🚀 go-pugleaf

When AOL "transmits" artwork, or when any online service has a
connection to your machine it has the potential to also retreive
information about your machine, so I don't see the point of making the
registration wizard some sort of issue.  Since most of you hate
Microsoft and hate Windows, what are the chances that you are going to
buy Win95 and use MSN anyways?  Really all you have to do is not use
their service if you want to make 110% sure that Billy Gates isn't
looking at your hard drive.  Perhaps they should just include a
disclaimer "The truely paranoid should be cautioned that this product
will ask you if you would like to register online.  If this will cause
you to wet your pants, please DO NOT use the Microsoft Network."

There are several issues that everybody Gates-bashing don't want to
address.

1.  Inter@ctive Week tested the registration wizard to find out
exactly what info it transmitted.  Guess what?  It was the data it
asked permission to transmit.  I have seen several other publications
conduct similar tests, all with the same conclusion.

2.  Nobody was quoted in the article the original poster supposedly
got the info from.  Besides the fact nobody has ever heard of the
publication. 

3.  Why would Motorola just figure out what the registration wizard
does after a year or more of beta testing it?  It's not like it's a
hidden feature, it's part of the damn installation procedure.

4.  Why has this same story appreared several times with the name of
the company changed?  Why is it whenever someone says they heard that
so and so wasn't going to buy Win95 because of the registration
wizard, they can never recall or give a specific person?

5.  Since when do companies allow large numbers of employees to dial
up online services like MSN and AOL (If someone has an answer, please
let me know, because I would love to work there)?  Better yet, since
when do large corporations individually register each copy of
software?

Answer those questions and you can consider yourself furthering an
intelligent conversation, if not your post is nothing more than a
waste of bandwidth.

I neither own any Microsoft (but I do wish the stock would get whacked
so I can pick up a couple of hundred shares on the cheap) nor am I
employeed by them.  I simply think we could all spend our days
worrying about something more worthwhile than made up scare stories.




jjs@dostoevsky.ucr.edu (Joe Sloan) wrote:


>I hate to have to point out the obvious, but wouldn't you have to 
>"dial up through a modem" every time you want to connect to MSN?

>sounds like plenty of opportunity to "dribble" the data over time.

>Just keeping you intellectually honest...




 billman@centcon.com   William Rini                      
 The Syndicate  http://www.centcon.com/~billman/syn.html 
                                                         
 PGP Fingerprint                                         
 9F FB EA C8 F6 46 29 45 A8 C3 7F B9 F8 E4 BD 70         
 Finger for public key