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Spyware Masquerading as Spyware Removal Software
Cocooner writes "News.com is reporting that some of the anti-spyware/adware software out there is doing more harm than good by acting as double agents. One example is a software package named SpyBan (google cache since the original site has been removed), which happened to be hosted by download.com, accused of installing Look2Me, which monitors and reports web surfing habits. SpyBan was downloaded over 44000 times before it was pulled. How 'low' can they go?"
The problem here was this program claimed to be so amazingly user friendly that it was hard for anyone to turn down. I know a couple people that swore by it due to its ease of use. Granted that other solutions out there aren't difficult to use either, but we are talking about the masses of non-techies out there.
Most spyware is a result of the lax security of IE. Instead of installing anti-spyware programs (many of which are trojan horses for nasty malware), why not try a browser that doesn't allow the spyware on your system in the first place.
Please don't confuse "geek" with "nerd".
Your rant highlights the typical behaviors of a nerd.
A geek is very social. While a geek may have several traits of a nerd, they are not condescending or selfish. I know many geeks who have social lives. I know many nerds who do not.
I am a geek. I am not a nerd. There is a difference.
[Calling Attorney General John Ashcroft "Reichsminister Ashcroft" is t]totally uncalled for... Why is this considered acceptable behavior from grown adults? We don't throw around insults 1/10th as harsh to our co-workers and friends with any degree of sincerity, but make it a politician and an online forum and someone can get a +5 insighful for calling someone a Nazi.
Why the hate? Where is all this anger coming from?
Ashcroft has trashed a 600 years of jurisprudence by effectively abolishing habeas corpus. Right now, American citizens are sitting in prisons, not only denied their 6th Amendment right to a speedy trial, but wholly denied access to any trial, any court or any legal counsel.
Ashcroft doesn't think that is enough, and has further demanded the power without the right to revoke Americans' citizenship by his fiat, without recourse to judicial review.
Ashcroft has abrogated the rights of California, under the 10th Amendment, to make its own laws, and has insisted on prosecuting persons whose "crime "is to give marijuana to the terminally ill to ease their few remaining days of life.
Ashcroft has abrogated the rights of Oregon, by threatened Oregon doctors with the loss of licenses or even prison for following Oregon laws allowing people to die with dignity.
Ashcroft has ignored the intent of the US Congress by applying the wide-ranging powers granted under the "Patriot Act" to crimes that legislators voting for the "Patriot Act" never envisaged it would cover.
Ashcroft has perverted the considered opinions of the majority of US federal judges, by insisting on mandatory minimum sentences that even conservative Chief Justice William Rehnquist finds too Draconian, and has abused the consciences of Federal prosecutors by insisting on death-penalty sentences even when local Federal prosecutors thought that ultimate penalty unwarranted.
Ashcroft has championed secret arrests, closed trials, secret military tribunals, and even authorized the deportation of a Canadian resident, Maher Arar, to Syria, where Arar was tortured for 10 and a half months.
But you're right, at lest he's not a Nazi! Thank God Ashcroft tramples the Constitution in a three-piece suit and not a Party uniform.
Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?