I geek, therefore I am.

[jackofallgeeks]

"I believe that at the end of the century the use of words and general educated opinion will have altered so much that one will be able to speak of machines thinking without expecting to be contradicted."
-Alan Turing


[18:18] Andrew: It bothers me how many of these programs try to access the internet without letting me know first...
[18:19] Rachel: Huh?
[18:21] Andrew: Well, case in point, I just went to uninstall Musicmatch Jukebox (a music-playing program) and it tried to access the internet. I have another program that I put on here to tell me when things want to get Online, so I can say 'no' when I don't need them to, or else i'm not sure I would have ever known.
[18:21] Andrew: And it happens more than I would expect.
[18:21] Rachel: But why does it matter that it accesses the internet?
[18:23] Andrew: Accessing the internet means it's talking to someone. Firstly, if I get a program to play my music, it really shouldn't ever need to talk to anyone, excepting maybe to look for updates, though it would be polite to ask. Secondly, if I'm removing it, it really has no business talking to anyone at all.
[18:24] Andrew: It probably isn't doing anything malicious, so you needn't worry, really, but I like to have an iron fist on my system; it just bothers me when they try to go behind my back. As if they knew better.
[18:26] Rachel: You talking as if its people....
[18:26] Andrew: -smiles- I was just about to say "I probably anthropomorphize these things more than 'regular' people would..."

Comments

Re: YES! True!

[jackofallgeeks.livejournal.com]

No, I hadn't heard about that, but yeah, it happens all the time. I'm not sure what it is MusicMatch wants, but frankly, the thing will play music if you're not connected to the internet, so I just tell it, "There's no connection, try again later."