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tempusfugit.ca

Web Etiquette

Asking for help

If you do write and I respond (and I am not saying that I will), please have the common courtesy to at least let me know that you received my reply. I may not respond to questions that relate to topics of secondary interest to me, requests for download access or to things that I have said cannot be done.

I may not be able to help you, but I will try. If I don't hear back from you I may assume that the message had got trapped in a spam filter. I might not give you the answer that you were looking for but some acknowledgement would be appreciated! An example of a breach.

I also realise that if you contact me it is probably in desperation of not finding a solution to that which you searched the Internet. It is by design that the method of communication with me is not easy. Similarly my response to you is not easy. To answer you I have to understand what you are asking and it may require that I do some of my own research. If I determine that you may be trying to do something that I don't think is possible, I will tell you. I will not send your software, or links to software, that I don't think will work!

If I continue to not receive feedback from those that I have tried to help I may withdraw the offer of assistance. I am not paid for doing this, I think that I am "one of the good guys" - I am not trying to sell you somethng! I am trying to make the Internet useful again, not some "ego-fest" (Facebook and its ilk) or some gigantic sales event!

I will not repond to simple requests to the password protected areas of this website. These areas have been configured for my own exclusive use and to enable sharing of specific items with those that I am either working with or those that have entered into a discussuion on a particular subject.

I will not respond to requests for download links without a specific request stating what link you are looking for and on what page did you see it referenced. There is no point is just asking for "download links" even if you do explain what you are trying to do.

Topics of Primary Interest (at the time of writing)

The impact of legislation around the world put in place to combat digital piracy. Methods used by copyright holders to detect illegal downloads (as opposed to methods to avoid being detected doing so).

The changing world of the Social Web how marketing is changing on the Internet such that we are drawn in to using services such as Facebook and G+.

Topics of secondary interest that I may not respond to

You may have found this site searching for a topic that may have been of interest to me in the past. Some of these subjects are now relegated to a secondary interest status.

Some of these subjects include:

It is just as well that I maintain this website and the Question and Answer entries for my own amusement. Very few visitors, even when they take the trouble to write and ask a question, take the next step and then let me know whether I helped or not. Such is life! and the way that the WWW doesn't work!

An Example of a violation of this Etiquette

Writing to me on the 19th September asking for help in getting an ATI Video card to work on a portable computer with Insyde H2O BIOS running Ubuntu Linux and not following up with a response to my answer for over weeks.

As this is not something that is very common and very specific to an HP Notebook, presumably sold with the Windows operating system (HP have not interest in helping their customers run Linux), I suggested contacting ATI (AMD), the makers of the Video card in question, or consult an Ubuntu forum and see if there is anyone there that can help.

Whereas this would be ok if I had recieved a thank you at the time I made my reply (the next day, 20 Sep). Even if the reply was informing me that the person had tried those avenues and was not getting any reponse. If that had been the case I might have pursued the problem further as it seemed an interesting thing to want to do and I do run Ubuntu. I am even planning to install 10.10 (Maverick MeerKat) on my new webserver.

However, I did not hear from the visitor until the 3rd October, over 2 weeks later. I did get a thank you for replying but I am not sure if I can honour the request to allow the download of the utilities that the visitor wanted to try. I am not even sure that it would even be possible to enable the options in BIOS that the visitor was trying to acheive. Also did the visitor try the ATI Catalyst™ 10.10 Proprietary Linux x86 Display Driver version 10.10 for Linux x86; Linux x86_64? - I downloaded the driver and the installation instructions and they will be placed on the intranet ready for my own use, or to share with anyone who asks.

Another example from 1 October 2011 - to be honest, I didn't really expect a reply. However the visitor did read a former version of this page and should have been aware that I consider that not acknowleging my email to them would be considered as as violation.

As such, and a permenant record for me - so that I don't have to search my email, I feel that I can post the original email and my response.

This is the initial email (reformated so that I could read it) 

I recently had windows bypass my choice in selecting updates and  install
KB2533552 with out my consent. This was a few days ago and since my computer
has gone on the fritz. I won't go into details but it's a source of
frustration as i'm sure you know.

After searching the web I have found little that is helpful in removing it
and have resigned to re installing  windows. This is a pain but it's really
not that big of a deal. I do have some questions though. What do you know
about these windows updates I can't get rid of?  (KB976902 is another) I'm a
little creeped out by them.

I use torrent filing a bit and have an unauthentic copy of windows. I have
read that these could be a backdoor for windows to spy on my computer. I'm
not uploading or even downloading alot. 75 gigs this last year. Do p2p
programs really help mask your identity? I don't really see how they could do
much as your ISP can track the sites you have been on from what i have been
told.  Thus seeing when and where you download and upload. I'm almost ready
to give up on the web entirely.

Do you know anything about skoeo or pipl? Those algorithms created to search
and compile peoples lives are scary as hell.
I can see the US becoming a police state. I'm not about to be a part of it.
To be honest i was livid earlier while removing updates.

I went on a rant with my roommate. I'm
not a conspiracy theorist and don't fall for every illuminati story i hear.
But I do notice that we are moving towards a culture of fear and security.
Prisons, police forces, Insurance and security are businesses now.  Things are
changing and so are peoples attitudes towards freedom.

I feel like I'm rambling a bit and could keep at this a while so i'll ask this
above all my other questions.
Can you tell me a bit about whats going on with Microsoft, Google, our
governments, piracy and privacy? This is a brave new world indeed and
sometimes it scares the shit out me.

Thank you, I await your reply.   Sitkaz

There are a number points that are raised by this email. I am taking the opportunity to comment on them. Not as I think that there is anyone that is going to read them but like Ian Brain above, it gets it off my chest.

In my experience when someone cliams that they are not a consipracy theroist that is exactly what they are! I have no doubt that this email was prompted by extreme frustration and I am not sure if the sender even thought that thye would get a reply. Although they had read this page and as such they should have been aware of how I treat communications. Not that they would have beleived me.

My reply: 

Ian,

Thanks for taking the time to write. I formerly thought that there was
something that Microsoft were doing to ferret out bootleg copies of Windows
but after running multiple copies of counterfeit Windows on multiple computers
allowing automatic updates on all of them, I have changed my opinion.

I did have a problem with one computer that failed to install updates and
effectively stalled its boot. This was fixed by applying the updates manually.
From what I could read on the Internet I think that this was a general problem
with updates and W7 SP1 and not an attempt to disable fraudulent copies of
Windows.

It sounds like your computer is infected with something and a re-install of
Windows is probably the only way that you are going to fix it. The computer
that I use for P2P has been that way a couple of times - shit just happens. I
was going to work out a way of un-installing kb2533552 but decided that it was
not a problem for me. As I had created pages that related to Windows updates
failing, and as nobody was contacting me, I presumed that it was not a problem
and moved the original pages off the server and replaced them with ones that
could be found by people who are having apparent problems with updates. These
amended pages do not confirm that these failures are due to measures taken to
reduce piracy and serve to determine whether there are others having
continuing problems with updates.

To answer your question about Microsoft, Google, our governments, piracy and
privacy - I have no idea if there is anything really new going on, if
anything, I see it as "business as usual". Companies are just trying to
protect their property and governments are amending laws to tighten up on the
new technologies. I don't think that much has changed, only the technology is
different. I believe the trick is to stay one step ahead of all the recent
changes. I also do all these "bad" things and study what is being done to
counter them.

I wouldn't worry too much - I do not think that anything has fundamentally
changed - the "police state" has always been there, in fact we are now in a
position to see it for what it is. We are also in a position to report on it -
at least we live in a state that we don't have to use Facebook to organize
protests or let the world know what our governments are doing.