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TUAW Recommends Joke App
ejdmoo writes "The Unofficial Apple Weblog, a very popular Apple enthusiast site, has accidentally posted (and since retracted) a recommendation for an application called Procrastinatr. Though the original website for Procrastinatr promises to 'efficiently prioritize your calendars and regain lost time,' it gives no real description of the functionality. In reality, the application was written as something of an extensive joke between friends, moving all iCal appointments and tasks forward a week. The author has since apologized and posted a fix for users who borked their calendars. This story once again highlights the importance of making sure something is legitimate before letting it run loose on your system, even if it appears to be coming from a reputable source."
and if this had been done on windows systems, it would have made national news...
Show this to your friends and family that don't know what a real hacker is
I always try to move my appointments out a week. It gives me time to get to the things I had to postpone from their original schedule to this week.
End the FUD
Reminder: Post a response to this article on Slashdot
This story once again highlights the importance of making sure something is legitimate before letting it run loose on your system, even if it appears to be coming from a reputable source.
This statement would've been a whole lot funnier if it had been editorial commentary rather than submitter commentary.
"Think Different...Maybe next week."
"Switch...When you get around to it."
"Get a Mac...Someday."
Gifts for Geeks - Stuff that really matters!
Like an "unofficial weblog". Yeah, sounds reputable to me!
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
If only they had Procrastinatr already installed for their calendars. They would have then waited a week to check TAUW, by which point the post suggesting they use Procrastinatr would have been fixed. What a shame...
The only thing I hate more than hypocrites are people who hate hypocrites.
The word "loose" was used properly on slashdot. More news coming at 11.
Its more a question of learning the meaning of procrastination, and wondering what an application based on the word is going to do to your calendars.
Honestly, anybody investing much time in making iCals probably has too much time on their hands, but schedules stuff for the future anyways.
Isn't this technically a Trojan virus? An application that when installed corrupts your data. I don't want to be devil's advocate here, but it doesn't require a terribly sophisticated delivery method to trick Apple users into installing a application to corrupt their data. I wonder how an application called iRandomUn1ns7allr would be received in the Apple community.
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- Don't mod me down for speaking the truth, unless you can prove I am lying.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
This story once again highlights the importance of making sure something is legitimate before letting it run loose on your system, even if it appears to be coming from a reputable source.
Timothy, Zonk and the rest of you guys, are you paying attention?
But I don't understand. Was there some kind of bug in this application? From the descriptions it sounds like it was 100% effective at postponing all of your appointments by a week.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
I don't think this ram-doubling, internet accellerating, penis enlarging app I just installed is working like it should either. Soon as this "formatting c:\, please wait" message that popped up goes away I will upd
Ignore anything I said above, I actually agree with everything you believe - mod accordingly.
This app would have been much cooler if it would have only postponed event for a day. But the app would run all the time constintly pushing back all events one day. The should effectivly keep your schedule clear forever. An added bonus would be if it automaiclly e-mail all parties involved in an event telling them every time the even has been postponed.
Eating the brains of your enemies does not make you smarter. But it's still fun.
You can lead a windows user to a Mac, but you can't make him smart. Or: Once a windows user, always a windows user.
If you manage your calendar with Outlook Express, it's no wonder you're still living in your parents' basement.
Outlook Express doesn't have a calendar.
For more information, click here.
In about a week.
Creative misinterpretation is your friend.
Macs for Mac users!
The question is: how do you verify the integrity of a program before running it on your system ?
You could read through the source code... no, that's ridiculous. Unless the program is as simple as this one was (I think I could re-write this in one line of awk) then reading the source code would take weeks or even months. That's assuming you have the knowledge.
You could take the recommendation of a trusted source; a source who is trusted through having recommended other software before which was good software and not malicious or buggy. Unfortunately, that is what happened here. TUAW (a trusted source) recommended some software without actually using it themselves. (Unless it was some giant prank on their userbase but that sort of thing is usually reserved for early April.)
You could limit yourself to only using software that came in a box from your local Apple store. Don't ever install anything unless you also have a physical, printed CD, a box, a user manual and a warranty to accompany it. That's a bit extreme but reasonably safe. As with all "reasonably safe" things however, it's pretty boring.
What most people do these days is decide if the software "looks trustworthy". This is usually based on a recommendation from a trsuted source, the product's website (professional looking graphics means money spent, which means legit) and if the product still isn't filling the user with confidence they will usually ask Google.
All that needs to be done to install malicious software on a user's computer is to create a moderately professional looking website, astroturf a few software-related forums and get your software linked from a trsuted source. The best way to that would be to name your software in such a way that tech-savvy people would probably not install the program but the less savvy would jump at it.
I'd like to hear comments anyone has on how unknown software can be verified by non techie people. This means no md5 hashes, no source code snooping, nothing even remotely technical like checking the size of the program. I know the odds are that the 20KB "Open Source MS Office Replacement" I just downloaded probably isn't what it claims to be but plenty of users don't even look at the size of a download.
Sig matters not. Judge me by my sig, do you?
Can i get this for my PC? I could really use the extra time.