At first I just found their advertizing really annoying. More recently, as I’ve followed the Sunbelt Blog, I realize, I just can’t stand Alex.
Here’s his latest whine. “Oh no sales people are reading the case studies on our public website and then calling the customer offering them a competitive upgrade. Waaaa.”
“Oh no, Webroot people are saying mean things on my blog waaaaaa.” (actually the comment was by the Webroot guy was pretty funny.)
“Waaaa, Webroot PR is mean like Karl Rove.” I guess we now know the politics of Alex Eckelberry. Whatever dude.
Archive for the ‘Offtopic’ Category.
Here’s why I wont by buying anythign from Sunbelt Software
Bad Day in Blacksburg
Obviously my prayers are with the students, faculty and parents of those at Virginia Tech.
And so this is Christmas
“And there were in the same country shepherds, abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them! And they were sore afraid … And the angel said unto them, “Fear not! For, behold, I bring you tidings o great joy, which shall be to all my people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ, the Lord.”
“And this shall be a sign unto you: Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” And suddenly, there was with the angel a multitude of the Heavenly Host praising God, and saying, “Glory to God in the Highest, and on Earth peace, and good will toward men.”
“That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.” – Linus Van Pelt
More Symantec support stream of consciousness
More fun with Symantec licensing.
The license file we were finally able to download during Monday’s marathon phone call with Symantec didn’t actually work when I went to install it.
Thursday I tried to cal licensing but calling at 10am (eastern) is apparently too late in the day. I waited for 90 minutes before abandoning the call.
Today, I called again and waited 75 minutes to speak with someone. After a total of 2.5 hours on the phone with licensing they said it wasn’t a licensing problem and to call support. Its pretty clear to me that it is a license problem. At this point the license will import, but the product still says it is expired. The license file has 3 entries for the product. Two with expired dates and one with the correct date. I dont think support can help me with that. And still I wait. 50 minutes on hold for support and counting.
The ballad of Symantec licensing
License files. A necessary evil, or just evil? I nearly went insane while trying to obtain a license file from Symantec yesterday. Half the day was shot waiting on hold. Today I attempted to apply the license file. No dice.
The knowledge base wasn’t helpful. It suggested I use a later version of the product. I’d like to do that, but Symantec likes to trickle out access to major releases. As a result, I dont have access to the latest major release. The KB further implies that my license file is incomplete because I did not add all available serial numbers to the licensing website before creating the license. Since I only have the one serial number, I don’t think that is the case.
To avoid hour long hold times, I should call in early tomorrow. Unfortunately I have a morning meeting, so that isn’t going to happen.
Thanksgiving
Psalm 100
A psalm. For giving thanks.
1 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
2 Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
3 Know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his ;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.
Overheard in the helpdesk
I was in the helpdesk today trying to makes sure the lead guy in there and I were on the same page with a password reset website I’m going to be putting out there.
One of the temps comes over and asks someone right behind me, so and so is on the phone and he wants to know if he can use the Intel Wireless Driver on his Dell Truemoble card.
Cisco’s Telepresence on Vanished
I’ve been noticing the Cisco Telepresence commercials lately and been kind of surprised. That is a really high end CEO type of item from what I’ve heard. Its insanely nice, but not the kind of thing a TV junky would be buying. I dont quite understand why Cisco is spending so much money on product placement to become a household name.
In a way I do, I LOVE seeing the Cisco IP phone that I have on my desk in TV shows. I loved it when Cisco’s self-defending network showed up on 24. But this Telepresence item costs $$$.
Anyway, if you missed it, Cisco has the show clip posted www.cisco.com/web/solutions/telepresence/fox/
Google Reader
Based on a Microsoft Monitor post, I decided to check out Google Reader. Its a web based RSS Reader. Its also quite forgettable. I did not realize that I had used it before, yet when I went there today, it had a big list of the feeds I read (but not the current list).
I’m open to switching RSS readers. I currently use SharpReader and it can use a ton of RAM. It would be nice to be able to follow my RSS feeds from any computer.
-The interface is kind of cluttered. It doesn’t have enough room to read the article on screens the size of my tabletpc.
-Worse yet, its slower than my Sharpreader.
-I dont see a way to import my OPML file.
-If there is a way to be notified of new posts, I haven’t found one. Perhaps the Google Talk client could notify me of new posts the way it notifies me of new emails.
I just dont see why the Microsoft Monitor writer falling all over himself to give Google credit for a great product.
Off topic: VW Safe Happens
For a brief moment, I thought to myself, what if software security companies tried to sell software with the same shocking tactics as the Safe Happens commercial series from VW. Then I came to my senses. These companies already do sell based on the idea that your data is toast without them. What is shocking in a car commercial is all too common from security vendors.
In the VW commerical, people get in to a jaring physical accident and in the security commercials people are threatened with losing all their data, the internet melting down, SCADA and a new Y2K.
Here’s a clip from 24 where Cisco saves the day. (quicktime required)
