it's not going to stop messanger spam. These are grey text boxes sent directly to the PC using the messanger service of Windows using the netsend command. It has nothing to do with the browser.
Rebate forms aren't hard to come by; you can usually download them from the manufacturer's Web site
That's true for many manufacturer rebates, but the Best Buy rebates that are offered by Best Buy themselves (the ones that go to Calais, Maine) are different. The form that prints out at the cash register is only valid for in-store purchases, and the forms on the Best Buy website are only valid for online purchases. This is in the fine print on the bottom of the rebate forms.
UPS drivers aren't replacing anything, they are simply shipping them to a center where techs replace the parts, then ship them back. While the article gives the impression that the techs will be UPS employees, they still are most likely experienced laptop repair techs, not guys pulled from big brown trucks - if only because it's probably easier to find good laptop techs then good truck drivers these days.
It isn't that unusual for shipping companies to do other loosly related stuff - for example, outpost.com outsources their wharehousing/pick n pack/shipping to Airborne - if you buy anything from outpost, it will ship from "1 Airborne Drive" somwhere in Ohio.
The college I work at used to just block machnes, but now is moving to a software CD very similar to what the original poster mentioned.
There are several reasons for this. First of all, if you are just blocking infected machines, that means that those machines are infected (obviously) and you have to spend time walking the student through cleaning up their machine. Secondly, even if there is only a short period of time between when a machine is infected and shut down, a ton of other machines can get infected in that time. Welchia and blaster were specifically written to look for machines with IP's near the host machine, so it can spread quickly. Our hopes is that by having machines that are patched and up to date, we don't have machines getting infected in the first place.
The second reason for the software is authentication - if we know who is using an infected machine, or one that is not getting updates for whatever reason, it's much easier to locate them and inform them of it. That can be good for the student - they don't have to wait to realize they don't have internet, try to track down the problem, and then call tech support - instead, tech support calls them.
They have posted signs everywhere prohibiting the use of routers with or without wireless access. This boggles my mind, as you'd think they would have wanted us to have the hardware firewalls.
This may be due to poorly configured routers causing problems with other students connections. I work for a college, and we have a similar policy, mostly because students were setting their routers up as DHCP servers and other students who were trying to connect to us were connecting to the routers instead and having problems.
Ignoring the principals of investing in a company that preys on the computer illiterate by installing a piece of software they don't want, it seems like a bad investment for several reasons.
First of all, I have to wonder what the click-through and purchase rate of those popups are. Most people I know complain about popups, close them as quickly as possible, and run spyware removal tools or popup blockers to ignore them. How successful is it to advertise on them? Does the negative goodwill that popups create hurt a company's reputation?
Secondly, the article mentions the possibility that laws will be passed limiting/making spyware illegal. Do you want to invest in a stock of a company whose product may become illegal?
Thirdly, do you really trust the management of a company whose business strategy is so sketchy to be honest and open with their financial reporting ect?
I own lots of electronics, but the only things I have with a blue LED is my RePlay TV 5060 and my Playstation 2. My monitor, printer, speakers, audio compnents, tv, router, switch, network card, zip drive, ect all have the standard red, orange, or green. My Apple Powerbook has the apple white blinking "snore" indicator when it's asleep.
Granted, my iPod does have a blue backlight, as does my Nextel, but neither is an LED
If they recieved no money for that day, then they had to pay all their operators, pay for equiptment, bandwidth, ect, and recieved no compensation. So the three million they lost is not 3 million in profit, but rather 3 million in revenue. If they have close to 3 million in expenses per day, then they would make little to no money off the service.
I own a RePlay.. what I should say?
on
TiVo Will Die
·
· Score: 1
I own a RePlayTV. So I never know what to say when I record something on it. I can't say I Tivo'd it, because I didn't, because I don't have a Tivo. If I say that I RePlay'ed it, nobody knows what I mean, and they think I mean that I've "played it again" as opposed to "recorded it on my RePlay TV device". I guess I could just say "recorded" but that to me implies to use of videotape.
Sounds a lot like DvArchive..
on
TiVo Will Die
·
· Score: 1
Skimed the press release, and it sounds a lot like DvArchive - except no additional fees and no DRM. I use DVArchive with my RePlay 5060. Doesn't look like it works on TiVo. It's written in Java, so it will run on Mac as well as windows, and it doesn't have any messy DRM. It basically creates a virtual PVR that you can record shows onto your PC with and play shows off of over the network. Run it and it will show all the RePlays on your network and let you download or play shows off of them.
There is one network effect (thing that requires another thing) going for the iPod... a little thing called iTunes. So far it's the dominant online music seller, and it only works with the iPod. So if someone is using iTunes and wants an MP3 player that works with it, they are going to get an iPod. And if someone is about to replace their iPod and uses iTunes, chances are they are going to buy another iPod.
I think the proprietary part is part of it - in addition to the economies of scale there is the fact that one complaint people have about Macs is that they are harder/more expensive to upgrade - but ALL laptops are expensive and hard to upgrade.
There are also probably people who also own a laptop and a desktop - I own a desktop PC and an Apple Powerbook 12". Because I use the laptop less and for lighter stuff, upgrading and software compatibility are small issues - plus the Powerbook looks so damn cool. I know several other coworkers at the college I work at who do the same - including a sysadmin who runs Virtual PC on his powerbook to run Netware Admin for our Novell network.
OTOH the worms running around now primarily infect computers through user error... But, since it depends on a user downloading, extracting, and running something
I suppose that's true for netsky, bagle, ect. But Welchia/Nachi and Blaster (which caused and are still causing HUGE problems on the network of the college I work at, and don't require any action on the part of the user beyond not patching their systems. I think OSX does a little better job of pushing patches out via automatically scheduled software updates than MS, but it really a matter of how quickly the OS supplier updates patches and pushes them to the user.
Skimming the papers, it sounds like email is the legally acceptable way of contacting an ISP about a copyright issue... which seems kind of surprising. I mean, when you sue someone, they generally have to be notified either by certified mail or in person. If the U.S. Postal Service can't be trusted to deliver a supena, is it reasonable to trust email with a takedown notice and punish the recipeient for not acting?
Right. Apple has totally hidden from customers the fact that they make a 15 gig iPod that sells for $300. I mean, it's not like it's in their stores or anything. And you have to be a genius to figure out that 4 gigs is less than 15 gigs , so nobody without a masters in CS can figure that out.
Some people value size and style over amount of memory, and they've chosen to buy one. Apple didn't make them buy it.
. It's only $50, but the screen is black and white. It uses mini CD's, but from what I understand from a friend who tried to hack it, the CD-Now's have the boot data written on the inside of the CD further in from where normal burners write.
CNet had an article about the recent dvdXcopy lawsuit, where the judge said that they didn't need to protect the fair use right to make copies of DVD's because people could make nondigital backup copies of DVD's. Never mind that there is no way to make any kind of copies - hook up your DVD player to a VCR (unless you've hacked it) and MacroVision will prevent you from doing that.
In the Microsoft antitrust case, the judge at one point says that Microsoft had to be lying about IE being an unremovable part of Windows unremovable, because he had removed it. In reality, he had deleted the icons.
One reason people may be opposed to it is that I would guess few people at this point use VOIP as their only phone service. For example, I currently have a packet8 account that I use for long distance calls, but I also have a cell. If I'm already paying for GPS on my cell so people can reach me, why should I pay twice so I can call from my VOIP phone? At this stage people who sign up for VOIP are mostly early adopter techies who are aware of the 911 issue.
The other thing that makes it more difficult is that VOIP numbers, unlike POTS numbers, can use any area code/exchange. My VOIP exchange is for a town half an hour away from me, and if I wanted I could have an area code on the other side of the country. This means that getting 911 to work will be a significant expense for VOIP companies.
The fact that people have signed up for VOIP without it suggests that at least some people don't see a need for it and thus don't want to pay - either they have other phones or they can put a little note next to their VOIP with the fire department's number on it.
Two apartments ago, my roomates and I wanted to get DSL. We called Verizon, give them our phone number, and the operator "hmms" for a while and then asks "Do you have fiber on the line?"
I had to resist the urge to go "HOW THE HECK SHOULD I KNOW, YOU'RE THE FREAKIN PHONE COMPANY?
Not to mention that to someone who doesn't know anything about networking, the word fiber makes one think of breakfast cereals that induce pooping.
I work with a guy whose answer to any problem he can't or doesn't want to solve is to tell the user to go to Windows Update and install all the updates and call back when they are done. I've heard him do this even on problems where an email has been sent out with the exact instructions on how to resolve an easily resolvable known issue. It's brilliant though, because it usually takes the user so long to do that chances are when they call back he's either gone or doesn't answer the phone and someone else has to deal with it. And who is going to argue that patching security flaws is a bad thing, even if it doesn't solve their problems.
Help the profitable callers, abuse the rest...
on
Orwellian Tech Support
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
I think there are a number of reasons for this. First of all, most people don't look at service when they buy, they just look at price. You can have the best support in the world, but if nobody buys your product because it costs more, the company dies.
Companies have also realized that some customers are way more profitable than others. That's why Dell gives consumer customers cheap outsourced Indian techs, and corporate Optiplex/Latitude customers US support. If Joe Smith decides not to buy his next $399 Dimension from you, big deal. If Fortune 500 company decides not to buy several million worth of servers from you, that's a problem.
Stores that sell extended warrenties also win when manufacturer warrenties suck. It seems worth an extra hundred or two hundred bucks to be able to walk into a store and walk out with a brand new PC instead of arguing with someone for 3 days so they can wait 2 weeks for them to send you out a part you have to replace yourself (which can be a big deal if you are an average user). These can be a big profit center for stores, so the stores kind of win when manufacturer support is suck.
Slashdot Mirror
but LICENSED Radio and TV Repairman.
it's not going to stop messanger spam. These are grey text boxes sent directly to the PC using the messanger service of Windows using the netsend command. It has nothing to do with the browser.
Windows Update is owned by microsoft - in fact, it is one of the URL's that the blaster worm DOS'ed.
According to this register article that someone posted, the website that the spammer registered was windowsupdateNOW.com
Rebate forms aren't hard to come by; you can usually download them from the manufacturer's Web site
That's true for many manufacturer rebates, but the Best Buy rebates that are offered by Best Buy themselves (the ones that go to Calais, Maine) are different. The form that prints out at the cash register is only valid for in-store purchases, and the forms on the Best Buy website are only valid for online purchases. This is in the fine print on the bottom of the rebate forms.
UPS drivers aren't replacing anything, they are simply shipping them to a center where techs replace the parts, then ship them back. While the article gives the impression that the techs will be UPS employees, they still are most likely experienced laptop repair techs, not guys pulled from big brown trucks - if only because it's probably easier to find good laptop techs then good truck drivers these days.
It isn't that unusual for shipping companies to do other loosly related stuff - for example, outpost.com outsources their wharehousing/pick n pack/shipping to Airborne - if you buy anything from outpost, it will ship from "1 Airborne Drive" somwhere in Ohio.
The college I work at used to just block machnes, but now is moving to a software CD very similar to what the original poster mentioned.
There are several reasons for this. First of all, if you are just blocking infected machines, that means that those machines are infected (obviously) and you have to spend time walking the student through cleaning up their machine. Secondly, even if there is only a short period of time between when a machine is infected and shut down, a ton of other machines can get infected in that time. Welchia and blaster were specifically written to look for machines with IP's near the host machine, so it can spread quickly. Our hopes is that by having machines that are patched and up to date, we don't have machines getting infected in the first place.
The second reason for the software is authentication - if we know who is using an infected machine, or one that is not getting updates for whatever reason, it's much easier to locate them and inform them of it. That can be good for the student - they don't have to wait to realize they don't have internet, try to track down the problem, and then call tech support - instead, tech support calls them.
They have posted signs everywhere prohibiting the use of routers with or without wireless access. This boggles my mind, as you'd think they would have wanted us to have the hardware firewalls.
This may be due to poorly configured routers causing problems with other students connections. I work for a college, and we have a similar policy, mostly because students were setting their routers up as DHCP servers and other students who were trying to connect to us were connecting to the routers instead and having problems.
Ignoring the principals of investing in a company that preys on the computer illiterate by installing a piece of software they don't want, it seems like a bad investment for several reasons.
First of all, I have to wonder what the click-through and purchase rate of those popups are. Most people I know complain about popups, close them as quickly as possible, and run spyware removal tools or popup blockers to ignore them. How successful is it to advertise on them? Does the negative goodwill that popups create hurt a company's reputation?
Secondly, the article mentions the possibility that laws will be passed limiting/making spyware illegal. Do you want to invest in a stock of a company whose product may become illegal?
Thirdly, do you really trust the management of a company whose business strategy is so sketchy to be honest and open with their financial reporting ect?
I own lots of electronics, but the only things I have with a blue LED is my RePlay TV 5060 and my Playstation 2. My monitor, printer, speakers, audio compnents, tv, router, switch, network card, zip drive, ect all have the standard red, orange, or green. My Apple Powerbook has the apple white blinking "snore" indicator when it's asleep.
Granted, my iPod does have a blue backlight, as does my Nextel, but neither is an LED
If they recieved no money for that day, then they had to pay all their operators, pay for equiptment, bandwidth, ect, and recieved no compensation. So the three million they lost is not 3 million in profit, but rather 3 million in revenue. If they have close to 3 million in expenses per day, then they would make little to no money off the service.
The U.S. didn't arrest the girl. The PA state police did. Granted, PA is in the U.S., but it's not the federal government in this case.
Their buzz system (scroll down) is a direct ripoff of eBay's feedback system. Wonder how long they get sued for that?
I own a RePlayTV. So I never know what to say when I record something on it. I can't say I Tivo'd it, because I didn't, because I don't have a Tivo. If I say that I RePlay'ed it, nobody knows what I mean, and they think I mean that I've "played it again" as opposed to "recorded it on my RePlay TV device". I guess I could just say "recorded" but that to me implies to use of videotape.
Skimed the press release, and it sounds a lot like DvArchive - except no additional fees and no DRM. I use DVArchive with my RePlay 5060. Doesn't look like it works on TiVo. It's written in Java, so it will run on Mac as well as windows, and it doesn't have any messy DRM. It basically creates a virtual PVR that you can record shows onto your PC with and play shows off of over the network. Run it and it will show all the RePlays on your network and let you download or play shows off of them.
There is one network effect (thing that requires another thing) going for the iPod... a little thing called iTunes. So far it's the dominant online music seller, and it only works with the iPod. So if someone is using iTunes and wants an MP3 player that works with it, they are going to get an iPod. And if someone is about to replace their iPod and uses iTunes, chances are they are going to buy another iPod.
I think the proprietary part is part of it - in addition to the economies of scale there is the fact that one complaint people have about Macs is that they are harder/more expensive to upgrade - but ALL laptops are expensive and hard to upgrade.
There are also probably people who also own a laptop and a desktop - I own a desktop PC and an Apple Powerbook 12". Because I use the laptop less and for lighter stuff, upgrading and software compatibility are small issues - plus the Powerbook looks so damn cool. I know several other coworkers at the college I work at who do the same - including a sysadmin who runs Virtual PC on his powerbook to run Netware Admin for our Novell network.
OTOH the worms running around now primarily infect computers through user error ... But, since it depends on a user downloading, extracting, and running something
I suppose that's true for netsky, bagle, ect. But Welchia/Nachi and Blaster (which caused and are still causing HUGE problems on the network of the college I work at, and don't require any action on the part of the user beyond not patching their systems. I think OSX does a little better job of pushing patches out via automatically scheduled software updates than MS, but it really a matter of how quickly the OS supplier updates patches and pushes them to the user.
Skimming the papers, it sounds like email is the legally acceptable way of contacting an ISP about a copyright issue... which seems kind of surprising. I mean, when you sue someone, they generally have to be notified either by certified mail or in person. If the U.S. Postal Service can't be trusted to deliver a supena, is it reasonable to trust email with a takedown notice and punish the recipeient for not acting?
exploitation of a tech-illiterate market.
Right. Apple has totally hidden from customers the fact that they make a 15 gig iPod that sells for $300. I mean, it's not like it's in their stores or anything. And you have to be a genius to figure out that 4 gigs is less than 15 gigs , so nobody without a masters in CS can figure that out.
Some people value size and style over amount of memory, and they've chosen to buy one. Apple didn't make them buy it.
Hasbro has a device called the VideoNow
. It's only $50, but the screen is black and white. It uses mini CD's, but from what I understand from a friend who tried to hack it, the CD-Now's have the boot data written on the inside of the CD further in from where normal burners write.CNet had an article about the recent dvdXcopy lawsuit, where the judge said that they didn't need to protect the fair use right to make copies of DVD's because people could make nondigital backup copies of DVD's. Never mind that there is no way to make any kind of copies - hook up your DVD player to a VCR (unless you've hacked it) and MacroVision will prevent you from doing that.
In the Microsoft antitrust case, the judge at one point says that Microsoft had to be lying about IE being an unremovable part of Windows unremovable, because he had removed it. In reality, he had deleted the icons.
One reason people may be opposed to it is that I would guess few people at this point use VOIP as their only phone service. For example, I currently have a packet8 account that I use for long distance calls, but I also have a cell. If I'm already paying for GPS on my cell so people can reach me, why should I pay twice so I can call from my VOIP phone? At this stage people who sign up for VOIP are mostly early adopter techies who are aware of the 911 issue.
The other thing that makes it more difficult is that VOIP numbers, unlike POTS numbers, can use any area code/exchange. My VOIP exchange is for a town half an hour away from me, and if I wanted I could have an area code on the other side of the country. This means that getting 911 to work will be a significant expense for VOIP companies.
The fact that people have signed up for VOIP without it suggests that at least some people don't see a need for it and thus don't want to pay - either they have other phones or they can put a little note next to their VOIP with the fire department's number on it.
Two apartments ago, my roomates and I wanted to get DSL. We called Verizon, give them our phone number, and the operator "hmms" for a while and then asks "Do you have fiber on the line?"
I had to resist the urge to go "HOW THE HECK SHOULD I KNOW, YOU'RE THE FREAKIN PHONE COMPANY?
Not to mention that to someone who doesn't know anything about networking, the word fiber makes one think of breakfast cereals that induce pooping.
I work with a guy whose answer to any problem he can't or doesn't want to solve is to tell the user to go to Windows Update and install all the updates and call back when they are done. I've heard him do this even on problems where an email has been sent out with the exact instructions on how to resolve an easily resolvable known issue. It's brilliant though, because it usually takes the user so long to do that chances are when they call back he's either gone or doesn't answer the phone and someone else has to deal with it. And who is going to argue that patching security flaws is a bad thing, even if it doesn't solve their problems.
I think there are a number of reasons for this. First of all, most people don't look at service when they buy, they just look at price. You can have the best support in the world, but if nobody buys your product because it costs more, the company dies.
Companies have also realized that some customers are way more profitable than others. That's why Dell gives consumer customers cheap outsourced Indian techs, and corporate Optiplex/Latitude customers US support. If Joe Smith decides not to buy his next $399 Dimension from you, big deal. If Fortune 500 company decides not to buy several million worth of servers from you, that's a problem.
Stores that sell extended warrenties also win when manufacturer warrenties suck. It seems worth an extra hundred or two hundred bucks to be able to walk into a store and walk out with a brand new PC instead of arguing with someone for 3 days so they can wait 2 weeks for them to send you out a part you have to replace yourself (which can be a big deal if you are an average user). These can be a big profit center for stores, so the stores kind of win when manufacturer support is suck.