Slashdot Mirror
Russian Firm Pays to Infect PCs with Adware
Jaidev writes "Information week is reporting that a Russian site (IframeDollars) is paying web developers 6 cents for each machine they infect with spyware or adware. One security expert estimates that iframeDollars could collect as much as $75,000 annually from the adware it placed on the infected machines during the third week of May, which cost approximately $12,000 in payments to place"
Never know if the article publisher itself is an affiliate ;)
liqbase
Eat this, open source zealots.
This story proofs once againe that MS is delivering an infastructure on which other companies can thrive.
Thank you MS!
This is Microsoft enabling yet another business to succeed in the ever changing technology marketplace.
They've already infected my machine! I keep getting pop-ups for penis enlargements! Help!
spyware pays you to infect it
$ strings FTP.EXE | grep Copyright
@(#) Copyright (c) 1983 The Regents of the University of California.
6 cents per machine? Hah! Our outsourcing group could get it done for 4 cents.
# Everyone is welcome to join the iframeDOLLARS.biz partnership program
# Earn $0.055 ($55.00/1000 installs) and more for each unique iframe installs
# You only put the short one line iframe code on your page(s) and start to MAKE MONEY
# WITHOUT any Active-X console or any pop-ups...It means that you will not lose your unique visitors with our iframe!
# The best percentage of installs (10-40% from the total traff or it's $4-$15 FOR 1000 UNIQUE VISITORS)
# DAILY updated soft
# We have 3 reliable servers with excellent speed
# Payments every Tuesday
# Real-time statictic of your work
# Payment via: Fethard, Webmoney, Wire and E-gold
# More than 150 webmasters work with us
# Friendly support service
# Everybody who works with us is satisfied.
Does this "everybody" include the people whos pcs get infected with this shit? How long before this becomes more widely known or more common place... and will joe public do anything or care? no. The only chance we have is when the next windows "more money, better computer needed edition" comes out..
For the obligatory "In Mother Russia..." comments. but how many of the first thousand will be moderated funny? or how about-- dare i say-- insightful? But its alright... they are, after all, obligatory
Live according to the Categorical Imperative. If the Categorical Imperative tells you not to live by it... ignore it
SANS Internet Storm Center reported this issue more than a fortnight ago.
In Soviet Russia Adware pays you!
How do they track this? I guess their malware/adware calls home as soon as it strikes a target. Perhaps there's a possible weakness in this in that you could just keep infecting a VM and then restoring it to a good image again. Think they'd be smart enough to notice something odd about a million infections from the same IP?
Game! - Where the stick is mightier than the sword!
The price of your hours spent trying to get rid of that annoying adware from your mother's WinXP box:
6.1 cents.
1. Code up a cool extension
2. Throw in some code for this
3. Spread it around
4. Profit!
This is the kind of thing that should be illegal. I mean, it's just blatantly...evil *puts on flame retardant suit* (as for mispellings, I've been up for 45 hours). When are people just going to all in all make these things illegal? (and no I don't mean some crappy worthless legislation, I mean a point where if adware/spyware is what your company profits from, youre done, DONE). There has to be SOME common sense...come on...please? People have to stand up and give these companies the big middle finger. I'm a libertarian, I believe in free market, but I really really hate worthless parasites.
This is just normal free market activity. If people thought it was bad, they wouldn't pay for it! In the old USSR you could never have these kinds of wonderful opportunities.
First of all, this exploits holes that already have patches on Windows systems:
The code exploits a number of patched Windows and Internet Explorer vulnerabilities, including some that go back as far as 2002. Systems that haven't been updated would be vulnerable to the exploit.
So patch and you'll be fine. Second, if you don't want to patch, you can just block this company's IP:
According to the Internet Storm Center, companies can prevent the downloading of adware and spyware from iframeDollars' servers by blocking the IP address 81.222.131.59.
I say this because just last week I helped a friend set up his new HP machine, and noticed that it came bundled with 30 day trials of Norton firewall/AV, some anti-adware, and some antispyware. I replaced all three with free/OS versions. But many users don't know about this, don't know where to get it, and don't know how to use them. In fact, removal of these 'trials' was a pain, even for me.
KOA
Anchorage, Alaska Will Host National Policy Meeting on Technology
Dell does it too
check it
those vicious, heartless, bastards!
"We can't stop here! This is bat country."
Hey look! The free market, Russian style.
Deleted
Seriously, I'll take a little adware here and a little spyware there over the Gulag every day.
It is nice to see the russians embracing capitalism so well. Adam Smith smiles broadly...
Slashdot posters nevermind YOU!
If adware and spyware is not illegal (although nobody here would argue it is ethical), and there is some monitary value for each PC infected, it was only a matter of time that offers like this would become public. Hopefully market competition will force down the value of each infected PC, making these schemes less inviting.
__________
Love conquers all... except CANCER
Hey /. do u write history book or news site? Please mod it with Score 5 funny because of bad englisht
http://www.thinknerd.org/?q=node/view/1281#commen
Great work, guys.
The going rate for a US computer is more like 15 to 20 cents. Other countries go for as little as 1 or 2 cents. Cash4Toolbar is installing its stuff through some blogspot.com blogs (IE users beware) and some really cute social engineering, but several others are seeding infected files on BitTorrent.
here
As a tech support agent that works to remove this crap from the machines of those brave enough to call me, I have to hate these bastards with a virulence that borders on psychotic.
But I also have to thank them for the job security, afer all if they did not do this I would be uneeded and would have to go get a real job.
Talking to Geeks is like eating jello with a chainsaw, interesting, but painful.
I was wondering where we are going from here.
SPAM, Pay-for-xploit. 99% of the web content is pretty much useless.
Is it possible to claim back the Internet ? Somehow, I don't think so.
morcego
Well, here in the UK installing stuff on my PC without my consent would be illegal under the Computer Misuse Act. I'd be amazed if there wasn't a similar law in your jurisdiction.
Bottom line - I doubt very much indeed that this is legal in most countries.
It's official. Most of you are morons.
And the IWeek article reports on their findings, what's your point?
Nothing else to say about it.
My wife's sketchblog Blob[p]: Gastrono-me
They already install all sorts of expensive crap I don't want on my machine (windows, office, etc) - at least if they installed this, they could pass on the savings (instead of the cost) to me.
by installing their own spyware in longhorn
This isn't really all that suprising. Business is business, whether it's black, gray, or white market. Affiliate programs work, why wouldn't adware businesses use this method to spread their product? It's interesting to see some estimates on their revenue, however. At first I read the slashdot summary and thought they were talking about $75,000 revenue annually and was surprised that anyone would even bother making adware for such pittly money. But the 'Aha!' moment came when I reread it and saw that's the estimated revenue for one-weeks worth of business. Damn, not too shabby.
Is there any way for a firm to make money off this, other than selling products through said spyware?
If not, why don't we just convince people not to click on those "3nh4|\|ce j00 p3_n15" ads that pop up onto their screen?
Oh yeah, if the unwashed masses were that smart telemarketing would have been killed the same way. Nevermind. Every medium of commuinication will continue to be exploited for advertising as long as the ads work.
"Well sir, advertising is a funny thing. If people stop paying attention to it, pretty soon, it goes away."
- The Simpsons, Treehouse of Horror VI
"Live as if you'll die tomorrow." Ridiculous. You could die later today.
Are you sure that aint your girlfriend sending you messages again? Oh wait this is slashdot... oh never mind!
Recently I was contacted by a friend of mine in the United States who wanted to hire me as a programmer to develope an email borne virus with a certain advertisement payload for one of his clients.
I graciously declined the offer.
I will pay 6 cents for every employee of this Russian company you murder.
That is a safe bet, as Igloo simply means house. It doesn't mean 'house built of wind packed snow'.
KOA
Anchorage, Alaska Will Host National Policy Meeting on Technology
I think if clients are paying after a host gets infected then it may not be a very good strategy because (I'm n ot sure about this) most spyware removers work after infection...don't they? So the infected hosts may not *stay* infected.
; <<>> DiG 9.2.2 <<>> @192.168.0.1 iframedollars.biz any
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 41
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 5, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;iframedollars.biz. IN ANY
;; ANSWER SECTION:
iframedollars.biz. 600 IN SOA ns.iframedollars.biz. hostmaster.iframedollars.biz. 2005053101 600 300 600 300
iframedollars.biz. 600 IN NS ns2.iframedollars.biz.
iframedollars.biz. 600 IN NS ns1.iframedollars.biz.
iframedollars.biz. 600 IN MX 10 relay.iframedollars.biz.
iframedollars.biz. 600 IN A 195.95.218.170
So what we need is a "honeypot browser," that represents itself to a website as an old, unpatched copy of IE--but doesn't actually install the spyware. Then we could log in over and over, costing the spyware company money each time.
LoudCASH! a "reputable" company does the same thing? There is nothing wrong with ADWARE, spyware is the bad stuff. All adware does is, well, show ads.
They're worse than spics. Thank jeebus that we got Alaska from them.... or we would've have even more drunk subhumans trying to cross our borders.
I will never forgive you, Anonymous Coward!!
Trojans and backdoors are already illegal. This isn't a mere pop-up generator or search redirector, it is about cracking security and getting unauthorized access to the entire system. Any "affiliate" in the USA who distributes this code is begging to be prosecuted.
Make sure you edit out any mentions of Russia from article summaries. That can only lead to at least half of the comments being lame Soviet Russia jokes.
Signature.
ok, how do we go about blacklisting these guys, their affiliates, and everyone they ever loved (Kidding on the last one)?
So Boris Badenov, working for Meester Big, has gotten into the Spyware/AdWare space. Help us, Rocky & Bullwinkle!
-- Professor Jonathan Vos Post
I suspect they only care if its legal in Russia, and then perhaps only a little.
My other car is a Popemobile
SANS Internet Storm Center reported this issue more than a fortnight ago.
I wouldn't get within a furlong of them.
It wouldn't work - even if you removed one company, others would appear.
How about hitting stupid users over the head repeatedly until they click the 'install critical updates' button...
Then impose heavy fines on the companies that create security-hole-ridden software and charge extortionate amounts to upgrade, despite that the software is a necessary component of most people's systems. They should be forced to provide free security patches for the entire lifetime of the product, or else a free upgrade to the next version.
I'll probably be modded down for this...
The Russians aren't threatening to launch missiles at us anymore. They've moved to a less destructable medium, while taking advantage of stupid Americans.
Go to the w3.org and put Slashdot.org through the validator.
In [...] Russia, addware infects YOU!!
Follow the money. Find out who's receiving the payments, extradite them if they're outside the U.S., slap them in irons, put them on trial, and off to pound-me-in-the-ass prison. This sort of problem won't be solved without a credible deterrent.
I too have felt the cold finger of injustice.
Before I got my job I would've been peeved about this. But since I got a job at a computer shop to fix computers and remove spyware, well this just means more money for me!
I'm posting this so that you (the moderator) have some context to consider twitter and not mod him up whenever he posts his filler preformatted rants about installing Knoppix or Mepis or whatever that unfortunately get him karma every single time and allow him to continue posting his trademark toxic crap (read on) day in and day out. You may consider this a troll - I consider it community service. And I ain't kidding.
If you're a /. subscriber, I invite you to look through some of his posting history. I guarantee that you'll be hard pressed to find someone that is more "out there" than twitter. You'll also probably notice he's got quite an AC following. Don't just read his posts, make sure you go through the replies.
To get an idea of what I'm talking about, check this post out. This is an article about email disclaimers. The parent of the post is complaining about the ads in the linked page and so on, and twitter actually goes off on a rant to blame it on Microsoft and recommend Lynx, because "is teh free".
Here's another. In this post twitter not only calls the OP a troll but attempts to "tell it like it is" while making some vague argument about "GNU". Yes, if you're confused, you're not alone. The reply (modded +4) proceeds to simply destroy his bogus argument. You will notice he did not reply. This is what some people call "drive-by advocacy". A sort of I'll just leave you with my thoughts here and move on to the next flamebait kind of deal. In fact, he almost never replies because he knows that his fanatical arguments simply do not hold up to any sort of discussion. It's not that he's chosen the wrong cause - he's just going at it in a completely wrong way.
Here's that drive-by advocacy and FUD in motion: twitter goes on about some topic and then drops the usual "oh and M$ is teh evil" because "WMP phones home" or some such. Called on his FUD, he then claims that WMP stores every song and movie you've ever played in a file, somewhere. Pressed further, he just sort of slithers out of sight, his FUD-spreading complete. This is not about some Microsoft technology that nobody likes anyway; it's about lying for the sake of lying. Way too many of his posts are exactly like this one.
More? Just read though this post and the subsequent replies. I guess this stands on its own. Or these two. Or this one. Or this one.
Still not convinced? This is what twitter considers "humour" while going about his daily "M$" routine.
The only chance we have is when the next windows "more money, better computer needed edition" comes out.
How about installing a $30 home router using NAT, Firefox, Thunderbird, and a common anti-virus client? Total cost less than $100, maybe two hours.
Alternatively, install Linux, Firefox, and Thunderbird, snicker quietly to yourself, and enjoy. Total cost $0, couple hours to figure out/configure Linux.
Warning: mysql_numrows(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /home/bestc/dl/stats.php on line 16
/home/bestc/dl/stats.php on line 23
Warning: mysql_free_result(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in
Today is: 12 June 2005 03:00
adv11890
DAY
UNIQS
LOADS
LOADS %
UNIQ LOADS
UNIQ LOADS %
DOLLARS
Íîâîñòè:
Ñ 2 ìàÿ ïîâûøåíà öåíà çà 1ê çàãðóçîê äî 61$
Ñ 4 àïðåëÿ ïîâûøåíà öåíà çà 1ê çàãðóçîê äî 55$
Ñ 9 ôåâðàëÿ ïîâûøåíà öåíà çà 1ê çàãðóçîê äî 50$
Ñ 24 ÿíâàðÿ ïîâûøåíà öåíà çà 1ê çàãðóçîê äî 45$
Ñ 22 íîÿáðÿ ïîâûøåíà öåíà çà 1ê çàãðóçîê äî 40$
Ñ 11 îêòÿáðÿ ïîâûøåíà öåíà çà 1ê çàãðóçîê äî 35$
Ñ 4 îêòÿáðÿ ïîâûøåíà öåíà çà 1ê çàãðóçîê äî 32$
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
I noticed that the fools don't have a script-protection form on their signup page (http://iframedollars.com/sign.php) would any of you scriptkiddies mind hitting them for me? :)
It didn't answer the question: "Where do I sign up?". I've got a couple of thousands of windows users to teach a lesson to, and if I can make some moolah in the process, so the better!
All of these exploits have been patched by Microsoft already. It is the responsibility of the end-user to keep their OS up-to-date. For those too inept, Windows XP SP2 "automatic update" feature is decent i've heard.
Microsoft charges YOU for infection with Windows.
I think you've touched on an interesting point worth exploring further. The complexity of these systems makes it difficult to figure out what's legal and what's not legal, leaving a big grey area. Much Adware and Spyware presents the user with a dialog box:
[ lots of fine print nobody reads ]
[ OK? ]
So technically, the user agreed to get pop-up ads for penis enlargement and mortgage refinancing and downloading all the trojan spyware buddies and I don't know what else because I don't run a Windows computer.
There are quite a few exploitative industries, and they pre-date the complexity of home computing and Windows and Adware and Spyware.
Rent to own? Circumvented credit laws allowing the company to, in effect, charge higher than legal interest rates to low-income consumers.
Televangelism? Exploited the home bound and lonely and sick by showing them television of people (pretending to be) healed. This was the pioneer for staged "Reality" television, and frankly I'm surprised that it took so long (decades) for the television industry to apply the basic business model to popular television (cheap to produce, add some "Scripted Assisted Reality" drama, advertise, and whammo! Dollars flow in without exploiting the poor and the sick.
The modern credit card and mortgage industries present even more complex examples. They have successfully lobbied themselves into a position where the laws are extraordinarily complex, and allow them to perform all manner of exploitative business practices that are perfectly legal. Bought a house lately? Do you have *any* idea who really paid how much for what in that stack of papers?
None of this requires exploiting the complexity of home computers. In fact, in a sense one might consider the wild west nature of marketing via spyware on the home computer to be inspired by these other industries, which pre-date these companies by decades.
One last wild hare thought... Adware and Spyware are also great equalizers, in the same way as the dot com types viewed the internet. This massive market of insecure home systems based on Windows allows *anyone* to get into a money making business with very little overhead.
One could ask the rhetorical question: why is it OK for established multi-billion dollar per year industries to first create and then exploit legal complexity, but it's not OK for budding entrepreneurs in economically disadvantaged nations to set up an, ahem, advertising company.
Work from home! Watch the $$$ roll in!!!
Things should be made as simple as possible, but not any simpler. -- Albert Einstein
The only catch is that it's not an "install" unless the installed spyware has called home to the spyware company.
... relax.
/. (which is arguably censorship), or we can accept the fact that there will always be assholes around.
I used to get pissed off at stupid people. You, apparently, are obsessed with this guy. I count about 30 links there. I don't do that much research on topics I'm genuinely interested in.
This guy's an asshole. We noticed this after the first 5 links. We can either become completely obsessed with kicking him off
Not if he follows some elementary rules of safety:
use Reload Every with a custom reload setting of 1 second, type in a fake ID (as the parent said), and tell Reload Every to resubmit the post data every request.
I love this.
Hmm, but that is what they're doing really evil? After all, they're only attacking Windows boxen... Or does their iframe 'sploit also work against Konqueror or Firefox?
For every machine I've cleaned spyware off of, I'd be making money both ways.
There is truth in humor.
Without getting too off topic, this is basically what cigarette companies do, except to people.
I think they make something like 6 cents per cigarette.
I don't see that being outlawed, they just cut a deal, where they paid some cash they had lying around/will have lying around, and had to promise not to blatantly advertise to children (in Western countries).
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/47858.stm
I wonder how long that would last if tobacco only grew in Russia.
Move along... there is no sig here.
He gave us an informative link to another company doing the same thing... paying webmasters to place adware.
Check out his link and see. Its a disgusting concept. But its out there.
I believe Refrozen deserves better than being slapped with negative moderation for presenting the link to us.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
At least in my area that would be considered sexual harassment. Get a lawyer and sue them. The only downside is you have to live with every radio station in the world (or at least the US) telling everyone that you have a small penis and are offended by it. If you are happily married this shouldn't be a problem. (though a good marketing weasel could sell smallness to the girls)
It is illegal in the US to misuse a computer. I'm not sure what the exact details are, but that isn't your problem. It is illegal to enter into a contract to do something illegal. Depending on circumstances, it might be illegal to know someone is attempting to commit a crime, and not tell the police. For all of the above reasons you should inform the police about this. They might not do anything, but you should get some file number so you can prove you tried anyway.
In some cases they will ask you to enter into this contract - for purposes of gathering evidence. Be careful if you do, though in general you should.
And this is why things like the Can Spam Act will never work, and are merely wastes of taxpayer dollars.
Adware Pays You!
--10scjed IANAL,AFAIK
Phase 1: Make meaningless website to attract Slashdot crowd
Phase 2: (formerly "?") Infect machines during slashdotting
Phase 3: PROFIT!!!
And when your car has recall-worthy defects several times a week, it's your responsibility to scan the newspapers for the alert notices. And spend several hours a week in your mechanic's garage, while they fix them with you. It's all OK, because it's on the automaker's tab, right?
--
make install -not war
If you get this working a dynamic IP, be sure to register an account with them so they pay you for reinfected your home system...
This is a great business strategy. Evil, but great. It's almost like the old banner ad companies that paid the user for displaying a banner on their computer, except it's on a per-computer basis rather than a per-minute one.
There is, however, one possible outcome that no one has considered yet:
Once word of this gets out, it might actually motivate people to switch to something more secure. After all, something like this is like putting out a bounty for susceptible computers. People don't like it when someone is visibly making money at their expense.
There's no viable alternative on the PC for computer-illiterate people, though it would be a good time for someone to invalidate this statement, but there's always OSX. It wouldn't be too surprising if people began switching.
...where frustrated and ticked off sysadmins will find these people, hang them from the nearest lamppost/tree with barbed wire nooses, blow up where they work (after taking the computers, that's good hardware!), sow the ground with salt, then piss on it a few times. Either that, or there will be a company that builds honeypots just for the job of luring away software like this.
The good old 'WHERE 1=1 gives
The total payment
last week was:
$11890
and a big hang on the rest of the page.
So have I selected the SUM() of all their sales, or has something else happened?
it's the big town bazar... ...that's life. Even the good old CCCP had its share of off books trading at all levels of 'controlled' production. Does anyone remember the nicked IBM XT and AT boards that were sneaking out of reclamation?
for every way to make a buck, there will be some who are willing to exploit
it's got nothing to do with the form of government or business
Enron, the restaurant that doesn't charge sales tax on cash purchases, adware-spyware,
ICQ number 291994264 and the address traff@mail.com belong to Alex Zemlickas from Lithuania.
The iframedollars.biz registration is, obviously, fake:
Vasiliy Pupkin
Online service
Bolshaya street
Lumumba
123456
Haiti
+1.23456789
welcome@abuse.com
The original idea of cable TV in the US (for those of you old enough to remember) was that you paid each month, but had NO COMMERCIALS. When can I start paying spyware companies to *not* infect my computer? That would seem a rather Russian type of solution to this problem.
I thought that by "misusing a computer", they meant "doing somethng against the interests of the rich people who bribe the congress".
My new blog
Aside from the fact that he can't spell worth spit, and as much as I want to flame the crap out of that AC, he does have a point. Now before you all start to flame me, I am a die hard gentoo user, a recent convert from MS Windoze. I switched due to the reasons in this article (spyware/adware). Now to my point. Yes Microsoft should have done better, but the fact is they don't care. As long as they keep putting out a new OS, and removing backwards capability and "legacy" features from the newer versions, the general public will eat it up. I am not a m$ fan at any level, but to make jokes about how a BSD or Linux box is unaffected, while its true, is somewhat misguided IMO. I have recently been doing some research on the topic, and I have found that ANY OS is vulnerable. If a person wants to go to a website, and it requires they install an activex control, no matter what you teach them they will click "ok". Anyone here who has ever had to teach their (grand)parents how to use a computer will know what I am talking about. So is it FUD to thank MS for building a platform that we can all profit from? Me personally, I hope they stick around for a while, fixing their mistakes is my bread and butter. Logically one could assume that if/when linux becomes as main stream as m$, it will be under attack in much the same way m$ is now. I feel it should be noted that OSS is not as safe as some people would like to think it is. I installed Firefox on my grandparents computer, and within a week, I found that "MyWebSearch" has apparently written a toolbar for Firefox!! Which is also notably difficult to get rid of.
Well, bugs are inevitable. Humans are fallible, software is made by humans, thus software has errors. Some software more than others ;)
The moral of the story is, no software release can ever be perfect. If patches are available, what more can the software vendor possibly do? At some point it has to be the user's fault for not being patched. Are we to fault the software vendor for not forcibly installing updates onto everybody's PC?
For just 6 cents per infected PC? I run a relatively low-traffic website and I make more than 6 cents per click on my google Adsense ads (in fact I'm averaging around 14 cents per click).
The sad thing is that this works on an economy of scale, and it's easier to infect a windows PC by simply viewing a website than it is to convince people to click on a targetted contextual link that has a half decent chance of actually interesting the viewer.
Good engineers don't design for perfection. We design for fault-tolerance. Microsoft's architecture allows, some say encourages, bugs to persist. Auto-update patches should be core to their OS, and their apps should all use it. But even with that architecture, lots of MS patches are undesireable (XPSP2 is notorious, as were several for W2K). It doesn't have to be the user's fault for not patching - sysadmin is not their core competence, and MS doesn't make it easy enough that it will be. MS produces a system with problems that users can't be expected to surmount. That's the fault of MS, which started it, and which is the best place for change to fix the problem.
--
make install -not war
They, or somebody installing the code for them, found an exploit in the servers at the web hosting company I use. They inserted the line in everybody's home page back in April. I don't know for sure how long it was there but I'm still checking the pages regularly to see if it's come back.
Cars don't have their own mechanism to automatically check for defects from the manufacturer, and repair them while you sleep. Your comment was completely irrelevant.
No, cars have other ways to protect users from needing to be mechanics. And the autoupdate systems for computers don't really work, or we wouldn't have this thread in which to discuss it. Just because you don't understand the metaphor, or the problem, doesn't make my comment irrelevant.
--
make install -not war
+1 Insightful
Also, when something wrong happens to the user because of a car fault, it is possible to seek compensation from the car manufacturer, cars are not sold "AS IS" wtf is that "AS IS" term in software?? if I buy a hammer and when hammering the head flies and hit me I surely will rant to the manufacturer... "AS IS" lmao
Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
Twitter, you're a petulant cock-gobbling sycophant to Linux Torvaldyos! Quit taking DP from ESR and RMS's feculent cocks and why don't you try to stop sucking quite so much? Get out of your parents' basement and see the real world - maybe then you'll see how pathetic you sound, with your neverending stream of bullshit about how Microsoft is stalking you. Wasn't it you who said that Microsoft believes your insane ranting is actually a threat to them, so they PAY PEOPLE to reply to you on Slashdot? No sir, I don't get any money. I do it for the love. Someone has to go up against your paranoid whining. So get back in your cage and shut the fuck up already.
Cars do not have ways to protect users from recall-worthy defects, otherwise what would the point be in a recall. Please take a moment to understand the metaphor before you use it. This thread discusses people who do how automatically update their systems, so it does really work when the user allows it to.
You started out saying that MS has already patched all these exploits, so it's the users' fault if they're unpatched on their machines. I compared those machines to cars. If they had recall-worthy defects several times a week, like the serious security holes in MS products, and were treated the way MS treats them, then we'd be scanning the newspapers several times a week for the recall notices, and spend several hourse a week in a garage with our mechanics. Sure, manufacturers would actually be "recalling" the cars, so that scenario wouldn't happen. But software doesn't get recalled, it gets patched. That's what a metaphor is for: to let you think of an unfamiliar scene in terms of a familiar one. If we had to patch our cars several times a week, it would be an outrageous burden on us. It's no different for computers. Except that Microsoft apologists like you are determined to accept it.
You really are annoying. First you call my comment irrelevant, now you're insulting my use of a metaphor. All because *you* are incompetent to understand a simple metaphor, because you are determined to disagree with its clear implications. Drop the charade of authority, under which you flatter yourself by issuing directions to me to stop commenting. How about you get your head out of your ass, before I listen to a word you say?
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make install -not war