I was shocked the other day when I went to clean some junk off of an employee laptop when it was returned. I found the HP software installed that might come with a new "all in one" printer. No big deal, except there were eight different programs for me to uninstall. Most of them were programs that would be running all the time on the system (they were Windows Services). This is a printer! I'm going to say that again. It's just a stupid printer! Why do you need 8 separate programs on a system for a stupid printer?!
I've been seeing this as a trend lately, and I don't like it. Why can't they just have a link on your system to check for updates. Or, have it check for updates when launched like Firefox does. It seems so simple to me. Does it really need to be a service that runs on your system all the time? No. Unacceptable. HP does it for printers, Apple does it for their iTunes / Quicktime, Google does it for their browser, Dell even does it. That doesn't make it right. The only one that makes any sense, is that Microsoft does it to keep the operating system updated with security patches.
This may seem unintuitive, but I uninstall all update programs to keep my system running smoother. If I need an update, I'll just get it myself.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Verizon did what?!
So I just got this card in the mail from Verizon. I ignored it for a couple of days since it just said privacy information on the outside of it.
Apparently Verizon Wireless has given themselves the right to share a lot of the information having to do with your cell phone including billing information, technical configuration, location, and user of purchased services. They can share this with affiliates, agents, and parent companies. Affiliates, is the word that scares me. It means anyone that they sell the information to.
You can opt out of this by calling 1.800.333.9956 or going to verizonwireless.com/myverizon, sign in, click "my profile" tab, under "phone controls" section, click on the "view/edit privacy (CPNI) settings.
Apparently Verizon Wireless has given themselves the right to share a lot of the information having to do with your cell phone including billing information, technical configuration, location, and user of purchased services. They can share this with affiliates, agents, and parent companies. Affiliates, is the word that scares me. It means anyone that they sell the information to.
You can opt out of this by calling 1.800.333.9956 or going to verizonwireless.com/myverizon, sign in, click "my profile" tab, under "phone controls" section, click on the "view/edit privacy (CPNI) settings.
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