You strange people. I have no idea what you're talking about, but I'll just post on my BBS and see if the dozen "home computer" users in my area know anything about this.
Step 12.5. Change the default Firefox icon to the blue "E" that IE uses. Habit creeps in with even the most good-intentioned n00b, and this will make the transition easier for them. (And for others who pop in to use their computer.)
Consider that there are thousands of experts in the medical and electronic fields who've been working on this exact problem for years.
Sorry, I have to take issue with this statement. Just because there is an industry-standard way of doing things or that hundreds (or thousands? really?) of "experts" have weighed in on a topic doesn't necessarily make it right.
Take for example birth by cesarean. According to the CDC, 26.1% of births in the U.S. are performed by cesarean. (In 1970 the cesarean rate was 5 percent.) At least four times as many women die of causes related to cesarean birth as those related to vaginal birth. Why do cesareans continue to be on the rise and popular despite increasing risk to the mother? Because it's cheaper for the hospitals to do it that way. "Experts" recommend cesareans in order to reduce the insurance payments hospitals make. Doctors are advised to recommend cesareans routinely, even when not at all necessary, because of the bottom line: the almighty dollar.
I had to download 3 extensions to make FF work like IE and to get the tabbed browsing working "as advertised", plus hit about:config once.
That's cool. I had to download about 13 "updates" from MS to make IE work without getting malware and to get it working "as advertised", plus go to Tools > Options and change several settings.
Do you really want to start keeping score like that?
Interesting idea. Why not make spyware/adware makers responsible for tech support of machines that are broken by their software?
They seem to be all fired up, hollering about how their products are legit, users chose to install them, etc. Fine, then, let's see them be liable for tech support.
Or you can do what we do here: Install Firefox as the default browser, bury or remove IE icons, and change the start page of IE to an internal page which explains why IE is so bad.
Not quite. It has "tab browsing" out of the box, but not the "Tabbrowser Extensions" plugin. Tabbrowser Extensions is MUCH more powerful and feature-rich.. something like 40 different options to set rather than the 3 found in 0.9.
I was disappointed enough that I reverted back to 0.8 so I could have my tabs the way I like them.
Okay, so if we say that your contract specifically says that you will be available after hours, then there's still this unknown: Does the Company contract specify that they will provide you with the means to be reached after hours?
In the situation where the Company contract DOES specify that they will provide you with the means to be reached after hours, the company doesn't have a choice: they must provide you with the means to be available. But, they get to choose whether that is broadband (for email), cellphone, pager, Blackberry, Psychic Network, etc.
If the Company contract does not specify that the Company will provide you with the means to be reached after hours, well, that seems unreasonable to me, but you should've made a note of that before you signed the contract of employment. Just because the Company currently provides such means as a perk doesn't mean they always will.
is it reasonable to expect someone to pay for their own broadband service, for their own personal computer at home, for their own cell phone, for their own pager, for whatever?
Depends. Is it reasonable to expect someone to pay for their own car to get to work, their own wardrobe to meet the dress code, etc?
My take: If it's in your contract / job requirement to be available at times outside regular working hours, then you are going to have to suck it up and pay for your own broadband, cell phone, or what have you. Treat the previous paid-for broadband as if it were a bonus that the company can no longer provide for you. (Like gourmet coffee.)
If it's not in your contract, then it's time to point that out to your employer (nicely) and offer two scenarios: that you'll be available after hours if they provide the means to contact you, or that you will not because that is not a job requirement.
If they fire you (or demote you, or pass you up for promotion, or harass you) for not doing something extra that's not in your job requirement, then you can turn it into a legal matter. They know this.
- Does it have SCSI 2.0?
- Is this compatible with Windows 97?
- Does this come with RTFM?
- Will this run illegally download software?
- Does the CPU include a math coprocessor?
- Can I upgrade the BIOS when Microsoft releases the latest version?
- I know it can use a USB or PS/2 mouse, but can it use a serial mouse? They'll not have seen a serial mouse in all likelihood. But they might guess correctly if it's a laptop that doesn't have a serial port.
- Is this software ENIAC compliant?
- Will this hardware interface with my neural wetware?
Of course, avoid the obvious "cupholder" question.
If you don't like your previous Best Buy, here's the easy solution: Don't buy at Best Buy.
If you want to contribute to making your experience not happen to others, complain to the Store Manager AND write a letter. In fact, if you're going to do one of the two, just write a letter. Not an email. Not a phone call. Maybe even write it to their corporate headquarters, but be specific: mention the store location, the time and date, and (if you know them) the names of the employees involved.
(Heck, if you want to scare the employees into treating you better, take notes as you're talking to them!)
If you don't mind shopping at Best Buy or the like, but one or two things bother you about your shopping experience (like the product replacement plan pitch), let them know (in writing, natch). Let them know you'll take your business elsewhere because of it.
As for rebates, most consumers find them annoying and frustrating. So don't play the game. I used to have a hard time not playing the rebate game, but I finally figured out it just wasn't worth my time. So what if I can get $8 off by filling in a rebate? If it takes me even 15 minutes to read the minutiae of the rebate terms, cut out the appropriate UPCs, fill out the form exactly as described (oh, and waiving my privacy, BTW), buying the stamp, mailing it off... then waiting 6-8 weeks for a check that MIGHT come through if you did everything right (factor in interest from the cash that could've been sitting in your bank account, not theirs)... then making the trip to the bank to cash that measly check... how much is your time worth to you?
Further, do NOT trust Best Buy (or other megastore employees) for tech advice. Get a second opinion from a techie or another user. Read Consumer Reports and other reviews. And don't trust that just because a sales employee says they'll make good on it if it doesn't work, that they'll do it. Get it in writing if you're concerned. Otherwise, figure that you may have to throw away money if it doesn't work, and that you're taking a chance.
I honestly believe that somewhere in the Best Buy training manual, there is a section under computer/technical questions that says: "If you don't know the answer to a customer's technical question, make something up that sounds good." I have personally tested BB employees by asking them technical questions I know the answer to (or know there isn't a good answer) and heard some pretty entertaining made-up answers. I encourage you to try this.
Finally, just a pitch for the local guy: Instead of going to a megastore like Best Buy for your computing needs, go to a local mom&pop computer store. You're pretty much guaranteed not to get the best price on computer components, but you can ask all the tech questions you want and not deal with a faceless minion. You'll get better quality service and heck, if you act halfway decent to them, probably exceptional service.
What would be nice is to whip up a quick, standardized text that we could email to every webmaster we find the "best viewed with IE" tag on.
Something like:
Dear Webmaster:
While visiting your site, I noticed that it expresses a preference or requirement to view the site using Internet Explorer. I would like to suggest that you make the web page standardized so that any standards-compliant browser can view its complete content.
The World Wide Web Consortium (www.w3c.org) provides specifications and guidelines for web standards. Most mainstream web development tools, with the exception of Microsoft's FrontPage (which uses proprietary code which might only work in its own product, Internet Explorer), are designed to be in compliance with these specifications.
Internet Explorer has been proven time and again to be an insecure product, and is a large cause of malware and other security problems on clients' machines. While specialized code developed to work exclusively in Internet Explorer might be convenient, it may be harmful to the users who view your site.
Please consider using another tool or adjust your web design practices so that the resulting pages may be viewed with any standards-compliant web browser.
Who I am beginning to hope will start to react to this kind of thing is our governments.
No.
The people that will need to react to this to make things better are our web developers.
Time after time I have installed Mozilla/Firefox on someone's machine, and gotten them to use and like it, only to find that one essential site "requires" IE to work. It's because that site doesn't adhere to HTML standards, and instead puts code that IE can use but no one else can.
I personally use Firefox as my primary browser, but there are some sites I have to fire up IE (with a nasty taste in my mouth) to use. A normal user won't find that as convenient as I do.
If a normal user doesn't particularly care which browser they use, it's easy to get them to switch to Mozilla. But given that they don't care which browser they use, and if 99% of sites work with Mozilla, but 100% work with IE, guess which one they'll choose to use regularly?
I think that google's response to this should be to offer free, permanant email forwarding. Essentially, what they'd be saying is this: OK, yes, you have to switch your email address today. But it's the last time you'll ever have to switch your email address... EVER. Do this, and it lowers the long term cost of switching your email address to gmail.
There are services out there that offer this. Not usually for free. They're basically permanent mail forwarders. One such is pobox.com, which I used for years, with the intention of "never switching your email address again". Unfortunately, after having it for 5+ years, I decided to ditch it due to the inordinate amount of spam it was receiving. (The poor email address had been plastered everywhere since before spam was a known problem, so it'd been harvested 20 million times, plus pobox.com was proving popular for the dictionary spammers.)
The lesson here is that nothing on the net is permanent.
On my corporate LAN (which is a university, e.g. a gazillion different IT subgroups, all with their own philosophies of security), viruses are rampant. I always disconnect the network cable on a new install until the newest Windows updates and AV program are loaded from CD. As a test the other day, I connected the network cable prematurely. I had Sasser within 15 seconds.
I have put the CBRGM (CO) after my name. When asked what it is, I'm forced to admit that it's "Certified Bingo / Raffle Games Manager (state of Colorado)".
Slashdot Mirror
Not bad, "Neal" (real name?), not bad at all. Have you considered writing for publication?
You strange people. I have no idea what you're talking about, but I'll just post on my BBS and see if the dozen "home computer" users in my area know anything about this.
Consider doing what I do as well:
Step 12.5. Change the default Firefox icon to the blue "E" that IE uses. Habit creeps in with even the most good-intentioned n00b, and this will make the transition easier for them. (And for others who pop in to use their computer.)
Sorry, I have to take issue with this statement. Just because there is an industry-standard way of doing things or that hundreds (or thousands? really?) of "experts" have weighed in on a topic doesn't necessarily make it right.
Take for example birth by cesarean. According to the CDC, 26.1% of births in the U.S. are performed by cesarean. (In 1970 the cesarean rate was 5 percent.) At least four times as many women die of causes related to cesarean birth as those related to vaginal birth. Why do cesareans continue to be on the rise and popular despite increasing risk to the mother? Because it's cheaper for the hospitals to do it that way. "Experts" recommend cesareans in order to reduce the insurance payments hospitals make. Doctors are advised to recommend cesareans routinely, even when not at all necessary, because of the bottom line: the almighty dollar.
Interestingly enough, a buddy of mine in the USMC just told me that only within the last year has the Marine Corps upgraded to Windows 2000.
That's cool. I had to download about 13 "updates" from MS to make IE work without getting malware and to get it working "as advertised", plus go to Tools > Options and change several settings.
Do you really want to start keeping score like that?
Two words: Kazaa Lite.
Was this OS/2?
Interesting idea. Why not make spyware/adware makers responsible for tech support of machines that are broken by their software? They seem to be all fired up, hollering about how their products are legit, users chose to install them, etc. Fine, then, let's see them be liable for tech support.
Actually you can remove it:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=312451
http://www.litepc.com/ieradicator.html
http://www.tweakxp.com/tweak1241.aspx
...for a start.
Or you can do what we do here: Install Firefox as the default browser, bury or remove IE icons, and change the start page of IE to an internal page which explains why IE is so bad.
Not quite. It has "tab browsing" out of the box, but not the "Tabbrowser Extensions" plugin. Tabbrowser Extensions is MUCH more powerful and feature-rich.. something like 40 different options to set rather than the 3 found in 0.9.
I was disappointed enough that I reverted back to 0.8 so I could have my tabs the way I like them.
Okay, so if we say that your contract specifically says that you will be available after hours, then there's still this unknown: Does the Company contract specify that they will provide you with the means to be reached after hours?
In the situation where the Company contract DOES specify that they will provide you with the means to be reached after hours, the company doesn't have a choice: they must provide you with the means to be available. But, they get to choose whether that is broadband (for email), cellphone, pager, Blackberry, Psychic Network, etc.
If the Company contract does not specify that the Company will provide you with the means to be reached after hours, well, that seems unreasonable to me, but you should've made a note of that before you signed the contract of employment. Just because the Company currently provides such means as a perk doesn't mean they always will.
Moral: Read the fine print before you sign.
Depends. Is it reasonable to expect someone to pay for their own car to get to work, their own wardrobe to meet the dress code, etc?
My take: If it's in your contract / job requirement to be available at times outside regular working hours, then you are going to have to suck it up and pay for your own broadband, cell phone, or what have you. Treat the previous paid-for broadband as if it were a bonus that the company can no longer provide for you. (Like gourmet coffee.)
If it's not in your contract, then it's time to point that out to your employer (nicely) and offer two scenarios: that you'll be available after hours if they provide the means to contact you, or that you will not because that is not a job requirement.
If they fire you (or demote you, or pass you up for promotion, or harass you) for not doing something extra that's not in your job requirement, then you can turn it into a legal matter. They know this.
Some fun questions to ask:
- Does it have SCSI 2.0?
- Is this compatible with Windows 97?
- Does this come with RTFM?
- Will this run illegally download software?
- Does the CPU include a math coprocessor?
- Can I upgrade the BIOS when Microsoft releases the latest version?
- I know it can use a USB or PS/2 mouse, but can it use a serial mouse? They'll not have seen a serial mouse in all likelihood. But they might guess correctly if it's a laptop that doesn't have a serial port.
- Is this software ENIAC compliant?
- Will this hardware interface with my neural wetware?
Of course, avoid the obvious "cupholder" question.
If you don't like your previous Best Buy, here's the easy solution: Don't buy at Best Buy.
If you want to contribute to making your experience not happen to others, complain to the Store Manager AND write a letter. In fact, if you're going to do one of the two, just write a letter. Not an email. Not a phone call. Maybe even write it to their corporate headquarters, but be specific: mention the store location, the time and date, and (if you know them) the names of the employees involved.
(Heck, if you want to scare the employees into treating you better, take notes as you're talking to them!)
If you don't mind shopping at Best Buy or the like, but one or two things bother you about your shopping experience (like the product replacement plan pitch), let them know (in writing, natch). Let them know you'll take your business elsewhere because of it.
As for rebates, most consumers find them annoying and frustrating. So don't play the game. I used to have a hard time not playing the rebate game, but I finally figured out it just wasn't worth my time. So what if I can get $8 off by filling in a rebate? If it takes me even 15 minutes to read the minutiae of the rebate terms, cut out the appropriate UPCs, fill out the form exactly as described (oh, and waiving my privacy, BTW), buying the stamp, mailing it off... then waiting 6-8 weeks for a check that MIGHT come through if you did everything right (factor in interest from the cash that could've been sitting in your bank account, not theirs)... then making the trip to the bank to cash that measly check... how much is your time worth to you?
Further, do NOT trust Best Buy (or other megastore employees) for tech advice. Get a second opinion from a techie or another user. Read Consumer Reports and other reviews. And don't trust that just because a sales employee says they'll make good on it if it doesn't work, that they'll do it. Get it in writing if you're concerned. Otherwise, figure that you may have to throw away money if it doesn't work, and that you're taking a chance.
I honestly believe that somewhere in the Best Buy training manual, there is a section under computer/technical questions that says: "If you don't know the answer to a customer's technical question, make something up that sounds good." I have personally tested BB employees by asking them technical questions I know the answer to (or know there isn't a good answer) and heard some pretty entertaining made-up answers. I encourage you to try this.
Finally, just a pitch for the local guy: Instead of going to a megastore like Best Buy for your computing needs, go to a local mom&pop computer store. You're pretty much guaranteed not to get the best price on computer components, but you can ask all the tech questions you want and not deal with a faceless minion. You'll get better quality service and heck, if you act halfway decent to them, probably exceptional service.
Try a Redundant Array of Floppy Disks.
No, the Moz folks will be busy answering newbie "how do I install Fireforks" questions and won't have time for development.
What would be nice is to whip up a quick, standardized text that we could email to every webmaster we find the "best viewed with IE" tag on.
Something like:
Dear Webmaster:
While visiting your site, I noticed that it expresses a preference or requirement to view the site using Internet Explorer. I would like to suggest that you make the web page standardized so that any standards-compliant browser can view its complete content.
The World Wide Web Consortium (www.w3c.org) provides specifications and guidelines for web standards. Most mainstream web development tools, with the exception of Microsoft's FrontPage (which uses proprietary code which might only work in its own product, Internet Explorer), are designed to be in compliance with these specifications.
Internet Explorer has been proven time and again to be an insecure product, and is a large cause of malware and other security problems on clients' machines. While specialized code developed to work exclusively in Internet Explorer might be convenient, it may be harmful to the users who view your site.
Please consider using another tool or adjust your web design practices so that the resulting pages may be viewed with any standards-compliant web browser.
No.
The people that will need to react to this to make things better are our web developers.
Time after time I have installed Mozilla/Firefox on someone's machine, and gotten them to use and like it, only to find that one essential site "requires" IE to work. It's because that site doesn't adhere to HTML standards, and instead puts code that IE can use but no one else can.
I personally use Firefox as my primary browser, but there are some sites I have to fire up IE (with a nasty taste in my mouth) to use. A normal user won't find that as convenient as I do.
If a normal user doesn't particularly care which browser they use, it's easy to get them to switch to Mozilla. But given that they don't care which browser they use, and if 99% of sites work with Mozilla, but 100% work with IE, guess which one they'll choose to use regularly?
New slogan?
There are services out there that offer this. Not usually for free. They're basically permanent mail forwarders. One such is pobox.com, which I used for years, with the intention of "never switching your email address again". Unfortunately, after having it for 5+ years, I decided to ditch it due to the inordinate amount of spam it was receiving. (The poor email address had been plastered everywhere since before spam was a known problem, so it'd been harvested 20 million times, plus pobox.com was proving popular for the dictionary spammers.)
The lesson here is that nothing on the net is permanent.
On my corporate LAN (which is a university, e.g. a gazillion different IT subgroups, all with their own philosophies of security), viruses are rampant. I always disconnect the network cable on a new install until the newest Windows updates and AV program are loaded from CD. As a test the other day, I connected the network cable prematurely. I had Sasser within 15 seconds.
I have put the CBRGM (CO) after my name. When asked what it is, I'm forced to admit that it's "Certified Bingo / Raffle Games Manager (state of Colorado)".