Hackers and Stalkers….
One of my biggest annoyances with social networking, is how we simply degrade the meaning of terms. Terms that once held, in what I would call, a higher standard before as opposed to the way it’s used today.
Hacker
It’s funny how the term hacking has really lost most of its meaning. Hacking used to require skill to obtain the previously thought unobtainable. Now all one has to do to “hack” is wait for someone to forget to log out of their account and simply mess with openly available settings… I’m so very disappointed that just about anyone can be considered a hacker now. Back in the day, you wouldn’t even get called a hacker if you used a known exploit to obtain your objective. You were looked down upon as less than a hacker, and given names like “script-kiddies” or something along those lines.
To me, what is happening in most cases, should simply be referred to as a “prank”. The target person or so-called victim, didn’t pay enough attention to the fact that they forgot to log out of their account before walking away. Someone else simply took advantage of this situation to be mischievous. In the case of my nephew doing this very thing yesterday, he’s now being punished for hacking the account. He hasn’t discovered the password, he didn’t bypass any security measures and he is certainly not posing any threat to any other users on Facebook. He merely took advantage some someone’s carelessness in order to have a little harmless fun. I am certainly not against him being punished. However, punish a person for their crimes, not for the victims ignorance, and then label the perpetrator something they are really not.
Stalker
I’m sure when his mom figures out why I wrote this post, she will likely refer to me as a stalker. It seems everyone is a “stalker” now. All one has to do to earn this label today, is merely read what is publicly available to them. It used to be that this term, was a gross and disgusting label that was once given to only people, who literally had some mental issue that would instill fear in to their targets. I cringe every time I get called a stalker. It makes my skin crawl and turns my stomach, as I would never ever want to be labeled a stalker. I don’t think it’s remotely funny, I do not find it a cute term of endearment, or even think it should be referred to as someone who reads. That’s all it amounts too these days. What the hell happened to society. I mean, if you don’t want my opinion, reaction or want me to know something. Then don’t post it where I’m likely to see it. The object of social networking, as far as I know, is for community involvement in one means or other. The first and foremost is through commenting. This post actually started out as a comment to my nephew’s incarceration as it were. However, it turned into the straw that broke the camels back of my frustration with the flagrant misuse of these two terms, and has evolved into one of my “I hate how the world has become more ignorant and stupid”, rants.
…
I realize this is my own personal pet peeves with society in general these days. I also realize that the majority rules. So many people do this kind of nonsense thanks to the wonderful world of the internet and social networks. Everyone has to do something in order to make themselves feel cool now.
The question is, what’s next? Will I soon be considered a rapist because I “friended” (there’s another idiotic term…) the daughter of a close friend of mine, who just happens to be under the age of 18? Honestly, that would be a seriously sick accusation. Then again, I don’t think being called a stalker is much better.
Whatever happened to Workplace Etiquette?
When I first got a job in the 1980′s. I was also introduced to something known as an Employee Handbook. This described how the company I decided to work for expected me to look, how they expected me to treat customers and what I was and was not allowed to do when I was earning money from them. This included, keeping my hair cut, my face shaved or my beard trimmed neatly. My fingernails properly cut. Restrictions on jewelry, if any. Proper attire for what kinds of shirts, pants and shoes I should be wearing while on the clock. This book also covered things like not using profanity in front of the customers or even in range of customer hearing. Many times, it included no cursing at the workplace at all. It even went on to cover things like making personal calls. In general, while on the clock, you were not allowed to make personal calls. Unless you got permission from your supervisor first. Even then, it was to be restricted to urgent family matters or arranging for transportation.
Times have certainly changed. Not for the better as far as I’m concerned. Over the past decade or so, no matter where I’ve traveled, I’ve noticed something I find highly disturbing when I frequent places like the grocery store, the local convenience store, restaurants of all kinds (from fast food to chains such as Olive Garden) to doctors offices, repair facilities and more. There is a huge relax in such policies or perhaps many businesses no longer have such policies in place. Almost every business I go into, I hear employees cursing and swearing as casual as they like. Talking about anything from sexual endeavors to using expletives to describe how unhappy they are and telling dirty jokes and it’s as if they don’t even care who hears them. They don’t make any effort to keep their voices down.
When I go to a check out at a small store, there are many times a clerk is on their cell phone talking or texting and won’t even greet me most of the time. They simply ring up my order and say the total of my purchase.
Granted, I’m not a huge participant in superficial conversations with strangers at times. It is however, customary to greet your customer who is supplying the money of which will end up in your paycheck with some sort of pleasantry and to make them feel like they should come back to the business for further transactions. Hence growing the business and hopefully the employee paycheck for bringing return customers and growing company profits.
If I were a business owner, I know I’d want pleasant employees who don’t offend customers with profanity, who give attention to the customer and gives effort to make them happy. Perhaps it’s hard to find such employes. Whatever happened to discipline in the workplace? Good Etiquette?
It has become so prevalent, that it sometimes makes me wish I could take their smart phones and insert it rectally with incredible force, thus giving these useless constituents a true reason to utilize profanity. (and it may even improve my own experience at their place of employment)
Note: I love Clerks 2, but it was the best example I could come up with for the point I am making. Sorry Kevin, please forgive me 
Life’s Little Evil Grins
Sometimes I get just enough satisfaction out of the stupid decisions people make. Take today’s case. A customer who has had their website hosted with us for many years, but decided a few years ago they wanted someone else to handle the email. Due too their lack of making themselves aware of their decisions then, the decision they made today has interrupted their business. All because they didn’t think through the consequences of their actions. This is especially satisfying when they send me a snarky email from the domain in which we happen to control.
I’ll try to help explain what happened using a simplified chart (click for larger image), as many of you also don’t know how web hosting works either. However, I want you to see why my grin is so evil. See, the customer bought a domain name and got hosting with us some time ago. A few years ago, they decided they wanted a different company to host their domain email, but keep their website with us. In order to do this they did the following:
- First they pointed their domain to our servers. This makes it so our servers answer for any requests for a website or email.
- When they wanted to have another company handle their email, they asked us to point all mail to a different server. This means all email requests come to us, but are redirected to a different server that we don’t control.
Today I get a nasty little email stating they stopped using us nearly a month ago and that they insist we cancel their service. The email came from their domain.
Doing my job as I do. I check to see if their domain is still pointed to our servers. It is. So once I stop the service, all services will stop as well. Which means I can’t reply to their email as it won’t work. Even though their email is with a different company, all requests have to go through us to get to the other company. So now, none of their email works. I’m sitting here waiting for the call asking why their email doesn’t work. When they do, I will simply refer to the nasty email stating that they stopped using us nearly a month ago, and then point out I guess they still were using our services after all. I’ll also ask if they would like to continue service, or give them the option to go to wherever they got their domain from, and work out the DNS there. However, that option will take a few hours for it to fix their broken email. All because they didn’t think before they got snotty with me.
Ah.. Justice 
Rudeness in the South
I’m from Michigan. When I joined the Navy, I got to do a lot of traveling in my life. First to Mississippi, then to Virginia and then to many places abroad. Spain, Greece, France, Italy, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Pompeii as well as Jerusalem and Bethlehem in Israel. I now reside in Virginia. According to the sign on the way into the state from Maryland, this is the beginning of the south. All my life I kept hearing about Southern Hospitality and how nice folks are in the south. I don’t mean to be rude in saying so, but I haven’t met that many nice people in this here south.
I know some very rude people in particular. They happen to live just a few feet away from my home. You see, my current living situation has me on a very long driveway that has two houses at the end. The main house is where my neighbors live. I live in the smaller of the two houses. It was made quite clear to the people in both homes who has what property to take care of. We have a small patch on the left side on our house were or main door is, and a slightly larger patch going to a shed on the right side of our house. The neighbors have a large yard by their patio doors, a small front yard and they also have a very large field along the drive way. It’s fairly good size and would take an entire day to mow with a push mower. They have a bigger house and a much bigger yardage to handle. Plenty of space if they need to use it.
Our neighbors are also Southern Baptists. They have a lot of outings, cookouts and the like. It seems they are always on the go, and it’s always a church function. They brag to me about how their members are nice and how good the food is when they offer me to come to one of their cookouts. Though I would never go. Because these people are so completely oblivious of just how big of asshats they really are. Even though we bring up issues with them repeatedly.
One issue in particular, is where they have their fellow church members park when they come over. Apparently it’s too much to ask of these members to park in the field down the drive way and walk their happy asses up to the house. The driveway is only like a couple tenths of a mile long. It’s not like they’d have to walk the “Miracle Mile“. But instead they park in the driveway making it difficult for us to get in or out. Then, they also not only park in our little turn around area, but they just decide that it’s ok to park in our yard, on our grass, where we just planted a lot of new seed. It would be one thing if they did this once, we mention we do not appreciate it, and it didn’t happen again. But no, this is got to be the 10th time or so this year alone. Such as today:
Click for Larger Image
The weird thing today, is that, that’s the only car!?! No other cars around, but they happily backed through our turn around spot, onto the grass and parked there. I have a good mind to call a tow truck and have that shit removed. Talk about blatant rudeness! You’d think that being church going folks, they would “do unto others as they’d have done unto them”. Just pisses me off to no end. Even living in BFE, I can’t get away from Dumbasses.
We can’t know everything…
It’s amazing how customers just automatically assume that if they call tech support, that the person they get knows everything about anything dealing with computers or technology. First of all, customers need to think about who they are calling and what they are calling about. If they call their Internet Service Provider (ISP), then they need to keep it related to the internet. Even then, they need to realize if it’s really the internet or if it’s the software they choose to use on the internet.
Just today, I’ve taken two calls asking for help about things that are beyond our control. Both times I’ve gotten the argument that I’m not being very helpful. Which is an incorrect statement. I tried to steer both customers to places that would provide better help than I could. Thus, helping them help themselves. But as always, people today are angry unappreciative twats that can’t understand that they should contact the product maker rather than a service provider. So of course instead of appreciating the help I did give, they just hung up in a huff because I didn’t instantly satisfy them.
The first customer had a problem that when he chose to forward an email in Thunderbird, the address book would come up all wonky with unusual characters. It’s a problem I’ve never heard of before, and we do not promote Thunderbird as a product for use with our service. We haven’t done so in years due to the many issues customers have had with it. I explained I’ve never heard of that before, and perhaps he could go to the software makers website and use their forums and see if there was anyone else with the problem and if so, what their solution was. Or he could also search the internet for answers by using keywords like “Thunderbird” “Forward” “Address book” “Corrupt” or similar. Of course, he then argued we promoted Thunderbird, and I said, “We haven’t promoted it in over 5 years and now promote Windows Live Mail.”. I proceeded to explain that even if we did, we don’t make the product, we have no relationship with any software maker, and that he’d still have to seek support with them for such an unusual case. If it were a common problem, perhaps we would be able to help.
The second customer, had no problems accessing the internet. Except if she used Internet Explorer. She proceeded to explain that it’s required for her to use it as she works from home and whatever she accesses only works via Internet Explorer. As there is no problem with the internet, the problem is clearly on the computer users side. Though I offered suggestions to help her out. I offered that perhaps a security software such as Norton, or McAfee or similar may have stopped giving Internet Explorer access to the internet. This is done through their program permissions in their own firewall. I’ve seen this numerous times in the past. So I suggested she check that. I also suggested she could contact her work and see if whatever program she uses that utilizes Internet Explorer has somehow made things go wrong. Perhaps also, she could contact a local PC repair person to take a closer look at the situation. Perhaps Internet Explorer has been corrupted and needs to be reinstalled. Of course she asked me to go through her security software, but unfortunately what she was using I have had no experience with. So I was unable to help her and she got pissy with me about it. I explained there are hundreds of security software products on the market, and no one in my office has training on anything other than what they, themselves use. There is no way for us to know all of that, and that she needs to contact the software maker for help. She hung up angry.
If you need help with specific product, call the product maker. Not some third party and get pissy with them when they don’t know how to fix it.
And stop calling us about your damned printers! Just because it’s got wireless, doesn’t mean we’ve been trained to operate your peripherals!!
It’s Spelled Pillock, Not Pillick
If you are going to try to insult someone, you should at least take the time to use the correct spelling of the word. It’s one thing to be rude, but to be rude and ignorant is another thing all together. Yes folks, I made a friend. A friend who wants me to revisit an old subject. About who pays for what, and who has the rights to use other peoples things.
See, my new friend Mr. Suurlemoen, apparently wanted to use an image from my site (here) and use it on his site (wherever). Instead he got the following image in it’s place, and it made him upset with me.
This prompted Mr. Suurlemoen (if that’s really his name), to send me the following email:
Name: xxx Suurlemoen
Email: no.one@no.where
Subject: Idiot
Message: You’re a pillick… Everybody pays for bandwidth. Try changing your service provider to more competitive rates.
Clearly Mr. Suurlemoen did not leave me a real email address to respond too, so I must respond to him this way if I am to ever get the message across to him.
See, one day several months back, I was looking at my statistics for my web hosting, and noticed a sudden spike in my bandwidth usage. It normally runs around 16GB per month from my normal visitors, to 120GB per month and that most of the usage were images I have, but being displayed on other peoples websites. I know that my web host, whom I’m very happy with, would not appreciate me going over my bandwidth limits for the month without me paying extra for the use. And while many web host providers do offer a means to prevent “hot-linking” (also known as Inline Linking)… I decided to be a bit more inventive and use the method that displays the above message instead.
Now where Mr. Suurlemoen falls short again is we do all pay for bandwidth, but that does not give anyone else the right to abuse services paid for by someone else. We all pay for electricity, but I’m sure Mr. Suurlemoen would not appreciate it if I rolled up to his home and plugged in my RV for however many months I decide to use his electricity. What about his internet? We all pay for that, or most of us do. There are those who steal wireless all the time. I wonder if Mr. Suurlemoen knows that in some places you can get sued for that. In any case, I’m sure he wouldn’t like me doing that.
Sure, there are open free wireless. There is free web hosting. There are free photo and video storage/sharing sites. They all have means of making money from other services. Free wireless usually comes from a business like a restaurant or bar where they make money from food and beverage products. Free web hosting has advertisements forced in some manner (even if it’s not apparent – like a 404 error page), or like places such as Blogger, they use simple text ads. Video and photo sites use advertising or more storage for money plans. By all means use them to their full extent.
And I’m flattered that someone wants to use an image I have in my possession. Or if they want to share my tutorials with the world. You can link to them. You can save the images and put them up on your own site or whatever. I don’t mind. I could copyright my stuff, then I could sue someone for using it. I don’t. But please, do not abuse the services I pay for. It’s all I’m asking. If you feel that is too much to ask, I’m sorry. Well.. No, I’m not really.
But it’s never done that before!?!?!
Customers never want any problem to be something they have to deal with. As a technician, we diagnose a problem, realize it’s something wrong with the customer’s computer or device that is outside our circle of responsibility, and then the customer proceeds to argue with us or try to reach for any unfathomable reason that it would never be what we say it is.
This is one of the most annoying issues to ever have to deal with. Because the customer is so obstinate that we are supposed to snap our fingers and whatever reason they called in for, and that it will be fixed just like that. It’s beyond their thinking to realize that just perhaps, something has changed or broke and it’s not something our side is responsible to fix.
“It’s not an internet connectivity issue sir, it’s your network adapter is broken. Please contact your local computer repair to have it fixed.”
This is usually met with, “But it worked yesterday?!?”.
Every piece of hardware has a MTTF (Mean Time to Failure). This means the manufacturer generally expects the product to fail at some point and the MTTF is the average of that time. Though this isn’t always the case. It could be software related, a defective product or end user monkeying with things he/she should not. Though logically speaking, it’s whatever the manufacture’s warranty period is. If the product breaks after that, it’s likely to be past it’s MTTF.
Every piece of software has flaws. Bugs as they are called. For the most part, released software will work without issue. However, combine it with an operating system, antivirus or just your inability to operate it or you tried to do something it cannot do, and then you have a problem or software conflict. Or the software has known issues and the customer just happened to find it.
Here’s some of the dumbest responses I’ve ever heard:
Customer: “But it’s brand new!”
Me: “You mean to tell me you’ve never purchased anything defective before and had to return it?”
Customer: “It’s always worked fine before!”
Me: “That’s the funny thing about things breaking, before they broke, they worked fine.”
Customer: “My son’s an IT professional and I know it’s working fine.”
Me: “And when was the last time your son came around to make sure it was working fine?” or “Is he there now? Can I speak to him?”
Customer: “It worked yesterday.”
Me: “There was a major storm yesterday, it’s possible since you didn’t take precautions and unplug your equipment that it took at hit.”
Customer: “You recommended the software to me, why can’t you fix it?”
Me: “We recommend the software, we don’t write it and are not responsible for any known or unknown issues with it. Contact the software makers for support.”
The list goes on and on. It’s your computer folks, take care of it. If it needs repair and has been determined by a trained, skilled professional that it needs repair, take the responsibility and get it fixed. I can’t speak for other techs, but I never leave you with “It’s broke.” I’ll tell you what I think the problem is and I’ll even point you in the direction I think you should go to get it fixed. Whether it be an online forum (software) or local computer shop or I’ll even give you the tech support number for whatever manufacturer made your computer or device (providing it’s still under warranty).
Joe Square
Something good needs to happen to me soon. All these negative posts are bringing me down…
Just got off the phone with “Joe Square” we shall call him. He’s the kind of customer that you end up regretting ever selling a product too or giving advice too.
Despite all the negative things I say about people and my overwhelming case of Dumasaphobia. I do actually try to help people out as best I can. With customers like Joe Square, it always blows up in my face and end up frustrating me to no end.
There are just certain people in this world that make you regret that you ever gave them advice… Even if you put a huge disclaimer saying “don’t call us about issues, call the software maker!” or it obviously isn’t a product we make, such as… oh a Linksys Router! They still insist on calling you when something with the software or product goes wrong. Because they “bought it from you” or “you recommended it”.
They somehow think you had a hand in engineering the software or product in question. And expect you to know why the cosmic issue they are having, that 1 in 1,000,000,000 people may have ever experienced said issue… And how to resolve it.
They never once think to call the company who made the product or software. Ever. Because we sold or recommended it, we somehow are responsible to resolve any issues with it. It makes me wonder if Wal-Mart or Target get thousands of phone calls for the products they sell or their store clerks have recommended. I’m sure if they do get any such calls, it’s “you need to call the manufacturer sir or ma’am”. But rather than be an asshole about it, I try to direct them gently to some forum or 1-800 number for help. But it still frustrates the hell out of me that they assume it’s our job to fix problems with things we use and don’t have any issues with. We simply sell and suggest products. We don’t make them and don’t know how to troubleshoot issues with them.
Shift the Blame
Forty years on this planet, and people never cease to amaze me with their inability to take responsibility for their actions. I just got a call from a lady who has internet service with my company. However, she’s not at home, she’s at some Doctor’s home watching their children or something. Not sure.
But she decides to use their internet and wants to print out an “important email”. She sees the printer is unplugged from power and from the computer and manages to plug it into the power and somewhere on the computer she’s using. Apparently not in the right spot as it kills the internet to the PC.
She calls my office to help her with her “desperate” situation. “Hoping that I can help her.” A.K.A. she doesn’t want to get in trouble by the Doctor who’s PC she may have messed up.
Firstly, did it ever occur to her that the printer was unplugged for a reason? What made her think it was OK to go monkeying with it. The Doctor apparently gave her permission to use the PC, but perhaps figured she was smart enough to not mess with the disconnected printer. Doh… I see a new client for {dŭm’ăs-ə-fō’bē-ə} coming up!
So I listen to her problem and she wants to know how to restore the internet (I assume that she’s disconnected the printer again, but not going to question her at this time). I ask, “What type of internet are they using?”, with the follow up of “Cable, DSL, Satelite, Dialup, FiOS or other?”. She says, “they probably have top of the line internet”. That didn’t tell me anything.
So I ask, “Do they use a router?” Again with the top of the line response. So I have no idea what I’m working with and really thinking about it shouldn’t take any chances in helping her anyways. Because if I get it wrong, then it’s my responsibility and I’m not the one who was messing with things I shouldn’t have in a strangers house.
She remembers talking to me before, as I do her. She doesn’t like the fact that if I need to know something prior to her getting help, she get’s pissy and decides I’m the unhelpful type. Which in this case, why should I? Why should I take responsibility for her actions? NO, HELL NO! HELL FUCK NO!
So she ends the call and then tries to call back Billing and Sales lines. I’m the only one here, so she says “I must have the wrong number.” when she hears my name. Bullshit she’s not about to call my boss to report me on my attitude when she’s the one in hot water.
Take responsibility for your own actions people. If you mess up, own up to it. Don’t hide it or get upset when you don’t get magical answers from a non-responsible party.
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