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Bonzi Class Action Suit Settled: No Foolin'!
An anonymous reader writes "According to this
article in the Toronto Star, a class
action suit against Bonzi Software has reached a settlement.
Bonzi will not pay damages but will be required to stop using fake user
interface (FUI) style error messages to trick users into clicking on their
banners. This is a big win for the community as it will help to improve the
Internet's ailing perceived user experience.
Most of you have seen Bonzi's banners, and probably most of you won't admit
to having been fooled by them at some point. Well, imagine how many novice computer
users were tricked into installing again, or paying for software they really did not need.
Congratulations and thanks to Lukins & Annis
for a job well done.
Interestingly, bonzi.com has been returning connection refused all day. This is usually one of the net's busiest sites."
so how does this help those same novice users who had to pay for expensive PC repair because they also didn't know how to remove the software?
Mike
"The San Luis Obispo, Calif., software company has reached a
settlement in a landmark U.S. case that could have far-reaching
impact for companies that try to disguise their online banner
ads."
That seems like a pretty drastic over-statement. This is a
settlement, the judge didn't decide in their favor. I don't
think settlements have any value as far as precedent goes.
That's why so many people settle cases in the first place. To
classify this as a "landmark" case looks like someone is having
delusions of grandeur.
I am happy to see that they'll stop using those irritating
banners though. They don't usually get me anymore, but every
once in a while they'll cause a minor palpitation (unless of
course I'm on a Linux box).
Doug Tolton
"The destruction of a value which is, will not bring value to that which isn't." -John Galt
Interestingly, bonzi.com has been returning connection refused all day. This is usually one of the net's busiest sites.
Ah...a little thing called justice.
Bonzi buddy will now be ashcroft's buddy.
Anyone remember when Bonzi first came out? I was a tech back then, and almost all of the systems on the campus were crashing and experiencing major slow down for a couple of days. I would run the usual gamut of questions: "Did you install anything new? Are you using AIM or ICQ? How many programs do you have open?". Asking these questions over the phone is futile, but you do it anyways, cause you're a lazy tech and you don't want to leave the air conditioned NOC. So I had to eventually turn off the game of Quake, log out of heat.net, and carry my lazy ass down to all of the offices. It was funny to be half listening to the clerk/professor/secretary/manager telling me about how they "never install anything on their computer" and how they "always run scandisk and the virus scanner on Friday at 4:30pm" and bla bla bla, just as their system grinds to a halt with a big purple ape on the screen jumping out at you, and the jarring blare of a long drawn out "uh ohh!!" that corresponds with the reception of 80 new ICQ messages.
That's also why advertisers use interfaces that are very similar. They want to encourage familiarity and comfort with their ad, to get people to click on it.
Also, parodic uses of common UI's do occur. These are protected under the first amendment. Just for civil liberties in general this is a bad court case. It's similar to the Nike free-speech/commercial speech court case recently in the US supreme court.
I agree, m4d props to L&A for showing them up. I've never actually clicked on one of them (I swear) but my friend, who uses the same computer, does so numerously. I pretty much have to uninstall Gator and such on a daily basis.
When you don't have a leg to stand on, don't even get up.
I thought my OS X aqua icons turned into these nasty, square-shaped, clunky, windows-esch styled buttons.
Seems to be work for me. Maybe your isp blocked that domain on there dns servers. Interestingly anough I got this popup image when I visted the site.
My dad used to use bonzi before I explained what a fool he was for installing spy ware. He like the bonzi-buddy (the little Microsoft Agent Charater) because he could make it talk and it would sing to him.
No.
Their scheme (not to be mistaken for the way more profitable, way more illegal Ponzi scheme) most likely made them enough money to be of value to a lot of other seedy companies.
Still - a milestone !
There needs to be a way for the IP addresses of known bad guys, like Bonzi and Gator, to be filtered out at the ISP level so they do not massively disrupt computers. Perhaps a central authority used to designate spyware domain names and IP addresses...
Bonzi will not pay damages but will be required to stop using fake user interface (FUI) style error messages to trick users into clicking on their banners. This is a big win for the community ...
A big win? What are you smoking? Bonzai duped countless users for years and completely got away with it. They didn't have to pay anything. A big win would be if they got slapped with such a huge fine that it would serve as a lesson to other companies contemplating the same sort of "business model".
GMD
watch this
Bonzi doesn't have to pay any money? I guess Perfect Tommy and the rest of the Hong Kong Cavaliers managed to save the day after all!
:)
Bad joke, I know but it had to be said, err... written.
"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." - Oscar Wilde
Your operating system sucks. Click here to install Linux now! [Ok]
If your an experienced computer user and you get fooled by one of these banners...well...that's just sad.
I got this pop-up ad when I went to bonzi.com 2 seconds ago
Your PC is in need of maitainance.
Click here to get the latest upgrade for your system.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Just like the idiots who get worried when they see the "your computer is broadcasting it's IP address" messages.
Even when I was occasionally using a WinBloze box I wasn't taken in, as I'm sure most tech-savvy users weren't. The people who fall for this tactic are the same ones who keep forwarding email warnings about anti-perspirants causing cancer, etc.
I have been using Bonzi buddy for convenience purposes lately. I can keep track sports scores. monitor geek activity on slashdot. bonzi also lets me buy my movie tickets. i really don't know where i'd be without bonzi buddy to help me get through the day. thanks, bonzi!
Will EVER beat the Window Messaging Service pop-up I got selling a program that blocks Windows Messaging Service. They never responded to my emails as to whether or not they offered "change your windows background" or "how to change your boot-up wav" software.
Finally, math books without any of that base 6 crap in them.
These guys are in San Luis Obispo, huh? Never knew. I'm attending college here -- time to get a group of other disgruntled geeks and do the same sort of things they like to do: send them a forged Cease and Decist from the anal city government here for some alleged violation..."It has come to our attention that your paking lot has CARS in it. Please remove them at once," or "Your car is showing a license plate!" etc. etc.
I've always hated those bloody things -- fortunately, the computer illiterate family all use Macs, so even when they clicked through they couldn't install the stuff if they tried.
Now I'll never be able to optimize my dial-up connection!
I'll say one good thing for bonzi: it was their goddamn "punch the monkey" ad that finally pushed me into setting up my own ad filtering proxy.
I'm sure this sort of thing is good for the web in general, but I must admit the only such irritation I have suffered in the years since is that damn ad popup at NYTonline. I thought everyone these days uses an ad filter/proxy server/decent browser/crappy browser plugin? I mean, it's not like they actually cost money or anything. Do some people actually feel left out if they miss X10 popups and TGP porn dialers?
What in tarnations are yall talkin about. I use Mozilla everyday, I never seen one of these Bonzi Gorilla Men!!!! What is the big hullabaloo about:)
HenryJamesFeltus.com
Wooo ha!
Seems like someone would try to create ads that follow the Aqua L&F...at least if they are selling their 'goods' to a Mac crowd.
On the other hand, Apple may not like that, and be more proactive than MS in stopping this kind of thing.
Practice Kind Randomness and Beautiful Acts of Nonsense.
Yeah, 'cause on a linux or MacOS X box, those Windows dialog boxes look SO realistic! I know I always had to think twice. Not.
It's a shame they're going to stop using (snicker) "FUI". I thought it was fantastic- Internet Darwinism!
Please help metamoderate.
### GIVE ME A BREAK! ### Has anyone noticed the guy (Philip J. Carstens) who is suing Bonzi Software also sued his "former employer" after he sustained an "injury" of a "traumatic nature" when he bit into a piece of "Halloween Candy" taken from a dish located on the reception desk of his employer and "broke loose a dental crown."
It's kind of like the story about the burglar who sued for being trapped for 8 days in a garage of a house that he burgled -- with "nothing" to survive on, except a case of soft drinks and a bag of dry dog food.
You should read his legal arguement: "The candy was either furnished by Mr. Carstens' employer, or by the receptionist employed by Mr. Carstens' employer, with full knowledge of the company's management and because the injury occurred in the course of his employment, Mr. Carstens had clearly sustained an injury compensable under the Industrial Insurance Act."
Compensable? What does that word mean? Do they mean like... as in... compensation? Do they mean like... M-O-N-E-Y?
But the really shocking thing is: HE WON THE CANDY LAWSUIT AND ACTUALLY GOT MONEY FOR HIS "TRAUMATIC INJURIES"! You can read all the "traumatic" details of that fateful day at: http://www.wa.gov/biia/890723.htm
However, there's one more interesting twist to this story. It turns out the "businessman" who filed the lawsuit is not really a "businessman" after all, but a lawyer who is just pretending to be someone else -- and it gets worse -- the "employer" that Mr. Carstens sued was none-other-than the law firm of "Ludkins & Annis" -- that's right, the same law firm who is now suing Bonzi Software on Mr. Carstens' behalf.
If you are scratching your head, so am I. I don't get it. What's really going on here? This lawyer claims he does not work for the law firm of Ludkins & Annis -- yet, their website in Google's "cache" says: "Philip J. Carstens has been a principal at the law firm of Ludkins & Annis since 1974."
SO LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT. YOU HAVE A LAWYER -- WHO SUID HIS OWN LAW FIRM FOR BEING "TRAUMATICLY INJURED" BY A PIECE OF HALOWEEN CANDY -- AND NOW THIS SAME GUY HAS BEEN "INJURED" BY INTERNET POP-UP ADS TOO.
The poor guy. I guess some people just have all the bad luck.
Not just Bonzai, but all of those ads that try to 'trick' users into clicking through: fake 'X' buttons, bogus radio buttons, etc...
How many people, once fooled into the company's web site, decide "Hey, I'm already here. Why not give them my credit card number for some useless piece of shit I don't need."
?
I'm serious. Has there ever been a study on this sort of thing?
GeekNights!
Late Night Radio for Geeks!
Click "okay" to get a class action buttfucking without the courtesy of a reach around.
I, for one, am glad to see that something is being down about the more unscrupulous internet advertisors.
Of course, using Opera to stop pop-ups and a little bit of control of the windows Hosts files (To block ad sites from even being connected to) means I haven't seen that annoying Ape in months, or any of the "You computer could be infected with a virus/not optimized/my GOD, why aren't you using our POS program???"
Bad Monkey, BAD!!!
I'm not tense. I'm just terribly, terribly, alert.
Liars. They think lying's an OK way to make a buck. And like all liars, they think everyone else is a liar, too, which makes it OK.
They have no idea that the content of one's character is the most important thing in the world. Contrary to what the religions of mammon would have you believe, the ONLY truly holy thing there can ever be is an impeccable character. I'd much MUCH rather sleep in the gutter with a sparkling character than be a Banzi executive.
Bunch of animals, those Banzi creatures, and everyone like them... no, I take that back... most animals are sincere... humans have the corner on the liars market.
Mod down people who tell people how to mod in their sigs
These banners aren't fraudulent just because of what they say -- although what they say is certainly deceptive as well. My most serious objection to them is that they are deliberately designed to look like something much more important than advertising. If a company started putting up roadside advertisements made to look like road construction signs, little carts with blinking arrows made of individual lights (such as the DOT uses), and so on, in order to convince drivers that their driveway was the next exit, or that it was imperative to get off at their exit as part of a detour due to road construction, would we allow that? (Okay, Microsoft is not a government agency, but the importance of operating systems error messages on a computer is very similar to the importance of highway department messages on a highway.)
WARNING Linux user! You have some Micro$oft webpages in your browser's cache! We can help you remove them safely!
Open up a shell and type: apt-get install hitthemonkey
K THX!
\\ Mitch
If you're an admin, you got the power. If you own your PC, you got the power. The last thing the 'net needs is some "central authority" to determine who gets to talk and who doesn't.
Spyware Blaster (http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.ht ml) is nice because it prevents spyware from installing by fooling Windows into thinking its already installed by making regisitry keys with the spyware ClassIDs. It also prevents you from seeing ads and spyware by changing IE's privacy host to reject anything from a list of spyware domains. (even doubleclick.net so about half the ads on the internet disapeared in IE for me) It also auto-updates its known host list. This will only help you prevent spyware, but it also comes with a tool for reseting your browser pages. (So if you installed yahoo bar and can't figure out where it reset your default search page and error pages at in the regisitry this will help).
Ad-aware (http://www.lavasoft.de/index.html) is a nice client side product for scanning and cleaning out spyware from your system. Its free version will do almost everything the paid version will but it won't doing anything automaticaly.
mynetwatchman.com does a very good job at listing bad hostnames and ips so if you want you can check that site for more info.
Hope that helps!
No.
I'll admit it, they got me once. I don't think the company was Bonzi, but this company had a really dirty trick :) They had a regular FUI, then an extra control menu graphic on top of the regular FUI, in a window with no menus. I instantly recognized it as another fake windows popup, and as I have been so accustomed to doing, I went to close it down, and clicked on the added destroy window button graphic and was of course taken to some site with no interest to me.
That's just dirty..
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It's just that yours is stupid.
gimme an 'R'!
gimme an 'E'!
gimme a 'C'!
gimme another 'E'!
gimme a 'D'!
gimme yet another 'E'!
gimme an 'N'!
gimme a 'T'!
What's that spell?
PRECEDENT!
Now there's a definition of "friend" of which I was previous unacquainted with.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
WARNING::Your web browser may not be compatible with this page! To update your browser, and assure full compliance, click here.
You know what?
I don't know who bought the ad space for Bonzi and their like, but seeing their "Your computer is broadcasting an IP address!" or the "Your computer is vulnerable to virii!" on my Mac always freaked me out. The stupid people ran boxes in the windows GUI on mac sites for jebus sakes
eeek! How the hell did Windows get installed on my mac??? Why are there these ugly boxes showing up???
However, I was concerned about this dangerous "IP address" it mentions, so I still downloaded it for that protection...
It took me days to convince my girlfriend that bonzi buddy was not her friend. The same thing happened with comet cursor. I had to explain to her that you can get southpark cursors without a special program. It is just too easy to fool people into installing this software. I basically do the maintenance on all of my friends' computers (for free), and this spyware stuff is getting out of hand. In my opinion it is already more hostile to the average user than spam and viruses combined.
Slashdotter are stupid and biased.
nope -- I don't see any of them anymore thanks to the userContent.css style sheet.
it will match urls for ads and replace the image with nothing. So, you get the web page without any irritating ads at all.
The css lines are customizable as much as you like. They look like this:
A:link[HREF*="?click"] IMG { display: none ! important }
A:link[HREF*="?banner"] IMG { display: none ! important }
more details and the file at this url:l laCustomize
http://www.fogcat5.com/twiki/bin/view/Fogcat/Mozi
Excellent!
Btw, fully agree with the rest of your post too. How many more of these "big wins" can we afford?
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
I worked at a corporate office for about a week before everyone got laid off. Naturally, they learned of my skill with computers and wanted me to fix them during breaktime and such. Being nice, I did. AOL Companion. AOL. Bonzi buddy. Gator. Weathercast. With these programs and Windows open only, newly booted, the machines had about 20% free system resources. Considering they'd be working and Gator or Bonzi buddy would popup and make noise and disturb them, how much damage is it doing? How much fun is it to be in the middle of a big data entry project, in the 'zone' and you get disturbed by a gigantic monkey with no 'off' button that wants to eat/nap/take your money? Not very much, I'd imagine. So I uninstalled everything. AOL Companion, Bonzi buddy, Gator, Weathercast, but I left AOL on non-startup. Just for their convenience. Next day same thing happens. "I was just clicking the targets and..." The targets. Isn't it illegal to say you've won something and you've really won nothing? Not even a high score on the high score list. But you've just won SPYWARE for your mad banner-clicking skills. Don't get me started on how illegal things like Xupiter should be to put on someone's computer without their permission. Even if their computer gracefully accepts the file and will run it, it still should require the users' authorization. And none of those "Installing.." boxes that just pop up with a progress bar and no cancel button or X, either.
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
We know the consumers got nothing, but how many new BMWs are being bought with the settlement cash?
sulli
RTFJ.
Now we just need a suit against Microsoft for that annoying Office Paperclip... I'll get you paperclip! You may have won the battle, but the war is not over! You're dead paperclip! DEAD!
I'm just happy that I got my computer illiterate parents to use Mozilla. When the telco guy was installing DSL, he told them that they'd have to use IE and Outlook. I nearly kicked him out on his ass.
hang brain.
didn't read.
Now that there is a legal precedence for ending this sort of annoyance maybe the others like having your homepage setting hijacked by some domain host when you click a broken link or have your screen filled with an oversized pop-up.
Not that people couldn't benefit from a little basic computer education. Just some people aren't as computer literate as others and they may not know about pop-up blockers...
This could have been ended years ago if Microsoft had dropped a Look & Feel lawsuit on them. After all, they defend even their ownership of the word "Windows".
Or was this some secret plan of MS's -- like licensing *nix from SCO when SCO doesn't own it -- to get people to upgrade to XP so these banner ads will appear obsolete? This is how MS protects their users, by changing the whole visual metaphor?
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
And if not, why not? Because it's a corporation committing the fraud, instead of a private individual?
Are the States' Attorneys General not responsible for prosecuting this kind of crime? Are they not, given all commonly accepted legal principles, required to prosecute this sort of activity?
Windows fake GUI popups don't matter when you use the Aqua interface :)
today
that's very amusing. I bet you could speed up your net connection with bonzi buddy too. ;-)
My Dad is always click on those things. Then he'll call me (I'm family tech support) and ask me what to do.
Even though I've explained it to him several dozen times, he still calls. I finally had to install a popup blocker on his browser so as to reduce the number of times he called me.
Oh, he also double-clicks hyperlinks. Anyone else seen that anoyning trait?
Go here for teh [sic] funny.
So that their banner look like... stupid banners!
Now, where is the class action suit against stroboscope ones ?
Your computer is transmitting an IP address!
Helpful warning, kind of one the same lines as:
Your epidermis is showing!
TallGreen CMS hosting
..."DAD, you're a fool for falling for that obvious gimmick. Puh-LEEZE!" *crosses arms, rolls eyes*
Like most average Internet users, he thought it was legitimate software for legitimate use. Hence the lawsuit. If you really did call your father a "fool" for installing "spy ware", I feel sorry for his having such an obnoxious son.
Hey, I'm just glad that, for the first time in like years, my computer is actually optimized for the internet.
-Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat
it's hard to mistake an ad for an error message, especially if it moves with the HTML as you scroll, and it's a different color than your actual windows widgets.
so any word on when I get my money for shocking that bouncing monkey thing!
Yeah, its not like the user agent string doesn't give them a hint about which OS look and feel to emulate.
Upon first reading this headline I thought it was referring to http://bonsaikitten.com
"Orthodoxy means not thinking--not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness." --Eric Blair
not funny
I'm happy those bogus errors will finally be put to an end, atleast from Bonzi. I'm rather disturbed that the firm that won this lawsuit is called Annis. Am I to believe that all lawyers are assholes, or just in that one practice?
ohh wow... your really big... fucking coward won't even post under your own fucking name. Next time you may want to figure out who you are talking about, you ass. I'm not even going to waste my time with a troll.
No.
Of course sleaze targetting novice users would emulate the win98 interface: that is what is installed on the vast majority of their target (read: naive) market. To make this point into elitist bs is absurd. Doesn't linux want these teeming masses of "morons" to switch over?
"My God, this must be a truly remarkable corn chip, to be so widely and confidently touted."
For those of you who have been connected since the early 90s/late 80s do you remember how the net was friendly place? Fine people mostly academics and uber geeks, no trolls, no hassle, no spam, hardly any banner ads. Not those full size flashes that interrupt your reading.
back in those good old days when the ICQ numbers were less than one million, and the beautiful Netscape animated logo (early browser 2.x & 3.x) distracted you till a juicy HTML downloads. Not the stupid Bonzi shit we must live with, a non-tech friend of mine asked me to help him with his computer and I discovered this Bonzi crap, after hours of registry tweaking I managed to remove it, instead of providing a real valuable service their business model is to fuck their customers and ruin there machines and trick them into installing their crap Bonzi, its like selling pizza by stuffing it in your client throat.
gimme a 'D'!
gimme another 'I'!
gimme an 'O'!
gimme a 'T'!
What's that spell?
IDIOT!
Until they figure out how to do a web banner ad that (1) slips by privoxy, and (2) looks like a document-modal sheet, those of us who run OS X won't get fooled again.
Catch up with us, rest of the world!
I am not suggesting that I think he was in the right, but the precedent from his case could help others who might be more dramatically affected by similar injuries. Don't be so quick to bad-mouth the guy.
Doesn't linux want these teeming masses of "morons" to switch over?
Linux doesn't 'want' anything. It's a kernel, and so far hasn't exhibited any signs of artificial intelligence.
When it finally does, it'll be way ahead of most Windows users...and most Slashdot posters, as well.
Max
My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?
I never would have noticed.
notepad c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
127.0.0.1 casino.bonzi.com
127.0.0.1 download.bonzi.com
127.0.0.1 images.bonzi.com
127.0.0.1 www.bonzi.com
127.0.0.1 www.bonzibuddy.com
because there is no way that a windows FUI would fool a non windows user. Trust me, there are idiots using every system (read: Mac)
YOU SUCK BALLS!
...it's good to see the monkey being spanked.
Max
My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?
Nope, as many others mentioned already, a setlement sets no precendent.
Nothing to see here, move over.
Monkeys Point. Homer :- Monkeys Cry
for the last time people, I am "frodo from middle eaRTH", not "middle eaST".
The best part is the ones that still look like Windows 98 dialogs, five years and three versions of Windows later. I guess they figure that their prime market is people who don't even know enough to get rid of that crashy toy of an operating system.
--
"Open source is good." - Steve Jobs
"Open source is evil." - Microsoft
Ignore the trolls. That's why you should set your preferences to browse above score 0. :)
What kind of a birdbrain signs a slash dot post and then puts their lame credentials underneath it? I am not impressed ya pisswit. Albert Einstein, PhD {I'm dead too}
They're probably very busy moving their servers off shore.
I got one pop-up from Bonzi minutes ago. The popup window looks pretty much the same as those shown in the lawyers' website, but the title bar says 'Advertisement' in small font.
This whole thing sucks - Bonzi's of the world keep popping up windows even after publicly saying they will not do so.
Putting the word 'Advertising' in the title bar is not what is needed. They need to stop annoying people.
As of 14:28 CST they are still using the fake user interface. I just went to their site. When are they supposed to stop doing this?
http://www.bonzi.com isn't really down.
Kazaa Lite and other applications come with a modified Hosts file you can use to route a number of nasty sites to localhost.
http://www.bonzi.com is one of the sites that are blocked by default.
Very nice. I like it, and it's funny to see IE open a popup that loads my workstation's custom 404 error message instead of sending me to popup Hell. Doubleclick and other sites are in that same custom hosts file.
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
I havent seen a popup for almost a year since I installed mozilla and configured it to block them.
A precedent is a judicial decision that helps shape future cases of similar circumstance.
Settlements are reached w/o such a judicial decision.
Past settlements have no influence in the arbitration of future law.
Bonzi Wells could have put more effort and made his team go further in the playoffs. I'm fascinated by Bonsai. Once I saw this baobab tree that I can hold with my hand and it's really neat. Anyway, I was expecting more than just preventing Bonzi Inc. from using those misleading ads. I still remember when the Bonzi Buddy came out (including some of their other crapware like InternetBoost which in fact just makes a couple of registry tweaks), and that time I run a software rating site and forum. Man, you bet I see complaints to the thousands about that program. Although I never used any of their crapware, I felt furious too that such company would create a horrible pieace of junk. But what the hell, this was back then when dotcoms are booming, Dell PC ads are on every newspaper, and Quake 2 was the rage.
Personally, I think this is step in the right direction. Will save me the time to remove those things from the Windows-minded people among me ...
It's been the case for a while. The system feeds these dopes...
Um ... so could you tell me how I can get a Southpark cursor?
"Don't f*** with Wendy Testeburger!"
The agreement, which is scheduled to take effect June 22, will mean all ads that mimic the style of error messages must be clearly labelled as advertisements. Moreover, the ads will not display "minimize," "maximize" or "X" buttons that don't perform their proper function. Buttons that used to be labelled "OK" will now contain the phrase "More Info."
Oh, whatever. Don't emulate the Windows UI, period.
The company also will refrain from claiming that a computer is "broadcasting" its Internet protocol address. Internet protocol addresses are transmitted to Web sites as part of normal Internet browsing. Bonzi's ad implied that such a "broadcast" posed a security problem.
This will be nice, as I've gotten frantic calls from older people I know about these same popups.
However, I just visited Bonzi.com, and got this advertisement. So much for compliance.
Here's something that really ticks me off: Let's say I get their stupid window popped on my screen 400 times. Just ONCE I make the mistake of hitting whatever "X" they regard as the YES button. Common sense says I have said NO to them (399 out of 400 times) but it would appear they have the right to claim I said yes. My peeve applies to straightforward popups too, not just confusing ones. 399 NO's means: NO!
For those of you wondering what's going on and what could be causing it:
/Default.asp, line 27, column 26
/Default.asp
Error Type:
Microsoft VBScript compilation (0x800A03EE)
Expected ')'
if not dbRS1("websiteURL" then
Page:
GET
Time:
Wednesday, May 28, 2003, 3:35:07 PM
Just another example of their services.
> because there is no way that a windows FUI would fool a non windows user
Oh, come on, man. There are PLENTY of Mac users out there stupid enough to see a Windows-like message box and think it really came from their Mac. I'll bet there's at least two Linux users the same way. At least the ones who use it because of company policy or some similar circumstance.
And yet you still know more than the MCSE Fuckwad.
because of this suit, you can no longer get candy from your receptionist?
That would exlain your anger, and inability to understand the information you read.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
> It's a shame they're going to stop using (snicker) "FUI"
Now that they can't use FUI, they'll have to resort to using EUI, Emulated User Interface. *Oh the whorer*.
just think: "I installed this software to stop my computer from broadcasting an IP address (whatever that is), and it continues to do so."
The point of your post was to be condescending and elite.
I rest my case.
"My God, this must be a truly remarkable corn chip, to be so widely and confidently touted."
"Interestingly, bonzi.com has been returning connection refused all day. This is usually one of the net's busiest sites."
You can help too! Slashdot the farkers at Bonzi.com!
You need a FREE iPod Nano
If Windows error messages had an "Up yours, Microsoft" button, on the other hand, then I would probably click it reflexively.
Does anyone know of a service that forwards an email address on to as many spammers as possible? If not, this would be great --a SPAM REVENGE of sorts.
If it exists, I would sure like to know!
Chimpanzee 1: Help! The human's about to escape.
...
Troy: Get your paws off me, you dirty ape!
Chimpanzee 2: (gasp) He can talk!
Orangutans: He can talk! He can talk! He can talk!
He can talk! He can talk! He can talk!
Troy: And I can siiiiiiiiiiing!
Chimp Nurse: Oooh! Help me, Dr. Zaius!
Orangutans: Dr. Zaius! Dr. Zaius!
Dr. Zaius! Dr. Zaius!
Dr. Zaius! Dr. Zaius!
O, Dr. Zaius!
Troy: I hate every ape I see,
From chimpan-A to chimpanzee,
No, you'll never make a monkey out of me!
(Statue of Liberty rises)
O my God! I was wrong!
It was Earth, all along!
You've finally made a monkey,
Apes: Yes we've finally made a monkey,
Troy: Yes you've
& Apes: finally made a monkey out of me!
Troy: I love you, Dr. Zaius!
"There is no teacher but the enemy."-Mazer Rackham
penguin $ grep bonzi.com /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1 casino.bonzi.com
127.0.0.1 images.bonzi.com
127.0.0.1 www.bonzi.com
I was about to write a long response but there is a box below the /. article saying I need to upgrade my computer before hackers get into it. I guess I'll upgrade and get back to you all later.
Outdoor digital photography, mostly in New Engl
It was a ugly dialog box thingy that didn't really match the rest of my interface. It said that I had to "click to cancel" a theme change in OSX- so I clicked it and fortunately they were not lying 'cause everything stayed the same.
I'm so glad OS X gave me a chance to cancel that, I don't know what I'd do if I had to deal with an interface that ugly!! (Thank You Apple)
I forgot to mention in the first message about the c ss sheet, it is for mozilla derived browsers. So, ie won't work.
;)
Mozilla, galeon, gecko, and any other browser that uses mozilla for rendering will work if you find the place where it puts the css files in your home directory.
btw: this method is nicer than just putting bogus addresses in to match the servers because many sites use the same server for their images as they do for their ads. If you block the ads, the web page will not look very good without the other images.
also, by blocking by host, you need to make a list of hosts. By blocking by url matching you can block sites you haven't even visited yet since most html developers tend to put the same strings in links to ads.
either way, by blocking the entire host, or just the ad urls, it really is nice to not see all that noisy gif banner ad garbage all the time.
It makes it a real shock to use someone else's PC which doesn't block ads.
When you install Windows it does the bonzi trick to unsuspecting suckers. I know alot of people that do not know how to use a real mail program or ISP because of the default setups used by Microshaft.
Why should Microsoft get away with this kind of scam
when decent, honest spam scams like Kazaa and Bonzi suffer law suits.
OH THE SHAME I fell off the wagon and use sigs again!
I have found my new business model!
I'll skip the whole 1. 2. 3. profit thing...
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
I signed up for something, I think it was this class action suit, and it said I would get $20 if I had seen one of these ads, etc, etc...
The way they made it sound was the only way we wouldn't get our money, is if too many people signed up before the deadline, and about a week before the deadline, there were plenty of slots left.
So where's my money?
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
Damn, Bonzi got slashdotted. How will I know if my internet connection is optimized? Everytime I buy their software, that message still comes up. I have 45 instances of it running. How much optimization does this t-1 connection need?
Often in Error, Never in Doubt.
I clicked on the http://www.bonzi.com link and I get a popup that states:
Internet Alert
Your Computer is Currently Transmitting An Internet IP Address. With This Address, Someone Can Begin Attackign Your Computer.
Download Internet Alert To Protect Yourself Now!
haha classic. I've seen this one before but in light of the settlement I think its even funnier that I Just got that.
======== In the future, everything will be artificial. ========
I'm usually very much against internet vigilantism, but I would think if any company deserved to have their boxes DOS'd these creeps do.
Having had several relatives fall into one of their traps only to call me pleading for help and explaining how they got this error message that their computer was "under performing" and that this software would fix everything and now windows can't find this "Registry" thing.
Then again, when I worked in the corporate helpdesk I had a user call me one day complaining that his computer didn't work... upon further discussion it came to light that he ran out of disk space so he deleted all his (we'll as many as he could before his computer started freaking out) DLL's off the machine.
Yes Francis, the world has gone crazy.
Interesting attempt at good grammar.
/. doesn't need no stinking grammar.
I believe what you mean is:
Now there's a definition of "friend" of which I was previously unaware
or
Now there's a definition of "friend" with which I was previously unfamiliar
You see, the reason for the complicated word ordering is to not end the sentence with a preposition. For eg, instead of saying "Where are you from?" You need to say "Where are you from, ass hole".
Thank you for your time. -1 OT, -1 Pendantic, -1
Interestingly, bonzi.com has been returning connection refused all day. This is usually one of the net's busiest sites." ;-)
So what do people do when they read this, they click it to see if its true - that was just a ploy to get us to slashdot the site wasnt it
Slashdot - The one stop shop for procrastination
I know a simple solution, Linux! It looks nothing like the windows GUI.
Or even more exactly, the federal government, chartered by the Constitution, cannot abridge free speech.
Those that got this one right may go on to the next step: http://here.at/foundation
Make that http://come.to/foundation
Sorry!
In reading the story on /. The following ad just popped up for me:
http://images.bonzi.com/internetalert/ia9pop.asp
Need I say more?
If you go to bonzi.com (don't) right now (5:17 PM EDT) you will get a FUI pop-up. It does say "Advertisment" in a corner, but so what - they're still using it. Don't believe these bastards will ever do anything differently.
Must-not-watch TV!
Not sure it would surprise anyone to learn that these folks are opt-out spammers, too.
This is floodgate for any flybynight company to spoof error messages in banners. Whats the worst that could happen now? They have to stop showing them? in 30 days?
I saw a banner the other day that looked like a full blown dos session pronouncing errors occuring and click to continue to finish installation.
This is sooo not good.
We Mac users have always found those bogus user interface ads just plain hilarious. We don't fall for no crappy windows interface buttons!
I was curious, if some of you pro computer people could answer. How many of those popup ads are getting written and served up to Windows computers by Linux computers???
HenryJamesFeltus.com
Disclamer: I'm an MCSD, MCSE but I'm a BSD/Linux admin too. So back off trolls...
But what about OS/WARP....BeOS....QNX...AmigaOS...
or what about an MCS F
It's humor, laugh, or I WILL believe you are an MSCE...
For those who describe their systems as 'boxen', do you order multiple 'boxen' of corn flakes also?
Most of the people I know, including myself now use Linux, thanks to assholes like Bonzai and other similar nasties.
There are several people that I know however that won't switch, they started with M$ and they are AFRAID to switch, despite the fact that they are clueless anyway.
I guess they like to get in a big panic and call me up for help when they get those EVIL(R) popups and viruses.
It reminds me of one friend that I have;
Dan: "Cough! Cough! Cough! Cough! , Man these cigarettes are killing me! Cough! Cough! Cough! "
Me: "Why don't you quit smoking then?? You know it's bad for you!"
Dan: "Cough! Cough! Cough! Cough! , I can't quit, I'm hooked so why try??! Cough! Cough! Cough!"
The same guy gives the SAME argument when I try to get him to switch to Linux. "But I'm afraid to try something new, it's scary to try something different!"
And so my friend sits there killing himself with smoking and tortures himself with endless M$ problems.
Scumbag's like Bonzai prey on the clueless, like vultures waiting for you to die so they can swoop down and eat your carcass.
People like them are no better than the tobacco companies, they produce a harmful product that causes much grief for people. They should not only be held accountable, they should be put out of business forever and the slimey bastards that run the dirty little operation should be arrested and executed for causing grievious harm on a mass scale.
The shit they spread causes panic and fear, it disrupts businesses and home users alike. It's an invasion of your privacy. Would you let a KNOWN peeping tom to camp at your window and watch your every move 24/7??
Would you allow a thief to follow you around and write down in a little book every purchase you make in every store you visit, recording every word you utter, following you eveyrwhere you go and then selling that private and personal information with the highest bidders?!
I think not. Parasitical companies like thiers should be outlawed and anyone attempting to engage in those behaviors should be executed in public.
I have NOTHING good to say for these people and I wish them and their familes, mothers, brothers, sisters, dogs, cats and goldfish nothing but ILL WILL and malcontent for an eternity..
You hit on something interesting right there. Clueless newbies really do want something like this, albeit without the horrific spyware factor. I'm sure my little sisters would love a web interface that consisted of Pokemons or "Yodas and shit." And yes, I know grown adults (though not tech savvy ones) that absolutely love this thing....until the aforementioned spyware factor kicks in. If I were a code monkey, I would take a crack at something like that.
"You know why you do not see me styling wit my homies? Because I have no homies!!" -Mojo Jojo
now all we have to do is get rid of the Windows Messenger spammers and the pop-up downloads (IMO the most misleading thing out there)
Sorry, but sometimes even the shadiest of lawyers can accidentally do some good. Look at what it takes just to get a lawsuit off the ground: first a lawyer or two, depositions, money, time, effort, etc.
Who else is doing this? Are local false advertising laws being enforced? Err, nope. Are the loudmouth complainers actively looking for lawyers to sue other spyware providers? Err, nope again. Is Washington cracking down on egregious breaks in privacy laws? Err, nope again. Have there been any real challenges to shrink-wrap and legalese EULA's? Not that I have seen.
Oeople who care (techies) won't do anything about it, the government turns a blind eye, and even bigger business that gets hurt by spyware (think how much of Dell/HP/MS/Your company support's time is wasted on spyware related problems) won't touch this problem because these entity's use legalese EULA's and shrinkwrap licences too and like things the way they are.
That just leaves the bottom feeders vs. the bottom feeders. Sure beats nothing.
I will completely agree this is not a big win, but if there were more resources thrown at this case things might have turned out for the better. So are you going to contribute 20% of your paycheck to fight spyware? Does anyone really care once they discover Ad Aware? Don't think so.
>The poor guy. I guess some people just have all the bad luck.
That's one of the neat things about being a lawyer. You can invest your own time and money into small lawsuits like this. Like I said, currently, its either him or nothing.
Remember how much users liked those? Was there *anybody*, even a raw newbie, who found their suggestions vaguely useful? The technology to make such an interface useful doesn't seem to exist, unfortunately.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
jeez, about time too. :) )
I rember sitting in tech class where my not very techie teacher saw one of those while she was doing her best to teach us flash (and not doina a very good job of it) Then she did the unthinkable. She clicked on it, and then me and one of my pals had to spent the next 20 minutes getting it off her computer, while she stood behind out backs looking horribly shocked. Funny enough, the head of the tech department, a sensible guy called Dr.Drake fired her a month later (about time too). (maybe she just clicked on too many fake adds
Is that those text things I see in boxes from time to time (speaking of, I started seeing them on Hotmail as well, text ones that is).
Squidproxy replaces all those "graphical" ads with nice clear 1x1 clear GIFs
Damn anti-lawyer trolls. Oh, I forgot to mention, IANAL!
I've never been fooled by the gui lookalikes, because, quite simply, they don't look like my gui.
I've never particularly liked the standard windows colour scheme, so one of the first things I do after installing is change it.
Consequently, a picture of a grey button looks very out of place on my desktop.
Hey! What bastard wrote a Windows virtual machine in java just for popups.... oh.
/always/ drawn, seeing a 'doze dialog within a dialog looks more than slightly suspcicious.
Windows users running IE might get tricked, but Mozilla is pretty good about ignoring offensive javascript like "don't even show a window border or close box" so it can be pretty hard to trick the user then. Especially on linux with a window manager where the window border is
probably most of you won't admit to having been fooled by them at some point
Well, considering these banner adds are bitmaps of Windows(tm) error dialogs, and the window decorations don't match the rest of my desktop, it's no big claim to say I've never been fooled.
One time my wife said "Hey Yuri, your computer is broadcasting an IP address" I said "It's just an ad dear - ignore it."
You make the mistake of thinking you can educate the fundamental stupidity out of people. You can't.
I have to be naive, but what was so awful about Bonzai Buddy? I have a Mac, so I was never fooled by the "fake dialogue box" ads, and I now use A Mozilla derivative anyway, but I'm just curious as to what was so bad about the software itself?
I'm not trying to troll or anything, I hoestly don't know what the problem was. Was it spyware? Did it refuse to uninstall?
"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one " -Albert Einstein
My dad did nearly the same thing several years ago. He discovered all these DLLs on his machine, so he figured he'd delete all the 'duplicates'. I never did entirely cure him of f*cking up his Windows machines, but eventually he became very adept (more so than me) at reinstalling Windows and all his applications and data, sometimes doing so twice a week.
The real Webmaven is user ID 27463. I don't rate an imposter, because my ID is such a lame-ass high number.