“Sweetie, Dana can tell when you stare at her breasts.”
– Natalie onSports Night
Monthly Archives: March 2001
Don't Use Juno
5
You may have heard of juno, the free email and internet access provider. I first heard of them a few years ago, and until I had enough money for my own real email account, I used Juno. In addition to being free, it had the nice feature of dialing up via an 800 number, and only taking up the phone lines long enough to retrieve and send email. My dad was so happy with them that he hooked our entire family up with Juno so everyone had email accounts, and I recommended them to just about everyone I knew. My parents are still using Juno for their internet access.
Those days are over. With the release of Juno’s new service contract, the company has done something absolutely stunning. The contract has the usual stuff… privacy agreements, indemnity arrangements, etc. Nothing particularly unusual. The kicker comes in section 2.5, where they let you know that they may require the users of their free services to allow Juno to install software on their computers, which will probably come in the form of a screensaver, that the users cannot disable in any way. The software will display ads, and run a distributed computing program (like SETI@home).
Doesn’t sound too bad, you say? Check this out: “…you expressly permit and authorize Juno to initiate a telephone connection from your computer to Juno’s central computers… Juno agrees that it shall exercise such right only to the extent necessary, as determined in Juno’s sole discretion, to upload the results of completed computations to Juno in a timely fashion; and you agree that… you shall be responsible for any costs and expenses (including without limitation any applicable telephone charges) resulting from the foregoing.”
Yes, you read that correctly. Juno is requiring ALL of its users to agree to the possibility that Juno will use your phone lines whenever it feels like it. The only condition is that they promise to try to only do it when necessary. But they decide when it’s necessary, and if you don’t comply by leaving your computer on all the time, they reserve the right to terminate your service or limit your access.
I strongly urge anyone with a Juno account to switch to a different company’s service plan. Most ISPs and free internet email accounts have a plan that is comparable to Juno, and won’t require you to give up your rights to your computer.
I'm an Optimist
there are many reasons why I consider myself an optimist, but I never really thought much about it until Annie announced that she thinks I am a pessimist.
She talked to me about it and explained that she was basing that on the way I reacted to certain things, and specifically, my frequent announcements (only partly facetious) that I hate everyone and everything.
I disagree with her. I think being an optimist or a pessimist has very little to do with how well you react to certain situations or whether you hold the rest of mankind in contempt.
It has to do with the way you react to things as a whole. While bad things do happen to me, on the whole, I am confident that in the end, things will work out (if not for the best, then the way they needed to be).
When I watch the news, I see bad things happening, and think “that’s sad,” and I move on. I think about other things and I remain confident that things will work out.
Annie watches the news and comes away with her faith in mankind shaken. I’ll listen to her mutter for hours about the environment, or war, or just unfortunate things. She worries about them happening to her and she stresses about them happening to other people. Her faith in many things, both religious and secular is easily shaken.
To me, that’s pessimism. Because I don’t react that way. I don’t get bogged down in it, because while it’s true that bad things are happening, and could happen to you, you need to do what you can with what you’ve got, and do your best to improve your lot in life. And I remain ever hopeful that I can improve, and so can the world.
There are those (and while Annie has never said so, I think she might think of me this way) who view this as turning a blind eye to the world’s problems. I don’t have a good response to that. I just don’t feel that’s what I’m doing. I don’t think I can solve all the world’s problems, but I also don’t feel a huge pressure to do so.
So sure, I get mad at bad drivers, and I don’t like shallow inconsiderate people, but when it comes to the larger issues, I consider myself optimistic.
Computer Literacy
I had somewhat of a revelation recently while helping Annie with the computer. Just in the time that she and I have been dating, she’s learned a ton about computers. However, while her experience level has risen, her confidence has not risen (as much).
I think that is the essence of the difference between the so-called computer literate and illiterate.
While I would consider myself to be computer literate, and even to possess enough skills to be comfortable working in a computer tech support position, I don’t completely understand them. I’ve never written a program. I don’t entirely understand the relationship between the hardware and the software or even the relationship between the stuff on the computer I can see, and the binary code that I know underlies everything. What I have with the computer is not so much knowledge (“literacy”) as it is comfort.
I feel comfortable around computers. I believe this comes from having assembled components and installed programs “from scratch.” As a result of this, I know that no matter what I do to the computer, I can fix it (by reformatting and starting over). This grants me a certain level of comfort with trying things.
By trying things, I have gained experience. Experience which has given me some knowledge. For example, I recognize the Blue Screen of Death, and I know that the way to treat it most of the time is to simply reboot the computer. But my knowledge ends there. I don’t know what the Blue Screen of Death actually signifies, or what would cause it to appear on Annie’s computer. I just know from experience that if I reboot the computer, it will probably go away and not bother me anymore.
This is, of course, a simplification. My troubleshooting knowledge does go deeper than that, but it’s a good example of my point, which is that most of the knowledge or literacy I have with computers is a direct result of experience gained from having a high level of comfort around computers.
When Annie sees a Blue Screen of Death on her computer, she does not feel comfortable troubleshooting it. Even though in actuality, she knows just about the same amount about what it means as I do. I have more experience, but the real difference between us is that my comfort level with computers is higher.
I’ve discussed this with some geek friends and they all seem to agree that basically the difference between the computer literate and illiterate comes down to comfort levels.
CitySearch Categories for Richmond, Virginia
Went home for lunch today. Got a call from a recruiter 15 minutes after I got there. Did I wan to move to Richmond, Virginia, and write PHP for a young, dynamic firm?
CITYSEARCH.COM CATEGORIES FOR PORTLAND, OREGON
- Home
- Arts
- Attractions
- Bars and Nightlife
- Hotels and Visitors
- Movies
- Music
- Restaurants
- Shopping
- Sports & Recreation
CITYSEARCH.COM CATEGORIES FOR RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
- Home
- Movies
- Local Events
- Restaurants and Bars
- Hotels and Visitors
- Shopping
- Monster Trucks
Told her no.
Besides, my Chi Kung teacher is closer to PDX, and I don’t have enough money to move right now anyway.