Fourfiveb is right. When I was in school it was much easier for me to talk to girls. I generally had a girlfriend. When I was feeling down, I found I was more introverted, and this had a harder time making conversation. Just try talking to people every chase you get and you will develop it. This is in a lot of books from business deal making to dating guides.

I would recommend Neil Strauss though, his books have activites that build just this.

I second the reccomendatuon for AVG. It's effective, lightweight, and low cost. Management tools allow remote admin, but the installation works much smoother on a domain. You may still be a le to get it to install from there without it, depending on your networks. I have deploied it across poorly functioning domains and it runs into permission issues without domain admin privledges.

Also, check out the ZyXEL zywall 5. As a basic security appliance for $600 and no per seat licenseing for antivirus/ intrusion protection, I find it to be an invaluble toolfor many of our small business clients.

Introducing this will make it easier to trace the offender. As long as the victim has a reliable phone service of some sort, that have to respond to the phone calls as harassment and investigate it from the inside. Now if I have something like free VoIP or magic jack, it wouldn't surprise me to get junk calls in the first place

simply press charges, but.....

What if you need the help of the ISP to track down the offender? ISP's still need procedure that will scale properly for this, yet also protect user's rights. i think this is where the original story really shines.

This WILL apply to users who buy a machine with an OEM license of vista after July 2009. you can run XP in place of your vista license if you choose, and many OEM's are offering it as an option on certain models. I order Dells with Vista licenses that have XP pre-loaded on them.

Your first point holds true though, with the added idea your license is backward compatible (thanks M$, something useful)

true that, I will be selling XP as long as I can. Seems this will extend until July now if I had to guess, maybe even longer.

I work with a lot of (medical imaging) software that will NOT work on vista, but they are already planning on moving to Windows 7.

I see any IT workers who are in high pressure jobs, like the blackberry-toting indispensable server room troops who in numbers keep the corporations running. On the other hand there are the self taught keyboard cowboys who know how to do it right and quick to keep things safe (or create the danger) on the wild wild web.

The common thing here is Specialized Knowledge. Regardless of how it is learned, we need to keep up with it. A union just doesn't fit for those with this type of knowledge, professional organizations do.

Personally, i am discusted with the current state of IT workers. I cannot hire college grads with degrees in computer science, the programs don't prepare them. Certs from CompTIA never expire, I had an A+ certified tech not know what type of memory went into a desktop computer. MCSE, Cisco programs are rather proprietary, and don't prepare for multiple platforms well. The best thing time time in the field, but we've all seen managers that claim years of experience who are so out of touch that they cannot make an informed decision anymore. A voluntary professional organization with a system of continuing-ed is the best option to get the IT industry in ship shape.

With a group like this, workers in large shops can openly share their issues with others in the community, and change standard practice. IT managers can also effect corporate practices. IT is NOT a magic bullet as we all know, and many ave pointed out. The forgotten piece of the puzzle are the little guys --the zit faced beetle-driving geek squad guys, the neighborhood small businesses, and the niche computer consultants, security experts, and the highest sought after freelance assets. There will be a measuring stick to compare these guys to, and keep the corrupt ones out.