I only use Symantec’s Norton security suite because Comcast, my internet provider, make you. If you don’t you get bad program conflicts.

A few months ago my son downloaded a malicious antivirus program. It didn’t do any damage, but I couldn't get rid of it and it keep changing our desktop and giving us popup saying our computer was infected, etcetera. It was EXTREAMLY annoying. Unfortunately I don’t remember the name of it.

I worked with Norton trying to get rid of it even to the point of calling them. No luck, so I bit my tongue as I hung up. After much work on my own I not only figured out how to get rid if it, I found out that Symantec OWNED the company. Yes, the article I found this information in did say that part of the purchase agreement was that they had to allow the Australian company to continue operations, but I did notice that all the other “software” this company offered was on Norton’s “Blocked” list, so they should know how to get rid of it.

I tried to complain to Norton and to only to find out the have NO complaint departments! I bit my tongue again. Fast forward to this week. I had problems with Windows that messed up Norton. It took 2 hours on a remote desktop link to get Norton to work again. I would say that it was completely Windows fault, but Norton knew that the windows update was causing this issue, so I would think they would have known right where to go to fix it. Again, I bit my tongue.

Then last night at 12:34 AM my phone rings. I don’t make it to the phone before it stops ringing, but my heart is going 90. I look at the caller ID worried about which one of my family called. It was a 1-800 number. I called it back. IT WAS NORTON??. I bit my tongue and hung up.

Five minutes later, the same number called me. I said in an annoyed but low tone, "Do you realize its 12:30 in the morning. Why the *** are you calling me? Did they guy Hung up! No I’m sorry, no apologizes. I called the number and let it fly. I have never yelled at a service person before because I realize they are only the front line in a company, but I had had it. I’m going to pay to MacAfee.

I was working at Symantec at the same time as Cardinal, who was sort of a legendary figure among Symantec employees. So when he came up to me in the cafeteria one morning and asked me if I wanted to work on one of his projects, gossip about our interaction passed from person to person like we were all in high school again. Of course for some people working at Symantec was like being in high school all over again, and that's how they liked it.

I was doing consultancy work for the company at the time, which normally meant that I had to go out in the field and run security tests for paranoid CTOs. I dealt with small businesses mostly, which meant that I had to deal with these guys face-to-face. I remember sitting down with one of these guys and spending nearly an entire afternoon trying to convince him that his systems were safe.

"It's our IT people that I don't trust, " I remember the CTO telling me. We were in his office and he was one of those people that brought his bike right into work with him and the whole room smelled like old sweat.

"I've talked to some of them, " I said. "They seem fine."

The CTO shook his head. "You don't understand, " he said. "A couple of them have been talking with one of our competitors. We pulled their emails. They all met at some pub in Palo Alto."

"Dismiss them, then, " I said. "I've seen this stuff all the time. You don't need a reason. You don't need to tell them any reason, anyway."

"This is a delicate issue, " the CTO said. "I don't want to force anything. This new company, you know, they're still looking for seed money. They might not make it. But they have a decent product. I don't want to make a move first. Does that make sense to you?"

"I don't make these kinds of decisions, " I said. "But I guess I see where you're coming from."

"Do you even know what we do around here?" the CTO said.

"I don't even know your name, " I told him.

"Of course you do, " the CTO told me.

"I honestly don't, " I said. "And I don't know what your company does. You're right about that."

The CTO leaned back in his chair. "You're a strange man to be in charge of security, " he said.

"I'm not in charge of anything, " I told him. "I run diagnostic tests. I plug in my machines and give you some numbers."

"So how are things looking?" he asked me.

"The same as they did last time I was here, " I said.

"How long ago was that?" the CTO said.

"Maybe a month ago, " I told him.

The CTO was quiet for a moment. "I don't remember you ever coming here before, " he said.

"Maybe I'm thinking of another place, " I said. "I get off the 101 going north and turn right. That's how I get here. Maybe it was a different exit before. What I mean is that it was an entirely different company."

The work was dull, so I was happy to get on Cardinal's team. It took a few weeks to get the paperwork processed, but then I was on my way.

I tried to arrive early on my first day, but Cardinal was already in the office when I got there. He saw me setting things up at my workstation and came over to greet me. "I thought I'd be the first one here, " I told him.

"I've been here since yesterday, " he said. "I do that sometimes."

"I understand that, I think, " I said.

"Do you really mean that, or are you saying that to try to impress me?" Cardinal asked.

"I know the kind of work you do here, " I said. "Everyone does. So of course I understand."

"Not everyone thinks that the work we do is useful, " Cardinal said.

"People say things that they don't mean, " I said. "They have their reasons."

Cardinal paused for a moment. He was tall and lanky, and his clothes were far too baggy. This wasn't the kind of legendary figure you see in mythology. But he was still Cardinal. "Come to my office when you're done here, " he finally said to me.

When I showed up, Cardinal had what looked like a diagram on a large sheet of paper spread out on his desk and I knew we were getting to the good stuff right away. "I want you to take a look at something for me, " Cardinal said.

I went over to his desk and looked down at the paper. It looked like a map of a mid-sized city, except there were lines for roads and little numbers written in at various intersections. But it definitely looked like a city, with its downtown grid and peripheral neighbourhoods shooting off in every direction. "Is this place real?" I asked Cardinal.

"You tell me, " he said.

I studied the map further. There were fainter lines that seemed to represent the topography of the land. "We're talking about a place in the hills, " I said.

"That's the impression that I get as well, " Cardinal said.

"I'm guessing a population of fifty-thousand or so, " I said.

"Maybe more, " Cardinal said.

"The downtown is dying, " I told him. "You have a place where there used to be headquarters of major banks. But the banks all merged with larger out-of-state firms and they left town."

"Is that it?" Cardinal said.

"Some local developer is trying to build a condo complex, " I said. I searched for a spot just outside the downtown grid and put my finger on down on it. "Right here. There's an old warehouse that they promise to incorporate into the new structure. But they can't even raise the money to get the deal done. They had financial backers that pulled out at the last minute."

"I'm not buying it, " Cardinal told me. "They would try downtown first. They would look for some empty space and build a tower."

"Maybe, " I said. "But there's a crime issue downtown. There was a spree of gang-related violence over the last few years. People don't want to have anything to do with downtown anymore."

Cardinal thought about that for a moment. "Possibly, " he said.

"How long have you been working on this design?" I asked him.

"Some of the other members of the team put it together, " he said. "I'm trying to find its potential. I didn't see it at first. I was ready to scrap the thing."

"I think it has some use, " I said. "It's a nice blank slate. You can overlay it with a number of different narratives."

"But that's the problem, " Cardinal told me. "If there's nothing unique about it, then maybe it's useless. It has to say something on its own."

"I can try using it, " I said.

"That's what I was going to propose, " Cardinal told me.

You have to understand that these narratives that we developed for Symantec was highly prized by certain individuals in certain departments. They said that they helped them with their brainstorming sessions and that sort of thing. There was one VP who kept the whole project alive. Without him, the company probably would have dropped it. But, as I said, we had our fans.

In any event, I went back to my desk and started working on a narrative with this map Cardinal gave me. It took me a few days, but I managed to work something out.

"Casey lives in the suburbs but drives into town for work, " it began. "There's a parking lot across the street from his building. People tell him that he's crazy to still be working downtown, but the thing is that wouldn't dare to try and look for a new job. In fact, he was quite paranoid about losing the one he had. Casey maintained his firm's online help systems and he knew that that sort of work could be outsourced in a flash. So he lived in a state of perpetual misery, wondering when the day would come when they would let him go.

"One morning in late January it snowed so hard that the freeways were all clogged with accidents, so Casey took the side streets to get to work. He didn't realize that most of his fellow employees wouldn't be so dedicated, so when he arrived at the office he was startled to find the place empty. Or, at least he thought it was empty.

"When he walked into the break room, he was startled to find Andrea sitting in a table in the corner, sipping a coffee and reading the newspaper. Andrea noticed his alarmed reaction. 'Sorry about that, ' she said.

"'What are you sorry for?' Casey asked.

"'I didn't mean to frighten you, ' Andrea replied.

"'It's my own fault, ' Casey said. 'I thought I was the only one here.'

"'So did I, ' Andrea said. 'I suppose I was until you arrived. Have a seat.'

"Normally Casey would get right to work because he was so worried about his job, but he figured he could take a few minutes and relax, under the circumstances. 'I shouldn't have even come in today, ' Andrea said as he sat down at her table. 'I could have made a million excuses. But for some reason I didn't have it in me to lie. At one point I was almost hoping to get into an accident, because at least then I'd have a real excuse to skip out.'

"'I'm surprised nobody else has showed up yet, ' Casey said.

"'Maybe some of them will never come back, ' Andrea said.

"'That might be nice, ' Casey said. 'Depending on who you're talking about.'

"Andrea smiled. 'I think this is the most I've ever heard you talk, ' she then said.

"'I talk all the time, ' I told her.

"'I guess it's normally all work-related talk with you, though, ' Andrea said. 'I guess that's what I'm trying to say.'

"'I'm not trying to be an entertainer, ' Casey said. 'We have enough of those.'

"'You don't think much of the rest of us, do you?' Andrea said.

"'I don't know what you mean, ' Casey told her.

"'You should hear yourself, ' Andrea said. 'You can't stand this place. I'm surprised you can stand talking to me right now.'

"'I don't hate this place, ' Casey said.

"'You don't know that you hate it, ' Andrea said. 'There's a difference.'

"Casey thought about that for a while. He tried to remember any previous conversation he might have had with Andrea, but none came to mind. He could barely remember how he got to work that morning, which was strange because he had had to navigate parts of town he was largely unfamiliar with to avoid the freeways. He had put a lot of thought into his morning commute, and not he could only remember the most basic details about it.

"'I don't hate you, ' he finally said to Andrea.

"'I appreciate that, ' Andrea said.

"'I do mean it, ' I said.

"'I believe you, ' Andrea told him."

I gave this narrative to Cardinal when I was finished with it. He made a few edits, but kept it more or less intact. I did a few more narratives before our group was finally shut down. Cardinal was transferred and the rest of us scattered.

It's too bad that I couldn't have spent more time there. I enjoyed my work with Cardinal more than anything else I've done for the company.

It´s impossible to get the out of Norton Automatic Renewal. I had tried many times to get the acess to the option on site... I think they are kidding with me, (a software company) they send me to ask this option by phone. It´s incredible...

Someone help me.

Or I need to do this by phone???

Symantec, Norton could be a Hell Company?

thanks

I just upgraded Norton 360 version 3 to Norton 360 4.0. My PC runs Win 7 64 bit Professional and Office 2010 Professional. After the update Outlook 2010 and IE8 would not start. After uninstalling Norton 360 4.0, Outlook 2010 and IE8 still would not start.

Nor did the installation of Norton 360 4.0 did set a restore point!

I used my recent restore point and managed to get all software up and running again. I reinstalled Norton 360 3.0, updated it and everything works.

I chatted with Norton tech support and they finally admitted there is a problem and they are working on it. They told me to keep using version 3.0.

So be forewarned.

purchased new computer and want to transfer Nortons renaining time to it