My first inclination upon seeing a process whose description is ##Id_String2.6844F930_1628_4223_B5CC_5BB94B879762## in my list of currently running processes is to think it’s some kind of virus, spyware, or some other malevolent piece of garbage. My first inclination would be wrong.
A quick Google search found that it’s part of Apple’s Bonjour service, which gets arbitrarily installed with iTunes, and apparently anything from Adobe these days. Bonjour is basically Apple’s version of zero configuration networking, and the service behind the ability of iTunes users to broadcast and share their playlists. That’s fine and all, but what is it doing on my PC?
After all, Windows already uses its own implementation of Zeroconf, so what’s the use of having a second? I don’t see Microsoft unloading a bunch of Windows services onto unsuspecting Mac users every time they install third-party software that has nothing to do with Microsoft. Thus, I don’t expect to find Apple’s services bundled with third-party software either.
Of course, I’m not especially surprised. These are the same people who pushed Safari on unsuspecting Windows iTunes users a few months back. At any rate, it was not an ordeal to simply right-click the offending process, stop it, and set it to “disabled”. Perhaps I’ll re-enable it the next time I actually need Bonjour (read: never).
Here is a dialog box I’m often greeted with in Adobe Dreamweaver while working with XHTML/CSS files that have linked graphics:
[name of file] has changed on the remote server since your last get or put operation. Putting the file may overwrite changes to the file. Do you wish to put the file anyway?
In the case that led me to write this, I had FTP’d the most current copy to the server using a separate FTP program; therefore, the server copy was the same as the PC copy. This is how I understood the dialog box:
Since you last put this file on the server, the server copy has changed. If you choose to put this file onto the server, the changed server copy will be overwritten with the PC copy you are putting there now. Is that OK with you?
I have no problem with that. Except, this is what actually happens:
Since you last put this file on the server, the server copy has changed. If you choose to put this file onto the server, despite telling you otherwise, I’m going to copy a previous version of the server copy over to your PC, overwriting your PC’s copy of the file and shitting up your whole day. Hope you made a backup—oh wait, I guess that was your backup. Ha ha! Fuck you! Adobe out!
Dreamweaver proceeded to take a previous cached version of the file (not even the most current version on the server) and send it to my PC, overwriting the most current version. Then, apparently, it took that now-old version and steamrolled the server’s current copy with that too, leaving me with old copies of the file on both PC and server. Whee.
This is kind of like being transported back in time in a time machine, except just one hour back in time, and without a way back to the present. On one hand, it’s pretty cool to have officially become a time-traveler. On another, thanks for nothing, badly worded dialog box.
At least I didn’t get a disease that would be easily curable in the present, but is incurable in the time where I was sent. Even if I had, I’m quite sure any disease that’s curable right now was equally curable an hour ago.