Journal Journal: Chinese Piracy takes over the iPhone (or not?)
from the oh-my!-chinese-doesn't-respect-jobs department...
Journal Journal: DoD software pirate extradition likely first of many 1
The recent extradition of Australian resident Hew Griffiths (of Drink or Die fame) could set precedence for similarly harsh sentencing of software pirates worldwide, Australian technology lawyer Nick Abrahams predicts in an interview.
Bookmark BigString 2.0 "The World's Coolest Email" (bigstring.com)
Novell Releases OO–OOXML Translator 157
Tookis writes in with news that Novell has released an Office Open XML (OOXML) translator for OpenOffice.org. The article argues that, though this move may represent a nail in the coffin of the franchise known as Microsoft Office, and therefore a Good Thing, what is truly needed is a fully supported Evolution on Windows.
Journal Journal: Mac's advice: write down your password on a paper 1
Submission + - Microsoft gets ownd by its own Windows OneCare
Stony Stevenson writes: Microsoft has launched a marketing campaign that lets any student from an Australian university buy the Ultimate edition of Office 2007 (usually costs $1150) for only $75. A discount of about 93%. But when users go to the site, Microsoft Live OneCare pops up saying the site is a potential phishing scam.
From the article: When entering the site, some users have reported receiving a warning from Windows Live OneCare advising that the www.itsnotcheating.com.au site is a suspicious website.
The warning reads: "Phishing filter has determined this might be a phishing website. We recommend that you do not give any of your information to such websites. Phishing websites impersonate trustworthy websites for the purpose of obtaining your personal or financial information."
A Microsoft spokesperson said the company was unaware of the warning but pledged to amend it as soon as possible.
From the article: When entering the site, some users have reported receiving a warning from Windows Live OneCare advising that the www.itsnotcheating.com.au site is a suspicious website.
The warning reads: "Phishing filter has determined this might be a phishing website. We recommend that you do not give any of your information to such websites. Phishing websites impersonate trustworthy websites for the purpose of obtaining your personal or financial information."
A Microsoft spokesperson said the company was unaware of the warning but pledged to amend it as soon as possible.
Journal Journal: Firewalls, H323, Abstraction
Last month, my work got a new H.323 video conferencing unit, and today we had our first real test: a lecture given at SFU that was streamed to us. For the most part, it went really well; there were no big screw-ups and everything went as planned. During the second half of the conference, though, the audio was intermittently choppy. I'm not certain, but I think that a local user's Internet radio stream may have caused the problems.
Comment Giving them options (Score 1) 204
Like most of the posters here it seems I've been through this hurdle myself.
Firstly I think that charging them for "friendly help" is a bit steep. I'm much more of a "lets discuss and work it out" sort of guy. So here are the rules which I impart.
ALWAYS:
1) Have a separate partition/HDD for files. Have the user save their files to this area.
2) Despite what PC vendors say, AntiVirus is not an option, it is mandatory
3) Anti-spyware is also mandatory
4) A firewall is mandatory
5) I support ONLY the Mozilla suite. IE and Outlook are too much trouble.
6) Have an image (ghost/dd/whatever) that you can restore and save it to the 2nd Partition/HDD where the user files are
7) Ensure that the 2nd Partition/HDD gets backed up! Or at least make the user accountable for it.
8) Ensure all the updates are run on at least a weekly basis
DISCUSSION POINTS:
1) Discuss the point at which the machine get restored. This can be at either your or the users request. ie. "This is going to take me at least 4 hours to fix. However I can restore it and you will be up in 30mins".
2) Discuss safe practices of surfing. ie. "If you don't click on unknown email attachments then your machine will keep running for longer without being restored".
3) Discuss user level privileges. ie. "I can drop your level of access down so that if something does happen to your computer it is unlikely that you will need a complete restore"
4) Discuss your support options. ie. I'm happy to help you for 30 mins every couple of weeks or when I'm over, but if it becomes more than this then we will need to get some outside help".
5) Discuss and reiterate the outcome of a restore ie. "You will need to spend several hours reinstalling all your programs after a restore and any customisations to your desktop will be lost"
6) Discuss the importance of saving files off "C:". ie. "Any files you save on C: WILL be deleted after a restore".
7) Discuss the importance of backups ie. "If you have either a bad virus or a hardware failure we will need to restore your data from a backup. If you haven't backed up then you WILL lose data"
I find that heavy handed tactics such as denying them admin rights or mentioning fees really causes grief in a family relationship. However frank discussion of expectations and outcomes really does make things easier in the long run. If you can get across the message that a restore is something to be avoided but makes your computer usable again then you should have few problems and requests will be carefully weighted before you are approached.
Also I'd think about some VNC/Terminal Server setup if you and your family are on broadband. Haven't crossed that hurdle myself thanks to the poor rollout of ADSL here in Australia, but definately something to do in the future!
Of course you can't please some users. If your problem is PEBCAK then don't do support. If you aren't getting the respect you deserve as a professional support person then don't do support.
Firstly I think that charging them for "friendly help" is a bit steep. I'm much more of a "lets discuss and work it out" sort of guy. So here are the rules which I impart.
ALWAYS:
1) Have a separate partition/HDD for files. Have the user save their files to this area.
2) Despite what PC vendors say, AntiVirus is not an option, it is mandatory
3) Anti-spyware is also mandatory
4) A firewall is mandatory
5) I support ONLY the Mozilla suite. IE and Outlook are too much trouble.
6) Have an image (ghost/dd/whatever) that you can restore and save it to the 2nd Partition/HDD where the user files are
7) Ensure that the 2nd Partition/HDD gets backed up! Or at least make the user accountable for it.
8) Ensure all the updates are run on at least a weekly basis
DISCUSSION POINTS:
1) Discuss the point at which the machine get restored. This can be at either your or the users request. ie. "This is going to take me at least 4 hours to fix. However I can restore it and you will be up in 30mins".
2) Discuss safe practices of surfing. ie. "If you don't click on unknown email attachments then your machine will keep running for longer without being restored".
3) Discuss user level privileges. ie. "I can drop your level of access down so that if something does happen to your computer it is unlikely that you will need a complete restore"
4) Discuss your support options. ie. I'm happy to help you for 30 mins every couple of weeks or when I'm over, but if it becomes more than this then we will need to get some outside help".
5) Discuss and reiterate the outcome of a restore ie. "You will need to spend several hours reinstalling all your programs after a restore and any customisations to your desktop will be lost"
6) Discuss the importance of saving files off "C:". ie. "Any files you save on C: WILL be deleted after a restore".
7) Discuss the importance of backups ie. "If you have either a bad virus or a hardware failure we will need to restore your data from a backup. If you haven't backed up then you WILL lose data"
I find that heavy handed tactics such as denying them admin rights or mentioning fees really causes grief in a family relationship. However frank discussion of expectations and outcomes really does make things easier in the long run. If you can get across the message that a restore is something to be avoided but makes your computer usable again then you should have few problems and requests will be carefully weighted before you are approached.
Also I'd think about some VNC/Terminal Server setup if you and your family are on broadband. Haven't crossed that hurdle myself thanks to the poor rollout of ADSL here in Australia, but definately something to do in the future!
Of course you can't please some users. If your problem is PEBCAK then don't do support. If you aren't getting the respect you deserve as a professional support person then don't do support.
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