Bypassing Corporate Security or Banging the TV..Same thing

Bypassing Corporate Security or Banging the TV..Same thing

We are pretty ingenious for imitating or creating workarounds in life. Sometimes we shouldn't do it ... But people will fall into a trap of thinking they are "solving" an issue or creating a workaround when they are simply fooling themselves. Its too bad that we do not have enough people looking over our shoulders and asking why we are trying such a silly trick . This can be even more amusing when you find out that OTHERS consider you to be the smart one and they are following you down the same pathway to doom.

A couple examples. Photocopy technology. Still a very complicated process which includes many parts and bits of computer technology. The manufactures try their best to put smarts into these machines to warn you about different problems or issues. How many people have you seen being stuck late at night trying to coax out a bit more toner out of an empty cartridge for that critical report? In some cases the gentle thumping of a cartridge might help, but they are frequently actually resetting certain sensors, timers, reset trips on some machines. So the trick of turning off the warning light might be banging the toner cartridge, or may be something else. However its late at night and you must try all of these things so you can print the last twelve pages of the report! This can be a gentle process or a brutal one depending on the beginning or ending temperament of the user. How many "the copier is broken" notes on copiers that went kaput late at night? So the first person might get away with a few tricks, but the tenth person is certain to have a frustrating experience. Of course no living person or alternate resource! I know most of you in office situations have been there!

I won't bother with the details of fixing the situation. Just that I know that such remedies are probably cheaper than handling picking up the pieces of a copier that did not survive end of month reports!

Banging the T.V. to make it work. This trick may be fading out. However at one time there were some technical reasons that tapping the television could temporarily take care of an issue. The technology has changed over time and the number of certified TV repairman have dropped considerably. Reducing to a great degree that you know what you are doing by tapping the TV to make it work! For some time though... People started tapping anything electronic to make it work! Hey it seems to work! How about mechanical devices! Sure that seems to work! Not sure why.. Uncle Fred did it in the 1950's Maybe it will work for me! That was then .. This is now.

Please explain Corporate Security as it relates to this post?

Check out the Mouse Jiggler

http://www.wiebetech.com/products/MouseJiggler.php

This will be a fantastic gizmo that will fly off the shelves! Many people will buy this because they want to bypass the corporate mandates of screen saver software that is a requirement to auto-run on corporate systems!

There are some applications that will for example pause, crash or halt if screen saver is activated. Some people will request their IT support to remove the Mandated Screen saver or disable it so they can run their application. However this can be a dead end a corporate security policy may not have exceptions or workarounds. So the alternative is to sit around wiggling yourself and the mouse while your app runs rather than walking away and come back to find the application has stopped?

No way!

So the mouse jiggler and its relations will either give the computer the impression that the mouse is being wiggled! So the screen saver stays off. Person at the computer right? Wrong!

The people buying such a device will at first have a chance to get their coffee breaks and IT Security will be happy until they find out that unattended computers are not being protected.

It will be glaring so to speak. Computer screen with a non-screen saver display and human head not nearby to view the screen...

I predict this product will work for a while until the security snoops at the big corporations catch wind and confiscate these gizmos and toss them into the school teacher forbidden items drawer! Then the vendor will have made his $29.00 bucks for a while until piles of these things are stuffed away by the corporate security police! ( Probably stuffed next the the mad-windup-clicking-teeth-toys.)

Its an eternal battle.. So the next round will start again with a new gizmo.

So whats my point? There are reasons for plans. There are reasons for messages. There are reasons for decisions. There are reasons why things work. People who are sufficiently empowered will sometimes take a direct line to "solve" an issue when in reality they are undoing someones plans that were originally intended as a benefit.

So who is at fault? That is a question that surfaces when people try to pick up the pieces after something was "fixed" to death or disabled.

You cannot plan for all contingencies.

Have you planned for the creativity of the human mind to bypass your well thought plans?

Are your instructions geared for your target readership?

Do you still want to wack the Toner Cartridge?

Just do your best!

Dexter

Sank... Company capitulated and .....

Sank... Company capitulated and .....


I wrote a couple brief articles about my getting involved with the fun and travails of a new computer with a really new operating system. Yes I helped my friend out. Here are the original links.

Sink or Swim ? Don't know until you try? And other such ideas.
http://dexterzone.blogspot.com/2007/02/sink-or-swim-dont-know-until-you-try.html

Update on Sink or Swim with a New Operating System
http://dexterzone.blogspot.com/2007/02/update-on-sink-or-swim-with-new.html

Well after some time after the printer/fax machine was working.. The owner of the computer called the people she bought the system .. (computer system + Fax/Printer) The result of the conversation was that the printer was too "new" and no one had turned in any empty ink cartridges ... so they could not sell her any more ink!

So this finally frosted her cookies! So with some notes and encouragement from me... She went ahead and had someone mind her small business while she buried herself in an office for an anticipated battle of a customer return.

To her surprise she found that she part of a wave of unhappy customers and that the company had apparently heard enough complaints lack of resolution of issues that they gave her an acceptable proposal.

She would keep everything except the computer system box itself.
She would ship the misbehaving computer back.

The manufacturer would send her a new tower computer with the previous version of the operating system installed. (Hurrah!)

Yes they did magically find some ink cartridges as well!

I am glad for her. She will hopefully will once again be a happy customer.

I feel sorry for the staff and management of the manufacturer who will have to cycle who knows how many systems back, refurbish and resell. I know its part a fact of life of the business... But no doubt they do not need extra work to do such on top of the normal returns!

In my opinion so much pain could have been avoided. So at best my specific contact will be again paddling water, but there still was a loss in productivity, frustration , and uncertainty.

It was only with some proactive work on the customer's part (With external guidance) to push the issue to some level of attention. I hate to think of how many doorstops were created with this mistake.

I will keep you posted as I learn of the results of their promise to correct her computer problems.

Regards,
Dexter

Sink or Swim ? Don't know until you try? And other such..

Sink or Swim ? Don't know until you try? And other such ideas.

There is so much to learn and do in the great world. Modern communications through so many channels work full time to let us know how much we don't know about the world.

So much is out there to tell us that we need X, Y or Z in order to be more successful in some aspect of life.

Some of these communications are primarily oriented so you go ahead and buy a product, or solution. So it is aways a balancing act of telling you enough that you are missing out until you purchase the solution. But if they tell you enough... you don't need to buy the solution... They already shared it with you!

Somehow the personal computer industry still seems to be gripping with how to get people happily started with their first computing experience.

I won't mention brands or the specific case. I don't want to embarrass the person who may be reading this post.

I recently came into contact with a small business owner who just purchased a new computer from a major manufacturer. She had very basic needs to start with in terms of a computer.

Unfortunately the computer manufacturer had decided to transition to the latest version of a particular operating system. I personally know from my experiences over the years as a Technical Support person that introducing new technology as product can be easy or rough in terms of use. However it seems that that whenever a major change is introduced , there is the possibility of disruptions of service or customer satisfaction as everyone learns the "ropes" in supporting the product.

I became involved in the situation when the owner of the new computer asked me in frustration to help.

The issue boiled down that the product was shipped with unusable product and software. The new operating system had chosen to block the new software from working and certain new peripherals ( with the computer manufacturer's product label on it) would not work as well due to a lack of current drivers.

So the product was shipped with no warnings or suggestions to be on top of the latest situation. The technical support people who she contacted did not give her options on what to do next. She was given the suggestion by me to ask at first if they could sell or send her the previous version of the operating system if essentially her computer was unusable due to operating system incompatibilities. She was told, "They don't sell that version of the operating system anymore"

I would personally be very frustrated if this was my first computer purchase.

I stepped in and used my background to reach the "right people" . Even the computer manufacturer's support organization was not on the same page of knowing the status of product compatibility or driver updates.

I did talk with someone who did find an updated driver that supposedly would make the new business owner's computer work with the printer that she purchased as part of the package.

What surprises me ... Is that there was no mention in the customer's packaging where to go to get the current news on compatibility , news or drivers relating to her purchase.

So this was a new product purchase, which included old software that would not work and no other information to go by. The standard support process failed to help get on her feet with a new system using the default installed software.

The person owning the computer is on a slow Internet connection. So as a favor, I pulled down a 50 megabyte file update from my fast Internet connection in order to get this file in less than five hours using her modem connection. Technical Support said they could NOT ship a disk to her with this update.

I was becoming frustrated a bit with the handling of the whole process. That is saying quite a bit since I have by nature a great deal of patience. If this was my first computer.. I think it would be promptly putting it in a box and shipping it back.

So you still need a friend out there to help you on your road to computing. This should not be the case. Personal Computers have been with us for some twenty eight years.

So do you need to buy your first private plane in order to fly to the exclusive private plane airport ( which can only be reached by private plane) so you can learn about purchasing the right private plane?

If cars were this hard to buy and operate, many more people would be walking!

Eventually this change in operating systems will be a bump in the road. Unfortunately those who were "bumped" during this time period will remember this experience for a long time.