Unlike Apple, Microsoft doesn't sell computers. They rely upon other companies to do that for them. Notice the header on that Web site: it's for OEM System Builders. At every gathering of OEM System Builders, the common refrain is "What are you doing about piracy?" The builders are competing against pirates who can undercut their prices. Microsoft makes a show of these prosecutions for their benefit.
The new Windows Genuine Advanage program is another response to the OEM's demands... and it's also a source of information about the pirates, because most people who get the pop-up messages complain directly to Microsoft. By tracking the number and locations of complaints, it's easy for MS to identify the repeat offenders and serial pirates, and prosecute the biggest targets.
There were rumors, before XP came out, that they were going to respond to the iMac by making the Blue Screen of Death available in five designer colors.
That's the beauty of college these days, Tommy! You can major in Game Boy if you know how to bullshit." -- James 'Droz' Andrews (played beautifully by Jeremy Piven) in PCU.
Instead of the RIAA, Elliot Spitzer should go after them for distributing so much spyware with their program, and barely disclosing it a hundred pages deep in their EULA.
...I'm only looking in anti-virus, I'll go elsewhere for firewall or malware protection.
Why? Because viruses aren't malware? (They are). Because when you say "malware," you're referring to spyware and/or adware that behaves completely different than viruses? (More and more often, they use the same tricks & techniques).
This is like seeing one doctor for contagious diseases, and another for diseases that don't spread.
Buy a program that treats all malware the same. Then you're actually protecting a system.
Verizon would love to see me disconnect Comcast Cable, sell me IPTV vaporware, and use my existing home coaxial wiring to distribute it to the rooms.
Good luck. I do intend to get FIOS when it comes to my neighborhood; they're already stringing the fiber. (One of my customers has their 15 Mbps service. As a test, we downloaded SP2 at a sustained transfer rate of 1.81 MB per second, which is pretty much what he's paying for).
But... rely on Verizon for home networking, or TV? No way. Their customer service reps remind me of the David Spade Capital One commercials. "The answer is always NO: our service is working, it must be your PC." Customers often pay me just to call and (successfully) argue with them.
Bottom line: This is Verizon trying to use outdated cabling of dubious quality to limit their infrastructure investment... again, since that's been their DSL strategy from day one.
My first IT job was running the mainframe at a chain of auto parts stores. The boss purchased several Windows 95 desktops and a Netware 4.1 server. He called me into the office and said, "I spent too much already on this, so I can't send you for training. Go to Borders, buy some books, and we'll reimburse you."
Best thing that ever happened to me.
Since then, I've been pushed off the turnip truck into new environments more times than I can recall. Each time, I have turned the hardship into an opportunity to become a Subject Matter Expert. Sure, I didn't get any extra money then for the off-hours time I devoted, but I made up for it later.
Shatner said this on Jimmy Kimmel's show (which is why nobody heard it) when asked if he had known, back in the '60s, that Takei was gay:
"Of course I knew... he kept setting his phaser on fabulous!"
I've seen Sofa King many dead and defective Linksys wireless routers that you couldn't give me one. In fact, I have nine Linksys 802.11b routers in my garage -- six of them still in the shrink wrap -- that I'd be willing to give you.
My original comment said nothing about polls, but I treat pollers the same as telemarketers: they have made my phone ring, and interrupted whatever I was doing, without my consent. F*** them. Political pollers don't call here anymore: during the 2004 elections, I spoke to many of them, and "convinced" them all not to call me. Charities get the same treatment, no matter how worthy the cause: I explain that my legal action will cost much more than they could hope to collect from ten phone calls.
Market research is a CRAPPY job... I hope people like me make it even crappier. Maybe people like you will choose jobs that don't disturb innocent people and invade their privacy in their homes. (I hear Wal-Mart is hiring). So-called "market research" is a scam: the company conducting it sells the results. This is worse than telemarketing, because the company exploits a loophole in the telemarketing law to get something from me for free (my opinion) to sell at a profit. The "market research" companies are the ones that protest the loudest when I demand not to be called again. I have gone so far as to track them down on the Internet and Email their corporate officers, warning of legal actions against the company and their persons if I am ever called again... I have several replies on file guaranteeing that I won't be called.
The law in the US has helped, but there are still telemarketers of one type or another.
I work from home, and use my cell as the business phone. Our POTS line gets five or six calls a week, even with the law and Anonymous Call Rejection... but at least ACR means that I have a phone number displayed for those that do get through. Some are companies we deal with, but I tell them to put us on their Do Not Call list immediately or lose our business. (I 'threatened' the NRA: I explained that I would donate $100 to the Democratic National Committee for each subsequent call... alas, there were no more calls). Some claim exemption from the law, saying they don't have a Do Not Call list. I reply that they'd better start one, because I will charge them with harrassment and criminal tresspass in Delaware if they ring my phone again, and did I mention that my wife is a lawyer? (They never call again).
Most important is to take a polite but aggressive approach as soon as you answer the phone, controlling the call (and therefore the caller): Hello, this is Tina from AMC and I... Tina? What's your full name, Tina? Tina Brown... Thank you, Ms. Brown. I am required by Federal law to inform you that this call is being recorded. And what do the letters "A M C" stand for, Ms. Brown? Uh, the Annoying Marketing Council... And where is the Annoying Marketing Council located, Ms. Brown? In Walla Walla, Washington, but I... And what is the phone number of the Annoying Marketing Council, Ms. Brown? Sir, I am not permitted to... Actually, Ms. Brown, Federal law requires you to provide that information. Okay, it's 215-555-4242... Ms. Brown, the reason I've asked for this information is to put your company in my [imaginary] Telemarketer Database, and now I need you to put this number on your Do Not Call list, effective immediately. I can do that, sir, but it takes up to 30 days to be removed from our list... Actually, Ms. Brown, you will need to make sure it happens immediately. If I am called again by the AMC -- even if it's five minutes from now -- I will immediately file civil and/or criminal complaints against the Annoying Marketing Council, and against you personally. Sir, I should let you speak to my supervisor... No, Ms. Brown, Federal law requires that you, the caller, handle this. I need to go. Rest assured, if the AMC appears on our caller ID again -- even if we don't answer the call -- you will hear from our attorney... and she's my wife, so she works for free. Goodbye. [click]
99% of all BSODs are cause[sic] by drivers Not this century, Anonymous Semi-literate Coward. If this problem is caused by a driver, why does it take a month to surface... and why do the same drivers work fine on the same hardware on XP Pro?
My small company is an OEM System Builder, even though we don't want to build and sell computers (we'd rather fix them). Microsoft invited us to an event, gave us a for-resale copy of MCE 2005, and sold us $1200 worth of hardware that they selected to work with MCE for $399: mobo, Athlon 64 3000+, RAM, video card, tuner card, everything but a case and power supply.
So, I brought it all home, built a Media Center, and invited it into our lives. It did what we asked of it, although it did so rather poorly. The sound and video were synched OK, and the TV listing and recording features were easy to use. The remote control and IR blaster worked our Comcast digital box with about 95% reliability (and that 5% is a HUGE pain in the ass, let me tell you). All in all, it did most of what a TiVo (or Comcast's own DVR) could manage, in a much larger and louder package. (Note: You can install more than one tuner card, but you must use the same tuning method on all cards... to do this on our setup, we would have needed to use two rented digital cable boxes).
Here's the best part: the build was only stable for about a month, after which it would BSOD and reboot itself about once a day. Rebuilding the OS would solve the problem for another month, so it was NOT hardware-related. God forbid I had actually sold one of these things!
Happy ending: the parts made a smoking fast desktop, which is stable (as stable as any Windows box, at least).
Kraco, the maker of cheezy one-size-fits all floor mats, will collect a $2.25 billion settlement from the Big 3 automakers for including floor mats with their automobiles.
"Chrysler, Ford, and GM have no right to 'bundle' floor mats with their products," said Ron Popiel IV, president pro tem of Kraco Enterprises Inc. "This is clearly an abuse of their market position to consolidate their monopoly on floor mats."
In a related story, Pioneer, Blaupunkt and Kenwood have announced plans to jointly sue the automakers for providing radios with their vehicles.
Demographically, it's clear that most Java VM's run on Windows. Why don't they write a version that works even half as well as Microsoft's VM did?
The first thing I do after building a clean XP Service Pack 2 (or 1a) machine is install the no-longer-available Microsoft VM. Then, I go to Sun.com to download and install... nothing.
If I work on a machine that already has the Sun VM, I install the Microsoft VM and set Sun's not to be the default Java engine for IE. I also get rid of the stupid f***ing shortcuts and update managers Sun loves to install.
Why didn't Microsoft just pay those assholes off and keep on making their own VM? It actually worked in Windows.
Windows XP SP2 is, um, the current version of Windows. Avoiding it means your systems are running on a legacy OS.
When new programs come out that require SP2 (like the upcoming IE7), it will be too late to start thinking about an upgrade... If it breaks your 5-year-old applications, replace them.
If your internally-generated code isn't ready, fix it.
If you can't cope with the lame Window Firewall, RTFM to customize or disable it.
How long before the legal or finance departments need to use a business-critical Web site that requires IE7 for access?
Just because you can do something the hard way doesn't mean you should
I have NEVER found a 100% reliable, up-to-date spware remover. Many of the newest applets load before login and repair themselves in real time... these can only be cleaned up by booting to Windows PE or slaving the drive.
I open IE, bring up the System Information applet, and look at Startup Programs and Loaded Modules. I sort the modules by manufacturer to find the suspicious ones. Then, I do what I must to disable the buggers. It ain't rocket science, it's not too time consuming, and it's much more educational than running an application could ever be.
I use CWShredder to make sure that nightmare isn't hiding on the system, and AdAware to clean up after my manual removal.
It's not how big they are, Eclectro: it's what you can do with them.
That's what women have been telling me, on the third date, for years...
I wonder why there's never a fourth date?
Before I 'retired' and struck out on my own, I earned my stripes as a Desktop Engineer, designing-- and supporting-- images to be deployed on thousands of desktops. I've repaired (no, that doesn't mean "re-imaged") more desktops than most of my peers in the business, and there are 10,000+ computers running my XP images as I type this.
Most of the folks in the home PC repair business washed out of jobs like mine, either because of the recession or because they just couldn't hack it even in good times. Their skill sets vary widely, and are mostly quite limited. (As soon as someone goes after spyware with software, I consider them "quite limited").
From what I've seen, the ones who are home-based and have low overhead tend to scrape along on what they can bill semi-honestly (if not competently). Those who f***ed up and opened storefronts are forced by their monthly nut to gouge everyone who comes through the door.
For what it's worth, I charge $60 per hour with a one-hour minimum and a "can't fix it, it's no charge" policy. I don't haggle: anyone who balks at the price can call someone else.
My previous employer is struggling to get me back, throwing money at me (and I've been saying no, so far).
Slashdot Mirror
Unlike Apple, Microsoft doesn't sell computers. They rely upon other companies to do that for them.
Notice the header on that Web site: it's for OEM System Builders.
At every gathering of OEM System Builders, the common refrain is "What are you doing about piracy?" The builders are competing against pirates who can undercut their prices. Microsoft makes a show of these prosecutions for their benefit.
The new Windows Genuine Advanage program is another response to the OEM's demands... and it's also a source of information about the pirates, because most people who get the pop-up messages complain directly to Microsoft. By tracking the number and locations of complaints, it's easy for MS to identify the repeat offenders and serial pirates, and prosecute the biggest targets.
There were rumors, before XP came out, that they were going to respond to the iMac by making the Blue Screen of Death available in five designer colors.
There is a 17th Avenue in Brooklyn.
The address given in the Whois search exists. It's apparently an office building.
That's the beauty of college these days, Tommy! You can major in Game Boy if you know how to bullshit."
-- James 'Droz' Andrews (played beautifully by Jeremy Piven) in PCU.
Instead of the RIAA, Elliot Spitzer should go after them for distributing so much spyware with their program, and barely disclosing it a hundred pages deep in their EULA.
...I'm only looking in anti-virus, I'll go elsewhere for firewall or malware protection.
Why? Because viruses aren't malware? (They are). Because when you say "malware," you're referring to spyware and/or adware that behaves completely different than viruses? (More and more often, they use the same tricks & techniques). This is like seeing one doctor for contagious diseases, and another for diseases that don't spread.
Buy a program that treats all malware the same. Then you're actually protecting a system.
Verizon would love to see me disconnect Comcast Cable, sell me IPTV vaporware, and use my existing home coaxial wiring to distribute it to the rooms.
Good luck. I do intend to get FIOS when it comes to my neighborhood; they're already stringing the fiber. (One of my customers has their 15 Mbps service. As a test, we downloaded SP2 at a sustained transfer rate of 1.81 MB per second, which is pretty much what he's paying for).
But... rely on Verizon for home networking, or TV? No way. Their customer service reps remind me of the David Spade Capital One commercials. "The answer is always NO: our service is working, it must be your PC." Customers often pay me just to call and (successfully) argue with them.
Bottom line: This is Verizon trying to use outdated cabling of dubious quality to limit their infrastructure investment... again, since that's been their DSL strategy from day one.
My first IT job was running the mainframe at a chain of auto parts stores. The boss purchased several Windows 95 desktops and a Netware 4.1 server. He called me into the office and said, "I spent too much already on this, so I can't send you for training. Go to Borders, buy some books, and we'll reimburse you."
Best thing that ever happened to me.
Since then, I've been pushed off the turnip truck into new environments more times than I can recall. Each time, I have turned the hardship into an opportunity to become a Subject Matter Expert. Sure, I didn't get any extra money then for the off-hours time I devoted, but I made up for it later.
Shatner said this on Jimmy Kimmel's show (which is why nobody heard it) when asked if he had known, back in the '60s, that Takei was gay:
"Of course I knew... he kept setting his phaser on fabulous!"
I've seen Sofa King many dead and defective Linksys wireless routers that you couldn't give me one.
In fact, I have nine Linksys 802.11b routers in my garage -- six of them still in the shrink wrap -- that I'd be willing to give you.
With all the films they had to choose from the one they pick to show Charlie's Angels 2? Nice way to kill the format.
This was a necessary test of the format:
there was concern whether something that awful would stick to a Blu-Ray DVD.
My original comment said nothing about polls, but I treat pollers the same as telemarketers: they have made my phone ring, and interrupted whatever I was doing, without my consent. F*** them. Political pollers don't call here anymore: during the 2004 elections, I spoke to many of them, and "convinced" them all not to call me.
Charities get the same treatment, no matter how worthy the cause: I explain that my legal action will cost much more than they could hope to collect from ten phone calls.
Market research is a CRAPPY job...
I hope people like me make it even crappier. Maybe people like you will choose jobs that don't disturb innocent people and invade their privacy in their homes. (I hear Wal-Mart is hiring).
So-called "market research" is a scam: the company conducting it sells the results.
This is worse than telemarketing, because the company exploits a loophole in the telemarketing law to get something from me for free (my opinion) to sell at a profit.
The "market research" companies are the ones that protest the loudest when I demand not to be called again. I have gone so far as to track them down on the Internet and Email their corporate officers, warning of legal actions against the company and their persons if I am ever called again... I have several replies on file guaranteeing that I won't be called.
The law in the US has helped, but there are still telemarketers of one type or another.
I work from home, and use my cell as the business phone. Our POTS line gets five or six calls a week, even with the law and Anonymous Call Rejection... but at least ACR means that I have a phone number displayed for those that do get through.
Some are companies we deal with, but I tell them to put us on their Do Not Call list immediately or lose our business. (I 'threatened' the NRA: I explained that I would donate $100 to the Democratic National Committee for each subsequent call... alas, there were no more calls).
Some claim exemption from the law, saying they don't have a Do Not Call list. I reply that they'd better start one, because I will charge them with harrassment and criminal tresspass in Delaware if they ring my phone again, and did I mention that my wife is a lawyer? (They never call again).
Most important is to take a polite but aggressive approach as soon as you answer the phone, controlling the call (and therefore the caller):
Hello, this is Tina from AMC and I...
Tina? What's your full name, Tina?
Tina Brown...
Thank you, Ms. Brown. I am required by Federal law to inform you that this call is being recorded. And what do the letters "A M C" stand for, Ms. Brown?
Uh, the Annoying Marketing Council...
And where is the Annoying Marketing Council located, Ms. Brown?
In Walla Walla, Washington, but I...
And what is the phone number of the Annoying Marketing Council, Ms. Brown?
Sir, I am not permitted to...
Actually, Ms. Brown, Federal law requires you to provide that information.
Okay, it's 215-555-4242...
Ms. Brown, the reason I've asked for this information is to put your company in my [imaginary] Telemarketer Database, and now I need you to put this number on your Do Not Call list, effective immediately.
I can do that, sir, but it takes up to 30 days to be removed from our list...
Actually, Ms. Brown, you will need to make sure it happens immediately. If I am called again by the AMC -- even if it's five minutes from now -- I will immediately file civil and/or criminal complaints against the Annoying Marketing Council, and against you personally.
Sir, I should let you speak to my supervisor...
No, Ms. Brown, Federal law requires that you, the caller, handle this. I need to go. Rest assured, if the AMC appears on our caller ID again -- even if we don't answer the call -- you will hear from our attorney... and she's my wife, so she works for free. Goodbye. [click]
I get no repeat callers.
99% of all BSODs are cause[sic] by drivers
Not this century, Anonymous Semi-literate Coward.
If this problem is caused by a driver, why does it take a month to surface... and why do the same drivers work fine on the same hardware on XP Pro?
My small company is an OEM System Builder, even though we don't want to build and sell computers (we'd rather fix them).
Microsoft invited us to an event, gave us a for-resale copy of MCE 2005, and sold us $1200 worth of hardware that they selected to work with MCE for $399: mobo, Athlon 64 3000+, RAM, video card, tuner card, everything but a case and power supply.
So, I brought it all home, built a Media Center, and invited it into our lives.
It did what we asked of it, although it did so rather poorly.
The sound and video were synched OK, and the TV listing and recording features were easy to use. The remote control and IR blaster worked our Comcast digital box with about 95% reliability (and that 5% is a HUGE pain in the ass, let me tell you). All in all, it did most of what a TiVo (or Comcast's own DVR) could manage, in a much larger and louder package.
(Note: You can install more than one tuner card, but you must use the same tuning method on all cards... to do this on our setup, we would have needed to use two rented digital cable boxes).
Here's the best part: the build was only stable for about a month, after which it would BSOD and reboot itself about once a day. Rebuilding the OS would solve the problem for another month, so it was NOT hardware-related.
God forbid I had actually sold one of these things!
Happy ending: the parts made a smoking fast desktop, which is stable (as stable as any Windows box, at least).
Kraco, the maker of cheezy one-size-fits all floor mats, will collect a $2.25 billion settlement from the Big 3 automakers for including floor mats with their automobiles.
"Chrysler, Ford, and GM have no right to 'bundle' floor mats with their products," said Ron Popiel IV, president pro tem of Kraco Enterprises Inc. "This is clearly an abuse of their market position to consolidate their monopoly on floor mats."
In a related story, Pioneer, Blaupunkt and Kenwood have announced plans to jointly sue the automakers for providing radios with their vehicles.
Would you pay $100 for a 4GB Solid State Drive that is up to 6x faster than a WD Raptor?
Yes. It's big enough to let me run my OS and key programs from it... that surpasses more RAM as the biggest $100 speed boost that can be had.
My only question now is not if but when will Linux become the number one OS on earth?
Sometime after Mr. Koenning learns to write an editorial that reads less like a bad high school essay.
Now that Adobe owns Macromedia, Gates should just buy them and get it over with.
Demographically, it's clear that most Java VM's run on Windows. Why don't they write a version that works even half as well as Microsoft's VM did?
The first thing I do after building a clean XP Service Pack 2 (or 1a) machine is install the no-longer-available Microsoft VM. Then, I go to Sun.com to download and install... nothing.
If I work on a machine that already has the Sun VM, I install the Microsoft VM and set Sun's not to be the default Java engine for IE. I also get rid of the stupid f***ing shortcuts and update managers Sun loves to install.
Why didn't Microsoft just pay those assholes off and keep on making their own VM? It actually worked in Windows.
Windows XP SP2 is, um, the current version of Windows. Avoiding it means your systems are running on a legacy OS.
When new programs come out that require SP2 (like the upcoming IE7), it will be too late to start thinking about an upgrade... If it breaks your 5-year-old applications, replace them.
If your internally-generated code isn't ready, fix it.
If you can't cope with the lame Window Firewall, RTFM to customize or disable it.
How long before the legal or finance departments need to use a business-critical Web site that requires IE7 for access?
Just because you can do something the hard way doesn't mean you should
I have NEVER found a 100% reliable, up-to-date spware remover. Many of the newest applets load before login and repair themselves in real time... these can only be cleaned up by booting to Windows PE or slaving the drive.
I open IE, bring up the System Information applet, and look at Startup Programs and Loaded Modules. I sort the modules by manufacturer to find the suspicious ones. Then, I do what I must to disable the buggers. It ain't rocket science, it's not too time consuming, and it's much more educational than running an application could ever be.
I use CWShredder to make sure that nightmare isn't hiding on the system, and AdAware to clean up after my manual removal.
my nanoparts
It's not how big they are, Eclectro: it's what you can do with them.
That's what women have been telling me, on the third date, for years...
I wonder why there's never a fourth date?
Before I 'retired' and struck out on my own, I earned my stripes as a Desktop Engineer, designing-- and supporting-- images to be deployed on thousands of desktops. I've repaired (no, that doesn't mean "re-imaged") more desktops than most of my peers in the business, and there are 10,000+ computers running my XP images as I type this.
Most of the folks in the home PC repair business washed out of jobs like mine, either because of the recession or because they just couldn't hack it even in good times. Their skill sets vary widely, and are mostly quite limited. (As soon as someone goes after spyware with software, I consider them "quite limited").
From what I've seen, the ones who are home-based and have low overhead tend to scrape along on what they can bill semi-honestly (if not competently). Those who f***ed up and opened storefronts are forced by their monthly nut to gouge everyone who comes through the door.
For what it's worth, I charge $60 per hour with a one-hour minimum and a "can't fix it, it's no charge" policy. I don't haggle: anyone who balks at the price can call someone else.
My previous employer is struggling to get me back, throwing money at me (and I've been saying no, so far).
Wider distribution for the nightmarish mix of malware provided through AskJeeves!