"This just goes to show what security folks who have to deal with ordinary, average users have been saying for quite some time now: spyware is the #1 security problem for the ordinary Windows user today. Break-ins, worms, and viruses are all nasty problems indeed, but they do not cause the level of sheer aggravation and suffering that spyware does."
I absolutely agree with you that spyware is without doubt the most grevious problem afflicting home Windows user today. However, it is not only the shear numbers of spyware and lack of unified solution to these problems that makes spyware the critical problem it is, but the threat and damage that can be caused by spyware, in my opinion far exceeds what I would consider aggrevation.
Although I am a fulltime workstation administrator for a tech company and often times pick up home user workstation support on the side and they are almost always problems related to spyware. I recently agreed to work on a women's computer that was no longer able to connect to the internet as well as set up a home wireless network for her. She told me that it was "her daughters toy and as long as she can get connected to the internet and chat at night it keeps her daughter out of her hair" they both remain happy. The daughter is 13 years old and has taken to chatting with her friends at night, passing around links to salacious little horoscope programs, gossip programs, ad nauseum . . . After two hours of working on the computer I had removed over 500 instances of spyware (files, reg keys, programs, etc NOT INCLUDING COOKIES!). My obvious diagnosis was that Windows XP home needed to be reloaded but for now she could get back on the internet. When I returned a week later after recovery disks had been obtained there was even more spyware than before & a mysterious bridged internet connection that I assumed was being used to turn the machine into a slave for God knows what. Additionally, I found approx. 5000 illegal song downloads (automatic prison time there), limewire and kazaa and an AIM add-on that was keeping documented records of all IM conversations. I quickly learned that this could not possibly have been the daughters choice as the one converstation I opened while investigating revealed explicit discussion of sexual activities. To me, the potential for abuse in this case goes far beyond the loss of data, or even identity theft. A hacker with access to this machine would be able to know all of this girls personal information, name, address, appearance, school schedule and what place her volleyball team achieved at districts. Needless to say, I did my very best to try to educate this women about the dangers of these surfing habits even referencing the recent/. article claiming 1 out 5 children were solicitated in various forms on the internet last year, but I'm pretty sure I wasn't able to get throught to her about the dangers of the predatory social engineering that can take place through the internet these days. Spyware has the potential to pose a much bigger risk than most people believe because it opens the door to rootkits, social engineering, etc. when it is allowed to run amok in this manner.
I didn't think access to the index directories was the problem, though (and I may be just wrong on that). I thought the problem was that when *any* user indexes the machine, that user indexes the *whole* machine, I.E., every users information.
When I said it was spin, I said that because Google is claiming they intentionally wanted whatever user who uses it to index everything because they are going to be the only one using the hard drive. But what I would consider a feature is if when a non-admin user creates the index, it only happens for information under their profile. If an Admin creates the index, they get the option of saying, index the whole thing, or just index my profile.
I'm guessing that Google looked at it that way and said, this is beta and we want it to work first and we will implement that profile specific indexing later if this catches on. I mean, its just free beta software right now so I understand that it aint going to cover all the bases right now, but I still think they spun this decision so that it didn't look like a security oversight.
Or maybe I don't even understand how the indexing service really works which is quite possible. That was just my thought.
The documentary you linked to is a very intesting example of exactly how the liberal bias at University institutions affects conservative minded students. I remember back when I was a freshman at the University of Lincoln, Nebraska I took an entry level english composition course from an instructor who was gay, female and very open about her views. Now absolutely nothing would be wrong with that except for the fact that she vigorously attacked anyone whose views opposed her. And I'm not talking about telling her that homosexuality is wrong and that she's going to hell or some horribly insulting thing like that. I expressed the view that I didn't believe a women's right to choose to have an abortion was adequate cause to legalize what *in my opinion* is the killing of an innocent life. I was basically told that my view couldn't possibly have any relevance because I was a naive youth & that I was brainwashed by the Catholic church. At any rate, being 18 at the time, she shut me up pretty quick. I think most anyone who has gone to college recently has a basic idea of the bias that exists there, at least with some groups/professors.
However, when the documentary you linked to tries to justify five white kids putting on black face and pretending to be the Jackson Five for Halloween, they lose all credibility in my opinion. I don't care if they're from a city called Jackson. I don't care if "some of their best friends are black". You can dress up as the Jackson Five without the blackface. Blackface first came about when white slaveowners in the South started putting on mock "minstrel shows" to portray the stereotypical "lazy ignorant nigger" view that was so commonly held in those days. Blackface is an inherently racially charged image in this country due to our history. And I'm willing to bet these five 'innocent' little white kids from Jackson, Tenn. probably knew that.
Saying, "you're just jealous of our freedoms" is a line of reasoning that the Bush cartel have given as reasoning for the US becoming a target of terrorist groups like Al-queda. The notion that terrorist groups want to kill every walking breathing American simply because they are a little green with envy must seem to the parent to be a little ridiculous. Many Americans seem to feel that terrorist groups such as Al-queda have much different motives for their terrorist acts against the US, such as possibly the influence of aggressive US capitalist interests on foreign country's economies. The parent was making a crack at this absurd notion of jealously.
Also, just for your information, Americans consider the freedom of speech a basic human right that is essential to the effective operation of government and society bringing accountability to all influences of power. And many Americans died to gain this right. It was not a gift granted by an all-knowing and loving government, it was something that was fought for and achieved (shoot each other in the face fight, not drop bombs from miles away fight). To not use these freedoms is to take that right for granted, not the opposite. And yes, we understand that, and yes, I'm still willing to die for that right.
Yup, the parachute just pops out automatically and always opens correctly (no matter what altitude) and you float nicely and calmly down to a soft open patch of foam.
"This Celeron may be able to compete with AMD's offerings based on more then name brand alone."
I know they are probably referring to the brand, intel, but does anyone else find that a little ironic. Celeron's reputation is horrible. When I'm looking at systems, that is possibly the one word that will turn me away without a second consideration. Wouldn't it be more accurate to say, "This Celeron may be able to compete with AMD's offerings based on more than price alone"?
"Each disk contains its own read/write head assembly and drive motor, allowing the unit to be sealed as tightly as a regular hard drive."
and
"The drives cost $400 for an external USB 2.0 unit and $380 for an internal ATAPI drive. Both ship with a bundled disk."
So basically what they have done is created a high capacity, low-error inexpensive removable disk, and a $400 USB connector. I think I'll put this item right to the top of my forget-about-immediately list.
. . . and then Wal-mart can but it all up, outsource it all to India, and remarket it throughout their millions of chains all across the country at rock-bottom prices.
"False. Just because each digit appears an infinite number of times does not mean that have an equal distribution."
False. You're not wrapping your mind around the concept of infinite very well, which is understandable. If you repeat this pattern infinately:
4444144441
You would want to say that 4 occurs four times as often as 1, but this is not actually the case. In reality, both numbers are occurring infinately, which means they are occurring the same number of . . . oh no, I've gone cross-eyed.
Well, there's five minutes of my life I'll never get back . . .;-)
Take keys off of an IBM Thinkpad keyboard? My understanding was that once you did that, then that keyboard was donefor. In other words, I thought Thinkpad keyboard keys 'don't come off'.
In other news, the UN also recently announced they would be confiscating all firearms from US citizens and installing peace in Palestine and Isreal and instituting national democratic elections in China and ceasing the cultivation, production and exportation of drugs in Colombia and . . .
MYIE2 is a 3.3 MB download addon to Internet Explorer that adds pop-up blocking, tabbed browsing, mouse gestures, super drag and drop, customized searches from the address bar, aliases, and is highly customizable, so in a way, you already can get those things in IE.
I understand that it doesn't fix CSS or any of the security flaws, but it is a nice option for the hopelessly addicted IE user.
Oh, and its free.
Slashdot Mirror
There are naked women on the Mac OS 8 system CD?! That's it! I'm finally going to make the switch!
Anyone else sensing the irony of this point followed by a signature discussing the hacking of an xBox?
"This just goes to show what security folks who have to deal with ordinary, average users have been saying for quite some time now: spyware is the #1 security problem for the ordinary Windows user today. Break-ins, worms, and viruses are all nasty problems indeed, but they do not cause the level of sheer aggravation and suffering that spyware does."
/. article claiming 1 out 5 children were solicitated in various forms on the internet last year, but I'm pretty sure I wasn't able to get throught to her about the dangers of the predatory social engineering that can take place through the internet these days. Spyware has the potential to pose a much bigger risk than most people believe because it opens the door to rootkits, social engineering, etc. when it is allowed to run amok in this manner.
I absolutely agree with you that spyware is without doubt the most grevious problem afflicting home Windows user today. However, it is not only the shear numbers of spyware and lack of unified solution to these problems that makes spyware the critical problem it is, but the threat and damage that can be caused by spyware, in my opinion far exceeds what I would consider aggrevation.
Although I am a fulltime workstation administrator for a tech company and often times pick up home user workstation support on the side and they are almost always problems related to spyware. I recently agreed to work on a women's computer that was no longer able to connect to the internet as well as set up a home wireless network for her. She told me that it was "her daughters toy and as long as she can get connected to the internet and chat at night it keeps her daughter out of her hair" they both remain happy. The daughter is 13 years old and has taken to chatting with her friends at night, passing around links to salacious little horoscope programs, gossip programs, ad nauseum . . . After two hours of working on the computer I had removed over 500 instances of spyware (files, reg keys, programs, etc NOT INCLUDING COOKIES!). My obvious diagnosis was that Windows XP home needed to be reloaded but for now she could get back on the internet. When I returned a week later after recovery disks had been obtained there was even more spyware than before & a mysterious bridged internet connection that I assumed was being used to turn the machine into a slave for God knows what. Additionally, I found approx. 5000 illegal song downloads (automatic prison time there), limewire and kazaa and an AIM add-on that was keeping documented records of all IM conversations. I quickly learned that this could not possibly have been the daughters choice as the one converstation I opened while investigating revealed explicit discussion of sexual activities. To me, the potential for abuse in this case goes far beyond the loss of data, or even identity theft. A hacker with access to this machine would be able to know all of this girls personal information, name, address, appearance, school schedule and what place her volleyball team achieved at districts. Needless to say, I did my very best to try to educate this women about the dangers of these surfing habits even referencing the recent
I didn't think access to the index directories was the problem, though (and I may be just wrong on that). I thought the problem was that when *any* user indexes the machine, that user indexes the *whole* machine, I.E., every users information.
When I said it was spin, I said that because Google is claiming they intentionally wanted whatever user who uses it to index everything because they are going to be the only one using the hard drive. But what I would consider a feature is if when a non-admin user creates the index, it only happens for information under their profile. If an Admin creates the index, they get the option of saying, index the whole thing, or just index my profile.
I'm guessing that Google looked at it that way and said, this is beta and we want it to work first and we will implement that profile specific indexing later if this catches on. I mean, its just free beta software right now so I understand that it aint going to cover all the bases right now, but I still think they spun this decision so that it didn't look like a security oversight.
Or maybe I don't even understand how the indexing service really works which is quite possible. That was just my thought.
"'This is not a bug, rather a feature,' says Marissa Mayer"
If it were really intended as a feature, Google would have developed the option to install for individual users or accros all users.
The documentary you linked to is a very intesting example of exactly how the liberal bias at University institutions affects conservative minded students. I remember back when I was a freshman at the University of Lincoln, Nebraska I took an entry level english composition course from an instructor who was gay, female and very open about her views. Now absolutely nothing would be wrong with that except for the fact that she vigorously attacked anyone whose views opposed her. And I'm not talking about telling her that homosexuality is wrong and that she's going to hell or some horribly insulting thing like that. I expressed the view that I didn't believe a women's right to choose to have an abortion was adequate cause to legalize what *in my opinion* is the killing of an innocent life. I was basically told that my view couldn't possibly have any relevance because I was a naive youth & that I was brainwashed by the Catholic church. At any rate, being 18 at the time, she shut me up pretty quick. I think most anyone who has gone to college recently has a basic idea of the bias that exists there, at least with some groups/professors.
However, when the documentary you linked to tries to justify five white kids putting on black face and pretending to be the Jackson Five for Halloween, they lose all credibility in my opinion. I don't care if they're from a city called Jackson. I don't care if "some of their best friends are black". You can dress up as the Jackson Five without the blackface. Blackface first came about when white slaveowners in the South started putting on mock "minstrel shows" to portray the stereotypical "lazy ignorant nigger" view that was so commonly held in those days. Blackface is an inherently racially charged image in this country due to our history. And I'm willing to bet these five 'innocent' little white kids from Jackson, Tenn. probably knew that.
"Argumenting"?! Is that Swedish for arguing? ;-)
Just kidding though, you make some very valid points in reference to the parent.
Saying, "you're just jealous of our freedoms" is a line of reasoning that the Bush cartel have given as reasoning for the US becoming a target of terrorist groups like Al-queda. The notion that terrorist groups want to kill every walking breathing American simply because they are a little green with envy must seem to the parent to be a little ridiculous. Many Americans seem to feel that terrorist groups such as Al-queda have much different motives for their terrorist acts against the US, such as possibly the influence of aggressive US capitalist interests on foreign country's economies. The parent was making a crack at this absurd notion of jealously.
Also, just for your information, Americans consider the freedom of speech a basic human right that is essential to the effective operation of government and society bringing accountability to all influences of power. And many Americans died to gain this right. It was not a gift granted by an all-knowing and loving government, it was something that was fought for and achieved (shoot each other in the face fight, not drop bombs from miles away fight). To not use these freedoms is to take that right for granted, not the opposite. And yes, we understand that, and yes, I'm still willing to die for that right.
Thanks for checking though.
. . . masturbate even more than you already do?
And my point was simply that you fuck clown shoes.
Case in point that you tried to reply logically to my troll.
Assclown.
Yup, the parachute just pops out automatically and always opens correctly (no matter what altitude) and you float nicely and calmly down to a soft open patch of foam.
Assclown.
You compare yourself to Martin Luther King because you bitch about your kneejerk reactions to unpleasant experiences in online forums?
Self-rightous fuck.
"This Celeron may be able to compete with AMD's offerings based on more then name brand alone."
I know they are probably referring to the brand, intel, but does anyone else find that a little ironic. Celeron's reputation is horrible. When I'm looking at systems, that is possibly the one word that will turn me away without a second consideration. Wouldn't it be more accurate to say, "This Celeron may be able to compete with AMD's offerings based on more than price alone"?
"Toshiba claims to of made the worlds smallest fuel cell to date."
Does that make anyone else wince in pain?
"Walla! VP marketing and business development Galit Lifshits Melamed"
Hee hee.
"Each disk contains its own read/write head assembly and drive motor, allowing the unit to be sealed as tightly as a regular hard drive."
and
"The drives cost $400 for an external USB 2.0 unit and $380 for an internal ATAPI drive. Both ship with a bundled disk."
So basically what they have done is created a high capacity, low-error inexpensive removable disk, and a $400 USB connector. I think I'll put this item right to the top of my forget-about-immediately list.
. . . and then Wal-mart can but it all up, outsource it all to India, and remarket it throughout their millions of chains all across the country at rock-bottom prices.
"The key combination also is used when software, such as Microsoft's Windows operating system, fails'."
Oh, and Bill Gates, one of the other icons on the panel, is the CEO of Microsoft.
You see, by saying that Bill 'made it famous' he's really insult-
Oh. You get it.
Sorry.
"False. Just because each digit appears an infinite number of times does not mean that have an equal distribution."
;-)
False. You're not wrapping your mind around the concept of infinite very well, which is understandable. If you repeat this pattern infinately:
4444144441
You would want to say that 4 occurs four times as often as 1, but this is not actually the case. In reality, both numbers are occurring infinately, which means they are occurring the same number of . . . oh no, I've gone cross-eyed.
Well, there's five minutes of my life I'll never get back . . .
Take keys off of an IBM Thinkpad keyboard? My understanding was that once you did that, then that keyboard was donefor. In other words, I thought Thinkpad keyboard keys 'don't come off'.
Were you trying to give yourself credibility by saying you were an ex-Best Buy employee on slashdot? You're new around here arn't ya?
Am I seriously the only damn person who reads slashdot that was never bullied in school. Jesus. I hang out with a bunch of geeks. I'm outta here . . .
You mean like these peacekeeping troops.
In other news, the UN also recently announced they would be confiscating all firearms from US citizens and installing peace in Palestine and Isreal and instituting national democratic elections in China and ceasing the cultivation, production and exportation of drugs in Colombia and . . .
MYIE2 is a 3.3 MB download addon to Internet Explorer that adds pop-up blocking, tabbed browsing, mouse gestures, super drag and drop, customized searches from the address bar, aliases, and is highly customizable, so in a way, you already can get those things in IE.
I understand that it doesn't fix CSS or any of the security flaws, but it is a nice option for the hopelessly addicted IE user. Oh, and its free.