-----Original Message-----
From: George Toft <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Wednesday, June 10, 1998 11:08 AM
Subject: Win98 Error messages (these are true)
>A computer customer support help line received a call about the
>installed
>cup holder had broken and she (sorry) wanted it replaced as the computer
>was under warranty. The CS tech was confused and queried the customer,
>who adamantly insisted the coffee cup holder that came with the computer
>was broken. The light dawned, and the CS tech asked "What are the words
>on the outside of the coffee cup holder?" The reply: "Busy and compact
>disc."
>(Supposedly this really happened.)
Ain't no supposedly about it; it's happened more than once. It happened to
a technician at my last job. This is one of those "urban legends" that
happens to be true, even though the story that resulted in the rumor may not
have itself been true.
>After installing IE4.0 on his Win95 machine, my coworker (while on the
>Internet) noticed a new icon on his screen. The icon was a police
>officer. He double-clicked it, and a window showed up proclaiming
>itself as NetCop, and it had detected illegal Microsoft software.
>Netcop
>killed Win95 for him. He had to reformat the drive to get rid of it.
>(I know the person this happened to, and he was irate. No IE4 for him.)
If this actually happened to him (and I seriously doubt it), it wasn't a
piece of Microsoft software that did it. It was something somebody else
wrote.
There is no possible way a program could detect whether the software was
legal or illegal except the serial number, and Microsoft themselves
recommend the use of bogus serial numbers (such as repeating the number "1"
the required number of times) for large installations that have purchased
many licenses, but don't want to enter each one seperately and keep track of
them on a box-by-box basis.
Your friend is either lying, or got bitten by a trojan horse.
I run a network with 6 Windows NT servers and around 75 NT Workstations,
plus about 6 Windows 95 stations.
Every single one of those machines is installed with the same serial number.
I've got a couple of MOLP packs sitting in a safe granting me enough
licenses.
The same serial number is also used in installations of other Microsoft
software around the building, all of which are legit.
Nothing has complained yet. And yes, IE 4.0 is on some of those boxes,
although not many.
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