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An Interview with 180 Solutions
Paperghost writes "Here's a great interview between Jimmy Daniels and an anonymous ex-employee of 180 Solutions, who portrays the company as being somewhere between turmoil and meltdown. There's so many notable quotables it's scary, but here's one that really sets the tone:
'Shutting down these rogue distributors turned out to be a lot more difficult than they expected though. When you lose them, your daily installs go down drastically and the revenue goes to hell. The layoff in September could be laid directly at the feet of this effort.'"
And the police saying I can't put cameras in my tenants' apartment bedrooms made producing amateur porn a lot more expensive, too.
How can they have so many "rouge distributors" and not notice? It seems like someone had to say "Oh, this doesn't look right". I guess it's hard when you're a spyware company.
echo YOUR_OPINION >
Yes less installs + more folks getting the software ripped out by its blackened roots = less income. Im sure that Even the keystone Cops could catch this trick.
Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
How can they even exist without "rogue distributors"? I was under the impression that that was about 90% of their installs... I don't really know anyone that decides to install that on their own >_>
Religion for nerds. Stuff that really matters
180 Solutions has forever ruined the free multimedia industry of the internet. Anytime I see a "free screensaver" or "free desktop wallpaper", they're usually somehow connected with spyware and adware.
And their popups/popunders.... ugh.
--
BMW Forums
There will ALWAYS be spam friendly companies.
There is too much money in making money off botnets, spam and other tactics for greedy people to ignore. There'll always be someone prepared to take the risk, and be prepared to turn a blind eye to suspect but profitable accounts.
3/10 and iam a security professional with 15years hardcore experience
http://www.siteadvisor.com/quizzes/spyware_0306.h
go careful out there, perhaps a class action against the company and its officers would discourage this behaviour (or alternativly a snipers rifle and a good aim)
You're not creating a content economy by making your advertising an anoyance. This 'blink tag' mentality doesn't work when everyone can provide content. How many of you, googling the capital of faroffistan, type 'wiki'? No ads, obnoxious loaders, browser crashing javascript.
Now that content is a two (multi?) way stream we have to go back to a pre-electronic mindset. Some of the greatest paintings of the 19th century were sold to hang in restaurants. Now that's good advertising.
Physics is like sex: sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it.
Who sets up Vmware as a permanent use type of solution like this? Why not just install anti-spyware tools, use mozilla, and even toss on the tea-timer from spybot.
I guess its been so long since I've been that naive I forget what its like..
Especially now that the VMWare Player is free. You can download a linux browsing image, with Firefox, etc, then just reboot it if/when things go wrong.
Which no sane company will ofcourse do. Especially considering that their entire business model depends on adware/spyware.
So all I can surmise is, they are trying to get at least some good PR value out of a bad quarter :p
They do need a more positive public perception of them, considering the recent cases against spyware makers/distributors.
I feel so bad for these guys...especially the guys that are surprised by the pink slips.
Poor malicious coders.
Wonder what they put on their resumes...probably would load it with spyware if the paper supported it.
AC
The "new" Karma Whoring?
Lately I've been seeing TV ads featuring smiling, happy actors standing in front of expensive automobiles and houses claiming that they now earn $5K (and up) per month for doing relatively little work. Somehow this is possible by using a computer and the internet.
Reading the small print on the screen tells the viewer that, after registering online, the viewer will be directed to some other website that features "business opportunities". It seems like every time I catch this ad there is a different URL and the URLs are always alphanumerical.
No, because it's not 1981.
I had a run in with one of their people not too many months ago. I had been put on one of their spam mailing lists and I emailed their address to ask for my domain to be removed. Initially, I got a person who said that they wouldn't do it. When I replied and said that I would file a complaint with their upstream data provider, I found my email address mailbombed with additions to about 5000 mailing lists. Luckily these days most mailing lists ask for a confirmation and those that don't I weeding out pretty quick. The moron also didn't realize that most mailing lists confirm messages also include the IP of the subscriber. I replied again and included the draft letter to the upstream provider and a letter of the local police department's electronic crimes office for an attempted DoS attack, but this time someone else responded and apologized. Never heard from them again. Before the slashbots jump on me for replying to SPAM, I'd like to say that I've already paid the price.
I am honestly not trying to start a flame war or be a troll, just wanted to say what I feel. In some ways, I don't want the adware crap companies like 180 to go away. I make a lot of extra money off of companies like them. Heck, after I left my last job, this sort of crapware kept me employed for a few months until I got another decent job. We all know it's about money and money only. You think that ANY of these people care one bit about the damage to people's computer they cause, or they money these people spend to get rid of the crapware? Hell no! Just like ANY company now days, as long as the big-wigs and/or share holders are richER that's all that matters and all that EVER will matter. Call it capitalism if you wish, but I call it greed and the day I never make a dime from the crap they put on people's computers will be a great day indeed. Good riddance to bad rubbish! Even if I won't get extra money.
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
a "180" degree turn! :P
You know it's hard out here for spyware,
when you're tryin' to sell Viagra to the men.
On viruses and trojans we depend,
And Firefox is givin' us a scare.
this time someone else responded and apologized. Never heard from them again.
The crime had already been committed. You should have gone ahead and filed the charges.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
I welcome the day when adware/spyware companies start going out of business. These companies should expect that these are not long term ventures, and most people are very irratated by their software no matter how they try to present it. Yes, a small economy surrounds the business of spyware, but it's business based on mass numbers (i.e. casualties) and not by innovation, or any sort of usefullness. Just like the old days of selling blind-link traffic and 404 traffic, except we knew it had its days numbered. Surfing the net for most people means easy access to information, it shouldn't be a blind pit of junk waiting for you to stumble upon the wrong link :)
There are 10 types of people in the world; those who can read binary, and those who can't.
Look at this Wikipedia revision, creating an article on a 180 Solutions product. Look at the history tab, and you will note this revision was done by the IP address 206.169.156.2. The IP address corresponds with 180 SOLUTIONS HOOKED-2 when looked up in the American Registry for Internet Numbers.
The article was changed to give it a more neutral tone many times, but in all cases the IP address tried to revert to the original version. The article in its current form is located here, but with a sign that says that everything in this article but not be accurate, nor true. The IP address range for 180 Solutions is 206.169.156.0 - 206.169.156.255. See this American Registry for Internet Numbers entry for 180 Solution's physical address. The city can be confirmed by Wikipedia itself.
This was done in June 2005, around the same time the U.S. Congress staffers began editing Wikipedia, coincidentally. Again, using Wikipedia as a source, this company has less than 250 employees. Because this IP address came from the company, what are the odds that the editor created that article about that "instant messaging service" for love of the company alone? It reads like an advertisement.
They used Wikipedia to market their filth, and spyware company or not, that's something I'll always hold in contempt. (mod up)
a link in your signature is fine. we can turn off sigs so we dont have to see your retarded product placements.
a link pasted at the end of a post for ANYTHING is an unwanted advertisement.
When you stop robbing banks and dealing drugs in favor and start selling Burgers at Mac Donald's, your revenue goes down drastically.
When your business revolves around shoving ads down consumers' throats with nothing in return, you're destined to fail.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
They are in the same league with Al-Quaieda when it comes to evil.
They have destroyed billions of dollars of pruductivity and are probably directly responsible for the attitude that computers have to be thrown away on a regular basis because its easier to throw them away than get rid of the spyware.
Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
http://www.revenews.com/wayneporter/archives/00056 5.html
Interesting to compare and contrast the official line with the anonymous version!
i am the designated pc fixer dude round here and 180 solutions has absolutely made my life a complete hell time after time. so to all the peaple who work at 180 solutions that are reading slashdot i hope each and every one of you die of cancer.
I Predict A Riot
I had to read the first posts to remember when I had seen that name before.
Then it all came back to me: Last week, as I wasted a few hours cleaning up a relative's computer, and was getting amazed at the seemingly endless list of malware that can fit on one single computer.
At least, they didn't have a hidden service that refused to die and kept rewriting the same registry key every 2 seconds to guarantee it'd run next time the box reboots. (if you ever bump into that, setting a draconian ACL on the parent registry key can help.)
how is it possible that you people have never heard of 180 solutions? Am I wrong here? How can you possibly refere to yourself as a geek? Have you touched a computer besides your fbsd hackproof spyware proof computer? they have been around for years. 180 and gator were the inventors of modern day spyware.
MISSING - Sig file. 2 years old black and white and very funny. If found please email me.
7/8 emule screwed me.. DAMN you EMULE!!!!!
MISSING - Sig file. 2 years old black and white and very funny. If found please email me.
How can an interview with an ex-employee be regarded as "An Interview with 180 Solutions?"
Who's 'iam'?
I thought it got a lot of graffiti before it was posted on slashdot.
Man, you really need that seminar!
You're complaining because emule doesn't install spyware?!?
Damn spoiled kids these days...
Man, you really need that seminar!
A) It's totally offtopic, thus it is an ad.
B) That's not the hidable signature, that was pasted into the post.
But you do have one point--the more agressive marketers are, the more I try to tune them out, filter them, or boycott whatever they sell. Like those Jack in the Box commercials--they've helped to completely prevent me from eating there, ever.
There are plenty of other places to eat. I might as well pick one that isn't obnoxious.
I gather from context that they do something in the spyware business, and Wikipedia has more detail, presented in a relatively neutral lawsuit-avoiding manner. But what do they really do? Pay people who trick\\\\\entice users into installing their software and collect money from ads that it displays? Is their software obvious and removable these days, or is it near-rootkit invisible?
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks