Posted on 05/06/2008 5:25:47 AM PDT by Perdogg
Best Buy's Geek Squad, whose technicians have been accused of copying revealing materials and photos from customers' computers, is changing some rules. One Hennepin County case is set for trial.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
That tears it! I’m keeping my cloths on!
Cloths?! Who are you, Tarzan?!
This goes back to the child-porn discovery that the geeks made on some client’s machine. Problem is, the “fix” by Best Buy is BS and will solve nothing unless the tech is stupid enough to copy his booty up to the geek squad computers... which... most of the guys working there wouldn’t.
The only way to clear a harddrive.........sledgehammer.
“That tears it! I’m keeping my cloths on!”
Thank You!
Seriously, I work with several twenty somethings and while they’re really nice guys and very technically accomplished they just don’t seem to have very defined ethics. They also don’t seem to find anything wrong with coming to work impaired, arriving late, leaving early or taking a long lunch to meet their dealer. It’s a new world.
That’s because the lazy older generation is too dependent on the more technically savvy younger generation. I know too many older people who have boxed up their computers because they can’t follow directions anymore.
The mantra of the baby boomers is now “I want someone to do this for me”.
This is series and hugh.
Ug, me no type.
Hollow points work, too.
“The mantra of the baby boomers is now “I want someone to do this for me”.”
Wow, you managed to turn this into a boomer bashing thread. The amount of boomer bashing on FR is staggering. Hope you feel better.
I’m a boomer. That’s why I rant.
Postmodernism’s chickensssss... coming hoooome... to roooooozt!
What you’re seeing is the result of the postmodernist mindset where the teaching of absolute morals is forbidden. Everyone defines truth and right and wrong for themselves with no objective standard, because an objective standard would be “too judgemental”.
I’m a boomer too, but I don’t see the things you do. Maybe it’s a difference in who we work with. I work in a technical field and most of us boomers seem to get along fine. The younger pups out of college don’t seem to be all that savvy. They know how to run their fancy cell phones and Ipods, but other than that, they have a lot to learn. I see the younger ones wanting things done for them.
“It’s a new world.”
No it’s not. It’s the same world. You’ve just forgotten what it was like back in the day.
Twenty somethings have always been a little flaky.
It is more than your stash of porn that you should be concerned about but your financial and banking records that may be on your computer. Best Buy’s daily review of Geek Squad computers could easily be foiled by popping in a small flash drive. It would be prudent to have all your bank account and sensitive passwords locked in an encrypted “vault” accessible by a single password or better yet stored on a removable flash drive.
“. . .thought they had been deleted. . .”
Probably they had been, from the file structure, but not the hard-drive.
Moral: always use a secure deletion routine that overwrites the deleted file with random bits, repeatedly, even for innocuous files.
But the key question is were the files JPEG's, GIF's, or *ahem* in RAW format?
Call me old fashioned, but I don’t store any of my personal info like that on my computer. Still use paper and pen. That way, if for some weird chance I have to take my ‘puter to get it fixed (the last time was to repair the power cord), nothing lost.
I don’t even leave family photos on the computer if I take it in.
In the words of Fox Mulder, “Trust No One”............
I think, therefore I rant.
I have helped many of them get their computers going, and set up email accounts for them, etc..
Then I am repaid by being deluged by every 1980's Modem Tax urban legend and chain email that has ever been. They are like children who discover a whole new world, and are eager to share. Despite repeated pleas, the stuff keeps coming in, and I end up bouncing them.
Maybe boxing them up is better after all.
Disclaimer: I am old. But I like computers. I actually RTFM's.
Me too. I have a God given right to rant! I worked hard for it and no one is going to take it away!
I work in the IT field and many of the programmers can’t figure out their own machines. They rely on Tech Support. But mostly it is people outside the IT world. They don’t want to know how to do it. They just want it done. When people come to me about their computer problems, the ONLY answer they will accept is me going to their house and getting the spambots off their computers. They are not even mildly curious about how to fix it. “Come fix it and if I break it again, I’ll call you to come fix it again”. If I suggest “Download Spybot and run it”, they just counter “I’ll never be able to figure out how to do it”.
I just tell people to buy a Mac now.
I love the Geek Squad! They do great work! I've been to them a number of times, and they were always helpful!
I do not like having LAWSUITS interfere with everything! Some people seem to LOVE living in the litigious society. I don't! Mention "lawsuit" to anybody and watch the pupils dilate. I'm fed up with it!
Wait until they start clicking on every link that comes through. Soon they are awash in trojans and spambots. One person told me they shut down their firewall because an email told them to do it.
You can’t fix stupid.
I only Freep nekkid......
The rest of the people in the office are getting annoyed.....
The mantra of the baby boomers is now “I want someone to do this for me”.
*****************************
YOU SAID IT! My dad is a prime example. He made good money for years, now he is retired and disabled and still acts like he is a boss at a company and has servants or something. Unfortunately, as his only child, I am left to his expectations.
Needless to say, I have had to become ‘the adult’. He will throw out “You can’t say that you your father” and I throw back “You can’t handle your checkbook”. Nuff said.
I have always felt lucky, my 53 yo husband has been our families geek squad and he passed on the knowledge to my sons......
I just saw that 2 weeks ago.
"But we were not using the browser!".
Their machine did not last even a morning connected to High Speed Cable. I HAD told them to DL AVG 8 with firewall.
To hell with them.
The terrible thing is that it robs men of the one thing that would make everything easier for everybody: thankfulness. We are a thankless generation. How much things would change if he was thankful for everything you did. Lord protect me from ungratefulness.
Every day I think God for my house. I hear the wind howling outside and I am thankful. I sit on my deck watching the trees green up and I am thankful. I was even thankful when I was cleaning my gutters on Saturday because I have gutters to clean. I sound like a cliche but I know people who have it a lot worse than me and I mean REALLY bad. People just don’t consider that.
A couple of years ago, maybe before Geek Squad started handling Best Buy repairs, I went there with my mom to get her computer fixed. It was incredibly slow. Took like an hour in line just to get the thing checked in. I was not impressed. After the warranty expired she took it to Staples the next time it needed work and they were much faster.
My computer also needed an upgrade and cleaning recently. I have nothing illicit stored in it. :) But I was nervous about the techs perhaps snooping around for credit card numbers, bank info, etc. I hesitated for a long time to bring it in. I tried to clear out as much info I could, transferred photos to disks, etc in case there was some HD problem. Thankfully it turned out fine. I also brought it to Staples and much to my surprise, the guy cleaned it out and installed new RAM while I waited. It took a long time to be scanned and tested, but I didn’t have to leave it overnight. So that was a relief.
Guilty. Luckily I have a firewall on the router.
You are so right Pappy. I have heard Boortz say the Boomers are a ‘gimme’ generation. Maybe cause of the coddling of the 50’s? I don’t know. But I have seen more gimme’s than I ever imagined. When I first heard this, my parents were working. Now it’s a different story.
I agree with you. We only have so many days alive on this Earth. And only so many good days (healthy, not sick, not a terrible day filled with crises or problems, not too young or too old to ejoy being alive, etc.). We don't know what tomorrow may bring. Too many people miserable now and waiting to be happy when "the day" comes that they retire or hit the lottery or whatever. Best to have a thankful attitude for today.
On the one hand though, I’m all for stupid people armed with computers. Until recently, it was rare that I would come across a residential wifi network that was properly secured. Now everyone seems to at least use WPA, so you no longer have the kind of “inverse herd protection” you used to have when you were surrounded by 5 other idiots who left their networks open for the world to see.
Yeah but they don’t know their WEP key. I’ve run into that a few times. They have a router and don’t know the admin password or the WEP key.
We used to tell people to hide their password info. Now I tell them to tape it to their monitor.
How about maybe not taking any in the first place? Wierd, but I have never had the urge to take a picture of myself naked. Maybe it's just me...
Directions are meaningless if you can't get to them. the HELP is totally useless to me, as the key words don't lead to anything.
“I work in the IT field”
You just said a lot there. I feel pity for someone in the IT field. People with computers can do some of the dumbest things. I try not to do stupid stuff and piss off my IT help. They are the ones that keep me going. Good luck to you!
I’d rather you do something than not do something. Screwing up is how you learn.
I start building computers a few years ago because I wasn’t comfortable being ignorant about my computer. A new motherboard is less than $50 but you’ll spend a lot more getting one replaced by someone else.
I always preferred the puddle approach
one cast iron pot
one one torch
any number of hard drives
presto puddle.
Perhaps an Urban Legend, but I was told by one IT guy that a customer complained that her computer wouldn't read the CD disc. After an hour of on-line debugging, It turned out that when originally instructed to put the disc on the computer, she laid it ON the computer, as in "on top of the desktop".
“Put the disc in there? In the cup holder??” Another one I’ve heard, and I can believe it.
I hadn’t heard that one, but I like it!
Once I had my computer come back from the repair shop with a buried folder called “Tech.” Inside were many photos of obese women in bathing suits and other provocative poses. Really weird guy, the tech was.
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