Teh shit. BUT, it made that awful noise when connecting... So, I used to put a pillow on it so my mom wouldn't hear me connection after midnight for... educational purposes. Well, after 9-10 months, I found out that the little know at the side was the... volume.
Those are sweet memories to me. Today, I'm quite knowleadgable in computers, I can build a Win2k-2003 domain, I fiddle around with VBS scripting, PHP, networking, etc... When I see a newbie do a stupid mistake, I remind me of those incidents, and I let it go.;-)
Not MY granny, but the mom of my mom's boyfriend (my mom has a boyfriend, the mom of that guy... got it ?)... Everyone was telling me she kicked ass at Tetris. Being quite a decent Tetris player myself, I laughed, and challenged her.
I died after making nearly 400 lines, which was over my average score. She stopped after 700 'cause she had to go prepare supper, but she was in good shape, nowhere near trouble, she probably could've continued for another 700 lines...
You know, when my mom, my grand-dad, whatever, means to tell me "you've been playing too many videogames", what do they say ? "You've been playing that Nintendo too much"... It's like we don't say "tissues" but "Kleenex" most of the time; for most folks, the "baby-boomer" generation (people who are 40-60 today), video games = Nintendo, even if they SEE in PLAIN SIGHT that I'm playing on a PS2 or something...
Of course I don't have those problems now, being that I own my own house and my mom doesn't live with me, but hey, when I go over to her place and she sees I'm tired...;-)
I've worked at Videotron, the biggest ISP in Quebec, Canada. When I left them they had over 200k cablemodem users, they now have over 300k I believe. We were pioneers in cablemodem access, offering 700 kilobytes/sec download access since June 1996.
They have a clause in their contract that says "no sharing of the connection even inside your own house, you need to buy a 2nd IP at 9,95$ (CAN) if you want to get a 2nd computer online". But did they really enforce it ? Not really, unless the method of sharing (like a Linux NAT box) was being insecure and used as hacking proxies and whatnot... Otherwise, they couldn't really give a shit about what you did with the connection. I mean, anyway, the neighbor isn't gonna pay wether he gets it or not, and the ISP most likely has some download/upload limits, so the ISP probably doesn't care and enforces that contractual engagement in case of abuse.
You could *gasp* go see him, tell him his network's insecure, help him secure it, and offer him to pay a monthly fee (say, half of the price of the connection) to let you in on his network. This is a win-win; this way, you make sure no one else leeches off him (therefore enhancing your access to his AP), you help HIM, and you could make a friend.
I know, it's a hard concept to grasp, that "respect" thingy... But try it, it's fun, and it has its rewards.
I'm lazy. Yeah, that's right. So I install Firefox on every of my relative's/friends computers. Since then, I'm getting less calls about some computers that are actually faster than mine but running slower than a dead snail... I actually carry around on me a 256megs USB keychain that contains a few anti-spyware tools, some Sysinternal utilities, and the latest copy of Firefox. Ever since, less problems.
Slashdot Mirror
We'd get intrusion emails from sysadmins, particulars, etc. We had a set of rule (sysadmins complaint had more weight than regular individuals, but we still took both into account).
If we received enough complaints (10 invidiual or 2 sysadmins iirc), you'd get a call from me or a colleague of mine, asking you to refrain. 2nd time would be a final warning, 3rd time was a complete disconnection of your Internet services.
We were getting complaints from RIAA back in the day, and would process those complaints with the same rule as sysadmins.
Agreed, back in the day, botnets and all were WAY less widespread than they are now, so I'd say that 75-80% of the time, it was the actual person who did the deed (guy's registered email adress is "leetdude at videotron dot ca" and the alias they caught him under on IRC was "leetdudeqc" for example), where nowaday, a lot of people do "bad deeds" unknowingly because their computer was zombified. But even then, after a single warning, you should get your shit together and get your computer fixed, cleaned, protected. A 30$ router and a 60$ AV/AS software works wonders (not PERFECT, but a lot better than an unpatched unprotected computer plugged in directly in the cablemodem).
Yea... I ordered a brand new PC for 2k$ this week including a 8800GTX. There's an unwritten law that states that in the next 48h I purchase something, someone will declare it obsolete.
The guys at the store will tell him "Look, this is a Celeron, made by Intel, the people who makes Pentiums". Not that fancy AMD hax0r thing. Anyway, that's my opinion, I may be wrong, but...
So, when Mr Smith, accountant that has a PC at home to surf the web, get his emails and play a few games of Tiger Woods golf asks himself is he wants a PC, what will he look for ? Brand recognition. Will I buy a AMD, or a Pentium ?
Sure, if he got a geeky nephew, the nephew will maybe direct him to a AMD processor, but if he's Joe 6pack average, and wants recognition, he'll go for what ? For that thing he heard a lot on the news, during the last 11 years, a... whatcha call it... PENTIUM.
He won't go for a Pentium 3.4 HT w/533fsb 1mb L2 cache. He'll go for a Pentium. PENTIUM. Doesn't matter wether it's a Celeron or a Dualcore; he wants a Pentium. For the same price, Joe Average will buy a 2.4ghz Celeron over a AMD 3800+ Dualcore (i dunno if those exist, it's a mere example; the CPU business goes too fast for me, I change my PC every 2 years because my 2yo PC still plays the games I want it to play and I'm not really up to date in the CPU technologies). Why ? You've guessed it : because it's a PENTIUM !
Or is it ?
That's where the issue is. In US and Canada, there is drug testing, but the people doing it aren't seen as lab rats; they're seen as human beings. In India, I wouldn't bet a dime that they give a flyin' fuck about the patients.
Old MCDonald had a server farm, he eyed the I/O...
(This is intented as (a poorly crafted attempt at) humor, mods, not a flamebait.)
Otherwise you might end up in court, screaming, then when the defending party comes in, they will say "Oh, that's why I'm here ? Well, yeah, sure, why not, I don't mind, I'll do it". Then you look like a complete asshat who didn't want to resort to something OTHER than the court...
One of my friend is sueing someone for fraud (2000$) and as the policeman said, "Do everything you can (legally of course) to recover the cash. If talking doesn't work, THEN we'll file in a legal criminal complaint and it'll go to court. Because if you go to court and she simply agrees to pay, you look like the dumbass.
how many of the people who whine actually PAY to support Slashdot...
They try to make peolpe carpool more. They encourage this by saying "go ahead, carpool. If someday you're the passenger and the driver has to leave early/later than usual, we'll issue you a cab ticket worth 20$ so you can return home".
But hey, I work for an environmentally-friendly company... We don't all have the same chance.
You didn't CREATE anything. My quote wasn't accurate; he said "Whatever a man CREATE, another man can crack it".
"If something was done by a man, another man can undo it". Still holds true, IMHO.
The eyelid thing in my post is far-fetched, but damn.
As for sponsored housing, soon, it'll be a concern, and not for the reasons you think. In many cities, there's more demand than supply for apparments. Here in Montreal, price have doubled on some trendy streets in the last 10 years... So, owners have FULL POWER over you. Don't like the conditions of your apartment ? The owner most likely has a WAITING LIST full of people who want your apartment. I was talking of that with a friend this weekend, his owner almost had the next-door apartment rented to a movie company that made porn flicks (they found somewhere cheaper)... They would've used the apartment to make movies. Talk about noisy neighbors. But hey, you're not happy, move out, there are 20 people who want your apartment, one of them is not gonna care about it...
So, someday, the owner of a 35 apartment building WILL put ads in his apartments, WITHOUT lowering your rent, and if you're not happy, go away, he'll rent it to someone else who won't mind.
That sucks. But that's how it is.
I'm being a tad sarcastic, but fuck. I was pissed when I saw ads in bathroom stalls, then I was ultra-pissed when I saw some in front of the friggin' urinals, but then the other day, I saw a LCD screen on a hand-drying machine... !!!
Someday I'll go in front of one of those bra ads and jerk off in front of one, and if I get caught, I'll say "hey, I've jerked off on porn that was way less suggestive a few years ago, I thought this was a masturbation-venue."
Don't mind me, I'm bitter. But I'm tired of omnipresent sex everywhere (no I'm not religious or stuck-up or anything, I got porn on my comp like every one of you (doh), but does EVERYTHING need to be about tits and asses ?)
This isn't intended as flame or anything, it's intended as being someone who vents off cuz he's pissed at publicity. ;-)
Buick wanted to name a car LaCrosse. It's a sport, I know, but in Quebec, "crosse" is slang for masturbation (je me suis crossé) and for a fraud (I sold him that 5$ item for 25$, je l'ai crossé). They finalled renamed it I think...
Well, Win95 came with the beast (something like 24 disks). Tried to update the video driver, failed. Reboot, 4 colors 640*480. DAMN. Reinstalled the driver, works fine, BUT... I can't get it higher than that. Why ? Because I click on the sliding bar, puts it in 800*600 16bits colors, then... CLICK ON THE X AT THE UPPER RIGHT PORTION OF THE SCREEN. Dang. The OK button was hidden below the start menu, and I thought the X did the same. TOok me a week to accidentaly drag the window... hey, I was 14 and all my computer knowledge was DOS 3.3 . ;-)
A year after, I bought a modem, wanting to go online. USR 14.4 modem external... Teh shit. BUT, it made that awful noise when connecting... So, I used to put a pillow on it so my mom wouldn't hear me connection after midnight for... educational purposes. Well, after 9-10 months, I found out that the little know at the side was the... volume.
Those are sweet memories to me. Today, I'm quite knowleadgable in computers, I can build a Win2k-2003 domain, I fiddle around with VBS scripting, PHP, networking, etc... When I see a newbie do a stupid mistake, I remind me of those incidents, and I let it go. ;-)
I died after making nearly 400 lines, which was over my average score. She stopped after 700 'cause she had to go prepare supper, but she was in good shape, nowhere near trouble, she probably could've continued for another 700 lines...
Talk about a humility lesson.
Of course I don't have those problems now, being that I own my own house and my mom doesn't live with me, but hey, when I go over to her place and she sees I'm tired... ;-)
ChrisD used to be a editor for Slashdot before he left for Google.
They have a clause in their contract that says "no sharing of the connection even inside your own house, you need to buy a 2nd IP at 9,95$ (CAN) if you want to get a 2nd computer online". But did they really enforce it ? Not really, unless the method of sharing (like a Linux NAT box) was being insecure and used as hacking proxies and whatnot... Otherwise, they couldn't really give a shit about what you did with the connection. I mean, anyway, the neighbor isn't gonna pay wether he gets it or not, and the ISP most likely has some download/upload limits, so the ISP probably doesn't care and enforces that contractual engagement in case of abuse.
I know, it's a hard concept to grasp, that "respect" thingy... But try it, it's fun, and it has its rewards.
Sorry if I'm sounding bitter, but damn...
I submitted this on APRIL 13TH. I wonder what it takes to get a story accepted.... 'neway.... just feelin' grumpy.
I see you're still in denial from Jersey Girl...
I'm lazy. Yeah, that's right. So I install Firefox on every of my relative's/friends computers. Since then, I'm getting less calls about some computers that are actually faster than mine but running slower than a dead snail... I actually carry around on me a 256megs USB keychain that contains a few anti-spyware tools, some Sysinternal utilities, and the latest copy of Firefox. Ever since, less problems.