I found a planner of some person with a lot of data, but only name and photo of him and his wife were true. There was fake phone number and fake address. I had to trace down his name, arrange it by photos, find his relatives, search for their contact, then finally found one working phone, called and returned it back taking no money.
So this is a sum up of what I found: - if you are carrying stuff around, be prepared to loose it. - if thats about information, the best you can do is to expect loose any day. That means - do not take all your data with you, ideally the device should just be a hub. If its not, make backups of data (cloud, offline, no matter) and store information on the device with good encryption. Should the device be lost, change your passwords.
- if this is a physical thing with some value (or its an additional physical layer of some price around information), think what has more value to you - exposing your basic contact info and possibly returning the device, or not exposing it and not getting it back. Hence the preference for cheap gadgets. However, if the device is of some value to you, do update some contacts on it - chances are good guy finds it and brings it to you or (better) police department. Just write some "if you found this thing, please call... for reward" note, you dont have to mention your name or even your address. Think that if its a good guy, he just needs to know how to contact you - nothing else. And if it will be a bad guy, he should not know nothing else but some disposable contact (that should never the less be kept polished if it happens).
Take care.
On the root of my Flash drives I put a "IF FOUND README.TXT" file with a phone number, and a secondary email address. The file is prominent (since I minimize the number of files in the root), and a TXT file will open on any system. As well if the finder is tech savvy, and skeptical of it potentially being a bait device, the fact that it's a TXT file should reduce their worries that it may contain a malicious MS Word macro, etc.
On other devices I try to slip a card between the case and the body, or put a piece of tape with contact details. My Android lock screen has an alternate phone number (as well as ICE information). My camera splash screen is contact info.
Once at a university library I found a flash drive. Went rooting through the files, found a resume with a name that matched the name on the assignment files. I fired them off an email to let them know I found their flash drive and left it with the library clerk. That way when they had the moment of shear and utter panic realizing they lost their entire term's work, they'd know where the drive was being held for safekeeping.
In another case I found a Blackberry. Battery was dead so I charged it up. When I switched it on it got a message from a BBM contact. I told them I found the phone and was trying to reunite it with the owner, and we made a rendezvous.
I returned the devices I found because it's the right thing to do, and would refuse any money over the cost of expenses because I think it's good Karma (I'd like any device I lost to be returned). In the case of my devices, I want to make it as easy as possible for someone to find the right contact information without having to dig around (or if there was no power / it is locked).
National Instruments does graphical programming in their motion control systems and it makes some sense, though it kind of sucks. Also PLCs are often written in ladder not text, unless your programmer has lost the plot a bit and thinks statement list is appropriate for everything (hint, it isn't).
I'm familiar with AB's PLC line (5 and ControlLogix), and it's interesting to see how electricians have no problem dealing with ladder logic, but really struggle with "Structured text". Yet lines of ladder can be represented (or directly entered) as text. Eg: using XIC OTE). Of course all new automation comes from our company's motherland, written in structure text in a foreign language, with foreign comments, making it a disaster to troubleshoot.
AB also has "Sequential Function Chart" which is more graphical.
OK. Ok. First a disclaimer - I have not even looked at the Beta. Now, onto my observation - at a company I worked at we took the existing UI for a massive product and wrote a new UI from the ground up. Sent to evaluate it my overall comment was - it is NOT ready. However, so much time and effort was put into it that it was moved out to production anyway, over my protests. ALL the customers stuck with it did not like it, bug reports ballooned out of all control, and we spent the next year and a half fixing problems while our credibility was hit REAL hard.
. . .
We had a basically captive audience due to the nature of our software.
So YOU'RE the one responsible for Metro / Modern UI!
Too bad those dumb little buttons are probably blocked by a fairly large contingent of the userbase has those sad little abominations blocked (bonus points for IPTables or HOSTS based solutions!)
Jesus Christ, this is your first post in almost 4 years. Were you reanimated after being cryogenicly frozen? What's your thoughts on how the tech world has evolved over 4 years? You were around just after the iPad was announced, what do you think now that mobile apps are everywhere and Slashdot wants to make their site look like one?
Not on Windows 8.1 it doesn't. WinKey+S brings up a much less functional search.
And Winkey+S was the key binding in OneNote to take a screen clipping, which was broken in 8.1. Seems Office crowd and Windows crowd didn't talk. Onenote is one of the underrated tools in Office.
I just buy the little convex mirrors and stick them on my side mirrors. This way I can see anything to either side of me no matter where they are. I primarily got them for towing my boat but they work great for everyday driving.
My car came with convex mirrors since I didn't opt for the expensive Blind Sport Information System. I think they're great.
3: Keep the backup generator fueled and maybe test it. If diesel, add some anti-fungal preservative to it. Nothing like a power failure event, and the generator unable to fire up since the fuel hasn't been touched for 4+ years.
And my understanding with diesel generators, when periodically run up, they must be run under load (50%+). If you just start and idle with no load for years, then have a power failure, the generators will stall when load is applied due to excess carbon deposits, wet stacking etc.
"... no one wants to buy a new printer just to buy a new wifi router..."
Backwards compatibility (or at least capability) is important. Look at TV. They could have chosen a digital broadcast TV standard that was backwards-compatible with the older signalling system. It existed. It was one of the choices. Instead they went with a brand-new protocol, that made all old TVs obsolete, unless they bought an expensive converter box and antenna. The result? Relatively few people in the U.S. watch broadcast TV anymore. Instead they pay outrageous fees for cable. If you want to kill off a technology, abandoning backward compatibility is a great way to do it. (Again I will add "or capability"... the new system doesn't have to be "compatible" with the old, as long as it will work in parallel.)
TVs have a fair bit of backwards compatibility. New TVs can connect to HD content (through HDMI/DVI, cable/antenna, VGA), as well as SD content (composite, component, cable/antenna, VGA). And colour NTSC was made with excellent B&W backwards compatibility. In the past 6 years new LCD/Plasma TVs have seem a tremendous amount of market adoption. For the remaining six people the government subsidized receiver boxes. In the mean time anyone with a modern TV can hook up an antenna and get free HD content. A 32" 1080p TV sells new for around $200. That pays for "outrageous fees for cable" pretty quick.
I think a lot of people had cable / satellite anyways. ATSC allows for significantly higher quality, and more efficient use of bandwidth than NTSC for the remaining OTA viewers. Of those, the six remaining with SD CRT sets got their subsidized government receivers.
That does not make it faster... it displaces the time to the shutdown... so you miss your plane...
Yup, all it does is displace the time to shutdown. However it doesn't add that much extra time.
The real time killer that makes you miss your plane: "Shit, I'm late for my plane, and my notebook battery doesn't work" *start-shutdown-shutdown* "Installing update 1 of 43. Do not shut off your computer"
/.ers are supposed to be technically knowledgeable, at least within our own areas of expertise. (Though we're always loudest and most confident when speaking outside our areas of expertise.)
However,/.ers don't RTFA. No, not even the abstract.
Hell, you're lucky if we read the summary.
YMBNH.
I've seen people reply without even reading the title.
I think the comment isn't that gas turbines are new installations to complement wind farms, rather due to the volatility of wind, gas turbines are being called on more often when the supply from wind drops. I know is some cases normal base loading thermal plants are being shutdown because of wind, so more power comes from a volatile gas turbine-wind mix.
In an "ideal" world hydro is the best complement to wind. Quick to spool up, and "green" if you consider the fact that you already ruined the head pond when you built the dam. Around here we have a large hydro plant that's great for peaking loads. It is high capacity, but the headpond will only let it run for a few hours. But it can cover supper time peaks, and it can spool up if you have a thermal unit shut down, and buy you enough time to get another unit online.
I'm realize you were trying to be funny (not that you were) but just for the record: my computer boots into Windows 8 to the desktop in 8 seconds - including the time to log in. It takes longer to boot into Linux last I tried.
Windows 8 speeds up boot time by using Hybrid boot / Fast Boot. Basically when you go to shutdown, the computer will reboot, then basically at the login prompt hibrenate to disk. So 8 seconds probably isn't the time for a true cold start.
Because I use legacy boot menu on my Windows 8 machine, it does not use hybrid boot. The boot time for Win8 is about the same as Win7 was, which is about what WinXP was, about 30 seconds. The problems that extend boot times isn't Microsoft, but third party vendors that insist everything must be running all the time, and not even small background daemons. Workplace IT departments seem particularly skilled at loading down the PCs with so much shit that a well specced Core i5 can take 5 minutes to become usable. The other users that suffer from this is home users that don't know how to use a computer and load as much shit as the popups on the internet tell them to.
Really, this isn't the news I would expect for this site.
Indeed. Though I think I know the answer. Based on Slashdot's front page right now (only looking at older articles than this): "FreeBSD 10.0 Released" - 67 comments "Examining the User-Reported Issues With Upgrading From GCC 4.7 To 4.8" - 107 comments "Linux 3.13 Released" - 122 comments "AMD Considered GDDR5 For Kaveri, Might Release Eight-Core Variant" - 107 comments "Study Doubts Quantum Computer Speed" - 95 comments
If the number of views can be extrapolated from the number of comments, this article has significantly more comments than those "nerd" articles above, and thus more views. More views = more ad revenue.
Exactly how does Microsoft gain access and remove software? Well I guess that means Microsoft has complete control of other people PCs. What kind of F@#$%^ up nightmare is this?
Well if we read the article
Since the Sefnit-caused Tor eruption in August, we have worked to curb this risk. In this process, we consulted with Tor project developers to help plan the cleanup. We retroactively remediated machines that had previously been cleaned of Sefnit but still had a Sefnit-added Tor service:
October 27, 2013: We modified our signatures to remove the Sefnit-added Tor client service. Signature and remediation are included in all Microsoft security software, including Microsoft Security Essentials, Windows Defender on Windows 8, Microsoft Safety Scanner, Microsoft System Center Endpoint Protection, and Windows Defender Offline.
November 12, 2013: Signature and remediation is included in Malicious Software Removal Tool and delivered through Windows Update/Microsoft Update.
Microsoft Security Essentials is a popular antivirus program that people tout as being a good free option to Symantec or McAfee. In this case it seems it did a good job of squashing a botnet. Malicious Software Removal Tool is an update that comes monthly, with Windows updates, that can be disabled or deselected if you wish. The idea is that "This tool checks your computer for infection by specific, prevalent malicious software (including Blaster, Sasser, and Mydoom) and helps to remove the infection if it is found. Microsoft will release an updated version of this tool on the second Tuesday of each month. " So even if you don't use MSE or any other AV software, if you do updates, you will get the worst of the worst. Such as this millions infected with Sefnit.
No hidden remote kill switch. No evil. The security tools did what they advertized to remove a threat, while leaving legitimate Tor users untouched.
Since the Sefnit-caused Tor eruption in August, we have worked to curb this risk. In this process, we consulted with Tor project developers to help plan the cleanup. We retroactively remediated machines that had previously been cleaned of Sefnit but still had a Sefnit-added Tor service:
October 27, 2013: We modified our signatures to remove the Sefnit-added Tor client service. Signature and remediation are included in all Microsoft security software, including Microsoft Security Essentials, Windows Defender on Windows 8, Microsoft Safety Scanner, Microsoft System Center Endpoint Protection, and Windows Defender Offline.
November 12, 2013: Signature and remediation is included in Malicious Software Removal Tool and delivered through Windows Update/Microsoft Update.
The Tor client service left behind on a previously-infected machine may seem harmless at first glance - Tor is a good application used to anonymize traffic and usually poses no threat. Unfortunately, the version installed by Sefnit is v0.2.3.25 – and does not self-update. The latest Tor release build at the time of writing is v0.2.4.20.
Windows Update has doubled as Windows Remote Administration for years.
Microsoft using their security software (Microsoft Security Essentials and Malicious Software Removal Tool) to tackle a real security hazard, while leaving legitimate Tor users unaffected? The horror!
"Malicious Software Removal Tool" has been a Windows update for years. (Since 2005 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Malicious_Software_Removal_Tool) What did you think it did? You have the option of not running it. If the update is selected / run it is a local program run one time after updates are installed that "checks your computer for infection by specific, prevalent malicious software (including Blaster, Sasser, and Mydoom) and helps to remove the infection if it is found. Microsoft will release an updated version of this tool on the second Tuesday of each month."
Slashdot Mirror
I want to share my thoughts on subject.
I found a planner of some person with a lot of data, but only name and photo of him and his wife were true. There was fake phone number and fake address. I had to trace down his name, arrange it by photos, find his relatives, search for their contact, then finally found one working phone, called and returned it back taking no money.
So this is a sum up of what I found:
- if you are carrying stuff around, be prepared to loose it.
- if thats about information, the best you can do is to expect loose any day. That means - do not take all your data with you, ideally the device should just be a hub. If its not, make backups of data (cloud, offline, no matter) and store information on the device with good encryption. Should the device be lost, change your passwords.
- if this is a physical thing with some value (or its an additional physical layer of some price around information), think what has more value to you - exposing your basic contact info and possibly returning the device, or not exposing it and not getting it back. Hence the preference for cheap gadgets. However, if the device is of some value to you, do update some contacts on it - chances are good guy finds it and brings it to you or (better) police department. Just write some "if you found this thing, please call ... for reward" note, you dont have to mention your name or even your address. Think that if its a good guy, he just needs to know how to contact you - nothing else. And if it will be a bad guy, he should not know nothing else but some disposable contact (that should never the less be kept polished if it happens).
Take care.
On the root of my Flash drives I put a "IF FOUND README.TXT" file with a phone number, and a secondary email address. The file is prominent (since I minimize the number of files in the root), and a TXT file will open on any system. As well if the finder is tech savvy, and skeptical of it potentially being a bait device, the fact that it's a TXT file should reduce their worries that it may contain a malicious MS Word macro, etc.
On other devices I try to slip a card between the case and the body, or put a piece of tape with contact details. My Android lock screen has an alternate phone number (as well as ICE information). My camera splash screen is contact info.
Once at a university library I found a flash drive. Went rooting through the files, found a resume with a name that matched the name on the assignment files. I fired them off an email to let them know I found their flash drive and left it with the library clerk. That way when they had the moment of shear and utter panic realizing they lost their entire term's work, they'd know where the drive was being held for safekeeping.
In another case I found a Blackberry. Battery was dead so I charged it up. When I switched it on it got a message from a BBM contact. I told them I found the phone and was trying to reunite it with the owner, and we made a rendezvous.
I returned the devices I found because it's the right thing to do, and would refuse any money over the cost of expenses because I think it's good Karma (I'd like any device I lost to be returned). In the case of my devices, I want to make it as easy as possible for someone to find the right contact information without having to dig around (or if there was no power / it is locked).
National Instruments does graphical programming in their motion control systems and it makes some sense, though it kind of sucks. Also PLCs are often written in ladder not text, unless your programmer has lost the plot a bit and thinks statement list is appropriate for everything (hint, it isn't).
I'm familiar with AB's PLC line (5 and ControlLogix), and it's interesting to see how electricians have no problem dealing with ladder logic, but really struggle with "Structured text". Yet lines of ladder can be represented (or directly entered) as text. Eg: using XIC OTE). Of course all new automation comes from our company's motherland, written in structure text in a foreign language, with foreign comments, making it a disaster to troubleshoot.
AB also has "Sequential Function Chart" which is more graphical.
OK. Ok. First a disclaimer - I have not even looked at the Beta. Now, onto my observation - at a company I worked at we took the existing UI for a massive product and wrote a new UI from the ground up. Sent to evaluate it my overall comment was - it is NOT ready. However, so much time and effort was put into it that it was moved out to production anyway, over my protests. ALL the customers stuck with it did not like it, bug reports ballooned out of all control, and we spent the next year and a half fixing problems while our credibility was hit REAL hard.
. . .
We had a basically captive audience due to the nature of our software.
So YOU'RE the one responsible for Metro / Modern UI!
I bet the editors just want to see how many different ways all of you can segue from the article into "fuck beta" in a comment.
It even derailed a juicy flamewar-bait topic like Wozniak To Apple: Consider Building an Android Phone
Too bad those dumb little buttons are probably blocked by a fairly large contingent of the userbase has those sad little abominations blocked (bonus points for IPTables or HOSTS based solutions!)
HUSH! You'll get apk the HOSTS guy going. Bad enough that we have Beta Slashcott going on!
http://slashdot.org/comments.p...
What is slashdot without the posters? You think people come here to read the crappy summaries?
You must be new here. People don't read the crappy summaries or the linked articles.
Wait, people read /. in browsers? why? /me gets nothin but the facts in his RSS reader. Don't need none of that crazy css crap :)
RSS has been going to hell with things like Google Reader shut down. Still haven't found a substitute I like.
Jesus Christ, this is your first post in almost 4 years. Were you reanimated after being cryogenicly frozen? What's your thoughts on how the tech world has evolved over 4 years? You were around just after the iPad was announced, what do you think now that mobile apps are everywhere and Slashdot wants to make their site look like one?
It would not be hard to also have a "body" recognition where you could have the computer label someone "fatty".
Use the pornoscanners at the airport.
Not on Windows 8.1 it doesn't. WinKey+S brings up a much less functional search.
And Winkey+S was the key binding in OneNote to take a screen clipping, which was broken in 8.1. Seems Office crowd and Windows crowd didn't talk. Onenote is one of the underrated tools in Office.
I just buy the little convex mirrors and stick them on my side mirrors. This way I can see anything to either side of me no matter where they are. I primarily got them for towing my boat but they work great for everyday driving.
My car came with convex mirrors since I didn't opt for the expensive Blind Sport Information System. I think they're great.
3: Keep the backup generator fueled and maybe test it. If diesel, add some anti-fungal preservative to it. Nothing like a power failure event, and the generator unable to fire up since the fuel hasn't been touched for 4+ years.
And my understanding with diesel generators, when periodically run up, they must be run under load (50%+). If you just start and idle with no load for years, then have a power failure, the generators will stall when load is applied due to excess carbon deposits, wet stacking etc.
"... no one wants to buy a new printer just to buy a new wifi router..."
Backwards compatibility (or at least capability) is important. Look at TV.
They could have chosen a digital broadcast TV standard that was backwards-compatible with the older signalling system. It existed. It was one of the choices.
Instead they went with a brand-new protocol, that made all old TVs obsolete, unless they bought an expensive converter box and antenna. The result? Relatively few people in the U.S. watch broadcast TV anymore. Instead they pay outrageous fees for cable.
If you want to kill off a technology, abandoning backward compatibility is a great way to do it. (Again I will add "or capability"... the new system doesn't have to be "compatible" with the old, as long as it will work in parallel.)
TVs have a fair bit of backwards compatibility. New TVs can connect to HD content (through HDMI/DVI, cable/antenna, VGA), as well as SD content (composite, component, cable/antenna, VGA). And colour NTSC was made with excellent B&W backwards compatibility. In the past 6 years new LCD/Plasma TVs have seem a tremendous amount of market adoption. For the remaining six people the government subsidized receiver boxes. In the mean time anyone with a modern TV can hook up an antenna and get free HD content. A 32" 1080p TV sells new for around $200. That pays for "outrageous fees for cable" pretty quick.
I think a lot of people had cable / satellite anyways. ATSC allows for significantly higher quality, and more efficient use of bandwidth than NTSC for the remaining OTA viewers. Of those, the six remaining with SD CRT sets got their subsidized government receivers.
That does not make it faster ... it displaces the time to the shutdown ... so you miss your plane ...
Yup, all it does is displace the time to shutdown. However it doesn't add that much extra time.
The real time killer that makes you miss your plane:
"Shit, I'm late for my plane, and my notebook battery doesn't work"
*start-shutdown-shutdown*
"Installing update 1 of 43. Do not shut off your computer"
/.ers are supposed to be technically knowledgeable, at least within our own areas of expertise. (Though we're always loudest and most confident when speaking outside our areas of expertise.)
However, /.ers don't RTFA. No, not even the abstract.
Hell, you're lucky if we read the summary.
YMBNH.
I've seen people reply without even reading the title.
I think the comment isn't that gas turbines are new installations to complement wind farms, rather due to the volatility of wind, gas turbines are being called on more often when the supply from wind drops. I know is some cases normal base loading thermal plants are being shutdown because of wind, so more power comes from a volatile gas turbine-wind mix.
In an "ideal" world hydro is the best complement to wind. Quick to spool up, and "green" if you consider the fact that you already ruined the head pond when you built the dam. Around here we have a large hydro plant that's great for peaking loads. It is high capacity, but the headpond will only let it run for a few hours. But it can cover supper time peaks, and it can spool up if you have a thermal unit shut down, and buy you enough time to get another unit online.
I'm realize you were trying to be funny (not that you were) but just for the record: my computer boots into Windows 8 to the desktop in 8 seconds - including the time to log in. It takes longer to boot into Linux last I tried.
Windows 8 speeds up boot time by using Hybrid boot / Fast Boot. Basically when you go to shutdown, the computer will reboot, then basically at the login prompt hibrenate to disk. So 8 seconds probably isn't the time for a true cold start.
http://www.howtogeek.com/12902...
http://www.eightforums.com/tut...
Because I use legacy boot menu on my Windows 8 machine, it does not use hybrid boot. The boot time for Win8 is about the same as Win7 was, which is about what WinXP was, about 30 seconds. The problems that extend boot times isn't Microsoft, but third party vendors that insist everything must be running all the time, and not even small background daemons. Workplace IT departments seem particularly skilled at loading down the PCs with so much shit that a well specced Core i5 can take 5 minutes to become usable. The other users that suffer from this is home users that don't know how to use a computer and load as much shit as the popups on the internet tell them to.
Sounds like a problem with the heat sink, or perhaps fan control?
Naaa. It's just a Pentium 4 Prescott
Really, this isn't the news I would expect for this site.
Indeed. Though I think I know the answer. Based on Slashdot's front page right now (only looking at older articles than this):
"FreeBSD 10.0 Released" - 67 comments
"Examining the User-Reported Issues With Upgrading From GCC 4.7 To 4.8" - 107 comments
"Linux 3.13 Released" - 122 comments
"AMD Considered GDDR5 For Kaveri, Might Release Eight-Core Variant" - 107 comments
"Study Doubts Quantum Computer Speed" - 95 comments
"200 Dolphins Await Slaughter In Japan's Taiji Cove" - 383 comments
If the number of views can be extrapolated from the number of comments, this article has significantly more comments than those "nerd" articles above, and thus more views. More views = more ad revenue.
Likewise:
"Global-Warming Skepticism Hits 6-Year High" - 559 comments
Somewhat nerd, maybe, but not in the typical computing sense that was the focus of this site in the past.
Isn't it illegal to secretly infiltrate a computer system and remove legal software from it?
This looks real secret:
http://i39.tinypic.com/21kz7na.jpg
Exactly how does Microsoft gain access and remove software? Well I guess that means Microsoft has complete control of other people PCs. What kind of F@#$%^ up nightmare is this?
Well if we read the article
Since the Sefnit-caused Tor eruption in August, we have worked to curb this risk. In this process, we consulted with Tor project developers to help plan the cleanup. We retroactively remediated machines that had previously been cleaned of Sefnit but still had a Sefnit-added Tor service:
October 27, 2013: We modified our signatures to remove the Sefnit-added Tor client service. Signature and remediation are included in all Microsoft security software, including Microsoft Security Essentials, Windows Defender on Windows 8, Microsoft Safety Scanner, Microsoft System Center Endpoint Protection, and Windows Defender Offline.
November 12, 2013: Signature and remediation is included in Malicious Software Removal Tool and delivered through Windows Update/Microsoft Update.
Microsoft Security Essentials is a popular antivirus program that people tout as being a good free option to Symantec or McAfee. In this case it seems it did a good job of squashing a botnet. Malicious Software Removal Tool is an update that comes monthly, with Windows updates, that can be disabled or deselected if you wish. The idea is that "This tool checks your computer for infection by specific, prevalent malicious software (including Blaster, Sasser, and Mydoom) and helps to remove the infection if it is found. Microsoft will release an updated version of this tool on the second Tuesday of each month. " So even if you don't use MSE or any other AV software, if you do updates, you will get the worst of the worst. Such as this millions infected with Sefnit.
No hidden remote kill switch. No evil. The security tools did what they advertized to remove a threat, while leaving legitimate Tor users untouched.
Well we do know if we bother to RTFA.
Indeed
Since the Sefnit-caused Tor eruption in August, we have worked to curb this risk. In this process, we consulted with Tor project developers to help plan the cleanup. We retroactively remediated machines that had previously been cleaned of Sefnit but still had a Sefnit-added Tor service:
October 27, 2013: We modified our signatures to remove the Sefnit-added Tor client service. Signature and remediation are included in all Microsoft security software, including Microsoft Security Essentials, Windows Defender on Windows 8, Microsoft Safety Scanner, Microsoft System Center Endpoint Protection, and Windows Defender Offline.
November 12, 2013: Signature and remediation is included in Malicious Software Removal Tool and delivered through Windows Update/Microsoft Update.
Upcoming:
MS deletes Firefox, saying it was used to infect millions of computers.
Microsoft only deleted the install used as part of Sefnit. They didn't disable legitimate installs, and they're not out to squash your freedom. From the blog:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/mmpc/archive/2014/01/09/tackling-the-sefnit-botnet-tor-hazard.aspx
The Tor client service left behind on a previously-infected machine may seem harmless at first glance - Tor is a good application used to anonymize traffic and usually poses no threat. Unfortunately, the version installed by Sefnit is v0.2.3.25 – and does not self-update. The latest Tor release build at the time of writing is v0.2.4.20.
Windows Update has doubled as Windows Remote Administration for years.
Microsoft using their security software (Microsoft Security Essentials and Malicious Software Removal Tool) to tackle a real security hazard, while leaving legitimate Tor users unaffected? The horror!
Who knew?
"Malicious Software Removal Tool" has been a Windows update for years. (Since 2005 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Malicious_Software_Removal_Tool) What did you think it did? You have the option of not running it. If the update is selected / run it is a local program run one time after updates are installed that "checks your computer for infection by specific, prevalent malicious software (including Blaster, Sasser, and Mydoom) and helps to remove the infection if it is found. Microsoft will release an updated version of this tool on the second Tuesday of each month."
http://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/download/malicious-software-removal-tool-details.aspx