Korean Job Discussion Forums

[bossface]

I'm hoping this is limited to the education sector. Why does a country that prides itself on technology have such horrible computers in, like, every school and hagwon? Between the Pentium processor, the XP OS, and the bloatware (die, AhnLab, die!), my work computers generally run at 1996 level speed. Does anybody have a positive experience with a Korean workplace computer?

[Fox]

I like XP just fine, it's all the Korean "security" programs that are the problem for me. The computers here at my school have at least six different mandatory programs running all the time, and others which run periodically. Starting up in the morning takes far longer than it needs to because of all these (probably entirely ineffectual) programs, and the "eco saver" program which puts my computer to sleep if I don't use it for 30 minutes and then screws up the resolution 9 times out of 10 when I wake it back up is particularly annoying.

[yfb]

The only positive experience I've had comes from reformatting and installing Windows 7. When it's free of Korean programs it's 10x faster.

[Who's Your Daddy?]

WindowsKey-R (to get the run menu)
type: MSconfig

Then deselect items in the startup tab (second tab from the right).

[Fox]

[NohopeSeriously]

[Jongno2bucheon]

No its not limited to the education sector.

Its like that at normal korean companies too.

IT is horrible in Korea. Anything database related, security related is very badly made

But i have found that navigation software and phone payment software is better than what i see in the US.

[Scorpion]

I've often thought about this topic. You keep hearing about how high tech Korea is supposed to be, but the computers at my school are just dreadful. Over the years I have worked at no fewer than eight public schools and in each and every one of them the computers sucked. Whether it was the computer in my room, or the computers in the teachers' room, they all functioned poorly.

Thought about starting a thread about this myself.

[Jongno2bucheon]

[wishfullthinkng]

luckily i use a rig that would make most hardcore gamers jealous at my job but the active x controls and security apps required to do things in korea are definitely annoying. not to mention my credit cards inexplicably not working on random websites due to ridiculous "security measures" by korean banks. a mastercard should be a mastercard, period.

[Chaucer]

School computers? Tragedy of the commons. Guy at my school has installed remote access or something--uses the school computer to download torrents pretty much full time; transfers them to his external hd when he comes in.

[Old Painless]

If it makes you feel any better, a buddy of mine goes around to all the Hospitals in Dallas/Houston/Austin areas and upgrades doctor's computers and personal devices. He told me that 99% of them are just now upgrading from XP to 7 - so it's not just Koreans that are stuck on XP.

[AsiaESLbound]

An Intel Celeron system running XP and a measely 1 gig of RAM with only dial up speed was a real step backward for me. I had a public school computer in my own entire office 3 years ago with a 1 gigabit high speed connection, 1 TB hard drive, and Win7, but now have a piece of old XP crap that takes forever to load and won't play sound yet I need to be able to hear through headphones to study dialogues and multimedia lesson ideas. Back then, you could download movies, not that it's OK nor an entitlement, and put them on an external HD to take home, because there weren't 10 teachers on the same connection cramped in a small office room all suffering painfully slow computing as is the case for where I'm at now. Today, you are more likely to be elbow to elbow with Korean teachers at 2 person desks and have far less resources like computer power and other professional support than in the golden oldie days. If you say anything, even with the most tact, you are deemed a complaining foreigner and will be directly told so with disdain since it infringes on nationalists pride to point out anything of even a slightly negative nature even if you are just objectively talking about getting a computer problem solved. It's a face thing and so you only have what is allowed, but it won't matter as long as you do your job and finish what your started to pass GO and collect $200.

[byrddogs]