McAfee: False and Misleading Advertising, or run of the mill scam operation?

I uninstalled Mcafee Security on my laptop today.

My three year subscription to Mcafee Security, that started 8 December 2009, expired on 7 April 2010.

Since the laptop was advertised as having a three year subscription to Mcafee Security, I'm not sure whether to blame McAfee,QVC, Dell, or all three for a written claim that is obviously false. (The software packaging claims three years. When it was being peddled on QVC, it was also claimed that it would be a three year subscription.)

The two big questions are:
* Do I send a courtesy copy to the registered agent for Dell, McAfee, and QVC, of the letter I'll be sending the Pennsylvania Attorney-General, California Attorney-General, and Texas Attorney-General;
* Do I walk down to small claims court, and file a claim for US$175, for three year AV/Security coverage that I purchase from Kaspersky , since MCafee did not honour the three year AV subscription that was included with my laptop, and as such, I have no assurance that they will honour any future subscriptions I purchase. (For the record, this is my second encounter with McAfee not honouring subscriptions for their AV software.)

I sent three emails through their online form, and two emails to the address that sent me notices that my subscription expired/was going to expire, to no avail.

Christian Ethics

Usage of a product is an explicit endorsement of that product and an implicit, if not explicit endorsement of the company that created the product.

As such, is it ethical, and moral for a Christian to use any products from Microsoft?

Microsoft has been convicted of violating two of the Ten Commandments.

Almost as disturbing is Microsoft's announcement that they intend to violate two more of the Ten Commandments.

I'll grant that Contemporary American Christianity and both the Two Commandments of the New Testament, and the Ten Commandments (any of the three sets in the Tanakh, and two sets in the New Testament) are mutually exclusive.

Why not bend the rules

I wandered far today. Up several hills and dales. Then found a store that sells Sparletta Cream Soda.

I'll ignore the price for now, except to say that a twelve pack of coke costs less than a single can costs.

But the taste is wonderful.
That creamy sensation bubbling though, with an after taste of roses.

email clients

I'm still looking for an email client that works.
An email client that can retrieve email, without needing a babysitter.

I've settled for Thunderbird, simply because, with a babysitter, it can retrieve email. That is more than can be said for the other email clients that run on Linux.

Every RFE/bug I submitted was closed "won't fix", because the functionality I was requesting --- which was the ability to retrieve email --- was considered to be something that is not in accordance with their concept of what an email client does.

The Mozilla Foundation seems determined to ensure that Thunderbird remain something other than an email client.

Go to the Thunderbird extensions page, and do a search for extensions that have "Search" as a keyword. "Weave Browser sync", "eBay Auction Search", and "Second Search" are just some Firefox orientated extensions that come up.

Microsoft Windows 7: Still a broken OS.

I got a laptop for Christmas.

Since it has the notoriously insecure Windows 7 Operating system, I decided that I'd only use Ubuntu for connecting to the Internet.

(There are half a dozen zero day exploits, that will infect a system, during the six hours that are needed for Win7 security updates to fix those exploits. The mean time from going online, to having a nasty try to come through one's internet connection is under one minute.)

I installed Ubuntu on it, for a dual boot system.
Windows 7 trashed the hard drive, when I booted it up, to see if it worked.

I can repair the drive, but my question is whether or not it is worthwhile keeping Win7.

The security problems with Win7 are such, that the dice roll is very much in favour of banning all microsoft software, and programs that require microsoft software, from that laptop.

Get the facts

Microsoft: "There is no guarantee that when security vulnerabilities are discovered, an update will be created. Users are on their own."

Trouble is, current best practices for a business is to have a dedicated system for financial transactions. A system that has no hard drive, booting from a Live Disk whenever one wants/needs to do an online banking transaction, or other sensitivity transactions.

Microsoft: "There is no ability to set Parental Restrictions".

Trouble is, at least one Linux distro Ubuntu Christian Edition) includes "parental restrictions", as a matter of course. Well, technical, it restricts everybody, but since the main function is to restrict kids.....

DrDOS TimeLine

Dr-DOS was originally created by Intergalatic Digital Research, Inc, in Pacific Grove, California.

Digital Research, Inc, was the successor in interest to Intergalatic Digital Research, Inc.

Novell bought (1991) Digital Research, Inc. with the idea of shipping a SOHO OS that included networking, and an office suite.(WordPerfect, Quattro Pro, Paradox, DrDos, Novell Lite, and a couple of other things.)

The SOHO OS didn't work out for Novell. NovellOffice was sold to in Corel (1996). (Corel Linux was sold to Xandros in 2001.)

Caldera started off as an internal group to develop a Linux distro for Novell. Caldera Systems was spun off by Novell, in 1996, taking most of the operating systems with it. Caldera Systems, in turn, spun off Caldera Thin Clients, which, in turn, (1998) became Lineo Solutions, INC. Dr-Dos was then opensourced. DrDos was then spun off into DeviceLogics, and became closed source. Metrowerks bought out DeviceLogics, who then spun it out (2002) as part of DrDOS, Inc. The other spinoff was Caldera Internatinal, which developed Caldera Linux. (Caldera Linux in 2001 used a Unix kernel, not a Linux kernel.)

Tarantella Enterprise was a product from Santa Cruz Operations that resulted from their purchase (1994),and integration of half a dozen minor companies.

Santa Cruz Operations sold their Unix business to Caldera Systems Inc, in 2001. Santa Cruz Operations then renamed themselves Tarantella, Inc. In 2005, Sun purchased Tarantella, Inc.

in 1995 Novell sold the right to distribute UnixWare to Santa Cruz Operations. Santa Cruz Operations, in turn, sold those rights to Caldera Systems, Inc, in 2001.

In 2002, Caldera Systems, Inc renamed itself SCOGroup.

To recap:

1987: Digital Research, Inc releases DrDOS 1.0;
1991: Novell purchases Digital Research, Inc. (DrDOS)
1996: DrDOS spunoff to Caldera Systems;(DrDOS)
1997: Caldera Systems spins off Caldera Thin Clients (DrDOS);
1998: Caldera Thin Clients renames itself Lineo Solutions, Inc (DrDOS);
1998: Unixware rights sold to Santa Cruz Operations, Inc by Novell; (UnixWare)
2002 (?): Lineo Solutions, Inc acquired by DeviceLogic, Inc; (DrDOS)
? DeviceLogic purchased by MetroWerks (DrDOS)
2000: Caldera Systems purchases Santa Cruz Operations Unix business. (UnixWare)
2002: MetroWerks sells DrDOS to DrDOS, Inc. (DrDOS)
2002:
2005: Tarantella, Inc purchased by Sun, INC. (ex unix player);