Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

6 Things I don't get....

Collapse
This topic is closed.
X
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • #46
    Quoth edible_hat View Post
    They won't even employ people who have written viruses in the past, even if those viruses were never released into the wild.
    Why in the world not? Wouldn't you want someone on the staff who knew how these things worked? There's a good reason why companies are recruiting hackers who turn 'white hat.' Takes a thief to catch a thief, and all that.

    I could understand severe screening of persons like that though. You want to make sure they're not going to take advantage of the system before you turn them loose.
    The Rich keep getting richer because they keep doing what it was that made them rich. Ditto the Poor.
    "Hy kan tell dey is schmot qvestions, dey is makink my head hurt."
    Hoc spatio locantur.

    Comment


    • #47
      Quoth Geek King View Post
      Why in the world not? Wouldn't you want someone on the staff who knew how these things worked? There's a good reason why companies are recruiting hackers who turn 'white hat.' Takes a thief to catch a thief, and all that.

      I could understand severe screening of persons like that though. You want to make sure they're not going to take advantage of the system before you turn them loose.
      So that they can't be accused of hiring people who write viruses.

      Comment


      • #48
        Quoth edible_hat View Post
        So that they can't be accused of hiring people who write viruses.
        Right. Sorry. I got to thinking with common sense again. My mistake.
        The Rich keep getting richer because they keep doing what it was that made them rich. Ditto the Poor.
        "Hy kan tell dey is schmot qvestions, dey is makink my head hurt."
        Hoc spatio locantur.

        Comment


        • #49
          I use FireFox. Since I switched from IE, AdAware has become something of an afterthought.
          I know nothing and I can prove it!

          Comment


          • #50
            I use FireFox with all the right plug ins. Plus I also use Avast.
            Under The Moon Paranormal Research
            San Joaquin Valley Paranormal Research

            Comment


            • #51
              Firefox + Adblock + NoScript = surfing goodness.

              Comment


              • #52
                > 2. I don't get why people buy PCs that can barely run the OS that's installed on
                > them, then bitch at me for saying that the PC only has enough memory to
                > run the OS and if they want better performance they need to upgrade. Then
                > they bitch at the manufacturer for making the PC underpowered and then bitch
                > that the store sold them a piece of crap.

                Most customers don't consider the technical aspects of a computer. They don't
                get why some processors should be avoided (the original Intel Celerons, for
                example, were castrated Pentium-IIs - fine for MS-Word, but very poor for games
                and multimedia) or why you want to stuff the machine to the limits with RAM and
                storage.

                I cannot tell you how many times I've heard "I don't need a powerful machine,
                I just want to play games" - and how many times I've had to explain its the
                GAMES that tend to push the limits of the hardware - particularly processor,
                video, and memory. In their defense, though, most of my customers were
                the relatively cash-strapped individuals from a tiny little Indiana town, and
                buying a 'good' machine that's optioned with the newer heavy-hitter chips,
                lotsa memory, and big-arse hard drives tends to cost considerably more than
                that $399 minimal-configuration eMachine in the window.


                If they're just buying a computer for email and internet browsing, the cheapie
                usually does just fine - until they either find the porn sites and/or install some
                file-sharing service like Limewire or (God help them) Kazaa.

                > 4. I don't get why Norton and McAfee are still so popular, yet half the time they
                > miss threats and get easily disabled by viruses. Also, they get pretty venomous
                > when they expire (slowness, loss of access to secure sites, etc...).

                You don't get this? It's called extortion. "You won't renew our product?! Well,
                then, guess you don't really NEED the internet, do ya?..."

                Frankly, I wouldn't be a bit surprised to find out that the AV companies CREATE
                half of the viruses out there. What better way to drum up business?

                > 5. Speaking of security software, I don't get why ISP-provided security suites
                > are so crappy.

                Typically the companies that create this software erroneously assume the end
                user will have some massive powerhouse rig, with lots of extra CPU cycles and
                memory to spare. It's also the ISP's job to determine which suite will best suit
                their customers - but it usually gets cut down to 'which one is the cheapest for
                them to provide and make a profit on' - and this tends to be the the suite that
                has the heaviest demand on the end user's rig.

                > 6. I don't get why Lexmark printers are still popular, yet they are consistently
                > low-rated in publications and suck ink like it's going out of style.

                It's called Gillette Marketing, modeled after what the razor manufacturer did
                decades ago. They sold the basic razor for very little (in fact, Gillette supplied
                razors to the US Army during and for some time after the first world war), then
                you get to sell supplies for it for quite some time afterward - at a premium, of
                course. How much does ink cost for a Lexmark? About the same as it does for
                an HP. Is the Lexmark ink better quality? Based on the quality of their printers,
                I seriously doubt it. So, they sucker the customer in by advertising a low, low
                Walmart price on a printer, but few customers consider the costs of the suppies
                they'll use over the printer's lifetime. So, if a Lexmark printer survives long
                enough for the customer to have to buy about five sets of ink cartridges (two
                cartridges to a set, black and color), at roughly $25-35 per cartridge, it's easy
                to see where Lexmark makes their money. It helps, too, that Lexmark usually
                uses much more ink than other brands.

                Comment


                • #53
                  Quoth xaenon View Post
                  Frankly, I wouldn't be a bit surprised to find out that the AV companies CREATE
                  half of the viruses out there. What better way to drum up business?
                  I've lost track of how many times this conspiracy theory has cropped up. This is honestly a case of "cite your source". In this case, consider this:

                  6.5 Billion people in the world.
                  roughly a fifth of that in a Tech 3 country (high tech)
                  for the sake of argument a fifth of that has a computer
                  of those, .1% are hackers capable and willing to create a virus that is problematic in some way.

                  That is 260 Thousand people there. And I'm pretty sure my numbers are flawed in several ways, most likely raising the number.

                  Do they really need the help?
                  I AM the evil bastard!
                  A+ Certified IT Technician

                  Comment


                  • #54
                    I used to use Norton, and my company is completely Norton for our security. I know that a lot of people have problems with it, but aside from one installation issue I had due to my hard drive being slightly defective, I never did.

                    AVG, however, has caused both me personally, and my company many, many problems. Not the least of which was being completely useless against a virus some dipstick porn surfer picked up on a warehouse computer. Everybody had AVG, and some also had Norton. The Norton machines were fine, but every AVG-only machine had to be cleaned. I have never had a decent experience with AVG.

                    Also, in most of the AV showdowns I've looked up, AVG and Norton are usually neck and neck on stopping threats and removing them, but both are far below a number of other solutions such as Avast! and Kaspersky.

                    I currently run a free version of Kaspersky in an AOL label. It's the same version as the full paid version, for the most part. Except for random twitchiness on updates, it's worked great for me.

                    I think anyone who uses a computer without proper safeguards pretty much is asking for anythying that happens to them. I have no sympathy.

                    ^-.-^
                    Faith is about what you do. It's about aspiring to be better and nobler and kinder than you are. It's about making sacrifices for the good of others. - Dresden

                    Comment


                    • #55
                      Quoth trunks2k View Post
                      AVG Free Edition works for me.
                      That's what I was gonna say.
                      Don't wanna; not gonna.

                      Comment

                      Working...
                      X