The True Story of Website Results

Henry V .009 writes: "Salon is running a story on a dot.com called Website Results. Maybe you've heard of them. Viral Spyware makers. My God, these people are sick. Interview question: 'Imagine there's a peasant somewhere halfway across the world. If you could push a button and kill the person without getting caught, would you do it for a million dollars?' 'For them, it was yes, in a heartbeat.'"

Comments

Re:What you won't see...

[CProgrammer98]

You mean like this button???

The Connection to the Flowgo Incident

[Alien54]

these are the guys who were involved in the Flowgo story from last April:

Under the auspices of their newly founded company, Intellitech Web Solutions, the three devised a plan to strip the visible front end off the toolbar, leaving only its snooping back end in place.

According to former Intellitech employees, the company also polished up some code designed to automatically and silently install the mutated toolbar when an Internet user viewed a specially designed Web page.

"At that point, it started to become a virus," said a former staffer who worked on the project.

Last March, Intellitech began to seed the Internet with copies of the backdoor program, using specially designed pop-up ads it purchased at sites, including the family entertainment portal Flowgo.com.

In violation of Flowgo's policy, the pop-ups automatically sent visitors to another site, where, according to virus researchers, special code exploited a vulnerability in Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser and forced the spyware onto users' computers.

From the end of the article (last page)

Re:Sick?

[Drath]

The statement doesn't make the assumption of you getting found out. It's supposed to be a test of personal morals. If the only thing keeping you from murder is the fear of being chastised by others then you would fall to the yes side of this test.

Similar but not entirely related was the Milgram Expriment. A volunteer was told to give increasing electric shocks to a "subject" in the next room when the subject in the next room answered a question incorrectly. Now the guy in the next room wasn't really getting shocked but he was yelling like he was. The researcher was collecting results on how these volunteers ability to morally detach themselves from the act by saying he was told to do it.

Re:twilight zone

[Mister Transistor]

Hmmm... Been a while.... The story is called "Button. Button", by Alfred Bester. I don't remember which anthology it was in, probably one of the 100's of 1960's paperbacks in my basement.

Re:twilight zone

[Joe Mucchiello]

Isn't there an alternate version of this story by Richard Mattheson* (sp?) where the woman is home alone when the macguffin carrier comes to her door saying by pressing the button someone she doesn't know will die and she would get $50,000. Knowing they are strapped for money she presses it. The doorbell rings. A policeman informs her that her husband died in a car accident today. Her insurance agent calls and says that because it was an accident the double indemnity clause of his $25,000 life insurrance policy is invoked.

She grabs the box, breaks it open and finds that it is empty inside. Finally the guy shows up and she screams "you said it would someone I didn't know." He replies, "Mrs. x, how well did you really know your husband? How well do any of us know anybody else, really?"

*Mattheson wrote quite a view of TV's Twilight Zone episodes, IIRC.

see Milgram's depravity study

[ChrisCampbell47]

Imagine there's a peasant somewhere halfway across the world. If you could push a button and kill the person without getting caught, would you do it for a million dollars?

Psychology 101 -- in the early 60's, Stanley Milgram wrote the book on how depraved people can be.

http://www.new-life.net/milgram.htm

What he was really studying was the varying levels of conformity (or conformability) in various cultures, and how willing people are to follow orders, even when those orders are morally wrong.

24/7 Media is not a good guy

[Animats]

The story seems to present 24/7 Media as the heroes, more or less. They're not. 27/7 Media was basically a spammer that got big enough to go public. Their stock peaked around $60; it's now $0.20. I've had them on Deathwatch since late 2000. They're still hanging on, but the stockholders lost everything.

The company is still issuing happy talk press releases, but most of the press releases that mention them mention lawsuits. "... Files Suit Against Merrill Lynch and Henry Blodget on Behalf of Investors of 24/7 Real Media, Inc."

Steriods !

[jeffmock]

I think the whole thing is a case of odd behavior caused by steroid use. The Schwarzenegger film, the workout equipment, the obsessive workout schedule, angry physical outbursts. I would love to see before and after pictures of those guys. I bet they were using steriods.

The next time someone says "... on steroids", this is what they're talking about!

jeff

Two Words: Roid Rage

[malakai]

These guys were definitely sampling the elephant hormones. This is typical of a type-a on Steroids...

I had a friend who would get like this. Feel the need to punch holes in walls, faces...etc. When he cut off the 'roids, he wasn't nearly as a sadistic.