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Regarding your article on spyware ("Somebody's Watching You," Summer 2005), I have spent more than 30 hours in the past month in a wearying effort to rid my computer of various forms of spyware and malware. These appeared, seemingly, from nowhere.
I believe I have (mostly) succeeded. I am not certain, however, and I am increasingly questioning whether I can ever know for sure. The cost in terms of lost "real" work, frustration, and confusion has been high.
Worse, it seems clear upon reading your article that what I have experienced is the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Why do I need to understand, use, or otherwise fool around with Hijack This, Symantec Corporate Anti-Virus, firewalls, Microsoft Anti-Spyware Beta, SpyBot, AdAware, TuneUpMyPC, etc.? Who can possibly understand how all of these things work independently, much less in conjunction with one another on a single system? I posit that no one does, and no one can—not even Microsoft. Yet, noticeably absent in your article was any meaningful acknowledgement of the role of Microsoft itself in this morass.
Of course, the graphical user interface has, in core ways, improved productivity and expanded human reach and capabilities. However, it seems to me unconscionable that a company like Microsoft could become so dominant without delivering a product that is fundamentally stable and secure — absolute requirements for effective computing and, indeed, for any technology, including tires, telephones, and televisions.
Microsoft, in that limited but growing sense, must be viewed as a very real threat to companies' economic viability and, in an extended sense, the United States and even the global economy. Transaction processing across all industries is increasingly reliant upon Microsoft technologies, which leak like sieves. Microsoft, in its drive to add useless, counterintuitive features ad infinitum — at the expense of the core issues of system stability and security — is in the process of destabilizing some of the most important aspects of global commerce.
What aspect of economic imperative has led us (me included) to accept — nay, invite — this level of shoddy workmanship? Walt Kelley's Pogo said, many years ago, "We have met the enemy, and he is us." Unfortunately, too many of "us" work in Redmond.
Mark Head
President
HR TechSuite
Dallas
Data Privacy and Hiring
In Readers Write (Summer 2005), C.T. Seidl addresses some good points regarding companies requiring Social Security numbers in the application process, but Seidl does not go far enough. There is absolutely no valid reason why a company needs an applicant's SSN, or birth date, during the application process. Federal law should be changed to make the acquisition of either of these illegal (isn't age discrimination already illegal?) until a job offer has been extended, subject to the customary inquisitions. No job offer extended equals no need for SSN or birth date. Seems like an easy fix to me!
William P. Rosenberg
Tampa, Florida
Data, Data Everywhere
Regarding Nick Cellentani's letter asking why there seems to be little or no planning when it comes to storage (Readers Write, Summer 2005), I submit there are two fundamental and related reasons that perpetually put IT into a reactive position.
First is the ethereal form of data itself. That is, bits and bytes do not "take up space" the way physical things do. For example, if I know my widget-producing company is going to expand the product line next year and also plans on 30 percent growth (we make popular widgets), and my warehouse is already packed almost to capacity, I can proactively seek out new building space or otherwise plan for the new space requirements. There is no similar 1:1 spatial correspondence with data — a 100-gigabyte disk drive looks pretty much identical to a 500GB disk. Thus, there is no natural inclination to realize you should "buy more space" because what you have is getting pretty full.
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