Week VI

Turning the Pages

This is a fantastic website with digitized images of rare biomedical books from the U.S. National Library of Medicine. The presentation was done with Flash, and I've listed some of the images below. If only some of our other museums managed to do such a wonderful presentation online:

Week V

Home of the Underdogs is an old favorite of mine that I wanted to share. It has lots of old PC games that are available for download free. The games are all ones that are no longer being sold, so are distributed as "abandonware".

Now, from a practical standpoint, the website offers a lot of old games that are really useful, not just for fun but educationally too. But, from an ethical standpoint, even though the offered games are no longer being sold and cannot be bought from the copyright holder, they still fall under copyright. Abandonware is illegal. Here is the rationale posted on the site:

"Despite the illegal status of abandonware, we believe that we are offering a valuable service to the gaming community: classic game collectors have a chance to retrieve games that have otherwise been lost or rendered defective with the passage of time. As our Disclaimer printed on every page makes clear, we will gladly remove download links to any game that is either 1) still being sold by the publisher, or 2) at the request of the publishers themselves. Encouraging publishers to continue publishing great classics of yore has always been this site's foremost goals, and we will gladly link to the publisher's order or download site without hesitation should they make their products available again, whether commercially or as freeware.

That said, we are continually seeking permission from copyright holders to distribute their games on this site. If you are a copyright holder and would like to grant us permission (or request that your games be taken off-line, as the case may be), please contact us. "

I thought it would be interesting to get some feedback from the class on what they think ethically...

Week IV

My two year old desktop decided to die two weeks ago. This computer took the place of my laptop which crashed rather gloriously during the most hectic time in my undergrad years and which spawned an emotional breakdown that had me locked in my bathroom for the better part of finals Junior year. Obviously, this was not an experience I wanted to repeat.

I played with it for a week or so. Defragged it. Did Disk Cleanup. Ran virus scans. Had my technically inclined friends come over and shrug at it. Then, I dug around, found my four year warranty, and settled in for a nice chat with Dell.

I spoke to three different levels of technicians during two different days and over five total hours on the phone. Michael (who was very clearly based in India), tried hard. We went through the entire manual before he transferred me up to Ronald (back to domestic support), who eventually transferred me up to Hector. By Hector, I had run pretty much every test known to man, gotten into an argument about the fact that my flash drive did not cause Blue Screen of Death, and wiped my system clean. At this point, it was established that it was in fact a hardware failure and not 1.) software related, or 2.) user error. In hour five, Hector actually had me OPEN my tower case up and start taking bits out.

Hector: "Okay, now you see the silver box?"
Me: "Which one?"
Hector: "The one on the right."
Me: "The upper right or right behind it?"
Hector: *pained silence*

It was at this point that we established that my motherboard was malfunctioning. Hector put me on hold (presumably to inform his supervisors that they would actually have to fix my computer), and then scheduled a technician's visit. I was impressed when he gave me his number/ employee code- he was Dell technician 01.

My parents are less technologically able than I am (which is really saying something- last month I set my vaccum cleaner on fire), so, traditionally, I have been the one to call tech support for anything from the internet going down to my Dad throwing the printer at the wall (the printer really did deserve it). I've picked up some tricks over the years which serve me well:

1.) be patient (even if you know what's wrong, if you want them to pay for it, you're going to have to let them run their diagnostics and tests their way)
2.) be polite, ask them how their day has been and actually care, remember that 9 out of every 10 calls likely involves cussing, and, trust me, call 10 is the one that gets the best help
3.) write down everything- their name, their employee identification, all the steps you're going through, and most important- your case information so you don't have to start over from scratch if the call gets lost (it happens more often than you'd think)

A rather humorous, Tips for Dealing with Tech Support, written by techs.

My computer, as of yesterday, has a new motherboard and appears to be functioning well. If not, I have two years left on my warranty, and a lot of cell phone minutes.