The reason we left a reg key was so we would know, the NEXT time the user decided they just HAD to have a screen saver that came with adware, that we had already uninstalled on that machine, and shouldn't install again. If the reg key was gone, we wouldn't know this, and would install again, which would be annoying to everyone concerned.
The Systems Internals guys used to put out a thing called (if memory serves) Process Explorer. It gave you a fairly easy way to get into the thread list of any process, in a pointy-clicky fashion. The other way to do it is to have a scriptable runtime that has full Win32 API access. That's what I needed scheme for. Either one puts you MILES ahead of people using the debugger built into Visual Studio. Scheme gets extra points because it's scheme.
I think it's important to consider the various things I did separately, because I don't actually have any problem with writing software that's ad-supported, or with writing software to kick viruses off people's systems. Or, for that matter, to kick other adware off people's systems, although that is a bit dicey. The persistence mechanisms that I wrote were much farther into dicey territory, although I will note that there was an uninstaller, and it worked, and I helped write that, much like I helped write other bits of DR's software. I did not go spelunking into people's systems to steal personal info, nor did I use exploits to get onto people's boxes. In fact, I spent a bunch of time writing software to detect such behavior, so the relevant distributor could be stopped sooner. So some, but not all, of what I did was dicey, but none of it was close to what you seem to think I did.
well, actually, no, I would not. I have worked 35 hours per week on someone else's schedule, doing boring work, and that was OK, compared to starving, but now I am working ~80-120 hours per week on my own schedule, and I love it. I think there is a lot to learn about human psychology in facts like that.
actually, this is not a significant issue in lisp anymore. Lisp developers can access any java libraries from jfli . This is a pretty amazing hack, and means that lisp probably has better library support than any other language at the moment, given that lisp calls to C with ease and has pretty significant native libraries, too. It almost begs the question: what excuse are the parenphobes going to use now?
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The reason we left a reg key was so we would know, the NEXT time the user decided they just HAD to have a screen saver that came with adware, that we had already uninstalled on that machine, and shouldn't install again. If the reg key was gone, we wouldn't know this, and would install again, which would be annoying to everyone concerned.
The Systems Internals guys used to put out a thing called (if memory serves) Process Explorer. It gave you a fairly easy way to get into the thread list of any process, in a pointy-clicky fashion. The other way to do it is to have a scriptable runtime that has full Win32 API access. That's what I needed scheme for. Either one puts you MILES ahead of people using the debugger built into Visual Studio. Scheme gets extra points because it's scheme.
do you have a link? I don't remember being interviewed by CNET.
I think it's important to consider the various things I did separately, because I don't actually have any problem with writing software that's ad-supported, or with writing software to kick viruses off people's systems. Or, for that matter, to kick other adware off people's systems, although that is a bit dicey. The persistence mechanisms that I wrote were much farther into dicey territory, although I will note that there was an uninstaller, and it worked, and I helped write that, much like I helped write other bits of DR's software. I did not go spelunking into people's systems to steal personal info, nor did I use exploits to get onto people's boxes. In fact, I spent a bunch of time writing software to detect such behavior, so the relevant distributor could be stopped sooner. So some, but not all, of what I did was dicey, but none of it was close to what you seem to think I did.
well, actually, no, I would not. I have worked 35 hours per week on someone else's schedule, doing boring work, and that was OK, compared to starving, but now I am working ~80-120 hours per week on my own schedule, and I love it. I think there is a lot to learn about human psychology in facts like that.
actually, this is not a significant issue in lisp anymore. Lisp developers can access any java libraries from jfli . This is a pretty amazing hack, and means that lisp probably has better library support than any other language at the moment, given that lisp calls to C with ease and has pretty significant native libraries, too. It almost begs the question: what excuse are the parenphobes going to use now?