Graham wrote:
> On Sunday 17 March 2002 4:27 am, Brian Heinrich wrote:
>
>
>>The one thing that seems constantly to come up in jukola's postings
>>has to do with why the /name/ of his computer is being transmitted
>>/via/ TalkBack. On a couple of occasions, he also made mention of
>>user name.
>
>
> But how can you tell a TalkBack report came from one computer and not a
> whole group of computers unless you have an identifying mark that
> refers to the computer that had the crash? Admittedly, it could be the
> name, the IP, or what have you. To me the name is the less intrusive
> of any I could think.
Ah. Good point about the idenifying mark; hadn't thought of that. User
name is presumably related to certain privileges (if you log-in a
Sysadmin, for instance, as opposed to a generic User).
> But let me go back to my original point. There is no spyware here,
> nothing underhand going on. You opt in to the TalkBack program and by
> doing so you agree to have such information that the guys at mozilla
> think they need, forwarded on, including the name of your PC. If you
> don't want to provide this information, or you are going to be
> selective in which information you give, don't opt in to TalkBack.
I'm certainly not suggesting there is. I've never had a problem with
using TalkBack, either with NS 6+ (which I rarely use) or with Mozilla.
A few times I've cancelled the process 'cos I had other things to
worry about, but other than that I've let it run.
> Moz will work fine without Talkback, but the developers will not get
> vital information to make Moz better if a great number of people did
> this. So, on balance, I trust them to be asking for that information,
> and only that information, that's needed. Again, if you don't trust
> them, don't opt in.......
As the foregoing suggests, I /have/ opted in, since I do understand that
the info that is being sent back is specifically to help the developers
isolate and solve problems. I'm OK with that; I was hoping someone
would be able to present the information in a way that would clarify
things for jukola. If this does it, all the better.
Brian
--
We sail tonight for Singapore | We're all as mad as hatters here
I've fallen for a tawny moor | Took off to the land of Nod
Drank with all the Chinamen | Walked the sewers of Paris
I danced along a colored wind | Dangled from a rope of sand
You must say goodbye to me
-- Tom Waits, 'Singapore'
