I use all the same things that fellow geeks tend to use...Adblock Plus, NoScript, host file, etc. They work great for me but for the average person (family, friends, customers, etc) I find that a few minutes of explaining the existence and nature of the 'dark side', combined with the addition of a few basic measures keeps most of the crap at bay with little effort on their part. From speaking to them on a regular basis (I've been driving around fixing home and business machines for over 5 years now (3-5 calls per day) with a small Boston-area company so I've seen a huge cross-section of users) I've pieced together what I think is the root of the matter..."Internet Security" programs...
These things (Norton and McAfee are the worst) claim to do everything but make people breakfast, not only on the package but also on their websites. Most machines even come with free trials of these bastards installed by default. They have cartoon interfaces with green lights and checkboxes and all manner of condescending 'you are safe' messages all over them. What they fail to mention is that they can only effectively protect against what is on their 'lists'. I understand they need to make money but its downright deceptive to give people the expectation that they don't have to do anything to keep themselves safe. Once the average person installs one of these monsters they assume (and yes its foolish to assume anything but to them the computer is a tool, not a second job) that nothing can harm them. After all they paid money for it to protect them. Most are horrified to find out that these things are smoke and mirrors and that even though their AV says 'you're protected' they still ended up infected with a rootkit or something similar that completely evaded detection because it had hit the ground running less than 24hrs previously.
The particular attack form that hits sites like the ones mentioned in the article is the worst, and actually relies on the AV vendors own obnoxiousness to trick people. Regular AV software loves to pop up and announce how great a job its doing. Most people ignore these and just click whatever they have to to dismiss them. Why? Not out of stupidity (usually) but because it happens so frequently that they've become desensitized to it. So when they are on a site and a popup announces they've been infected and that unfortunately they need to renew their subscription to fix the problem, they click what they need to in order to get back to what they were doing. They don't notice that words are slightly mis-spelled or that Antivirus 2010 doesn't say McAfee or whatever it is that they've got. They see a giant cartoon with warning messages and a 'fix it' button. It all happens so quickly that most of the time when I'm talking to a customer about it they don't remember actually doing it until an hour into the call.
Whats the solution? I don't think there is a perfect one, but I can say that I've had tremendous luck over the last several years with a very basic approach. Currently it consists of the following...
Education - a 15 minute conversation (in plain english btw) can save you hours of repairs later. once people have a realistic expectation of what their role is in their own safety they become better users Getting them to use IE only for the sites they absolutely need it for (usually internal work-related ones) Migrating them to Firefox w/Adblock Plus and Web of Trust (the ad filtering is a great way to get most people to dump IE in a heartbeat) OpenDNS set up on their router with the updater service running on one of their machines (only if they want sites blocked for kids/employees/whatever) Basic antivirus (AVG, MSE, etc) with as many of the more annoying features shut off as is possible so that when they see a message they might stop to read it.
With the above stuff in place the only malware-related things I need to get rid of are usually related to a toolbar that something like Java installed on them or if someones kid went off to pirate something and got infected (thus bypassing any security in place by looking for trouble actively).
I use the free Hamachi client along with UltraVNC (both running as services) on literally dozens of family members computers. I create different Hamachi networks based on what corner of the family I'm dealing with and can remote in anytime they need me to look at something. Saves a ton of effort. I used to use RDP and Crossloop but nothing has been easier for me than this combo. Sure it takes about 2d6+3 minutes to get set up initially but I let them know in advance that if I'm going to be working on their machine I'll need to have this stuff running. The only time its been an issue is when I don't have the machine in front of me to work on. In which case I will generally use the my companies LogMeIn account for a few minutes to set this stuff up and be on my merry way...
I have family scattered to the four winds and my method for maintaining their systems uses the following:
Hamachi (set up to run as a service) - separate networks for various arms of the family UltraVNC (also running as a service) - so I can connect remotely if I need to AVG/Microsoft Security Essentials - basic antivirus Firefox w/Adblock Plus & Web of Trust Routers set up to use OpenDNS with custom filters (depending on their needs) Disabling/removing Internet Explorer if at all possible (this usually involves 5 minutes of explaining that the blue E stands for Evil)...=)
With all of the above running the only thing I usually end up fixing is the casual settings-based things or dealing with the occasional hardware failure...YMMV of course...=)
Actually I've gotten the fingerprint reader to work on my T60 in Ubuntu, even from the command line. My guess is that it wouldn't be too terrible to get it working on this machine either...
This is actually pretty easy to defeat. Just boot into safe mode (XP Home) or regular mode (XP Pro or Media Center). Find the files in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 called 'wgalogon.dll' and 'wgatray.exe'. Bring up the file properties, go to the security tab and remove the inherited permissions from the files (don't copy them, strip them completely). Answer yes when it asks if you're sure about this. Reboot and WGA will never bother you again. I've done this on dozens of machines and it just skips the update because its too stupid to fix permissions. The only exception to this is the Service Packs or repair installs. YMMV
Of course nobody should have to do it in the first place but this is an example of corporate-think at it's best from our fiends in Redmond. If XP is so dead why should they be developing new WGA tricks for it anyways? Sounds to me like its them getting a bit nervous about how many people are jumping ship from Vista and pointing at 'hackers' as the problem. Again. =)
I did the original order (IV-VI, then I-III) recently over several weeks with my nephew. I'm so glad I did. Watching his face during "I AM your father" was priceless. I can only imagine that I looked the same way seeing them the first time at his age (9). If we had watched it the 'intended way' all of the twists would have been ruined in the second trilogy. He was also proud to tell his friends he saw them 'the right way'. Such a good little geek apprentice...=)
I stopped trusting Lycos the day I started finding this bloody thing on my customers computers. That they tried and failed at something so shady in the first place doesn't seem like much of a surprise to me. This was just some poorly done publicity stunt, probably dreamed up in by some PHB deep in the dungeons of their marketing department.
Not that I think they'll listen, but some folks went to the trouble of setting these up (they are posted on Leo's board). Hey it worked for Star Trek and Family Guy right? =)
Researchers also tested a so-called "active" system in which the vehicle would actually adjust the steering automatically if it veered too far one way or the other."
Finally!
Now when I'm talking on my phone, reading the newspaper, and eating breakfast on the way to work, I can look down to pick a DVD or refresh/. without worrying about being a hazard anymore!
Mr. Adams, you're not supposed to be posting on a public forum if you're spending time dead for tax reasons. Please try to be more vigilant from here on in...
Isn't this the technological equivolent (time-wise) of the U.N. right now in 2003 trying to decide what to do about this 'Hitler' guy? To quote my favorite Vorlon: The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote.
Unlike so many services out there and I have to respect them a bit for that. Personally, I pay for my access to Yahoo. The calendar, notepad, bookmark, etc features are just so valuable to me that I felt I should give them something back. Especially since I discovered their Palm sync software. Very handy. I know a lot of people have bad blood with them but some of us find them extremely valuable and enjoy the convience of their portal. It may not be open source or non-commercial, but that doesn't automaticlly mean they are abhorrently evil. =)
Actually you don't need to edit the registry anymore. I think since 98SE (could be wrong, might be 2K) you can just right-click the 'My Documents' folder, choose Properties, and change the location. We do this all the time to big-wigs in my company. We aim their documents to a mapped network shared and enable offline synchronization. This allows us to back their stuff up, and they still get to have it offline. Obviously not a perfect solution, but it works for the really dumb users (VP's, etc).
Actually they said that for women who have been working 30 or more years it rises to around 36%. Since your average LPN/RN is in thier early twenties when they start working, adding 30 years brings us to a minimum of the early fifties. Thats smack in the middle of the prime period for women to get breast cancer anyway. I'm no doctor, nor am I an expert on cancer, but this just seems like a skewed statistic. Kind of like saying that after 30 years of gaming, people are 50% more likely to suffer heart attacks...
Not to say the overall point isn't valid. Just that they are obviously spinning things in thier favor...
IMO, the reason most SUV's get into accidents is because the people that buy them never learn to drive them properly. The center of gravity and the over-all feel of the vehicles are totally different from a car, especially on the bigger ones. These things are trucks and should drive like trucks. Having them 'handle like a car' is just dangerous IMHO (well maybe the little mini-SUV's but I'm talking about big ones like the Expedition).
A good example of this is a front tire blow-out. In a car when a tire blows out it pulls sharply to one side but you can usually steer it off the road with reasonable effort. In a bigger vehicle if you try to steer like that, it will cause the vehicle to tip slightly towards that side. If you panic and turn the wheel too sharply or too fast, boom, instant roll-over.
I'll grant you that most people probably don't need them, but I think that if they're going to own them they need to learn how to handle them in emergency situations.
Since there isn't likely to be a law against them any time soon, this may be the best way to prevent most of the catastrophic accidents with SUV's.
As for my experience, I regularly go from driving my 89 Bronco XLT to my fiancee's 2002 Toyota Camry. It takes practice to get used to the dramatic difference in feel between the two of them. I can take corners, etc without much thought in the Camry. But with my Bronco I need to be constantly mindful of my speed and the terrain. That having been said, it would be very hard to get the Camry into the places we go camping in northern New Hampshire...
Slashdot Mirror
I use all the same things that fellow geeks tend to use...Adblock Plus, NoScript, host file, etc. They work great for me but for the average person (family, friends, customers, etc) I find that a few minutes of explaining the existence and nature of the 'dark side', combined with the addition of a few basic measures keeps most of the crap at bay with little effort on their part. From speaking to them on a regular basis (I've been driving around fixing home and business machines for over 5 years now (3-5 calls per day) with a small Boston-area company so I've seen a huge cross-section of users) I've pieced together what I think is the root of the matter..."Internet Security" programs...
These things (Norton and McAfee are the worst) claim to do everything but make people breakfast, not only on the package but also on their websites. Most machines even come with free trials of these bastards installed by default. They have cartoon interfaces with green lights and checkboxes and all manner of condescending 'you are safe' messages all over them. What they fail to mention is that they can only effectively protect against what is on their 'lists'. I understand they need to make money but its downright deceptive to give people the expectation that they don't have to do anything to keep themselves safe. Once the average person installs one of these monsters they assume (and yes its foolish to assume anything but to them the computer is a tool, not a second job) that nothing can harm them. After all they paid money for it to protect them. Most are horrified to find out that these things are smoke and mirrors and that even though their AV says 'you're protected' they still ended up infected with a rootkit or something similar that completely evaded detection because it had hit the ground running less than 24hrs previously.
The particular attack form that hits sites like the ones mentioned in the article is the worst, and actually relies on the AV vendors own obnoxiousness to trick people. Regular AV software loves to pop up and announce how great a job its doing. Most people ignore these and just click whatever they have to to dismiss them. Why? Not out of stupidity (usually) but because it happens so frequently that they've become desensitized to it. So when they are on a site and a popup announces they've been infected and that unfortunately they need to renew their subscription to fix the problem, they click what they need to in order to get back to what they were doing. They don't notice that words are slightly mis-spelled or that Antivirus 2010 doesn't say McAfee or whatever it is that they've got. They see a giant cartoon with warning messages and a 'fix it' button. It all happens so quickly that most of the time when I'm talking to a customer about it they don't remember actually doing it until an hour into the call.
Whats the solution? I don't think there is a perfect one, but I can say that I've had tremendous luck over the last several years with a very basic approach. Currently it consists of the following...
Education - a 15 minute conversation (in plain english btw) can save you hours of repairs later. once people have a realistic expectation of what their role is in their own safety they become better users
Getting them to use IE only for the sites they absolutely need it for (usually internal work-related ones)
Migrating them to Firefox w/Adblock Plus and Web of Trust (the ad filtering is a great way to get most people to dump IE in a heartbeat)
OpenDNS set up on their router with the updater service running on one of their machines (only if they want sites blocked for kids/employees/whatever)
Basic antivirus (AVG, MSE, etc) with as many of the more annoying features shut off as is possible so that when they see a message they might stop to read it.
With the above stuff in place the only malware-related things I need to get rid of are usually related to a toolbar that something like Java installed on them or if someones kid went off to pirate something and got infected (thus bypassing any security in place by looking for trouble actively).
YMMV of course...
I use the free Hamachi client along with UltraVNC (both running as services) on literally dozens of family members computers. I create different Hamachi networks based on what corner of the family I'm dealing with and can remote in anytime they need me to look at something. Saves a ton of effort. I used to use RDP and Crossloop but nothing has been easier for me than this combo. Sure it takes about 2d6+3 minutes to get set up initially but I let them know in advance that if I'm going to be working on their machine I'll need to have this stuff running. The only time its been an issue is when I don't have the machine in front of me to work on. In which case I will generally use the my companies LogMeIn account for a few minutes to set this stuff up and be on my merry way...
YMMV of course...=)
I have family scattered to the four winds and my method for maintaining their systems uses the following:
Hamachi (set up to run as a service) - separate networks for various arms of the family
UltraVNC (also running as a service) - so I can connect remotely if I need to
AVG/Microsoft Security Essentials - basic antivirus
Firefox w/Adblock Plus & Web of Trust
Routers set up to use OpenDNS with custom filters (depending on their needs)
Disabling/removing Internet Explorer if at all possible (this usually involves 5 minutes of explaining that the blue E stands for Evil)...=)
With all of the above running the only thing I usually end up fixing is the casual settings-based things or dealing with the occasional hardware failure...YMMV of course...=)
Actually I've gotten the fingerprint reader to work on my T60 in Ubuntu, even from the command line. My guess is that it wouldn't be too terrible to get it working on this machine either...
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/How_to_enable_the_fingerprint_reader_with_ThinkFinger
This is actually pretty easy to defeat. Just boot into safe mode (XP Home) or regular mode (XP Pro or Media Center). Find the files in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 called 'wgalogon.dll' and 'wgatray.exe'. Bring up the file properties, go to the security tab and remove the inherited permissions from the files (don't copy them, strip them completely). Answer yes when it asks if you're sure about this. Reboot and WGA will never bother you again. I've done this on dozens of machines and it just skips the update because its too stupid to fix permissions. The only exception to this is the Service Packs or repair installs. YMMV
Of course nobody should have to do it in the first place but this is an example of corporate-think at it's best from our fiends in Redmond. If XP is so dead why should they be developing new WGA tricks for it anyways? Sounds to me like its them getting a bit nervous about how many people are jumping ship from Vista and pointing at 'hackers' as the problem. Again. =)
I did the original order (IV-VI, then I-III) recently over several weeks with my nephew. I'm so glad I did. Watching his face during "I AM your father" was priceless. I can only imagine that I looked the same way seeing them the first time at his age (9). If we had watched it the 'intended way' all of the twists would have been ruined in the second trilogy. He was also proud to tell his friends he saw them 'the right way'. Such a good little geek apprentice...=)
I stopped trusting Lycos the day I started finding this bloody thing on my customers computers. That they tried and failed at something so shady in the first place doesn't seem like much of a surprise to me. This was just some poorly done publicity stunt, probably dreamed up in by some PHB deep in the dungeons of their marketing department.
Cool Ranch Cola?
Sounds like a challenger to this stuff...
I'd love to see the results of a taste test between them though...
Not that I think they'll listen, but some folks went to the trouble of setting these up (they are posted on Leo's board). Hey it worked for Star Trek and Family Guy right? =)
Petition 1
Petition 2
Petition 3
Also a direct link to the Comcast complaint bucket...
Comcast Feedback
Researchers also tested a so-called "active" system in which the vehicle would actually adjust the steering automatically if it veered too far one way or the other."
/. without worrying about being a hazard anymore!
Finally!
Now when I'm talking on my phone, reading the newspaper, and eating breakfast on the way to work, I can look down to pick a DVD or refresh
Are we sure this isn't a hoax? Most of the Google News links point to the story on the 1st...
Mr. Adams, you're not supposed to be posting on a public forum if you're spending time dead for tax reasons. Please try to be more vigilant from here on in...
=)
Isn't this the technological equivolent (time-wise) of the U.N. right now in 2003 trying to decide what to do about this 'Hitler' guy? To quote my favorite Vorlon: The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote.
But maybe I'm just pessimistic and jaded...=)
Unlike so many services out there and I have to respect them a bit for that. Personally, I pay for my access to Yahoo. The calendar, notepad, bookmark, etc features are just so valuable to me that I felt I should give them something back. Especially since I discovered their Palm sync software. Very handy. I know a lot of people have bad blood with them but some of us find them extremely valuable and enjoy the convience of their portal. It may not be open source or non-commercial, but that doesn't automaticlly mean they are abhorrently evil. =)
YMMV of course...
I seriously doubt if many governmental types even look at their own email, let alone get involved in what their web servers are running.
We may as well judge them by what brand of gasoline their drivers use on their limo's.
Great. Fires, floods, famine, now this...
Today is Halloween, not April Fool's!
Although I guess this qualifies for the horror genre...
PC's suck!
Mac's suck!
Linux Rulez!
M$ Sucks!
Some days I swear the editors are just posting stories to test out their new Anti-DDOS boxen...
It's like throwing chum to sharks...=)
Actually you don't need to edit the registry anymore. I think since 98SE (could be wrong, might be 2K) you can just right-click the 'My Documents' folder, choose Properties, and change the location. We do this all the time to big-wigs in my company. We aim their documents to a mapped network shared and enable offline synchronization. This allows us to back their stuff up, and they still get to have it offline. Obviously not a perfect solution, but it works for the really dumb users (VP's, etc).
Oh hell...
I for one welcome our new cybernetic geriatric overlords!
Wouldn't links like this be more useful when emergencies pop up?
Actually they said that for women who have been working 30 or more years it rises to around 36%. Since your average LPN/RN is in thier early twenties when they start working, adding 30 years brings us to a minimum of the early fifties. Thats smack in the middle of the prime period for women to get breast cancer anyway. I'm no doctor, nor am I an expert on cancer, but this just seems like a skewed statistic. Kind of like saying that after 30 years of gaming, people are 50% more likely to suffer heart attacks...
Not to say the overall point isn't valid. Just that they are obviously spinning things in thier favor...
1. Greet newbie
2. Teach newbie Our Ways(tm)
3. ???
4. Profit
Sorry, someone had to do it...=)
Wow that site got baked...
Or is it fried?
OK, I'll stop now....=)
Just one quick point about accidents and SUV's...
IMO, the reason most SUV's get into accidents is because the people that buy them never learn to drive them properly. The center of gravity and the over-all feel of the vehicles are totally different from a car, especially on the bigger ones. These things are trucks and should drive like trucks. Having them 'handle like a car' is just dangerous IMHO (well maybe the little mini-SUV's but I'm talking about big ones like the Expedition).
A good example of this is a front tire blow-out. In a car when a tire blows out it pulls sharply to one side but you can usually steer it off the road with reasonable effort. In a bigger vehicle if you try to steer like that, it will cause the vehicle to tip slightly towards that side. If you panic and turn the wheel too sharply or too fast, boom, instant roll-over.
I'll grant you that most people probably don't need them, but I think that if they're going to own them they need to learn how to handle them in emergency situations.
Since there isn't likely to be a law against them any time soon, this may be the best way to prevent most of the catastrophic accidents with SUV's.
As for my experience, I regularly go from driving my 89 Bronco XLT to my fiancee's 2002 Toyota Camry. It takes practice to get used to the dramatic difference in feel between the two of them. I can take corners, etc without much thought in the Camry. But with my Bronco I need to be constantly mindful of my speed and the terrain. That having been said, it would be very hard to get the Camry into the places we go camping in northern New Hampshire...