Gizmodo 
Enter your username and password.
Tip your editors:
tips@gizmodo.com
Editorial Director:
Brian Lam | Email | Twitter
Editor:
Jason Chen
Email | AIM | Twitter
Features Editor:
Wilson Rothman
Email | Twitter
Senior Contributing Editor:
Jesus Diaz
Email | AIM | Twitter
Mark Wilson, Reviews
Email | AIM | Twitter
Contributing Editors:
Matt Buchanan
Email | AIM | Twitter
Adam Frucci
Email | Twitter
Sean Fallon
Email | Twitter
Jack Loftus
Email | Twitter
John Herrman
Email | Twitter
Dan Nosowitz
Email
Chris Mascari
Email
Danny Allen
Email | Twitter
Columnist:
Brendan I. Koerner
Interns:
Don Nguyen
Email
Chris Jacob
Email
Comment Intern:
Nick Ellenoff | Email
Comment Account Questions:
Comments@gizmodo.com
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
10/27/09
1. They use Macs. They like macs. Get over it. God forbid they use a different platform. Plus, he said they use OS X and Linux for their PRODUCTION machines. Perhaps they have test machines they use for their OS reviews?
And why the HELL should they be required to enact some kind of stupid technical affirmative action by mixing up their office's Operating System cultural makeup just because some of you chowder heads base your entire personality on hating Justin Long? If they want to be an all Mac/Linux shop, then that doesn't affect your ability to get a date on Friday night. Your Leeroy Jenkins T-shirt does that just fine for you.
2. The whole ad/spyware debacle has NOTHING to do with that idea that because they use Macs they couldn't have caught it. This has been happening across all of double-click's network, along with other ad serving companies. It usually is a Flash banner ad that, once approved, the spammers activate the payload and whenever that banner is served, you get fakey looking WINDOWS pop ups telling you there is a Virus alert. This kind of scam has hit ESPN and MLB, along with some other major league sites.
This WAS NOT a failure of their choice of OS, but rather a failure of vetting of the Ad buyer, which is probably a criminal ring out of Russia or Florida.
3. and OMG! Ponies!? You're a dick. Period. Once you said Lawyer, it all clicked. You may be successful, you may have a family, kids in a good school, drive an awesome car, etc etc, but it still doesn't change the fact that you're an asshat. An asshat who drives a really awesome car, but an asshat nonetheless.
Not to say that I wouldn't hire you, but I wouldn't trust you with my Texas Instrument scientific calculator, not to mention my IT decisions. You fixed your own Exchange account and now that qualifies the entire IT department for being fired? I think Aesop wrote something about this once.
Hey, I've got an idea. Perhaps they didn't fix your Exchange account because typically, in these situations, the DICK who has computer problems usually goes to the bottom of my "I'll fix it if I have absolutely nothing to do" list. You remind me of Dwight from "The Office". Do you find your stapler is often encased in Jello for no apparent reason?
Stick to the Law, My Little Pony, and try not show off your ignorance too much. We're all getting headaches from rolling our eyes too much.
And everyone else...go outside. Go to the park. Go to the mall. Kiss a girl. Kiss a guy. Just don't make this your cross. #announcements
10/27/09
When the IT guy would show up in the office, I'd ask politely if they could take a look at my account to find out the problem. Time and again, the answer was "You must have a dud phone. Your settings worked fine on my phone." This went on for more than half of a year.
As it turned out, the problem was caused by something in the alias directory. That error meant that my account wouldn't work on any smartphone.
It's not that I fixed my own IT problem. It's that I had to fix my own IT problem which had been an open ticket item for more than a year, that the IT consultants bald-faced lied to me about them fixing the problem, that they lied about the source of the problem, and that their company billed ours for services that were clearly not rendered. On top of that, the problem could have been fixed on Day 1 by deleting the botched account and creating a new one with the correct settings.
I give people plenty of rope. Whether they use it to climb or go hang themselves is up to them.
If my secretary tells me she's done something, I know from experience that she has. She's earned trust and because of that, I'll go to bat for her. I've had clerks that I've delegated simple tasks to - making copies of exhibits for example. And while failure is not the end of the world, persistent failure is not something that I look for in someone I depend upon.
Let's say a project has been delegated to me. I take the substantive parts and, after working out the logistical aspects, delegate the simple tasks. It's why support staff exists. While I allot ample time for just-in-case, if someone is a weak link, it can really bollix things. To the outside world, I own their mistakes. And because of that, if I am having to own too many mistakes from someone, that's when it's time to end the relationship.
And just so we're clear - this isn't the IT department that screwed up. It was an IT consultant company. Before I started, there was a staff IT guy. He was laid off and IT outsourced to a consultant company. When their contract is up, I'd love nothing more than to see our firm go with someone else. Preferably, the prior IT staffer who by all accounts from my co-worker was far more reliable and efficient than the consultants. #announcements
10/28/09
The only company I have dealt with that I would recommend (both as an employee and as a customer) is Tech Systems (I can only vouch for Detroit and Lauderdale). They have always been fantastic and don’t lie to you about wages. The two times I worked for them I was told up front the percentage they needed from my pay (5% in both instances I believe). My first gig with them paid well and my second gig even better. They treated me with respect and most of the people I worked with knew their shit.
If you need to outsource go with an Exchange hosting company (unless security is a massive concern) and only contract out your internal stuff. #announcements
10/27/09
10/27/09
10/27/09
I have run multiple websites and never once had an issue with security or malware. I guess maybe apple isnt so great after all when you can only design sites that can be trusted by other apples. I am shocked that with this many readers, there isnt a windows test before publishing anything. #announcements
10/27/09
"I have run multiple websites and never once had an issue with security or malware. "
... that you are aware of. #announcements
10/27/09
Shut them all down from losing money. Maybe the malware would have not made me lose so much. (:
Force of habbit, I came back. Back to engadget..... #announcements
10/27/09
10/27/09
AdBlock FTW! Gawker's revenue model FTL! #announcements
10/27/09
10/27/09
You guys really need to think a little on the fact that you are running a business and at least get a Windows PC or if you guys hate windows too much run it on your macs, just to test the site on Windows #announcements
10/27/09
10/27/09
10/27/09
10/27/09
10/27/09
10/27/09
Add now, to that list: I never got malware from an ad. #announcements
10/27/09
Doing bug checking on the site is (at least I would think) part of the webmaster's job. Why they're not doing QC on their own handiwork is a question that you, Brian, should be asking the webmaster's boss. Not the webmaster - because s/he'll spout off some BS and a half-assed apology.
And, while we're on the subject of how s/he should do their job, you need to tell the webmaster's boss that they need to test the site to be compatible under Internet Explorer 6 running under Windows XP and under Windows 2000. This is what corporate America runs and is a source of traffic.
I try to provide you guys with feedback on stuff when possible but one of the things that occurred to me a while ago is the complete ass-backwardsness of Gawker when it comes to the site design. The site gets redesigned without any concern for whether the users want the changes and, more importantly, when the changes come, they're a massive surprise and then you guys ask for us to do bug reporting.
Imagine if either Apple or Microsoft (please no jokes on this, guys) decided to only do cursory QC and then wait for user feedback to iron out the bugs. Because, it seems, that's how the site design rollouts are done. Brian, spotting bugs is not the end-user's job.
Brian, you're a writer and a journalist. Bug reporting is not your job. Nor is it the editors' job. Also, being considered a nice guy by the webmaster is not your job. Whether you guys should have at least one Windows install among the dozen of you aside, site management simply isn't your job.
Your job IS being considered a decent guy who demands that the site he's an editor of run 100% bug and malware-free who will kick the shit out of someone for screwing up on that scale. You are one of the main news sites for technology. If your site runs malware, it harms your credibility - your stock in trade.
Step out of your geek shoes at work and put on your boss shoes instead. Find the webmaster's boss. When my company's network has problems, I don't try to fix it. I yell at the boss of the guy who was supposed to fix it.
Ruin THAT guy's day. S/he'll then ruin the webmaster's day. Also, ruin HR's day because clearly they hired a moron to be in charge of a Top 50 website (not to mention the idiots in sales who can't spot BS). #announcements
10/27/09
10/27/09
10/27/09
This isn't just some other tech news site. This is Gizmodo, one of the biggest tech sites. You guys can't afford to make many mistakes like this.
And I also don't like how everything gets changed up here without any warning or without asking your readers what they want. You guys spend time making changes to the site for us, and sometimes we don't even want them. #announcements
10/27/09
10/27/09
I've also learned that being the "cool guy who doesn't get mad if you screw up" winds up meaning that the things you need getting done get screwed up because, after all, you won't get mad.
Personally, I tend to be "the guy who always gives credit where credit is due but can be a bit of a dick when it comes to making sure things are done right". As a result, every secretary I've ever had has known that when something goes out exactly according to plan, I'll go to bat for her. And, that if I have to wind up taking care of every little detail, I'm not going to be very happy.
There needs to always be a clear division of labor. In my business, my support staff knows that the clerical stuff belongs to them and the substance is mine. If a report goes out with the wrong claim number on it or, as almost happened once, to the wrong client entirely, that is their error. If there is something wrong in the report itself, that's on me. I own every error that is attached to my name. But, at the end of the day, blame needs to be properly assigned so that the underlying problem can be addressed.
I've learned the Golden Rule of Consultancy from my IT Guy: "There's no money in fixing the problem but there's plenty of money in prolonging it." For over six months, my Exchange account at work was malfunctioning. I was given every excuse in the book from IT as to why the problem was equipment based. Ultimately, I tracked down the problem and had to tell IT exactly how to fix it.
I AM A FUCKING LAWYER! Setting up Exchange accounts is not why I went to law school and I sure as hell don't get paid the IT Guy's salary on top of my own. Having to do someone else's job - FOR FREE - is not good. And, because of that, when their contract comes up, I'm telling the boss that, in my opinion, they're a waste of company money.
This wasn't a little goof. Because someone clearly isn't living up to his/her resume, Brian and the rest of the Gizmodo (and Gawker) staff, had to issue a mea culpa - and not a good one. Gawker, with a reputation for relentless snark, has made more than a few enemies in big media (Jim Goldman comes to mind). After just ripping on Goldman for his Microsoft-related SNAFU, Gawker followed suit with their own.
One sentence of the post jumps out at me:
"we would have noticed sooner except everyone on staff is on OS X or Linux for production machines."
So then why should I listen to Gizmodo with regard to Windows 7? After all, as Brian just said, no one on staff regularly uses Windows. Why not, as Gizmodo's own Matt Buchanan posted, go over to Ars Technica to get better news? Maybe they won't have malware. Maybe the old saw about Gizmodo being a bunch of Apple polishers is true. Didn't Brian just say that they all run OS X or Linux?
I'm glad that Brian owns his staff's mistakes. But on the "Oops!" scale, this isn't a 2; it's an 8. The 250th most viewed site in the US - a site that specializes in being the go-to site for computer technology - ran malware on their website because someone couldn't be bothered to run it under Windows.
This was the same con job that hit the New York Times last month, meaning it should be on IT's radar. And the people who weren't affected were immune in large part because they were running AdBlock, meaning that more people will run AdBlock, cutting into Gawker's revenue. #announcements
10/27/09
10/27/09
I've been a software developer for almost 25 years, with an emphasis on interface design. Honestly, from an interface perspective, this site grows increasingly worse. Much like Facebook, it may look neat, but its usability is crap. I can tell that the developers have a very roll-your-own mentality. And like many developers I've worked with, they seem unable to leave perfectly good code alone, replacing it with their next (half-baked) Big Idea.
Okay. Breathe. Sorry. This just frustrates and annoys me sometimes. There are other tech blogs, but one doesn't want to simply leave an online community after being a part of it for so long. I don't want to leave Giz; I want it fixed. #announcements
10/27/09
And to people who say, "get a faster computer", some of us can't for one reason or another. And why should I get a new computer just to be able to comment on one website? #announcements
10/27/09
10/28/09
10/27/09
#sarcasm #announcements
10/27/09
Had to reach into the vault for this one. Nice work Giz! :p :) #announcements
10/27/09
For quality control of your own freakin' website, it seems like at least one of you guys needs to run Windows. Seriously. #announcements
10/27/09
When I'm trying to figure out why a customer is having a problem with a website, I'm always trying to view it using the oldest everything I can find, just so I can see how much of it still works.
Even though most of the world has moved beyond dial up, it is really unfair to not warn those persons "Hey, you can't view this, cuz it will take ten years to load"
Also, ABP FTW #announcements
10/27/09
Jokes aside, you really should have security measures in place already since malware can appear anywhere on the web, regardless of whether Gizmodo staff are using Mac, Linux or Windows.
You/they/we can't spot every single maleware attack, so you/we/they should already be prepared in advance. #announcements
10/27/09
10/27/09
It took me about 2 hours to clean up using Spybot S&D. I do have F-Secure running, but it does not prevent the installation of that malware.
I am using Firefox 3.5, but still got infected.
Any recommendation to block this kind of thing? #announcements
10/27/09
10/27/09
10/27/09
Also, more info: [www.businessinsider.com] #announcements