[OPLINTECH] Coupons.com

[Daniel Nixon]

I'm with Joe on this. There used to be a thing called "gator" something 
or other that was just horrible. Anything having to do with buying stuff 
that wants to install on your computer is spy/malware, as far as I'm 
concerned (I know, means just about the entire Internet).
Librarians generally don't like to say "No" to patrons, no you can't do 
this, no you can't have this. But they don't understand the technical 
challenges involved as we try to preserve and protect public computers 
so that everyone has a consistent experience. Plus, there's this whole 
thing about what is a public library computer for? Users see the 
computer as "theirs" during the time they're using it, just like 
checking out a book for the time they have it, and I get that. But 
modifying the computer for their particular needs should be approached 
in the same way we'd react when someone returns a book all marked up, 
dog-eared, underlined and highlighted for their particular needs but 
basically trashed for the next person.

Daniel Nixon
Wilmington Public Library of Clinton County
268 N. South St., Wilmington, OH 45177
937-382-2417 x25

Date: Thu, 05 Jun 2014 15:49:21 -0400
From: Joe<knuevejo at oplin.org>
To:oplintech at lists.oplin.org
Subject: Re: [OPLINTECH] Coupons.com
Message-ID:<5390C9C1.5030808 at oplin.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"; Format="flowed"

We take the same position as Chad stated: if you physically can do it,
you're generally allowed to, and I have occasionally gone back and
installed software on all of our computers if there was a demand for it
and it was free and it was generally harmless.

In this case, I've actually used coupons.com's printer outside of work,
and from my experience I would discourage you from installing it.

it's primary purpose is to limit each computer to two printings of any
given coupon.  So you'd get a situation where the patrons wanting to use
it would find that the coupons they want would be randomly unavailable
on a computer by computer basis at any given time.
That said, I've never tried to use it on a computer with something like
deepfreeze or another application that restores a computer after
logout/reboot/etc.  I know it's partially depended upon cookies or some
other form of locally stored information and, from some of the reading
I've done, it seems that the printer also "calls home" to help avoid
people trying to get around the code. One writer described it as working
rather like a virus in that manner, if I recall correctly.

Also, from what I saw the code once in a while will tell the user that
it printed their coupon, and neglect to share that information with the
printer.

So I would say no it.  Though, I am genuinely curious as to whether it
would work at all on a locked down machine, and if it did if it would
successfully remember how many of a given coupon that machine had
already printed..

Best of luck.

Joe

Joseph Knueven
Director
Germantown Public Library
51 N. Plum St.
Germantown, OH 45327
937-855-4001
knuevejo at oplin.org

On 6/5/2014 2:31 PM, Chad Neeper wrote:

> All patron computers I work with are frozen. General rule of thumb is
> that if the patrons_can_  do something, I don't really care (as long
> as it's not illegal or damaging to the library in any way). Whatever
> they do gets wiped upon reboot. So if they can find a way to install
> the coupon program with the privileges available to them and without
> rebooting...go for it!
>
> ______________________________
> *Chad Neeper*
> Senior Systems Engineer
>
> *Level 9 Networks*
> 740-548-8070 (voice)
> 866-214-6607 (fax)
>
> /Full LAN/WAN consulting services -- Specialized in libraries and schools/
>
>
> On Thu, Jun 5, 2014 at 2:22 PM, Mohamed Ragheb
> <MRAGHEB at cuyahogalibrary.org  <mailto:MRAGHEB at cuyahogalibrary.org>> wrote:
>
>      Hello all,
>
>      Recently we have been getting more customers asking/ wanting to be
>      able to print coupons from coupons.com<http://coupons.com>, it's
>      an issue as this site require an installation and admin privilege
>      for a coupon printer before you can print them out.
>
>      Do you allow your customers to print from this site or not? And if
>      you do allow how do you handle the installer?
>
>      Thanks for your input!
>
>      /Mohamed A. Ragheb, M.Tec./
>
>      /Software and Applications Manager/
>
>      /Cuyahoga County Public Library/
>
>      /2111 Snow Road/
>
>      /Parma,Ohio 44134/
>
>      /Office: 216-749-9389 <tel:216-749-9389>/
>
>      /Cell    : 216-407-4154 <tel:216-407-4154>/
>
>      /Fax    : 216-749-9445 <tel:216-749-9445>/
>
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