Re: How to fix broken security in Windows 2000?
From: Shannon Jacobs (shanen_at_my-deja.com)
Date: 02/06/05
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Date: Sun, 6 Feb 2005 11:29:45 +0900
Thanks for the recommendation on Linux, though I'm not exactly a beginner.
As I already noted, I'm constrained by my customers, and they're mostly in
bondage to Microsoft, so I'm kind of constrained to follow the most similar
path. Resource constraints being what they are, I'm probably not going to
spend a lot of time on it unless the company is supporting the move more
strongly than they have so far... The CEO keeps talking about it, but
nothing much is happening in the trenches--at least not in my part of the
trench.
As you noted, the technical answers are often found in passing and in the
old posts. You have to be flexible in how you search and pay attention to
the details--and it's especially important and useful if the responders use
the proper terminology and use it consistently. That has an important
funneling effect from the many vaguely worded n00b queries. However, I'd
already been-there-done-that at the time of the first post. As I reported
later in the thread, I did get some useful clues that way, but that path
started in our corporate newsgroups, not the public ones.
With regards to the empathic "viewpoint" issue, I actually think I'm very
sensitive to all of the aspects you've raised (or resurrected), having spent
a couple of years doing lots of support for Microsoft products and many
years teaching computer-related topics at the university level. If you feel
my response was inappropriate, I think you should review the thread from its
beginning. I'm actually trying to provide enough context to avoid exactly
what usually happens--which is a lot of my time wasted monitoring a thread
that receives many "do this again" responses.
I think that the very FIRST thing I learned when I was doing support was to
consider very carefully exactly what the customer is saying. Some customers
don't know what is going on and need to do it again from scratch, but in
other cases you should avoid wasting his or her time. When you have nothing
to say, say nothing. Wait a bit and something might come to you. The
customers apparently appreciated it, which was mostly okay. (The main down
side was that the more troublesome customers usually wound up as mine--which
made the rest of the support staff appreciative.)
Amusingly enough, as I was leaving support work I was actually considered
for a second-tier support job for Microsoft, though it was actually through
a subcontractor chain. My second language wasn't strong enough, but the
manager did keep in touch for several years after that, so I guess he was
sincerely interested, though I never did work for him. Nice fellow, but I
think feeding the behemoth would have given me ulcers...
Charlie Tame <charlie@tames.net> wrote:
> "Shannon Jacobs" <shanen@my-deja.com> wrote in message
> news:e9exlqCBFHA.2792@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
>
>> Years ago, way back when the MVP program was useful, I would ask
>> similar technical questions, and if there was an answer from an
>> MVP, it was
>> almost certain to be very helpful.
>
> Years ago a "Technical" question was, by today's standards of
> hardware, software and infrastructure complexity, comparatively
> simple to answer :).
> Speaking for me, but probably for most MVPs too, I hate to give
> wrong answers, even if it is a result of the "Wrong question" being
> asked, and I am not being sarcastic, that can easily happen. If I
> had a dollar for every "Wrong question" I've asked etc :).
>
> So given the complexity of some systems it's likely that many MVPs
> will wait until they think they can fully answer before they start
> in, and if it looks like it may need a series of "Try this", "Try
> that" exchanges it's also likely that an MVP will try to judge how
> well he / she can follow up on a thread, otherwise you start
> something but then end up leaving it to others. It may also depend
> on what facilities an MVP has available to test things on... not
> every MVP will have encountered every possible combination.
> For quite a while I was able to devote a lot of time to the IE/OE
> groups, but my job changed and as well as having less time to spend
> on here I also got landed with being "On Call" which meant I could
> not reasonably expect to be consistent. It is amazing how far and
> how fast one can fall behind problem "Trends", perhaps time is a
> big factor for others too?
> In fact the reason I am here in the W2k groups at all is because I
> was looking for an answer, not trying to give them, and as it
> happens I found my answer (or at least confirmation of my theory)
> before I even asked the question. Although I have used W2k for
> years I have not done so in an environment that qualifies me to
> answer much specific stuff.
> So in closing, I suspect that if you review your position, taking
> into account the viewpoint of those you seek to criticize, you may
> see things a little differently.
>
> As for Linux I suggest Debian to start. You can actually download
> the entire thing, in whatever level of complexity you want,
> starting with just two or three floppy disks that you make up
> yourself (Starting of course using Windows). Other versions are not
> as "Free" as you might think and tech support is patchy at best.
> Compatibility between versions? Hmm. Personal opinion I guess :) It
> becomes rather like arguing the difference between GM and Ford.
>
> Hope this helps,
>
> Charlie
- Previous message: Shannon Jacobs: "Re: How to fix broken security in Windows 2000?"
- Maybe in reply to: Rick Dilley: "Re: How to fix broken security in Windows 2000?"
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