The Worst Salesman Ever
08/28/09 05:35 PM Filed in: Stories
Last night, Evan,
Jacob, Dave, and I decided to journey to Wal-Mart for
a few things and to conclude our outing with a trip
to PetSmart where we could buy a few fish. Dave
and I still had our fish tank from last year, and
Evan and Jacob were planning on purchasing a new
tank.
Our experience at Wal-Mart was largely uneventful; we got what we needed and headed on to PetSmart. We arrived at PetSmart and our first suspicion was that it was closed. Apparently the chain likes to make their large, sliding, glass doors extremely tinted so customers can barely see inside. Anyway, it wasn't closed (even though the hours on the front door said it closed at 7pm and it was 8:30pm). We received a dirty look from a salesman as we entered, but since the doors were unlocked, we entered without pause and made our way to the fishy section.
Over the summer I had two fish: a Molly and a Platy, tropical fish which need filtration and enjoy warm water. I have a 2.5 gallon tank with filtration, but since my room is always fairly warm and I had a lamp directly above the water, I figured that would be warm enough for them. Considering they lived for over three months (and one of them may potentially still be alive, depending on how well he likes the cows' water tank), I figured another one or two of those fish would be a good buy. Anyway, Dave and I were sick of Bettas. I've had numerous Bettas in my lifetime, and aside from Zapato (whom Dave and I managed to keep alive for over three months ... It would have been longer if he hadn’t a nasty run in with boiling water from the faucet), I've never been able to keep a Betta alive for longer than a week or two. Besides, Bettas are generally pretty lame unless you put them in a tank with other fish which they hate (namely, their own kind).
Demetrius and Bruno, the two fishes I had this summer, were quite active and played hide-and-seek and tag frequently throughout their days. They seemed quite happy.
After about fifteen minutes of debating, we made our decision: we'd get two different Mollies. Together, we wandered the store and summoned Jimmy, an apparent resident expert on all things fish. As we rounded the isle back to the fish section, our conversation with Jimmy went something like this:
Jimmy: “So, what are we looking at here?”
Me: “Well, I think we’re going to go with two Platies.”
Jimmy: “How big is your tank?”
Me: “2.5 gallons.”
Jimmy: “That’s not big enough for Platies.”
*long awkward silence*
Me: “Okay ... Um. Well, how big to Platies get?”
Jimmy: “They’ll grow to be about three or four inches when they’re full size.”
Me: “How long does it take them to grow that much?”
Jimmy: “Two or three months.”
Me: “Okay. Cuz, see, I’ve had Platies before. And Mollies. And they seemed to like my tank just fine.”
Jimmy: “Do you have a heater?”
Me: “No.”
Jimmy: “Well, they need a heater. They’re tropical fish, so the water temperature needs to be around seventy-five degrees.”
*long awkward silence*
It’s worth noting that, during these long awkward silences, Jimmy just stared at us. He didn’t bother offering up any advice to us like, “For a tank that size, I would recommend ...” or, “We actually sell heaters for *insert price* in isle *insert proper isle number*!” No, he just stared at us waiting to shoot down whatever our next decision might be.
Me: “Okay. Well ... Um. How about Mollies? I’ve had those before.”
Jimmy: “They need at least a ten gallon tank.”
Dave and I both looked at the tank which the Mollies were currently being held in, a clearly less than ten gallon tank holding well over thirty pretty, yellow Mollies.
Me: “I guess they probably need a heater too, huh?”
Jimmy: “Pretty much any of the fish on this wall will need a heater, since they’re tropical.”
Me: “They need a heater, or they like a heater?”
Jimmy: “They need a heater.”
Me: “Ok. Fine. What fish would you recommend for my 2.5 gallon, non-heated tank?”
Jimmy: “I mean, pretty much your best bet is going to be a Betta. They’ll live the longest in that environment.”
Dave and I looked at each other, both fairly perturbed at this guy.
Me: “No. Bettas are lame. They’re more expensive, and the Molly and Platy I had lived longer than all of my other Bettas combined, minus Zapato. He was a rare case.”
*long awkward silence*
After shuffling our feat on the floor waiting for Jimmy to recommend something, anything other than what his customer obviously didn’t want, I finally said to Dave in about as exasperated a tone as I could muster, “Alright, well, I guess we aren’t getting any fish then.”
Jimmy didn’t seem too saddened by this. I think he may have actually been happy that we had chosen not to torture the large, tropical fish in our cold, 2.5 gallon tank. It’s worth mentioning that neither the Molly nor the Platy I had grew much past the size they were when I purchased them.
On an unlucky trip, this would be where the story ended. But this wasn’t just an unlucky trip, it was a trip of absolutely no success. Negative success, actually, if you count gas spent. Jimmy turned his attention (after we regained it by force, that is) to Evan and Jacob. They figured they would just get a bunch of goldfish and put them in the 2.5 gallon tank they had grabbed from the shelf. After all, Goldfish are only twenty-seven cents; if one dies, it’s only a quarter!
Evan: “I think we’re going to get a couple of Goldfish.”
Jimmy: “Are you going to put them in that tank there?”
Evan: “Well, yes.”
Jimmy: “That tank isn’t big enough for Goldfish. And, anyway, they need a heater.”
Evan: “Oh. Does this come with a heater?”
Jimmy: “No.”
*long awkward silence*
Evan: “Okay. Well. What fish can we get?”
Jimmy: “For that tank, I’d say you’re going to be best off getting a Betta.”
At this point Dave and I came out from our laughing spot in one of the isles.
Me: “You don’t want to get a Betta. They’re lame.”
Evan: “Yah, we really don’t want a Betta.”
Jimmy: “Well, without a heater that’s really going to be your best bet.”
*long awkward silence*
Jacob: “What if we just got a bowl and put a fish in it? What fish then?”
Jimmy: “A Betta would live best in a bowl, since there’s no filtration or heating.”
The details are a little foggy past this point. If I recall correctly, there was a far too long awkward pause and then Jimmy managed to wander off to mac on some ladies he had seen in another isle (it’s worth noting that the ladies were clearly trying to get away from him). Evan and Jacob ducked into the isle Dave and I had retreated to again.
Evan: “Do we seriously need a heater for a Goldfish?!”
Me: “This guys full of crap. Just put the tank away and we’re coming back another day when there’s somebody here that will actually let us buy what we want.”
We put the 2.5 gallon tank back on its shelf. The one that, according to Jimmy, wasn’t suitable for any fish besides a Betta. The one that also had large words on the front of the box that read, “Goldfish Starter Tank.” And we left the store, never to return (at least not when Jimmy’s working). We’re pretty sure Jimmy must secretly be working for PETA or something. With that in mind, it seems Jimmy has successfully saved a few fish from almost certain chills and ultimate death! Unfortunately, he lost the sales of around $10 worth of fish and a $25 fish tank. Still, I’m sure his manager will be proud.
Our experience at Wal-Mart was largely uneventful; we got what we needed and headed on to PetSmart. We arrived at PetSmart and our first suspicion was that it was closed. Apparently the chain likes to make their large, sliding, glass doors extremely tinted so customers can barely see inside. Anyway, it wasn't closed (even though the hours on the front door said it closed at 7pm and it was 8:30pm). We received a dirty look from a salesman as we entered, but since the doors were unlocked, we entered without pause and made our way to the fishy section.
Over the summer I had two fish: a Molly and a Platy, tropical fish which need filtration and enjoy warm water. I have a 2.5 gallon tank with filtration, but since my room is always fairly warm and I had a lamp directly above the water, I figured that would be warm enough for them. Considering they lived for over three months (and one of them may potentially still be alive, depending on how well he likes the cows' water tank), I figured another one or two of those fish would be a good buy. Anyway, Dave and I were sick of Bettas. I've had numerous Bettas in my lifetime, and aside from Zapato (whom Dave and I managed to keep alive for over three months ... It would have been longer if he hadn’t a nasty run in with boiling water from the faucet), I've never been able to keep a Betta alive for longer than a week or two. Besides, Bettas are generally pretty lame unless you put them in a tank with other fish which they hate (namely, their own kind).
Demetrius and Bruno, the two fishes I had this summer, were quite active and played hide-and-seek and tag frequently throughout their days. They seemed quite happy.
After about fifteen minutes of debating, we made our decision: we'd get two different Mollies. Together, we wandered the store and summoned Jimmy, an apparent resident expert on all things fish. As we rounded the isle back to the fish section, our conversation with Jimmy went something like this:
Jimmy: “So, what are we looking at here?”
Me: “Well, I think we’re going to go with two Platies.”
Jimmy: “How big is your tank?”
Me: “2.5 gallons.”
Jimmy: “That’s not big enough for Platies.”
*long awkward silence*
Me: “Okay ... Um. Well, how big to Platies get?”
Jimmy: “They’ll grow to be about three or four inches when they’re full size.”
Me: “How long does it take them to grow that much?”
Jimmy: “Two or three months.”
Me: “Okay. Cuz, see, I’ve had Platies before. And Mollies. And they seemed to like my tank just fine.”
Jimmy: “Do you have a heater?”
Me: “No.”
Jimmy: “Well, they need a heater. They’re tropical fish, so the water temperature needs to be around seventy-five degrees.”
*long awkward silence*
It’s worth noting that, during these long awkward silences, Jimmy just stared at us. He didn’t bother offering up any advice to us like, “For a tank that size, I would recommend ...” or, “We actually sell heaters for *insert price* in isle *insert proper isle number*!” No, he just stared at us waiting to shoot down whatever our next decision might be.
Me: “Okay. Well ... Um. How about Mollies? I’ve had those before.”
Jimmy: “They need at least a ten gallon tank.”
Dave and I both looked at the tank which the Mollies were currently being held in, a clearly less than ten gallon tank holding well over thirty pretty, yellow Mollies.
Me: “I guess they probably need a heater too, huh?”
Jimmy: “Pretty much any of the fish on this wall will need a heater, since they’re tropical.”
Me: “They need a heater, or they like a heater?”
Jimmy: “They need a heater.”
Me: “Ok. Fine. What fish would you recommend for my 2.5 gallon, non-heated tank?”
Jimmy: “I mean, pretty much your best bet is going to be a Betta. They’ll live the longest in that environment.”
Dave and I looked at each other, both fairly perturbed at this guy.
Me: “No. Bettas are lame. They’re more expensive, and the Molly and Platy I had lived longer than all of my other Bettas combined, minus Zapato. He was a rare case.”
*long awkward silence*
After shuffling our feat on the floor waiting for Jimmy to recommend something, anything other than what his customer obviously didn’t want, I finally said to Dave in about as exasperated a tone as I could muster, “Alright, well, I guess we aren’t getting any fish then.”
Jimmy didn’t seem too saddened by this. I think he may have actually been happy that we had chosen not to torture the large, tropical fish in our cold, 2.5 gallon tank. It’s worth mentioning that neither the Molly nor the Platy I had grew much past the size they were when I purchased them.
On an unlucky trip, this would be where the story ended. But this wasn’t just an unlucky trip, it was a trip of absolutely no success. Negative success, actually, if you count gas spent. Jimmy turned his attention (after we regained it by force, that is) to Evan and Jacob. They figured they would just get a bunch of goldfish and put them in the 2.5 gallon tank they had grabbed from the shelf. After all, Goldfish are only twenty-seven cents; if one dies, it’s only a quarter!
Evan: “I think we’re going to get a couple of Goldfish.”
Jimmy: “Are you going to put them in that tank there?”
Evan: “Well, yes.”
Jimmy: “That tank isn’t big enough for Goldfish. And, anyway, they need a heater.”
Evan: “Oh. Does this come with a heater?”
Jimmy: “No.”
*long awkward silence*
Evan: “Okay. Well. What fish can we get?”
Jimmy: “For that tank, I’d say you’re going to be best off getting a Betta.”
At this point Dave and I came out from our laughing spot in one of the isles.
Me: “You don’t want to get a Betta. They’re lame.”
Evan: “Yah, we really don’t want a Betta.”
Jimmy: “Well, without a heater that’s really going to be your best bet.”
*long awkward silence*
Jacob: “What if we just got a bowl and put a fish in it? What fish then?”
Jimmy: “A Betta would live best in a bowl, since there’s no filtration or heating.”
The details are a little foggy past this point. If I recall correctly, there was a far too long awkward pause and then Jimmy managed to wander off to mac on some ladies he had seen in another isle (it’s worth noting that the ladies were clearly trying to get away from him). Evan and Jacob ducked into the isle Dave and I had retreated to again.
Evan: “Do we seriously need a heater for a Goldfish?!”
Me: “This guys full of crap. Just put the tank away and we’re coming back another day when there’s somebody here that will actually let us buy what we want.”
We put the 2.5 gallon tank back on its shelf. The one that, according to Jimmy, wasn’t suitable for any fish besides a Betta. The one that also had large words on the front of the box that read, “Goldfish Starter Tank.” And we left the store, never to return (at least not when Jimmy’s working). We’re pretty sure Jimmy must secretly be working for PETA or something. With that in mind, it seems Jimmy has successfully saved a few fish from almost certain chills and ultimate death! Unfortunately, he lost the sales of around $10 worth of fish and a $25 fish tank. Still, I’m sure his manager will be proud.
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I Spoke too Soon
07/17/09 01:37 PM Filed in: Stories
Yesterday, after
blogging about how my two fish have lived the entire
summer through, Bruno kicked the bucket. After not
seeing him and Demetrius play tag all day, I grew
suspicious and looked into the tank. He was no where
to be found. Not behind his favorite plant, not
chasing Demetrius, not hiding behind the filter. This
concerned me. I then looked under the filter. There was poor Bruno,
dead and stuck to the air intake.
I suppose this is what I get for boasting publically of their long life, and I’m personally blaming Kylee for making me write that blog post, which led to me discussing their life, which clearly led to Bruno’s death. Kylee, this is putting a pretty big damper on our friendship right now. I just ... I ... I can’t talk about this right now ...
I suppose this is what I get for boasting publically of their long life, and I’m personally blaming Kylee for making me write that blog post, which led to me discussing their life, which clearly led to Bruno’s death. Kylee, this is putting a pretty big damper on our friendship right now. I just ... I ... I can’t talk about this right now ...
Information You Won't Find Useful, Vol. 1
07/15/09 10:42 PM Filed in: Technology
Kylee reprimanded me
for not blogging enough. While this is a very valid
accusation, I’ve decided to oblige her in only the
most annoying sort of way. So here you go, Kylee. A
blog post just for you. Enjoy.
To Visa’s credit, they quickly admitted that it was a “temporary programming error ... [which] caused some transactions to be inaccurately posted.” They say some transactions. Roughly 13,000 transactions, actually. Well, at least they caught it, right? But isn’t it scary to think that a programming error could cause such a huge mishap? And more importantly, what the heck did the programmer do to cause such an error.
Well, for those of you familiar with C++, it doesn’t take too long to figure it out. The error was in the amount of 2314885530818450000 (we multiplied by 100 to get rid of the nasty change). If we convert that number to hexadecimal, it comes out to be 20 20 20 20 20 20 12 00. 20 in hexadecimal is a whitespace character, so it’s likely that a conversion was never made and the customers really made purchases for $46.08.
The Google Chrome OS has led to talk of booting Google’s CEO off of Apple’s board. After all, that would just be a nasty conflict of interest, what with Apple being a major OS distributor as well.
Google claims that the new OS will be written from the ground up (like they did when the “reinvented” the browser with Chrome), will be a system built atop the Linux kernel, and will boot and “get users onto the web in seconds.”
Microsoft’s CEO, Steve Ballmer, has laughed at the new OS. I don’t know if he thinks it’s a joke or if he was scoffing at the reality of it, but I seem to recall him laughing at the iPhone a year before it’s release as well and, well, making some rather audacious (and now embarassing) statements about it in this video. Based upon that evidence, and how successful the iPhone has become today, I’d say the new Google Chrome OS is going to be revolutionary, to say the least.
At the beginning of the summer, I cleaned my room. This is a regular occurrence for me, but in this particular cleaning I came across my 2.5 gallon fish tank which was empty. I thought to myself, “The tank and filter are the expensive parts ... Fishes are cheap!” I quickly drove to PetSmart and purchased two little fish: a Platy and a Molly. One was red, the other black. The black one I named Bruno, and the red one was called Demetrius (names compliments of an afternoon of boredom for Evan and me).
After these three months of summer, Demetrius and Bruno are still kickin’! I’m now getting slightly worried about the eight hour trip back to school. I’m really hoping they can survive it so we can see how much longer these guys will keep on sticking with us. If you have any good ideas for safely transporting said fishes from Iowa to Ohio, drop me a line.
I can’t say that I blame the world. I mean, he was a legendary artist, and I don’t think there will ever be another musician that will be able to attain the caliber of Jackson. Despite his social record, he holds the spot as one of my all-time favorite performers, and within two days after his passing, I listened through his entire discography as a tribute. Yes, I do own his entire discography ...
Frequently I stumble upon tutorials, and as I’m reading through them I think, “Wait, that can’t work. Will that really compile? I thought ‘Class’ was lowercase in C++ ... And why isn’t there a semicolon at the end of this line? Shouldn’t they have included this library?” Out of curiosity, I grab the code and try to compile it myself and, sure enough, it craps out on me. The common misconception is that, “Well, this code is never meant to be compiled, it’s just an example.” But that’s just the point! It’s supposed to be an example ... And it’s wrong!!
Nine times out of ten this is a trivial issue, but I’ve run into instances where the broken code is what I’m trying to interpret, and it’s really hard to interpret something when you’re first trying to figure out if it’s right in the first place. How do you expect me to know if it’s right or not if you’re supposed to be teaching it to me?
Sometimes the errors are just syntactical. Those are bad enough. The worst is when you try to compile a tutorial’s example code and it causes something catastrophic, like a segfault. Please, for the sake of those you’re trying to teach, make sure what you’re teaching is accurate!
There are already two excellent and free alternatives to the Symantec and McAfee subscription services out there made by Avast and AVG. Microsoft’s Morro soon to be the third free alternative, both Symantec and McAfee are saying that they aren’t worried about their sales being effected by these free products, even with Morro bundled with the Microsoft OS. According to the CEOs of the Big Boy companies, a free alternative just can’t guarantee the security that users need while browsing today’s malicious internet; you need more than just anti-virus support, and that’s what the Premium services give you. While I agree that you need more than just anti-virus support, there are many other prevention companies out there that offer the same services for free that the Big Boys offer at a hefty price.
Whether you’re interested in paying for Symantec’s services or you’re willing to settle for the free Morro that will soon come with your Windows operating system, it’s good for the Big Boy’s to have some healthy competition to keep their products quality and their prices low. Though I can’t say that security competition from Microsoft is any incentive for Symantec and McAfee to keep their quality high ... But we can hope.
That’s all I’ve got for now. We’ll see how long it takes me to come up with more Information You Won’t Find Useful.
Visa Overcharges Customers
There’s no way this can work out in a positive manner for Visa’s reputation. I mean, they overcharged individual customers to the amount of $23 quadrillion (each), according to CNN. That’s right, some Visa cardholder’s received their monthly statement and had the heart attack of the century upon seeing certain “purchases of goods” to the dollar amount of $23,148,855,308,184,500.00.To Visa’s credit, they quickly admitted that it was a “temporary programming error ... [which] caused some transactions to be inaccurately posted.” They say some transactions. Roughly 13,000 transactions, actually. Well, at least they caught it, right? But isn’t it scary to think that a programming error could cause such a huge mishap? And more importantly, what the heck did the programmer do to cause such an error.
Well, for those of you familiar with C++, it doesn’t take too long to figure it out. The error was in the amount of 2314885530818450000 (we multiplied by 100 to get rid of the nasty change). If we convert that number to hexadecimal, it comes out to be 20 20 20 20 20 20 12 00. 20 in hexadecimal is a whitespace character, so it’s likely that a conversion was never made and the customers really made purchases for $46.08.
An Online Operating System?
That’s what Google says, anyway. Better yet, they claim they can have it ready for delivery by the end of next year! Microsoft, of course, is in shock, but this isn’t all that surprising considering their OS turn around is something under five years ... If they work really fast.The Google Chrome OS has led to talk of booting Google’s CEO off of Apple’s board. After all, that would just be a nasty conflict of interest, what with Apple being a major OS distributor as well.
Google claims that the new OS will be written from the ground up (like they did when the “reinvented” the browser with Chrome), will be a system built atop the Linux kernel, and will boot and “get users onto the web in seconds.”
Microsoft’s CEO, Steve Ballmer, has laughed at the new OS. I don’t know if he thinks it’s a joke or if he was scoffing at the reality of it, but I seem to recall him laughing at the iPhone a year before it’s release as well and, well, making some rather audacious (and now embarassing) statements about it in this video. Based upon that evidence, and how successful the iPhone has become today, I’d say the new Google Chrome OS is going to be revolutionary, to say the least.
Demetrius and Bruno Live
Near the end of our semester at Cedarville, there was an unfortunate accident involving cold-blooded animals and hot water coming out of the faucet. Now I’m not going to point any fingers, but Dave was the one changing the water in the tank ... Needless to say, there was a seizure and the fishes died. There was much mourning and sorrow.At the beginning of the summer, I cleaned my room. This is a regular occurrence for me, but in this particular cleaning I came across my 2.5 gallon fish tank which was empty. I thought to myself, “The tank and filter are the expensive parts ... Fishes are cheap!” I quickly drove to PetSmart and purchased two little fish: a Platy and a Molly. One was red, the other black. The black one I named Bruno, and the red one was called Demetrius (names compliments of an afternoon of boredom for Evan and me).
After these three months of summer, Demetrius and Bruno are still kickin’! I’m now getting slightly worried about the eight hour trip back to school. I’m really hoping they can survive it so we can see how much longer these guys will keep on sticking with us. If you have any good ideas for safely transporting said fishes from Iowa to Ohio, drop me a line.
So, Michael Jackson is Dead
That’s the rumor, anyway, though there are still those that believe it’s all a marketing ploy. And, you know, that’d be a pretty good idea considering sales have never been better for him, especially on iTunes. After Jackson’s death, six of the top ten songs sold on iTunes were Michael Jackson’s hits. More significantly, nine out of the top ten albums also belonged to Jackson! Nineteen out of the top twenty-five music videos had Michael Jackson in them as well.I can’t say that I blame the world. I mean, he was a legendary artist, and I don’t think there will ever be another musician that will be able to attain the caliber of Jackson. Despite his social record, he holds the spot as one of my all-time favorite performers, and within two days after his passing, I listened through his entire discography as a tribute. Yes, I do own his entire discography ...
Please Try to Compile Your Code ... Seriously
I’ve been running into this annoyance a lot lately, especially at work. Honestly, how hard is it to just make sure the code in your tutorial actually compiles before you submit it, huh? I’ll tell you: it’s not that hard. Dropping it into UltraEdit and running GCC on it is about the most complicated way to do it, but you could obviously just paste it in an IDE and check it that way as well. I don’t care if it runs, necessarily, just make sure it compiles. You’re trying to teach people with your code, for goodness sake. What kind of an example are you setting if the code you’re “teaching” them with sucks?Frequently I stumble upon tutorials, and as I’m reading through them I think, “Wait, that can’t work. Will that really compile? I thought ‘Class’ was lowercase in C++ ... And why isn’t there a semicolon at the end of this line? Shouldn’t they have included this library?” Out of curiosity, I grab the code and try to compile it myself and, sure enough, it craps out on me. The common misconception is that, “Well, this code is never meant to be compiled, it’s just an example.” But that’s just the point! It’s supposed to be an example ... And it’s wrong!!
Nine times out of ten this is a trivial issue, but I’ve run into instances where the broken code is what I’m trying to interpret, and it’s really hard to interpret something when you’re first trying to figure out if it’s right in the first place. How do you expect me to know if it’s right or not if you’re supposed to be teaching it to me?
Sometimes the errors are just syntactical. Those are bad enough. The worst is when you try to compile a tutorial’s example code and it causes something catastrophic, like a segfault. Please, for the sake of those you’re trying to teach, make sure what you’re teaching is accurate!
Microsot Wants to Give You Anti-Virus Support for FREE
After Microsoft OneCare failed worse than Windows Vista and the Zune combined, Microsoft took some well deserved time off from the Security Protection field of computing. They needed to rethink things. In steps code name “Morro.” What is Morro? Well, it’s pretty much Microsoft OneCare ... But for free ... And apparently better. And it’s supposedly going to be bundled with Windows 7. OneCare failed because it was accused, numerous times, of being “unable to detect a significant number of threats.” I guess Morro plans to be better?There are already two excellent and free alternatives to the Symantec and McAfee subscription services out there made by Avast and AVG. Microsoft’s Morro soon to be the third free alternative, both Symantec and McAfee are saying that they aren’t worried about their sales being effected by these free products, even with Morro bundled with the Microsoft OS. According to the CEOs of the Big Boy companies, a free alternative just can’t guarantee the security that users need while browsing today’s malicious internet; you need more than just anti-virus support, and that’s what the Premium services give you. While I agree that you need more than just anti-virus support, there are many other prevention companies out there that offer the same services for free that the Big Boys offer at a hefty price.
Whether you’re interested in paying for Symantec’s services or you’re willing to settle for the free Morro that will soon come with your Windows operating system, it’s good for the Big Boy’s to have some healthy competition to keep their products quality and their prices low. Though I can’t say that security competition from Microsoft is any incentive for Symantec and McAfee to keep their quality high ... But we can hope.
That’s all I’ve got for now. We’ll see how long it takes me to come up with more Information You Won’t Find Useful.