We knew it would come to this... http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/69/33858.html Apparently Belkin's wireless routers have a "feature" where every 8 hours a randomly-chosen is redirected to Belkin's website, to a page which advertises Belkin's parental control system. "In response criticism, a Belkin product manager came forward this week to confirm the behaviour was designed into the products as a way to make it easier for consumers to sign up to a free trial of its parental control software. Belkin's Eric Deming is keen to allay concerns about the technique which have produced sharp criticism of the company on the news.admin.net-abuse.email newsgroup. "23 responses total.
Yuck. Hope LinkSys doesn't do this.
Bleh. I've never been impressed with Belkin's hardware, but now I'm unimpressed with their marketing department as well.
It's mind-boggling to me that anyone could have thought that this was a good idea, let alone enough people to design it, code it, test it, and manage the whole process..
Really, you only have to have a manager be convinced it's a good idea. After that, everyone else will design, code, and test it because they'll be fired if they don't.
In my opinion you have to have a really dysfunctional organization for one manager to be able to insist on something like this against the recommendations of their engineering, q/a, and support staff. I'm not saying that it can't happen, but it's a little more complicated than "you only have to have a manager convinced." You need to have someone with a huge amount of control and they have to be so convinced that they cling to that conviction against the recommendations of everyone around them, or things have to be so screwed up that their underlings are incapable of giving them good advice.
Oh. So, you were just as wrong as gull. Glad to know you, good-bye. (Put on twit-list)
Sonds like a pretty simple system to me. Probably stuck in there at the last minute.
I don't have any Belkin hardware... something always seemed creepy about that company.
Their cables are okay, but I've never been impressed with their electronics. I have a Belkin KVM switch at work that's awfully flakey.
Like the mouse goes wawa if you switch between different OS on the same hardware if one of them is Micro$oft?
Come to think of it this happens on identical hardware using different OS from Micro$oft - so much for 'interoperability'...
(It's off-topic, but for what it's worth, I have Belkin KVM switches both at home and at work, and they're quite reliable. No mouse problems. At home I switch between three OS's -- Linux, WinXP, and OpenBSD -- and at work between Linux and WinXP.)
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#5 sounds like where I work. It's why I'm getting out as soon as I can find someone to give me a chance elsewhere.
I have a Belkin KVM switch at work...an Omni View SE. Often after switching consoles the mouse doesn't work. Sometimes the switch just locks up entirely. It also requires an external power brick, meaning yet one more thing to plug in. I also have a Cybex SwitchView that works great and has never given any mouse problems. It doesn't need external power, either.
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Hm. I shall keep Cybex in mind for my future KVM needs.
In our server rack we also have a rack-mount Apex switch that's very, very nice. But it's also very, very expensive. ;> The Cybex is a desktop piece.
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In a follow-up, slashdot reports that Belkin posted a firmware update which fixes the broken functionality, and though it was originally posted with a tart note about the advert not being spam, the accomapnying message has since been toned down.
Really. Got a URL?
DO I EVER: http://www.buddys-pics.com/pictures9/young-whore.jpg
I think I've met your mother before.
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