In a perfect world that would be exactly what the data would be used for.
I worked in tech support for many years and I can tell you that one of two things happens with this diagnostic data:
1. It's aggregated and used for analysis to identify priority problems based on keywords. This almost never happens even when companies say they are doing it. In fact, most of the bugs (even at Microsoft) are cherry picked by programmers who work on whatever bug they feel like in whatever order seems best to them unless it's a priority zero bug.
2. It goes into a database that nobody ever looks at. This one is much more common. You see, the "report a problem" feature doesn't exist for customers to actually get information about their problem to the company that makes the software. If that was how it worked, you'd need a staff of hundreds of support personnel working round the clock doing nothing but processing problem reports. The "report a problem" feature serves to give the user a feeling that someone will see their problem and that they'll be working on it, so the user won't call tech support. As a result the software company can save money on support rep hours.
Take this from a guy who saw someone go through a trial for doing The Very Bad Thing:
You will give them the password.
This is how it works:
"If you give us the password and let us prove you're innocent we'll let you go. If there's anything in there that would prove you guilty we'll reduce the sentence. If you don't give us the password and we have to crack the encryption ourselves and we find out you're guilty, you're going away for a very long time."
And then of course you give them the password, they find enough evidence to make you guilty and they don't reduce the sentence.
They just inflate the original sentence to a much worse sentence, and then deflate it to the level they were going to hit you with anyways.
Angry computer nerds gathering up their toys and going to play by themselves in the corner because someone decided to play in a way they deemed unacceptable.
So now the Internet is complaining that the wifi access points they're totally not going to use because comcast is morally wrong to share your broadband without your permission is injecting ads into the experience. How do you know?
What I don't understand is how we're still allowing carriers to call their service "unlimited."
When I pay my water bill and I am told I get unlimited water, I don't expect the water company to decrease the flow of water to a trickle if I take too many showers.
If they did that, there would be an uprising.
When I pay the electric company for electricity I don't expect them to decrease the voltage on my line if I leave the TV on while I'm sleeping.
So... how is it that Verizon gets to tell me I am paying for unlimited data, but not provide unlimited data?
I've never understood how someone can do cocaine and then sit down and write software.
Or smoke weed, or do LSD, or whatever.
Personally, the few times I have tried illicit drugs, I was so consumed by the experience that not once did "oh I think I'll sit down and knock out that new kernel revision" cross my mind.
> the surgery is fairly inexpensive [even for a programmer:) ]
Oh you programmers have it so hard.
With your three thousand dollar a month apartments.
And that Honda Fit you drive just to show the world that you don't need the finer things in life.
You should be required to work a year in retail in the same way some countries require a minimum of military service.
And your three hundred dollar bottle of scotch that you sample alone in your newly remodeled kitchen so you can tell the Internet about what a beverage snob you are.
1. Release a version of Windows that everybody likes. 2. Release a version of Windows that everybody hates. 3. Drop support for the OS everybody likes so they have to buy the one everybody hates. 5. Go to 1.
Microsoft sells licenses. If they didn't force you to upgrade to the Shitty Windows you'd just stay on the one you like. Once they've forced everyone onto the Shitty Windows, they release the Good Windows because of course you want the Good Windows and you'll rush to buy it.
Isn't that illegal, you say?
Isn't that extortion, you say?
Guess which operating system the US government's computers run.
Sorry Microsoft, I already clicked on the Stop menu and bought a Macbook Pro.
I'm through with your "every other version of Windows is a nightmare so you'll be happy to buy the new version when it comes out" act.
Because Microsoft's management team operates like a group of toddlers.
"Apple's watch has 8 sensors! Oh yeah?! Well OURS has ELEVEN."
*throws together a bunch of chips from companies they ran out of business into a bulky, ugly box that straps to your wrist and has a 2 hour battery life*
Truecrypt was the hardest thing for the NSA and the US government to deal with when seizing storage equipment.
It makes sense that they would pressure the project to shutter.
Slashdot Mirror
In a perfect world that would be exactly what the data would be used for.
I worked in tech support for many years and I can tell you that one of two things happens with this diagnostic data:
1. It's aggregated and used for analysis to identify priority problems based on keywords. This almost never happens even when companies say they are doing it. In fact, most of the bugs (even at Microsoft) are cherry picked by programmers who work on whatever bug they feel like in whatever order seems best to them unless it's a priority zero bug.
2. It goes into a database that nobody ever looks at. This one is much more common. You see, the "report a problem" feature doesn't exist for customers to actually get information about their problem to the company that makes the software. If that was how it worked, you'd need a staff of hundreds of support personnel working round the clock doing nothing but processing problem reports. The "report a problem" feature serves to give the user a feeling that someone will see their problem and that they'll be working on it, so the user won't call tech support. As a result the software company can save money on support rep hours.
New submitter poseur writes:
hey guyz get this new crypto for your puterz!!
-TOTALLY NOT DHS
Take this from a guy who saw someone go through a trial for doing The Very Bad Thing:
You will give them the password.
This is how it works:
"If you give us the password and let us prove you're innocent we'll let you go. If there's anything in there that would prove you guilty we'll reduce the sentence. If you don't give us the password and we have to crack the encryption ourselves and we find out you're guilty, you're going away for a very long time."
And then of course you give them the password, they find enough evidence to make you guilty and they don't reduce the sentence.
They just inflate the original sentence to a much worse sentence, and then deflate it to the level they were going to hit you with anyways.
The only time a mathematician every has an orgasm.
How is it even legal for GlaxoSmithKlein to own LITERS of polio?
People still use 3G?
Angry computer nerds gathering up their toys and going to play by themselves in the corner because someone decided to play in a way they deemed unacceptable.
In before "cameragate".
So now the Internet is complaining that the wifi access points they're totally not going to use because comcast is morally wrong to share your broadband without your permission is injecting ads into the experience. How do you know?
It's a thinly veiled ad for a supposedly "secure" cell phone.
> Utilizes
Did you mean "uses"?
What I don't understand is how we're still allowing carriers to call their service "unlimited."
When I pay my water bill and I am told I get unlimited water, I don't expect the water company to decrease the flow of water to a trickle if I take too many showers.
If they did that, there would be an uprising.
When I pay the electric company for electricity I don't expect them to decrease the voltage on my line if I leave the TV on while I'm sleeping.
So... how is it that Verizon gets to tell me I am paying for unlimited data, but not provide unlimited data?
Where is the uprising for this lie?
I've never understood how someone can do cocaine and then sit down and write software.
Or smoke weed, or do LSD, or whatever.
Personally, the few times I have tried illicit drugs, I was so consumed by the experience that not once did "oh I think I'll sit down and knock out that new kernel revision" cross my mind.
> the surgery is fairly inexpensive [even for a programmer :) ]
Oh you programmers have it so hard.
With your three thousand dollar a month apartments.
And that Honda Fit you drive just to show the world that you don't need the finer things in life.
You should be required to work a year in retail in the same way some countries require a minimum of military service.
And your three hundred dollar bottle of scotch that you sample alone in your newly remodeled kitchen so you can tell the Internet about what a beverage snob you are.
1. Release a version of Windows that everybody likes.
2. Release a version of Windows that everybody hates.
3. Drop support for the OS everybody likes so they have to buy the one everybody hates.
5. Go to 1.
Microsoft sells licenses. If they didn't force you to upgrade to the Shitty Windows you'd just stay on the one you like. Once they've forced everyone onto the Shitty Windows, they release the Good Windows because of course you want the Good Windows and you'll rush to buy it.
Isn't that illegal, you say?
Isn't that extortion, you say?
Guess which operating system the US government's computers run.
Sorry Microsoft, I already clicked on the Stop menu and bought a Macbook Pro. I'm through with your "every other version of Windows is a nightmare so you'll be happy to buy the new version when it comes out" act.
Take it from someone who has tried to use 30 USB devices on one PC (bitcoin mining): It doesn't work like you'd expect.
USB hubs are usually designed far below the spec because the assumption is that most people won't connect more than 2 or 3 devices at a time.
If you connect 20 to 30 devices they start to fail randomly.
Recommended for speedy removal.
Because you totally couldn't hide explosives in a device that powers on.
Because Microsoft's management team operates like a group of toddlers.
"Apple's watch has 8 sensors! Oh yeah?! Well OURS has ELEVEN."
*throws together a bunch of chips from companies they ran out of business into a bulky, ugly box that straps to your wrist and has a 2 hour battery life*
Six months later:
YOU GUYS AREN'T PLAYING FAIR I'M TELLING THE SEC
Patent trolling lawsuits go.
How are they even going to know it's a real copyright page?
Do you think they own every book they have an ebook of?
Wait a second...
Truecrypt was the hardest thing for the NSA and the US government to deal with when seizing storage equipment. It makes sense that they would pressure the project to shutter.
In which we discover that you don't make a public video of your technology until you've secured your own patent.
China wants revenge on America? Problem solved.
I will vote with my wallet by paying with a prepaid debit card and fake credentials. And then keeping the book.