I have found that taking rights away from people that don't really need it without telling them is the way to go. Just remove local admin from their account and see if they run into problems. They have no idea that they've been setup differently and they don't even know what you're doing if/when you add it back anyway (they don't care).

You simply do it and then watch as your level of support calls from those people drop. If necessary, for some older programs, you give the user rights to that programs folder or a few registry entries. It not only prevents viruses, malware, and other junk, but it also keeps them from installing all kinds of stupid little programs that they don't need.

Also, if you present the argument as "We need to take away this access so they don't try to install pirated software" management tends to agree in a heart beat. It's even better if you have evidence that someone has already installed "unauthorized software".

And, at least where I'm at, it's those same users that demand local admin rights that always screw it up. They don't even get viruses. They just somehow manage to mangle their file systems and registries so bad that shit starts crashing all over the place. Then you end up having to get them a replacement machine because "I can't have any downtime". So they just deal with the problem for months at a time asking you every now and then "Do you by chance have a fix for this yet?" "You mean beyond wiping it out and reinstalling? No".

For the past 10+ years I'd ad. Now that Mac users are getting a taste of it, they're coming up with the same excuses.

The Linux guys will probably never get a taste of it since nobody wants to use a computer where the expert says "No, you idiot! Don't do that!" and "You want that feature? Go write it yourself, the code is all there".

You lost at least half your audience right here (maybe even more of them). You want the average computer user to make a decision? Can't you just tell them what it should do? You're the expert, right? That is what I deal with on a daily basis. I am not even kidding.

Don't give them a choice until they complain about the way it works. Then switch it for them. It's so much easier than explaining the difference between the two choices. "Well, Carol's information always shows up automatically. Can you make mine do that?"

Yes, but the car is important to them. The computer is just a magic box that lets them communicate with relatives that they don't get to see very often. If the computer gets jacked up, they just call the local geek and have it fixed. If the car gets jacked up, they can't go anywhere for an extended amount of time (yes, even several hours a day is enough to make someone angry).

Nobody gets "silent" installs anymore. The malware writers realized that all they had to do was be nice, give it a good sounding name, and show some scary screens to make people think they needed it and that it was ok to install. Bam, no more silent installs needed.

This is effectively what we do with guys like that. We let them have at it. Then, when they call because something weird isn't working right, we tell them we don't know what's wrong and that we need to look into it. I'll spend less than 30 mins on the problem before getting another call telling me they figured out what's wrong and that it's working again. This happens a couple of times over a few months and then eventually something gets really hosed and their system gets really slow. At that point, we simply tell them that it would take a week or more to find the cause and that we'd still have to rebuild the computer from scratch. So they can give us 2 hours to rebuild their machine or they can just deal with it. If it's not a showstopper (it hardly ever is) they simply deal with it.

I have had this happen on multiple occasions with the same guy. It invariably comes down to either file system corruption or registry corruption. In any case, I really don't care because I have far better things to do than figure out what happened in the 6 months between when I gave him the fully functioning machine and when the problem appeared (which is usually something that showed up a week or two before I get the call, it's just "gotten in the way" now).

The only group that gets that privilege at my job are the engineers and that's only because their boss is above my boss.

FYI, it's probably not the IT department that doesn't think that other software is essential. It's probably the CTO/CIO/Whoever's in charge of spending money. That's the guy that IT always has to get approval from in order to spend money on anything. Get approval for MSOffice is relatively easy since everyone uses it. Getting approval for Photoshop is difficult since only 1 or 2 people (where I'm at) use it.

Installing the rest of that stuff wouldn't be a big deal (we keep a software inventory of everything installed on every machine). The problem of course comes when you see a new program that you want, which probably happens at least once a week. Then you'd have to tell IT that you're installing it (if you don't have admin and you're asking for a program to be installed, you're effectively telling IT you want it). You don't want to have to do that. Even though if you end up having a problem with something you'll be calling IT to troubleshoot it (and you're also assuming they know how to use every damn program you have installed) you don't want to have to bother with letting them know when you're installing every media player under the sun (you need WinAmp and VLC?)

And then there'll be that one package that people want that isn't available in the repository. Then they'll have to go out and find it somewhere else. That's where the trouble starts.

You think it takes something special other than "Now you're going to need to do a few things to get these updates to install because they're out of bandwidth updates. Just follow these simple steps and everything will be fine and you'll be completely secure".

It doesn't take much to make the average user think that what they're doing is going to completely secure their system.

Only temporarily. Once a massive amount of transactions starts to go through the new payment processor, the payment processor will likely start offering lower prices to everyone which would end up driving the cost down.

Why would anyone ever do anything but this? If you get an email from a friend saying he needs money, wouldn't you at least pick up the phone and attempt to reach them first? Don't you think if they really needed money, they'd find a way to call you rather than send you an email?

That's because of a bunch of stupid laws that get passed many years apart with no care of the previous law. It use to be very simple. Slower traffic stay to the right (it is still marked like this on many four lane highways, but hardly anyone follows it). Then the speed limit got reduced from 65 to 55 (I know it went back up many years ago, but there are still freeways marked with 55) and now the "fast lane" is no longer fast. I've seen stories on the news where a policeman is giving a reporter a ride and they're watching someone tailgate because they're doing 55 and the other driver wants to go faster. Do they move to the right? No. They ask why the other driver doesn't slow down.

The reason for the "TRUCKS MAY USE ALL LANES" is because on some freeways, and this is mostly coming into LA County from the north (as far as I've ever seen) there are lanes specifically for the trucks. You won't see very many cars on them and they're usually pretty empty, even when the freeway is filled with cars. It's because those roads usually have only one or two lanes and they're specifically meant to get the big trucks out of the traffic. Having an 18 wheeler stuck in stop and go traffic is a lot worse than letting them take a different route (the route is usually longer anyway).

Some places include "utilities" in the rent each month. With those places, you could run your television, air conditioner, and lights all day and it wouldn't cost you any more that it does to not run them. Your rent doesn't change so you are effectively not paying for electricity.

Would you know the serial number is invalid just by looking at it? You might know what makes a serial number valid, but I doubt you'd know if one was invalid if it had the proper makeup. This is why it's mostly 10s and 20s (and higher) that get the metal strip. Counterfeiting anything else isn't worth the trouble.

I don't know about you, but I don't pay anything to use my Visa or MasterCard. The "tax" you refer to is probably the interest payment for not paying the balance in full each month. Not everyone has that problem, so that defeats point 2.

Depending on how I handle a transaction, I can send money through PayPal without any extra fees.