5/9     "Viewing child pornography online not a crime: New York court ruling"
        http://www.csua.org/u/wcp (news.yahoo.com)

8/3     http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/03/us-cyberattacks-qa-idUSTRE7720IS20110803
        Chinese suspected behind massive wave of cyber attacks.
        \_ CHING CHONG I had an epithany!!!

3/21    what are these virus phages? Can they be repurposed?
        \_ are you <b>insane?</b> you really want to start messing with
           recombinant <ul>rna</ul> crap when we don't even understand
           the normal virus lifecycle?

7/9     I'm adding a larger and faster HD to my XP machine, and I want
        to move my installation to the new drive, can anyone recommend
        a tool that can do this? I'd perfer somethng inexpensive as
        it's a one time thing.
        \_ There's a lot of software that does this, but Norton/Symantec Ghost
           seems to be the standard and I have used it successfully many
           times.

5/7     Help, I think something's wrong with my network setting. I'd go to
        a web site, and then it would say "cannot find address". Then I'd
        reload again, occassionally 3 times, to load the page. Is this
        due to DNS being too slow, TTL setting, or something else?
        \_ windows mac or linux ?
           \_ windows (company issued laptop, no alternative)
              \_ Ugh, get corporate IT to fix your problem. I assume you
                 don't have admin privs, or do you?
      \_ do you have to go through some weirdo proxy?  Also run Adaware
         and make you aren't carrying a virus SARS infected laptop

4/11    Is there a spyware detector that is free and can scan networked
        drives? Neither AdAware (free edition) nor SpyBot S&D have this
        feature, and I'd prefer to not pay AdAware Pro a penny until
        there really isn't any other alternative.
        \_ How about SuperAntiSpyware?
           \_ Just tried that, no luck :( They let you add remote drives
              but then skips scanning it.

3/4     Hi, what's the best free anti-virus software for XP?  What about
        anti-spyware?  Currently I'm using Active Virus Shield and Spybot.
        Thanks.
        \_ I've used: avg, spybot s&d, adaware, trend micro's housecall.
           \_ Does Spybot S&D protect Firefox?  It soulds like the injection
              feature only supports IE.
              \_ I'm not as concerned about the browser part as the registry
                 protection/alert part.  But to answer your question, no, I
                 don't believe it helps FF as much as it does IE.  I surf FF
                 with javascript off, java off, no plugins, no flash, and
                 adblock+.  When I need flash for various stupid sites, I
                 use the FF IE Tab plugin to reload in IE (where I have flash
                 installed), but only for that site.  Then I kill the IE
                 session.
                 \_ Why not just use a Mac?
        \_ While it may conflict opinions of what's best, if you're still
           in an active status with UCB as a student or staff, keep in mind
           that Symantec AV is free. For firefox protection, I use NoScript.
           \_ I'm looking for something that updates its virus/spyware database
              periodically, and doesn't eat up much RAM.  Right now I'm using
              Lavasoft Ad-Watch, and it eats up ~50MB on my 256MB machine which
              makes the machine swap a lot whatever I run.  -- OP
              \_ You do realize how cheap memory is these days right?
        \_ I used Avira AntiVir for a while, it seemed ok to me. It has an
           ad banner that pops up when it updates itself, which would be a
           dealbreaker but you can disable the executable that does that.
           If you watch deal sites you can often find AV software for free
           after mail-in rebate. I am using Kaspersky through this. I shoulda
           posted that deal to the motd I guess.
        \_ I used to like AVG Free.  Dunno what the hell happened but it stopped
           working a couple of weeks ago.
        \_ I used to like AVG Free.  Dunno what the hell happened but it
           stopped working a couple of weeks ago.

2/15    Digital photo frames carry viruses:
        http://preview.tinyurl.com/2w6uc9 (sfgate.com)

5k4     ClamWin vs. Active Virus Shield.  Which one is better?  My company is
        using ClamWin, and I know Active Virus Shield has real-time scanning
        while ClamWin doesn't.  But other than this, does one scan better than
        the other?  Thanks.
        \_ Kaspersky (AVS) has more frequent updates, and real-time
           protection (not just scanning) is a big benefit especially in
           a corporate environment.
           \_ I was just reading up on AV and this one really stood out as
              the best, including a CLEAN UNINSTALL.
        \_ I only use ClamWin in combo with other AV scanners (as a secondary
           since as pp pointed out, it doesn't rt-scan.)  -John

4/11    Is secure pop3 access working? Norton anti-spam does not work with
        imap accounts.
        \_ Norton's products are junk.  Why are you using anything from
           Norton?  They haven't made good software since Peter Norton left
           20+ years ago.

3/28    After almost a decade of not using windows I'm thinking about getting
        a cheap windows computer.  Security wise what are some musts?
        \_ install Linux
           \_ Haha you are still funny.
              \_ http://www.csua.berkeley.edu/~erikred/imlinux.jpg
           \_ I actually agree w/ this. Install Linux and VMWare. Then
              install Windows under VMWare. Patch Windows and Apps.
              Make a copy of your VMWare HD. When your Windows gets
              a virus, spyware, &c. restore from backup. Not only
              can you start over w/o a virus, you get the added benefit
              of the Linux firewall.
              If you are buying Windows for gamez, then this won't
              work for you. I just don't connect my Windows game box
              to the internet, which keeps it virus/hack free.
              \_ There's a reason to own a windows box that doesn't
                 involve games?
                 \_ Photoshop? Acrobat? Not really sure, b/c I have
                    a mac for everything other than games.
              \_ On the subject of games, Parallels is apparently working
                 on 3D support for their OSX VM.  I'd imagine you'll see
                 something similar in VMware at some point, which would make
                 games more feasible.
              \_ If you're clueful enough to use VMWare you should be able
                 to restrain yourself from installing viruses and spyware.
                 Also you can easily image a clean install without VMWare.
                 \_ Really? Personally I feel that in Windows it is very
                    hard to control your system from infection. It just
                    seems like a very sealed off system to me.
        \_ A hardware firewall, and keep it patched.
        \_ I thought about the same thing, but I bought a new MacBook.
           Less hardware. SP2 firewall on (no exceptions) and NAV 2007.
                                                             \_ ?!?
                                                        Only if you want a 386
                        Norton AntiVirus 2007 is WAY lighter than 2006 _/
        \_ ZoneAlarm and a good virus scanner. I use the free one from
           Grisoft.
        \_ Keep it windowsupdated, run a software firewall (MS's is probably
           good enough) and probably run a free virus scanner. I recommend
           http://www.activevirusshield.com (it is free Kaspersky). A virus scanner
           is not needed if you never run anything strange. Use firefox and
           install adblock and noscript. Note that noscript can cause hassles
           sometimes if you don't understand how it works.

3/19    "Most computer attacks originate in U.S."
        http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070319/ap_on_hi_te/internet_security_threats
        I thought it was South Korea.

10/17   Some iPods shipped w/ a Windows Virus:
        http://www.apple.com/support/windowsvirus
        \- why dont more viruses delete massive amounts of data?
           it seems like if the virus writers wanted to hurt msft
           that what they should do in addition to spreading.
           it seems like viruses are still in the realm of annoying
           rather than fatal. is there some techical reason they
           cant do more permanent damage? [i understand thaty cant
           instantly kill the host, as that will greatly reduce the
           spread rate].
           \_ one day they will take your data and you'll have
              to pay Russians to get it back.
           \_ Probably because most of these are all about tagging to get
              their name out there in the el8 hax0r community to announce
              their m@d sk1llz than really about anything truly malicious.
              We have spyware for that now.
         \_ sort of like the reason real viruses aren't more lethal .. they
            kill off the host and can't spread any more.
              \- yes i understand that is often the case but you would think
                 there would be at least a few that did massive damage. or
                 somebody would tweak the original to do a if p < .05 then
                 rm -rf /. especially when you consider how many people dont
                 like msft. making bill gates = borg tshirts doesnt hurt msft
                 but fear and trembling on the part of people running windows
                 might.
                 \_ There have been viruses which delete files; they don't
                    propagate very well, because IT folks are more aggressive
                    about finding and cleaning them.  -tom
                    \_ IT folks don't find them until users complain, while
                       cleaning them at most places usually involves
                       Symantec's Ghost.  Nuke it from orbit.  It's the
                       only way to be sure.
           \_ The best answer I've heard to this question is that the
              purpose is not to destroy the host or to delete info, but
              to gain remote access to the host and use its bandwidth
              either for downloading software or for use in ddos attacks.
              Deleteing data would give away the covert nature of the
              infection and would make is more likely that the virus
              would be removed before the author could make use of the
              infected host.
              \- i am not expressing surprise that most viruses arent
                 more destructive but that so few are. do you know of
                 anybody who lost everything that was not backed up
                 after a virus infection? i dont think most viruses
                 today give somedy a "covert channel" to control the
                 host or really do much purposeful things other than
                 propagage themselves [there are some that do ddoses,
                 but that is still the minority] ... again, look on
                 slashdot or in other parts of dweebworld and there are
                 so many people who hate msft. there are also so many
                 viruses. i'm ust surprised these two group have not
                 intersected to produce a really destructive virus ...
                 most of these viruses punish some comobination of
                 the owner of the computer, possible their IT slaves,
                 if in some institution with an IT staff ... but dont really
                 punish msft. of course it is possible this is common
                 among people running bootlegged OSes which are not managed
                 by "it staff" [say te random asian windoes pirate user]
                 but we dont hear about it much.
                 \_ Then I'm sorry if this sounds harsh but you may not know
                    much about viruses.  Botnets for hire (spam, DDoS for
                    blackmail, mainly) are a pretty big "industry", all
                    things considered.  Very few skilled virus authors are
                    your prototypical 13 year old "I H8 TEH M1CROSUX"
                    slashdot bandwagon dweeb nowadays.  Most viruses/trojans
                    have a fairly pragmatic purpose, and while in a lot of
                    cases it's just to propagate and make a point (whee look
                    at me!  I'm cool!) those, with a few notable exceptions,
                    tend to be among the large mass of badly written, easily
                    caught ones.  There's some really technically interesting
                    stuff floating around that does stuff like use Windows ADS
                    for payload storage, much of which spreads fairly
                    discreetly and doesn't do exactly the kind of destructive
                    shit that might cause grandma to install Symantec.  -John
                    \- this may be true now, but viruses have quite a long
                       history and these functional one are a relatively
                       recent phenomena ... certainly viruses changed in
                       the era of permanently and by default networked
                       windows boxes. also i also [and i could be wrong
                       here] modifying a virus is probably much simpler
                       than writing from scratch so the number of people willing
                       and able to "mutate" one into an rm-rf virus seems
                       fairly large. so do you know of a single
                       person who had his computer "deleted" by a virus?
                       [i mean deliberate erasure or corruption of disk ...
                       not accidentally hosing things trying to remove it].
                       again my whole point is my suprise about threasholds.
                       like there have been DDOSes against msft, but I'm
                       surprised there have not been more or more clever
                       anti-msft DDOSes.
                       \_ Because people with real technical skills have better
                          things to do than hate microsoft much less write
                          malicious code to damage windows machines.
                       \_ Yes, I know of quite a few who have had significant
                          amounts of data wiped by fairly primitive viruses
                          as a big fat bronx cheer for failing to take even
                          basic security measures.  And what the above poster
                          said.  There are extremely skilled and vicious DDoS
                          attacks (e.g. against gambling sites during large
                          sports events for blackmail purposes) using botnets
                          for hire.  There's no money to be made out of hitting
                          MSFT.  -John

10/5    FYI, my gf on Tuesday went browsing for cracks using IE6, and got
        infected by adware just by viewing a web page (didn't need to click
        Yes to anything).  She was fully patched up.  SpyBot or Ad-aware
        caught it and cleaned it up after several reboots.
        \_ Browsing for cracks?
        \_ Well _duh_.  Most crack sites are really perfect vectors for
           infection (they mainly go after kiddies who're too cheap to buy
           software and too hyperactive to patch their boxes.)  If do not
           trust a site, use a cgi proxy that strips scripts, or browse from
           either a real browser (won't protect you from all) or from
           a linux box (vmware if nothing else.)  -John

8/21    Does spybot do real-time detection if I use Firefox in XP?  Is there a
        process in Task Manager that I can look for to make sure Spybot is
        running on my PC?  Thanks.
        \_ Spybot is marginally effective against spyware now. Get
           Process Explorer from http://sysinternals.com for something better than
           Task Manager.

8/14    Are there any standard test spyware and test spam our there similar to
        http://eicar.com as the standard test virus for PC?  I suspect that the
        anti-spyware thing on my machine is not working.  Thx.

6/28    I'm looking for a company that can do testing of antivirus and
        anti-malicious code products--I have a client who wants some sort
        of "external verification", even if it's just a formality.  I
        imagine this will involve running a battery of not-too-complex
        malicious code & exploit tests.  Any recommendations?  -John
        |_ http://www.counterpane.com/consulting.html or
           http://securityevaluators.com ? Both have well known security ppl
           \_ Securityevaluators looks good, thanks.  -John

5/8     apologies if this has been asked recently: friends are asking me
        whats a good windows antivirus software and I've heard this
        thing AVG is good -- and free. anyone use this? is it good? thx
        \_ From the motd archive:
           AVG used to be good when it was the only free program around.
           Most people say that Avast! and AntiVir are better, though.
           --jameslin
           \_ How about ClamAV?
        \_ I use both Avast and ClamWin--not bad.  -John
              \_ ClamAV also is good but doesn't have an on-access scanner.
                 \_ Hence both.  Running AdAware and Spybot S&D occasionally
                    and keeping your box patched also doesn't hurt.  -John
           \_ According to this article, Antivir seems better.
              I have only used AVG. I think AVG is easy to use, hopefully the
              others are too.
              http://antivirus.about.com/od/antivirussoftwarereviews/a/freeav.htm
        \_ I use both Avast and ClamWin--not bad.  -John
              \_ ClamAV also is good but doesn't have an on-access scanner.
                 \_ Hence both.  Running AdAware and Spybot S&D occasionally
                    and keeping your box patched also doesn't hurt.  -John

           \_ Why bother with ClamWin then? Is there reason to believe it will
              catch stuff that say Antivir won't? Are there any performance
              comparisons with it?

2/2     I use Thunderbird, with gigabytes worth of emails stored locally in
        unix mbox formats.  inevitably, some of these locally stored emails
        contains virus/worms.  They are relatively harmless, being encoded
        in b64 or what not, but I would like to get rid of them.  Is there
        any anti-virus software that actually parse the mbox file
        and remove the virus attachments, instead of dump my entire INBOX
        into a virus vault?   ClamAV used to just dump entire INBOX file into
        a vault.  Norton/8 and Trendmicros doesn't catch any viruses being
        encoded in b64 in a unix mbox.   Thanks in advance.
        \_ Thunderbird 1.5 has an option to allow anti-virus programs to
           quarantine individual messages.  -tom
           \_ thanks.  I didn't upgrade to ThB/1.5 because I was waiting for
              the Calendar extension be implemented.  I will migrate to
              version 1.5 as soon as Calendar extension is available.  --OP
        \_ What's the word?  Thunderbird!
        \_ clamav + formail
           \_ curious... how does it work?  any pointers?
              \_ STFW for RTFM

1/4     There was a short thread about AV scanners for Windows recently-
        someone asked "Hmmm, getting my AV ware from dodgy people?" --
        No, that was not the implication--I just said that many people
        "in the know" are pretty sure that Kaspersky has good connections
        to people who write viruses, and get some inside info from them.
        This is not to imply that they in any way commission or endorse
        them.  -John
        \_ I understood.  I just don't like the idea of my AV ware coming
           from black or grey hats.
           \_ They are neither.  It's one big happy community.  Many
              good security people hang out at the same conferences. -John
        \_ Hey sodans, jameslin said among free antivirus scanners,
           avast! > AntiVir.  ClamAV does not do real-time scans.
           Anyone have an opinion where AVG fits in the ranking?
           \_ AVG used to be good when it was the only free program around.
              Most people say that Avast! and AntiVir are better, though.
              http://urlx.org/episteme.arstechnica.com/e0fc
              --jameslin
              \_ doh, one of the referenced urls says "All external studies
                 referenced...unanimously rank... 1. AntiVir 2. Avast 3. AVG"
                 http://wiki.castlecops.com/AntiVirus_Comparison
                 Also, this June 2005 test shows better numerical scores
                 and better comments for AntiVir over avast!
                 http://tinyurl.com/cqfdy (virusbtn.com)
           \_ It also appears that ClamAV can't repair files.

1/2     Which Windows anti-virus software do you trust/recommend?
        \_ Linux
        \_ I think the general consensus is that Kaspersky is the best AV
           program you can buy.  Among the free AV programs, Avast! is well
           regarded, followed by AntiVir.  ClamAV seems pretty good if you
           want to go open-source. --jameslin
           \_ The KAV guys have a lot of connections to fairly dodgy
              people, and thus get good info early on.  ClamAV is superb, in
              combination with AdAware and something like Spybot S&D (as
              well as a dedicated small hardware firewall like m0n0wall on
              WRAP.)  -John
              \_ Hmmm, getting my AV ware from dodgy people?
           \_ clamav is good for on-demand scanning.  AFAIK, it doesn't do
              real-time scanning.

6/23    Is it safe to buy Quicken on eBay for ~$9.99?  They always claim that
        they are legit versions, but don't come in the retail box.  What are
        the chances it'll contain spyware?  Does anyone know if Intuit resells
        through small companies / individuals a-la-eBay?  (I pay for software,
        but retail goes for $50+!!)
        \_ Have you considered buying from http://Amazon.com used? Often you can get
           nib copies for slightly more than on ebay.
        \_ Is it an older version?  If not, I'd be weary of pirated copy.
           I think the best time to buy Quicken is during tax season where you
           can get rebates for buying it along with Turbo Tax.
        \_ Quicken 2005 cost me $30 when I bought it new at costco.  $20 just
           isn't worth the worry.
        \_ Quicken doesn't seem to change much from one version to another,
           not in the past few years.  Granted, I use it for tracking
           account transactions and balancing my accounts, and nothing else.

6/18    Thanks to whoever recommended ClamWin as a windows virus checker.
        It's not always on guard (like Norton or whatever) but it's
        pretty good.  It's certainly thorough.  It found viruses in old mail
        backups from soda. First time I've ever had a virus checker find
        those. :P
        \_ my problem with ClamWin was that if they found ONE virus in
           my mailbox file (which contains thousands of email), ClamWin
           will remove the entire mailbox file.  Let me know how did you
           set things up.       kngharv

6/10    If I buy "Norton Internet Security 2005", is it possible (easy) to
        install "Norton Antivirus 2005" ONLY, and not install any of the
        other applications included with "Norton Internet Security 2005"?
        \_ AFAIK, no.
        \_ If you tell me what you are trying to accomplish, I will gladly
           give you a list of compelling reasons to not bother with Norton
           and try to help you find better ways of doing it.  -John
           \_ I want to install NAV on a couple WinXP computers. Fry's has
              a rebate deal on 3-user-license NIS, making it cheaper than
              downloading a 3-user NAV from Symantec. All I want is NAV.
              I'm wondering if I can install NAV only and not install
              all the other software in NIS.
              \_ I don't believe so--at least not without a whole bunch of
                 random NIS-related shit (even though you may not get the
                 actual functionality.)  May I recommend something that is a
                 bit less ugly and hoggish, like Kaspersky?  Or if you're on
                 a budget, http://www.clamwin.com  -John
                 \_ Thanks Kaspersky looks nice. Do you find it as successful
                    as NAV? Does it have the same level or protection, like
                    for example when a user attempts to run/open a file that
                    is infected?
                    \_ Yes, and it has a nice loud screeching noise when
                       it finds something.  It's much less of a resource hog
                       than NAV, and several colleagues and I have a strong
                       suspicion that some of the Kaspersky boys have better
                       contacts in the virus writing community than they let
                       on (usually very quick to release new patterns.)  -John
                        \_ Do you think that the guys with close contacts
                           with the virus writing comminuty still have a
                           strong conviction to the anti-virus work, seems
                           like they could install the ultimate backdoor..
                           \_ I think they're making too much money being
                              legit.  Note I didn't say they _were_ the guys
                              writing the viruses.  There are a lot of really
                              hardcore security pros who could be up to no
                              good, but aren't because they have good jobs and
                              a life, and parlaying their knowledge into $$$
                              and getting away with it would be too complex.
                              Think about it--any SW vendor could implant
                              gnarly trojans, but they don't, because they (a)
                              have better opportunities being legit, and (b)
                              consist of more than a few evil programmers.
                              If you're interested, I can give you a copy of
                              rona.a (the Israeli trojan, implanted in 4 firms)
                              that you can unleash in a vmware session to see
                              what kinds of nastiness are possible.  You might
                              also check the dailydave mailing list, or read
                              "stealing the network" for some plausible evil
                              stuff.  Note that many people in itsec know
                              someone who knows someone in the "black hat"
                              community--that doesn't mean they're going to
                              try and take over the world.  -John
                              \_ Wow, great answer. Thanks! -op
                     \_ What do you think of Grisoft?
                        \_ Not heard of it, but hey, it's free, why ask me?
                           Give it a try :)  -John
              \_ how about AVG?

6/1     Does anyone know, if I get one license of Norton Utilities for Windows,
        can I use the one disc to fix problems on multiple workstations?  Or
        do I need to buy multiple licenses?   -sax
        \_ Looks like they stopped selling Norton Utilities separately a while
           ago and it only available in "suite" packages like Norton
           SystemWorks.  I believe the suite packages all require activation
           over the Internet.
           \_ eh, crap.  So I can't just buy one systemworks, and then boot
              from the cd to fix problems?
              \_ What problems are you trying to fix?  SW has caused me a lot
                 of shit in its own right.  -John
                 \_ there's one laptop in particular that, after reinstalling,
                    gives a blue screen every once in a while when I log in as
                    a different user.  Don't know if it's a bad install or
                    if there's some hardware beginning to fail.
                    I'm in charge of around 10 workstations, though, so it
                    would be nice to have some utilities program onhand to
                    resort to at times like this.  So I guess my real question
                    has more parts.
                    1. Do I really need to buy 10 licenses?
                    2. Is there something better I should be looking at?
                       thanks, by the way.  I appreciate the time you take to
                       help, even when I see that it's someone else on here
                       that you're helping.
                       \_ Sent you mail.  -John
                          \_ how do you know who he is? He didn't sign
                             \_ Well, then he'd either mention not getting a
                                mail that I mistakenly sent to sax, or he
                                wouldn't care enough, in which case, I am
                                not interested.  -John

4/19    Is it just me or did ZoneAlarm go from a decent home-firewall to a
        piece of crap? I have a version from over a year ago that works
        flawlessly. Twice now, I've tried to upgrade to the most recent
        version, and both times it's screwed up my setup so bad I had to
        downgrade back to the good one (the first time I couldn't connect to
        my work VPN, the second time it would not allow traffic between my
        two home computers to go through and any time I tried to copy files
        between them i would be disconnected from the internet).
        \_ No, it's ZoneAlarm. I've given up on it also and moved to
           Tiny Personal Firewall. It's just got so much unnecessary bloat
           that it's just plain stupid to run it. Stuff that also used to
           be decent but are really problematic include Symantec NAV,
           starting in 2004 it's really bloated up, the Symantec Firewall
           Suite, Adobe Acrobat 6.0+, the recent Quicktime versions, and
           Yahoo Messenger (it now takes up 25% of your screen with its
           unnecessary skins and stupid whizbang features you'll never use).
           This is why Free Software makes more and more sense, because
           commercial software needs to "improve" with time so they can
           continue making money. However, there is only so much you can
           do with simple software (such as a firewall) before feature
           creep totally destroys it.
           \_ I've worked at Zone Labs for over 4 years and sadly
              what you say is true.  I'm constantly fighting with upper
              management over new features vs code cleanup, and unfortunately,
              new features almost always win.  In our upcoming June
              release we are adding both a total re-rewrite of all the
              memory management that drastically improves performance
              of ZAP and P2P, but at the same adding "OS firewall" which
              hooks just about everything in the SDT and has the potential
              to prevent most rootkits, spyware, etc from being installed
              but unfortunately the code won't have enough time to stabalize,
              and will most likely cause thousands of new lockups, BSODs,
              etc...  Unfortunately, our sales are doubling every year so its
              very hard to argue with upper management.   It's very sad.
              --sky
           \_ I found I had accidentally left Acrobat 5.0 on my computer
              however many years ago. I made it the default and suddenly
              looking at pdfs just got much faster. I"m now wondering if I
              can get away with older bloat-free version of some other things.
              The hacked freeware version of Realplayer is pretty lightweight,
              too.
              \_ As a side note, Acrobat 7 seems a lot snappier than v. 6.
                 \_ If you look carefully, the subtitle to Acrobat 7 is "the
                    apology".  ctrl-mousewheel works as well.  And you can find
                    in page without the idiotic and bloated find sidebar.
              \_ I recall stumbling on a site with pointers to old versions
                 of software a while ago--a lot of companies seem to keep
                 these on their ftp servers, but don't link to them from
                 their download pages.  I'm sure there are several sites
                 specializing in this sort of thing.  -John
                 \_ http://oldversion.com
        \_ I use the current version of Zone Alarm with no problems. -ausman
           Zone alarm source:
           if ($user == "ausman") {
              not_suck(..)
               }
               else
               suck(..)
               }
        \_ I blame paolo. -geordan
           \_ I blame geordan. -God

4/8     To save power I set my laptop to shut down HD after 1 min of
        inactivity. However, my laptop always does something to the HD
        and I know this because it keeps clicking and clicking. I've turned
        off Norton Realtime Anti-Virus thing, Firefox/IE, MS Word, and
        pretty much everything I can think of, but it just never turns off.
        What could be causing this? BTW I have 1.5G of RAM and XP and
        apps only about 0.5G.
        \_ Modern OSes will premtively copy memory to/from the swap file if
           the system is fairly idle.  That way if you do need to swap out
           those pages you don't have to wait for the data to be written.
        \_ Well, you could be running applications that save or backup their
           state or config files or whatever every x minutes, and the swap
           file is a possibility too. If you have that much RAM, you probably
           don't need one. I have 1 GB and I don't even need one.
        \_ XP will defrag/index files when idle by default.
           \_ What? Is this for real? That is just brain dead. How do you turn
              this off?
              \_ right-click the disk, General tab, uncheck "Allow indexing
                 service to index this disk for fast file searching"
                 \_ This shouldn't be necessary, unless you enabled the
                    indexing service -- it doesn't run by default.
                    \_ I concur.  For XP, the drive option is on by default,
                       but the service is off by default.  This is unlike
                       2K, where the service is on by default.
                       Also, defrag != indexing.  Duh.
        \_ HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction
           set "Enable" to N and reboot. -ray

3/29    What percentage of CPU cycles and RAM on an average computer are spent
        on security and privacy these days (anti-virus, anti-spyware, SSL, VPN,
        pop-up blocker, encrypted FS, etc.)?  Is the percentage going up?
        \_ Sounds like a good research project to me.
           \_ no, sounds like a good ENGINEERING project to me. There is a lot
              of integration, tests, evaluations to be done. It's a lot of
              work but I just don't see much theory and academics involved.
              \_ No, sounds like a research project that requires some
                 engineering.  Moron.
        \_ I'd guess it's fairly small, and growing in terms of cycles per
           second per machine, but declining as a % of total CPU power.
        \_ Take a refresher look at the slides from 61C where they plot the
           growth rates for memory and cpu speed over time and the answer
           becomes self-evident.  Hint: they're exponential. -dans
           \_ and spyware. i'm assuming you don't run Windows.
           \_ Is there a similar graph for the number of virus patterns out
              there?
              \_ No, but I can guarantee you it is sub-exponential.  There are
                 only a handful of apps that can suck arbitrary amounts of
                 CPU/RAM, e.g. games, rendering, scientific computing. -dans
        \_ Also depends on things like whether there's a crypto accelerator
           card in it.  If you come up with anything, please let me know, as
           I'm actually pretty interested in this.  -John

3/18    What's better, SpyBot or Ad-Aware?
        \_ I use Ad-Aware at work and it's fine for me. I also tested SpyBot
           and I like Ad-Aware better.
        \_ http://csua.com/?entry=36255
           http://csua.com/?entry=35035
        \_ SpyBot stopped working for me about a year ago and hasn't
           worked since (last checked 2 months ago).  (It gave up when it
           hit a certain definition.)  After googling and trying several hours
           to fix it over that year, my diagnosis was that I need to re-install
           my notebook in order for SpyBot to work again.
           Yes, I was infected once when I accidentally clicked "Yes" in IE
           for one of those spyware ActiveX installations.
           So, my opinion is Ad-aware is better.

2/19    What are the best anti-spyware programs?  I am looking for something
        that my parents can run occasionally to try to keep their windows
        machine clean.  I'm a BSD user so I don't deal with this type of
        stuff much. Thanks --jwm
        \_ For PC's use "spybot search & destroy" and "adAware".
        \_ My detected spyware has dropped to almost nil after switching
           browsers away from IE.
           \_ ditto.  The best way would be to re-install M$oft, then install
              Firefox for them.
        \_ I gave my parents a clean Win2k install, then put Firefox on it
           and added Spybot and SpywareBlaster just in case someone unwittingly
           ran IE. But I switched them over to a mac about 6 months ago, which
           works fine for all the websites that don't suck in Safari.

1/17    Update on the Win2K box that couldn't get DHCP or resolve DNS.  I tried
        installing NetBEUI, removing TCP/IP, rebooting, installing TCP/IP, but
        that didn't work.  Then I installed Ad-aware and it found and removed
        "VirtuMonde", an adware infection.  Everything worked after that.
        Removed everything else found by Ad-aware, and installed about 10
        critical updates.
        Looks like "VirtuMonde" tried to install and it screwed everything up.
        I guess I'll run the adware scanner first next time. :-P
        Thanks for all the help.
        \_ LSP were f*cked. Ad-aware has a fix for that. Also look for LSP fix

12/16   Odd sort of viral marketing (as in computer virus viral)-- the site
        invitation.sms.ac will send you an email from your friend asking you to
        sign up for free text messaging (sms) service on their site; they then
        comb your address book and auto send an invitation to all your friends.
        The most insidious feature of this is that the invitation uses passably
        decent grammar and spelling.  May God have mercy on us all.
        \_ How did a website comb your personal address book?  Did you
           actually install something from a untrusted and unknown site?
           \_ Lots of people are security-unaware enough to do it, especially
              if a friend 'invites' them to do it.
              \_ I don't know how it works; I got the invite from a friend
                 who subsequently mailed me saying it was a scam.  The email
                 invite looked pretty legit though; I can't say anything about
                 the website since I didn't visit.

12/15   Renaming the Bay Bridge after Emperor Norton:
        http://csua.org/u/act (SFGate)
        Is this whom they named Norton Hall in Unit 3 after?

12/7      I'd like to run a program and save the output to a log file
           while still seeing the program output on stdout.  I tried using
           the tee command as in "foo.exe | tee mylog.txt" but tee only
           seems to print to stdout every once in a while instead of when
           foo.exe generates a line of output.  How do I save output to a file
           while having every new line of output sent to stdout?  Thanks. -emin
           \_ The problem is not in tee, but in foo.  By default, the stdio
              library produces output a line at a time if it's outputting
              directly to a terminal, but buffers its output in large chunks
              otherwise (see "man setvbuf").  When you pipe foo's output to
              another program, it's no longer outputting to a terminal, so it
              turns on its buffering.  The easiest cure is to create a fake
              terminal for it to run on: ssh -t localhost foo.exe | tee mylog.txt
              I know, it sucks.  The default buffering really ought to be
              smarter, or at least configurable.  --mconst
            \_ foo and tee BOTH buffer, don't they?
                 \_ Tee actually never buffers its output.  Even if it used the
                    default stdio buffering, though, it wouldn't be a problem
                    here since it's outputting directly to a terminal.  --mconst
                  \_ what about foo | cat | tee mylog.txt?
                     \_ That won't help anything.  foo is still writing to a
                        pipe.
                        \_ The mconst has spoken.  Woe to those who will not
                           listen.
         \_ You have to redirect stderr to stdout. In bourne-like shells,
            foo.exe 2>&1 | tee log
            In csh derivatives, I think it's something like
            foo.exe |& tee log
         \_ Another possibility you might explore is using 'screen' to run your
            process, with screen logging to a log file. SCREEN RULES!!
         \_ "Sounds like a virus.  Reformat and start over."
             \_ Advice like this will destabilize your computer for years to come

cunt
Cunt
cunt
Cunt

11/23   For the guy who was asking about anti-spyware programs:
        http://spywarewarrior.com/asw-test-guide.htm  -John

11/13   I've run the latest version of Ad-aware and gotten rid of
        all the crap that it found.  But there is still some crap on
        my computer that shouldn't be there.  In particular, when I
        start up IE, regardless of what I set my home page as, a
        "Home Search" page comes up, along with a couple of pop-ups,
        before I do anything.  I went into Add/Remove Programs and
        found at least a couple of programs that shouldn't be there:
        "HomeSearchAssistent" and "Shopping Wizard" and a couple others
        that I'm nto sure of.  When I go to remove them, it says "Problem
        with Shortcut: Unable to open
        "http://looking-for.cc/uninstall/ShoppingWizard.html"  What can I
        do to get rid of this crap?
        \_ AdAware doesn't find/remove everything.  There are a number of
           nasties that will reinstall themselves.  I suggest running
           several tools sequentially, including stuff like SpyBot Search &
           Destroy -- http://www.security.de .  -John
        \_ Oh damn you got the Home Search krugerware. Kill it and comes
           back to life. It is going to take a while. But here:
           http://www.short-media.com/review.php?r=259
           BTW, Spybot/Ad-aware are ineffective against krugerware.
           \_ Thanks.  I went and tried this and after spending most of my
              day trying to rid my computer of these viruses, I got
              nowhere.  I'm not trying to be sarcastic.  I really do
              appreciate the advice, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to
              reinstall.
        \_ Google for "hijakthis"
        \_ begin by switching to Firefox. For extra credit, switch to linux.
           \_ I think I will switch to Firefox.  I have a dual boot with
              Linux and am using it right now since my Windows is so damn
              unstable.
           \_ More costly, but easier to implement solution: buy a Mac.
        \_ Reinstall is pretty brute-force and it works but you probably
           have a reasonable chance of getting rid of this stuff by hand.
           For starters, while you're cleaning up, do not run the compromised
           IE. Run Adaware, Spybot, Hijakthis, SpywareGuard, use BHODemon
           to disable any and all suspicious-looking BHOs. Get the process
           view utilities from http://sysinternals.com to find the resident
           processes that have no business being there - google for any
           image name that looks weird. Some of them will have generic names
           like service.exe - find the location of the executable and look
           at the file date, if it's on or after your time of infection,
           it is likely bogus, even if it is sitting in system32. Run one
           of the many utilities that show startup-launched processes,
           disable anything that shouldn't be there. Same goes for services.
           After all this, try IE again, although you may want to downgrade
           yourself from Admin first. Check security settings of Trusted sites,
           remove sites that don't belong there, crank up Trusted sites
           settings to something similar to your regular Internet zone, fix
           your homepage, etc. As to linux, Macs, Firefox - these things
           can help but only in the short term, they are basically
           "security through obscurity" and you can be sure malware will
           get to them as well. Until systemic solutions appear (if ever)
           the only reliable defense is knowing what your environment
           looks like when healthy and knowing how to make it so. -pvg

11/8    http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2004/1011/web-manh-10-15-04.asp
        So the NSA wants a ned center to work on, in part, detecting
        malicious code hidden in software.  How is this any easier than
        'solving' the halting problem?
        \_ Dubya can do anything he sets his devious and evil monkey mind to.
        \_ The fact that a problem is undecidable in general does not stop
           entire industries from springing up around it (anti-virus stuff
           comes to mind). -- ilyas
           \_ Remedying parts of a problem (anti-virus stuff comes to mind)
              but not eliminating the problem entirely is better than not
              doing anything at all, unless your partial measures create a
              false sense of security (anti-virus stuff comes to mind).  This
              is especially true for infosec.  Even if AV vendors create
              false panic & hysteria, there is nonetheless a real problem out
              there, which they are partially addressing.  The same with this
              malicious code initiative.  I have corporate clients who have
              enormous issues with this; it is a real problem just crying for
              someone to do something, anything, about it.  Infosec problems
              cannot ever be 100% solved.  -John
              \_ "infosec". This sounds like something Orwell or Philip K
                 Dick would come up with.
                 \_ Sorry, you're right.  We've just all taken to calling it
                    that here, you get used to it.  You have always been at
                    war with Eurasia.  -John
                    \_ Damn eurocommunists. -- ilyas
                       \_ Mao!  Mao is the standard!
                          \_ Ooh mao mao, ooh papa mao
                          \_ Are you chinese?  Do you understand the
                             effects opium trade had on china!?
                             effects holocaust had on china!?
                             \_ No I don't, explain it to me.
                          \_ Penalty.

11/1    New anti virus software comes out with "wardriver detection", how
        does that work on the packet level?

10/31   You know, I'm really surprised that there hasn't been an outbreak
        of a campaign computer virus.
        \_ Like how in Alias they pop in a CD and a bar graph slowly grows
           saying "VIRUS UPLOAD!!!!......." and then the guy barely escapes
           the office looking all cool and collected and makes some excuse
           about forgetting his umbrella on his way out and the VIRUS!!!!
           then takes over everything and they upload some guy's brain and
           he fights it in a virtual world with a glowing frisbee?  Like that?
           \_ no, like a virus that mass emails or pops up a window and
              says "damn hippies, vote for Bush on Tuesday or else you'll
              get a visit from the FBI" type of virus.
           \_ This was pretty funny.

9/28    First JPEG virus spotted in the wild, posted to:
        alt.binaries.multimedia.transexuals and
        alt.binaries.erotica.beanie-babies among others.
        If you and your kin haven't patched your systems, get on it!
        http://www.easynews.com/virus.txt
        \_ Worth mentioning that even if you patch your OS, any number of
           programs may include their own version of the GDI+ library, and thus
           be vulnerable.

9/23    So my PC got infected with this Lop adware bullshit... IE seems
        totally hijacked. Adaware and SpyBot both dont seem able to
        remove it. Anyone have any advice how to get this off my system?
        Also, please use this thread to bitch about this Lop bullshit
        and how evil it is. Thanks.
        \_ Install FireFox.  Ad-aware, SpyBot.  If that doesn't work, google
           lop adware.  If that doesn't work, re-install.
        \_ Huh?  What happened to the link I posted?  Search for remove
           lop adware and instructions come up.
        \_ once you've got spyware on there, it's hard to get rid of.
           spybot and spywareblaster are a good tagteam combo if you're
           still using IE. i use those two for IE but firefox is my primary
           browser.
        \_ d/l Hijack This , run in Safe Mode.
        \_ One of those lil' bastards just yanked my Google toolbar. So
           now I'm wasting my morning running Ad-Aware & Spybot and
           fretting that I just got suckered into downloading a faux
           noadware. -elizp
        \_ I would recommend wipe the system and reinstall XP from scratch,
           you'll be amazed at the speed gain this gives you. Seriously, if
           you had XP for more than 2 years on the PC, a re-install will
           bring back serious speed and stability on your system. Of course
           I would backup/copy to laptop anything important before
           reinstall. When I say re-install, I mean reformat the disk, not
           just a plain reinstall over your data.
           \_ Seconded, although with a well-maintained system this wouldn't
              be necessary.  Also, be sure to have the install disks for all
              your important apps on hand before you start.
        \_ If you 'have' to run IE after you fix this, at least install all the
           latest patches, and if on an NT/XP system, make a seperate
           non-administrator account for day-to-day use.  That way you won't be
           "running as root" if you get hax0r3d again.

9/4     What are some of the best spyware zapping programs (FREE) out there?
        \_ Ad-Aware and Spybot.
           \_ Seconded.  I run them in tandem, and they really do the job.

8/3     I found this virus email fairly amusing:
        "Dear user of http://soda.csua.berkeley.edu,
         Your account was used to send a huge amount of unsolicited e-mail
         during the last week. Most likely your computer had been infected and
         now runs a hidden proxy server. We recommend you to follow our
         instruction in order to keep your computer safe.
         Best wishes,
         http://soda.csua.berkeley.edu technical support team."
        Included was the usual zipped executable file.  Who falls for this?!
        \_ yermom's got trojans
        \_ Many people at my workplace did.  Most non-engineers, and even some
           young engineers who have never seen a DOS prompt, don't realize that
           a file with a name "foo@bar.com" is an DOS/Windoze executable.

7/16    What's this email supposedly from mconst sent to jobs@csua?  Which
        virus is this?
        \_ Why does it matter which virus it is?
           \_ It doesn't.  I'm just curious.
              \_ Worm.Bagle.AG detected by ClamAV

5/7     Have you installed both Norton and McAfee on the same system?
        Which is better?

3/3     HAHAHA.  This virus mail was funny enough that I had to share:
        Dear user of http://Berkeley.EDU,

        Your e-mail account  will be disabled because of improper  using  in
        next three  days, if you are still  wishing  to  use it, please,
        resign your account information.

        Pay attention on attached file.
        ["attached file" is something called Document.zip]
        \_ Kind of interesting to see a worm combined with a phishing scam.

2/23    I have to rebuild a machine, and I must use Win2k and Internet
        Explorer. Given that, what are some things I can do to minimize/
        prevent adwares and spywares from overwhelming the computer?
        Thanks.
        \_ Please use motdedit or be more careful; you overwrote my post.
        \_ Not Freeware, but PopUpCop is well worth the purchase. I haven't
           had any major spyware creep into my system since I've installed
           it, only the occasional cookie. Oh, and it blocks popups really
           well, but you can always use Google Toolbar to block popups.
        \_ spybot search&destroy, ad-aware, turn off all the automatic download
           and run crap on IE.  Most people don't need java or javascript for
           most sites.  You can put those few sites into a different security
           zone and enable it there if you want.  you *cant* use mozilla?
        \_ Win2k + IE + GoogleToolbar + SpyBot is a decent combo. 95% solution.

2/5     Some people in my office are complaining about a virus that infects
        their PC when they preview an infected message using the Netscape
        mail client.  They say if you exit the client, it attempts to
        automatically compact the Inbox, fails, and effectively wipes it clean.
        I haven't heard of this, has anyone else?  They say it's not detected
        by Norton AntiVirus yet.  (If I were to guess, I'd say their Inbox
        got corrupted, and it may not be because of a virus.)

2/01    A friend of mine sent me e-mail saying he thinks my computer is
        infected with "MyDoom" or some other virus because he's been getting
        e-mails from me that contain a virus. I shut down outlook, updated
        virus definitions on Norton and did a full system scan, and it didn't
        find anything. Is it still possible my computer is infected? Or could
        it possibly be my ISP?
        \_ MyDoom spoofs the sender address.
        \_ http://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/virusencyclo/default2.asp?m=q&virus=mydoom&alt=mydoom

1/31    spybot vs adaware.  I've used adaware for a long time but figured I'd
        give spybot a shot since it was highly regarded in the thread below.
        I ran the newest adware doing a full scan which found a few minor
        things.  Then I installed and ran spybot which found a few other
        things I didn't know about before and adaware missed.  Thank you motd.
        \_ you are welcome

1/30    Someone asked how computer viruses are named?
        http://www.wildlist.org/naming.htm

1/29  My roommate's computer (IE6) keeps getting all her requests for
      http://yahoo.com redirected to http://yeah.com.  She swears against all spyware.
      Any idea how to get rid of this?
      \_ http://security.kolla.de
         It's been recommended by many places.  This guy takes
         donations.
         \_ this is "Spybot" that the poster below mentions.
      \_ my gf's computer once had all search sites redirected in the
         hosts file.  i've also seen some weird dll's (ieXXX.dll) in the
         system32 (?) directory.  a reasonable virus scanner will catch the
         rogue DLL.
      \_ http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware
              \_ Adaware is nice, but it's not managed to find/ditch
                 a few nasty browser redirect "trojans" -John
      \_ SpyBot, too.  I install these two programs for everyone with
         a problem computer.  Your roommate's computer has spyware; and
         if she swears against it, then it was her evil boyfriend surfing
         gay porn sites (not that there's anything wrong with that) that
         infected her computer.
      \_ USE FIREBIRD
         \_ I've switched back from FireBird to IE. It doesn't have flash
            support by default, only works w/ 95% of websites (THIS SUCKS).
            \_ install the plug-in. big deal. I noticed the 5% @first, but
               I don't notice it anymore, and I never have to open IE to
               browse a site I have trouble with.  Sure, some sites look
               a little weird, but I can live with that, and as I said,
               it doesn't bother me.  The amenities of FB outweigh the
               inconvenience, imo.  Of course, 0.8 is due out very soon,
               so you could just wait, and not have to install once, then
               again 2 weeks later.
               \_ otoh, flash installer automatically detects mozilla.
         \_ How is firebird any better then Mozilla on any reasonably
            fast computer?
            \_ it's not really. there are some extras i guess, like ctrl-k
               googling, but nothing seriously better, and quite a few things
               seriously worse (of course, they don't claim to be production
               ready either).
        \_ Google says that you need to fix the hosts file, which not all
           spyware fixers correct.

1/28    How do AV companies come up with virus names?  MyDoom is also called
        Novarg and SCO, but none of these strings show up in the email or
        the attatchment.
        \_ randomly.  how did codered get named?
           \_ Some (Melissa) get names after strings in the payload.  Some
              (I love You) get named after the emails which deliver them.  Some
              (Kournikova) get named after what the payload is supposed to have.
           \_ Code Red got named by the geeks who first discovered it in the
              wild, who decided to name it after what they were drinking at
              the time.  -tom

1/6     There's anti-virus, and then there's the way the Japanese do it:
        http://csua.org/u/5ft
        \_ I asked a Shinto Priest about technology while I was back there
           last April: http://csua.org/u/5fu  --erikred
                \_ That's pretty cool.  I stayed at this place when we were
                   in Japan:  http://www.komadori.com .  The proprietor
                   is the head priest of the local Shinto shrine, which was
                   kind of amusing (really nice guy).  The web site kind of
                   threw me, though.  -John
                \_ They should have won the war. Then, Asia would be ruled
                   by Asians instead of whities right now, reducing Western
                   sweat shops for Kathy Lee Gifford and the evil Western
                   influences.
                   \_ Your formatfu sucks, and you have an amazing knack
                      for reading what you want into just about anything.
                      Care to tell us about your mother?
                      \_ We don't have to ask about yermom.  We already know.

11/15   My "home" page keeps being set to something I don't want it to be.
        Apparently, some web page is doing it.  Or maybe I got some virus
        that keeps reseting it.  Is there a way to force it never to switch
        my start-up page?
        \_ Clean the viruses and spyware and other crap off your computer.
           I doubt that's the only thing on there, just the only thing you
           noticed.  Let us know how much shit was there when you're done.
        \_ Norton etc don't usually fix these sorts of problems. But
           AdAware does. I switched from IE to Firebird and don't have
           those problems anymore. I use IE for sites that use ActiveX
           and for the rare site that doesn't work properly in Firebird
           (eg http://kinkos.com)
           \_ Set your security (ha ha) level in IE to prompt you before
              loading ActiveX stuff.  It may be a little annoying from
              time to time, but it will prevent most tinkering with your
              home page preferences.
        \_ Use Mozilla / Firebird.  For some reason, Internet Explorer has
           all sort of security bugs that allow people set your home page
           to soemthing else.  Go do a google on "on line virus scan" and
           use the TrendMicro's free on-line virus scanning service. I have
           found that Trendmicro is doing better job at removing certain type
           of backdoor / trojan horse than Norton. While you are at it,
           of backdoor / trojan horse than Northan. While you are at it,
           download "Spybot Search and Destroy."  It's free and it get rid of
           many spyware from your computer as well.
                \_ I use IE with all cookie settings set to "Prompt" and
                        together with Google toolbar swatting pop-ups, I've
                        yet to experience an issue.
                   \_ Run Spybot and Trendmicro and see if you got anything.
                        Much of Internet Explorer's security issue is not
                        in the cookies, but it's DCOM object and
                        javascript exploit.
           \_ How does Spybot compare to AdAware? Has anyone used both?
              \_ don't know.  Is Adware free?
                 \_ the basic kill-adware part is.  the commercial product
                    does useless crap like sit in the backgroind doing
                        \_ spybot is free
                           \_ so is adaware.  your point?
              \_ don't know.  Is Adware free?
                    whatever.  the free product does everything you need.

11/10   Now that everyone's had ample time to see it, can someone explain
        to me why all the Agent Smith's started to suddenly explode at
        the end?
        \_ okay, after reading a transcript of the final battle, I now fully
           believe in my Trojan Horse theory which is that when the big
           machine jacked Neo in for the battle, it jacked him in as a Trojan
           Horse. So when Smith copied himself onto Neo, the machine now had a
           link to Smith and could then shut Smith down. Note how the machine
           does an electrical surge on Neo's body just before Smith copies
           himself.
        \_ He's exploding because he can't stand the BAD FUCKING ACTING.
           The only worthwhile things in that movie were (a) Hugo Weaving,
           and (b) Monica Bellucci.  "Now, Ms. Bellucci, hold still for
           a moment."  *wrap wrap wrap* *stuff stuff* *loud wet pop*  *another
           pop* "Dammit!"  *stuff stuff stuff* "Now don't breathe!"  *wet
           pop*  *boingg*  "shit!" *stuff stuff stuff* and so it goes.  -John
           \_ John is a very persistant 13 year-old.
           \_ What are you, 13?  Jees.
           \_ Now I *have* to see the movie just to find out what this is
              about.
           \_ I don't recall. Did she even have any lines in the movie?
                \_ Yes, when Trinity has the gun at Merv's head, she says
                   something to the effect of believing that Trinity will pull
                   the trigger because she can see that Trinity will do
                   anything for Neo.
        \_ I've heard two suggestions, neither all that convincing. a) Neo
           or the Source was able to infect Smith with some virus by letting
           Neo be infected. b) Smith's whole purpose was to defeat Neo, and
           once he did, his program got deleted.
           \_ The latter is the better explanation. It also fits with the
              theme of beginnings corresponding with ends. Neo had to be
              defeated in order to complete Smith's purpose. And without
              purpose, he would not exist (see M2).
              \_ So is Neo dead or what?
                 \_ Quite.
                    \_ Probably not dead enough to appear in the sequel.
                           \_ I was bored because I didn't give a rat's ass
                              about the incoherent, incomprehensible story.
                              Contrast with "Oooh, shiny."
        \_ I thought maybe the part where Smith said he remembered standing
           Neo before meant that Neo had trapped Smith in something like a
           virtual machine.  But other explanations would be welcome.
                    \_ Conveyed primarily with overwrought, faux-solemn
                       "dialogue" that made little sense. Great.
           \_ He's defeated the "Neo" six times before. It is his purpose.
        \_ Norton Antivirus?
        \_ every program has a purpose.  When Smith converts Neo, he converted
           the entire Matrix.  The Matrix could end.  Didn't he say:
           Everything has a beginning and an end?
           \_ No, Smith's purpose ends. He has destroyed himself. The Matrix
              never ended. The other programs succeeded in "rebalancing" it.
              If Neo had not reentered the Matrix for the final battle and
              lost, then Smith would have destroyed the Matrix, the machines,
              and Zion while trying to complete it's task.
                                                \_ it is == it's
              \_ Great, so after all that shit it's the same old "GOOD IS
                 NOTHING WITHOUT EVIL!" crap? I was so bored during M3.
                        \_ bored? do you completely lack sensory perception?
                 \_ It's not good vs. evil. It's fate vs. free will and
                    acquiescence vs. sacrifice. If you believe the Ws put that
                    much depth into the film.
              \_ Wait a minute, i thought Smith's purpose like all other agents
                 is to look for and kill anomalies(people that have already
                 broken out of the matrix) in the matrix.  My understanding is
                 that a computer must follow equations, but when Neo broke
                 rules of the equations in the matrix, then the left hand side
                 did no equal the right hand side, so the matrix needed to
                 introduce a new object (the virus/agent smith) to
                 counterbalance the equations.  So when neo died, the virus
                 wasn't needed anymore (i.e no purpose).  But i guess once
                 a program contracts a virus, it cannot by extracted from
                 the program without killing the program itself...
                 \_ It's an alteration of CS as we know it. Smith (virus)
                    used other programs and humans as resources (as opposed to
                    physical CPU or memory). Upon EOP of Smith, all resources
                    were released with the programs perfectly recovered (See
                    Oracle Seraph and Sati). Dunno about about the humans.
              \_ If this was the case, do all programs just explode the exact
                 moment their purpose is accomplished? The Keymaster in M2
                 didn't. I don't buy this explanation, because renegade
                 programs still hide out in the Matrix once they are no longer
                 needed. They don't just explode on their own. They have to
                 get garbage collected.
                 \_ Yes, but if there's any program the system is anxious to
                    do GC on, it would be Agent Smith.
        \_ You're all looking for sense where there is none.
           \_ D00D!!!!1!! URA L2M3R1!!!!1!!! M2TR1X III R0000LZ0000RZ!!!
              I W@|\|T T0 B2NG TR1|\|1TY!!!!!!11!!!!
              \_ Heh, is there an elite-speak program somewhere?
                 \_ |\|0!!1!!! U D0 n0T U53 2 PR()GR4|\/| T0 SP33K 31337!11!!1
                    TH4T W0\/7|> B3 L2M3!!!!1!!!!!11!
        \_ http://www.matrix-explained.com
           \_ I think the correct response is: Get a FREAKIN LIFE!
           \_ Wow. I'm enjoying reading this site. Good stuff.

10/31   Spammers have gotten a LOT smarter and have been using things
        like ViaTgra instead of Viagra in their subjects, etc. The more
        I think about this the more I think we're losing the war. It's like
        the virus/anti-virus co-evolution. There will always be a few
        virus that gets through the filter and screw us up majorly.
        \_ IFILE!
        \_ Somebody screw us up the bomb!
        \_ No, the more they use non-English words and misspellings the
           less it looks like real email and the easier it is to filter.
           The fact they they do such things means the good guys are winning
           and winning big.
           \_ "These latest attacks show the terrorists are becoming more
               desperate."
              \_ Nice try but no relationship.
           \_ exactly.
        \_ There was an interesting article I found a few days ago, on
           networks of subverted zombie machines acting as distributed,
           dynamic spam sources, web proxies/gateways and content sources,
           and even DNS servers (auto-switching themselves to new IPs from
           a pool of controlled hosts.)  'ViaTgra' is soon to become the
           very least of your problems when dealing with spam.  If you're
           interested, mail me and I'll dig up some articles.  -John

10/22   My sister's computer has been making weird "clicky" sounds at startup,
        and she's also having probs starting applications (win98).  She's on
        a dialup modem and uses those free AOL discs.  The weirdest thing is
        that when she checks her email (hotmail) the username "ihatedeva"
        keeps popping up in the username field of the form.  This is not her
        email nor any of her roommates or anyone she knows.  Has anyone else
        seen/heard about this?  Google shows one livejournal user called
        ihatedeva, but nothing about viruses.
        \_ clicky sounds:  Your hard drive is due for imminent failure.  Get
           a new one.  Reformat, re-install WinXP or Win2K.
           ihatedeva:  Someone clicked "Yes" in Internet Explorer when asked
           whether they want to install a random ActiveX control.  You have
           adware!  Install SpyBot and Norton AntiVirus.
           \_ is ihatedeva specific to a certain adware program?
              \_ I don't know; it's purely a guess that it's related to
                 adware.  Also, there are settings in IE for auto-complete
                 and cookies that you can clean.
        \_ ihatedeva = Roomate's friend who used your computer?
        \_ ihatedeva = her password she accidentally typed into the wrong
            field, now IE remembers it.
        \_ Lesson: IE and yahoo and aol suck.  I agree with the above, the HD
           is going soon.  Unless... is there a floppy in there?  A bad cd?

9/5     What's the best p2p client to use nowadays (for music)? I liked
        soulseek but it stopped working. I'd really prefer spyware-free.
        \_ telnet to port 80.

9/5     Speaking of spyware, what's the easiest way to get rid of the many
        (30+) spywares I have on my machine?
        \_ Ad-aware has worked for me, though others have told me there are
           better programs.
        \_ reformat and nuke 'em all from orbit.  it's the only way to be sure.
        \_ http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,978170,00.asp
           I recommend SpyBot
        \_ Spybot Search n destroy.  donationware

9/4     Is WeatherBug Spyware?
        \_ Duh.

9/2     Nick Weaver in August 30 Economist!  Woo hoo!
        \_ Saying what?  URL?  Does he mention Georgy?!
           \_ Article about MSBlaster--he's quoted saying something
              about his warhol worm paper.  -John
              \_ Yum, so he's on record.  And when someone writes a warhol worm,
                 wonder how much time he'll serve?
                 \_ Nah, he'll just need a lawyer from the gun industry.
        \_http://www.economist.com/science/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2020978
        \_ who the heck is NW and why should I care?
        \_ Is this related to the active noise cancellation thread below?

8/28    just got an email from admin@csua.berkeley.edu from oxooihui
        saying my account was going to expire, but there is no
        user oxooihui or admin@csua.berkeley.edu. is this legit?
        \_ hmm. had virus with attached zip file
           \_ it's self fulfilling.  run that on your windows box and it'll
              expire your account.
        \_ so you're that guy i've seen walking around with his head up his ass!
           \_ i've always wondered how one puts one's head up one's ass. i can
              barely visualize it.
              \_ i'm sorry you lack visualization skills. how can i help?
                 sorry, won't do *that*.
              \_ don't know about that one, but back in 10th grade (or its
                 equivalent), a classmate of mine did try to demonstrate
                 (in the classroom) how he can suck his own penis.  he failed,
                 but claimed that with a hard on, it would work.
                 \_ my friend once sent me a video of some french guy doing
                    just that. there was that 1-2 second span where it took
                    me to realize what i was seeing before i closed it. by that
                    time, it was permanently etched in my mind.

8/19    Can somebody comment on the quality of the warez found in Kaaza?
        I need some apps and I found them on kaaza.  D/l them right now but
        it's taking a long time.  I'm wondering if they're generally valid
        warez.  The industry wants people to belive that they're all viruses,
        but I'm taking precautions and scanning them before using.  Thanks.
        \_ I've only d/l'd Partition Magic 8.0 & Photoshop 7.0. They seem to
           work fine.
        \_ First download Norton Antivirus.  Then scan all your downloaded
           files.
           \_ Sorry--for the humor-impaired that was a joke.  Yes, there are
              viruses on 5-10% of the downloads on Kazaa.
        \_ I've had good luck with usenet.  Never had a virus, worm, or
           anything else.  If something has a virus it's usually some 1 file
           program that claims to do something like get you free pr0n passwords
           or something like that.  Apply common sense and virus scanner and
           you'll be fine.
                \_ May I recommend http://easynews.com as a good usenet interface
                   for binary downloads.  I have never gotten a dud from there,
                   and their zip manager for big fragmented downloads is
                   pretty good.

8/17    Just received the following email from "admin@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU".
        The attachment contains a virus according to Norton AntiVirus,
        so I deleted it without opening.  Anyone else got it?
        ---
        From: admin@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
        To: xxxxx@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
        Subject: your account                         ghlwmmiz
        Parts/Attachments:
           1 Shown    10 lines  Text
           2          24 KB     Application
        ----------------------------------------
        Hello there,

        I would like to inform you about important information regarding your
        email address. This email address will be expiring.
        Please read attachment for details.

        ---
        Best regards, Administrator
        ghlgmmim
        ---
        \_ Dude, have you not heard of all the virus news the past two weeks?!
        \_ Can't believe someone on the CSUA would even care for all these
           spam virii designed for Winblows machines.
           \_ The plural of 'virus' is 'viruses'.  Free your mind from pseudo
              latin rules.
              \_ this is english, not latin.  viruses infect humans and
                 other organisms; virii infect computers.
              \_ Abusing Latin rules happened to be one of my favorite
                 past time.  another example.  virus:virii :: Lexus:Lexii
                 \_ Except that's not even *correct* Latin.  There are
                    no Latin words that pluralize as "-us" to "-ii".
                    Yeah, I know, that's what "abusing" means....
                 \_ wow, the csua is full of geniii.
                    \_ cool shit. I learn something new (Lexii guy)
        \_ Yes, it's the 'admin' virus. Just delete it and you'll be fine.

8/11    I recently installed XP on my laptop, and it's been fine for the
        past few days. STarting today though, I get an error during
        boottime saying Windows can't open up the file TFTP2396, and
        it prompts me to give it a program to open it up with. I hit
        cancel, and then about 10 minutes later the "WinNT Authority"
        hits me with a dialog box saying it has to shut down the machine
        in 60 seconds (and then starts counting down). Anyone have any
        ideas what's going on? Thanks.
        \_ http://isc.sans.org/diary.html?date=2003-08-11
                \_ Cool, thanks a lot.
        \_ Learn to use a firewall and turn off unnecessary services.
           What version of XP are you using, Pro?
                \_ wouldn't this be caught by anti-virus programs?
                  \_ do even drugs catch mutated viruses? have to keep
                    updating after new viruses appear
        \_ And while you're at it, use ad-aware every so often in addition to
           keeping your anti-virus software updated.
        \_ So many stupid suggestions so far. Solution is to not use WinXP.
           \_ LINUX RULEZ!  *BSD IS DEAD!  RIDE BIKE!  D00DE!1   Isn't that
              what you meant to say?
              \_ don't you think maybe your zealous hatred of linux is just
                 as useless and silly as the linux crowd's zealous hatred
                 for windows you're mocking?
                 \_ erm.. where do you see "hatred of linux" in the previous
                    post?  can we get a reading comprehension requirement
                    for motd posting? --scotsman

8/1     Are people really naturally just idiots? There's an email with a virus
        floating around in our company, and everyone is panicking like little
        girls. Seems like everyone is doing a reply all stating this is a virus
        or asking what to do or having conversations ("Hey Bob, I think this is
        a virus. What do you think?"). FUCKERS.
        \_ I think you are old enough to know the truth.  Yes.  Yes they are.
        \_ They're just trying to do anything to avoid work.  You know, like
           writing to /etc/motd.public.

4/23    Do you recommend SpyBot?  CNBC had a feature on SpyWare.
         \_What's wrong with AdAware? Didn't SpyBot rather
         ironically install ads on your computer after it removes
         spyware?
           \_ Really?  More info, please.
              \_ not the one who posted the comment above but --
                 the CNBC feature mentioned that irony at the end of
                 their televised piece on SpyBot.

4/9     I keep getting a reminder to renew Norton Antivirus every day.
        Is there a way to turn it off besides uninstalling the whole
        thing?
        \_ you could renew it
        \_ yes, but I won't tell you how.
           \_ Is there something wrong with not renewing it?  Is it
              supposed to be like an X-month license?  I was under
              the impression I get to use it forever except that I
              don't get virus updates after X-months.
              supposed to be like an X-month license after which I am
              not supposed to use it anyore?  I was under the impression
              I get to use it forever except that I don't get virus updates
              after X-months.
              \_ No. Only the virus updates require the renewal fee.
              However, without virus updates your antivirus software is useless.
              If you haven't figured it out yet, then I suggest you use
              google.
              \_ I tried.  The only relevant link I get says it can't be
                 done.  I was hoping sodans would have better answers.
                 I do want to renew it sometime down the road, but in the
                 meantime, I prefer not to have a renewal message popping up
                 on my screen everyday.  The popup message has a supposedly
                 selectable field that says "remind me after <selectable
                 field> days", but the only selection is "1", which I thought
                 was kind of dumb.
                 \_ regedit
        \_ There's an option in NAV2003 under Miscellaneous that says
           "Alert me if my virus protection is out of date".  Is that it?
        \_ Uninstall and reinstall--you're good for another year.

        7.5 megs (install file) for "home users" vs. 5.5 megs for "corporate
        users."  What's the likeley difference?
        ref: http://csua.org/u/b10
        \_ i think the home version tries to give you FREE AOL
           or something
        \_ Hope users probably has bloat crap fluff, and corporate is just
           the essentials.
            \_ odd, seems like businesses would be more likeley to want bloat
               crap stuff.  The only thing i can think of is spyware.
               (spying on a printserver is probably not too userful and just
                annoys slightly-more-likeley-to-find-it IT staff).
                Given that this years TurboTax contained some, i'd say it is
                not out of the question. -top
                \_ Extra code for emailing a copy of everything you print
                  to the US government.  Ashcroft power!
                  \_ this joke is a bit old

2/11    Gnucleus has been less great lately.  What are all the kids using
        to steal media these days?
        \_ the dorm nerds all use kazaa
               \_ so no one cares that it was (once?) loaded with spy ware?
                \_ they're all running Windows XP, which has all the
                   spyware handily built into the operating system,
                   how can you beat that?
                  \_ It's all about Kazaa Lite. I have it on my system,
                     and the recently released Ad-aware 6 didn't detect
                     any spyware on my system.
        \_ Has anyone tried GiFT yet?
        \_ bittorrent for tv episodes, etc.
        \_ Why do you ask?  Do you work for RIAA????
        \_ <flame>Does Kazaa run on MacOS? If not, Macs suck.</flame>

10/27   In Defense of The Boom:
        http://csua.org/u/46e
        \_ What's the csua-motd username password ay nytimes?
           \_ csuamotd:csuamotd
              \_ what other web accounts does csua have?
                 \_ csua:csua at some places.  LAtimes is username:password
                 \_ csuacsua : csuacsua for Sun's JDK et al. downloads
                 \_ how about if we make a file somewhere on soda that lists
                    all of these and if people create a new one they could
                    submit it in there?

7/8     Anyone use any SMTP anti-virus software? Anything free out there
        which at least detects for the major viruses like Klez?
        \_ google: klez procmail
        \_ Anyone use Symantec's MailGear or similar products?
        \_ I am using exim+exiscan+SAVI. SAVI is not free but
           there is a trial version available. --jsjacob

6/15    Microsoft accidently sends virus in korean languager version of .net
        http://news.com.com/2100-1001-935994.html?tag=fd_top
        \_ old news.  "Microsoft ships virus!"  Yeah whatever.  That happened
           when Outlook first escaped into the wild.  It's like having a news
           report headlined, "Microsoft ships software with bug!"

4/15    My IE always pops up an ads from the host http://adsys2.bannerhosts.com.  Is
        there any way to avoid this pop-up?
        \_ There are many ways to do this, but the best way (imo) is to
           install popupkiller.
           http://software.xfx.net/ftp/puksetup1453.exe
        \_ always?  Is it from certain websites or do you have some shitty
           adware/spyware crap on there?  Try running ad-aware on your box.
        \_ junkbuster
        \_ Sounds like you got that semi-virus trojan thing infected on
           your computer.  The trojan was probabably installed by the old
           version of Grokster 1.3.3.  It would pop up windows even when I
           was not browsing.
           The latest version of ad-aware will get rid of it:
           http://www.lavasoft.de
           Good luck.
        \_ I have a very good experience with naviscope.  http://www.naviscope.com
           they gave out the proxy for free :)  It's for windoze only, though.
           anyone can recommend something similiar but it's open-source
           and run on Linux box?

4/4     What's the mp3 finder of choice now aside from kazaa?
        \_ AudioGalaxy
                \_ you know, this trojans your browser
        \_ probably, but a fun way to run audiogalaxy is on a linux
           box somewhere, and to do searches with your web browser
        \_ gnucleus... Open-source gnutella client :)
           on the computer of your choice, so there's no way you
           can be trojaned.
        \_ I use Grokster with all the spyware chopped out by AdAware.
           \_ You think so....

3/6     What's the best p2p client out there now?  I don't want spyware, I
        don't want adware.  Windows prefered but *nix is fine, too.
        \_ for audio I really like Audiogalaxy (audiogalaxy.com).
           \_ just make sure they don't sneak adware in on you...
        \_ gnucleus.  Open-source gnutella client on windoz.
           It's very good stuff, I don't understand why anyone want to use
           commercial counterparts.
           http://gnucleus.sourceforge.net                --kngharv
           \_ Um, how about because the FastTrak clones have better search
              capabilities, hang on to in-progress downloads more consistently,
              are faster and get more hits? Gnutella-based clients are a poor
              cousin but you get what you pay for so I'm coping.
        \_ For FastTrak, I'm using Grokster but I was able to defeat the
           spyware using the procedure outlined here:
           http://www.project-insomnia.com/grokster.html
           For Gnutella, I use Gnucleus.
           \_ Thanks for the link!

11/28   I've been getting a lot of "I send you this file in order to have
        your advice" spam email on this account from random email addresses.
        What is it? A worm/virus? What is in the attachment?
        \_ Sircam.  5 seconds of research would have found that.  -tom

8/19    Hi Dr Nick! -
   http://www.computersecuritynow.com/article.php?sid=36&mode=thread&order=0
        \_ I got tape worm...

8/13    What are some of nweaver's cool hidden links under
        http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~nweaver  ???
        \_ http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~nweaver/girlz
           \_ Goddamn!  The boy has exceptionally good taste!
           \_ "UCB CS: File not Found"
                \_ Sorry, the department made me take down the
                   HOT WET NEKKED BABES OF CS PAGE.  -nweaver
                   \_ Man, Yelick must've been pissed when she found out you
                      had that shot of her....
                   \_ do you have any of Jane Yen or Allison Coates?
        \_ "let us assume that 1 million machines are vulnerable a particular"
                                                             \_ ^to
        \_ Where's the "Computer Scientists are Artisans, Industry SUX"
           link and the "We're vulnerable to computer virus" link?

4/30    Recommendations for Win2K disk cloning software?  These PCs
        will go on the same network; I've heard of SID problems
        with Norton Ghost and don't know which Ghost supports it.  Thanks.
        \_ SIDs only come into play with a pure win2k environment using the
           Active Directory.  There are no other SID problems.
        \_ Win2k has its own utility for creating images. You still need
           Norton Ghost or similar for installing those however.

01/11   It's easy to wipe out the world with an adapted (human) virus.
        http://asia.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/world/afp/article.html?s=asia/headlines/010111/world/afp/Aussie_scientists_stumble_across_the_Doomsday_Bug.html
        \_ Scary indeed.  Do you realize we can now genocide mice?
           \_ Wiped out all mice.
           \_ Another example of, it's straightforward for an area expert
              to do, but they're smart enough not to do it.  Trust me, I know.
              \_ Yeah, being a bio expert certainly precludes any evil
                 intentions.
                 \_ That's what I'm saying ... (that is, I'm agreeing
                    with your sarcasm)  "Yeah, being a computer expert
                    certainly precludes any evil intention."

5/18    You heard it here first on the motd (pre-slashdot)
        http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/05/19/computer.virus.01/index.html
        \_ I saw this yesterday on zdnet, lameoid.

4/35    ILOVEYOU virus. got it, did a save as, removed .vbs extension.
        in the .txt file , there is a name:
        rem  barok -loveletter(vbe) <i hate go to school>
        rem by: spyder  /  ispyder@mail.com  /  @GRAMMERSoft Group  /
        ..  Manila,Philippines - turin
        \_ "Starting today at 1pm, UCLink will block all emails with
            'ILOVEYOU' in the subject line"... morons....
                \_ I feel safer now.  Maybe they should be block all emails
                   with vbscript instead?  Naaah, it's too useful for uhm...
                   email virus writing.
        \_ Wow!  You discovered the same thing as a few hundred thousand others
           \_ Wow!  You flamed this moron!  You're sharp enough to post
              garbage on this motd!
        \_ "Starting today at 1pm, UCLink will block all emails with
            'ILOVEYOU' in the subject line"... morons....
           who looked at it with an editor, more, less, and cat, and what was
           reported in numerous online articles by zero-tech clueless fucks!
           You're sharp enough to be a writer for zdnet or wired!  So you
           think we should send the CIA to Manila and kill everyone named
           barok who attends school?  Good call.  I hear they're already on it.

4/34    ILOVEYOU
        \_ Suck it, Barney.
        \_ My coworker just got this virus.
        \_ Bwahahahahhaha! -unix user
        \_ So what's the ultimate virus?
           - Is self mutating as the avoid antivirus software (like HIV)
           - Has long and random incubation period to allow virus to
             spread undetected
           - Is small
           - Has several means of replication
           - Has several forms of attack (erasing bios, etc).
           - Chooses form of attack randomly
           - Anything else?
        \_ spreads a toxin such that, even when killed, can cause
           significant damage...like botulism
           \_ Sentient virus.
           \_ Has the ability to take private emails and post them on /.
        \_ I don't understand why anyone would be tempted, even in the
           slightest, to open/execute a .vbs attachment unless they were
           working on it in a development environment in which case
           calling the script "LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.txt.vbs" in an email
           titled "ILOVEYOU" would certainly not be a rational approach to
           achieving whatever results the originators of viruses want to
           achieve by virtue of their massively blatent and painful
           character flaws, but, then again, I don't quite understand why
           Exchange can't filter this shit, or, for that matter, why
           people even use Exchange at all, other than that they be on a
           par with whatever cognitively impotent sheepshifter originated
           this virus, FUCKING LOSERS. -(fucker)
           \_ (fucker), your flaming skills have gone down the toilet.
              You need to flame more.  If I keep seeing embarassing little
              snipets like the one above, I will have to stop calling myself
              (fucker)'s #1 fan.  -(fucker)'s #1 fan
           \_  can't we all get along?
                \_ You're not the real -(fucker)'s #1 fan.  The real
                   -(fucker)'s #1 fan can spel.  -John

1/18    http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/01/18/virus.boom.idg/index.html
        This reporter doesn't seem to know the difference between Apple and
        java APPLEt. BAHHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
        \_ Funny, I didn't get that impression.  However, the bit about
           antivirus programs automagically grabbing suspicious code and
           uploading it to the antivirus company is a little
           worrisome.  -geordan
           \_ Neither did I.  The dude was talking about Macs being mostly
              immune to macro viruses, and Macs being more susceptible to
              naughty Java applets, which are cross-platform
              \_ Motd entry 1/18.  This luser doesn't seem to know how to
                 read English! BAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
                 \_ And you.

12/5    Does anyone know of a text-based threaded newsreader (like trn)
        which correctly interprets html (like lynx)?  -John
        \_ Lynx can be used as a newsreader. Have you tried to see
           if it will interpret html in that mode?
        \_ trn4 renders html as text - if you want to follow links, set up
           trn to use metamail and put lynx in your .mailcap for text/html
        \_ I use Outlook.
           \_ And since when does that virus ridden piece of Monopolyware
              count as a text-based newsreader?
                \_ It isn't virus ridden.  So called macro viruses are the
                   result of stupid people executing attachments.  They
                   deserve what they get.  -never had a computer virus
                   \_ how do you *know* it isn't virus ridden?
                \_ the latest one doesn't require them to do anything except
                   run outlook; the virus is executed when they view their
                   incoming messages.  But yes, you do deserve what you
                   will get. -tom
                   \_ Yeah yeah whatever.  It doesn't exist and it's been
                      patched for anyway for months.  Show me the source and
                      I'll believe it.  -never seen a virus
                      \_ open your eyes first.
                         \_ Only stupid people get virused. -never seen a virus
                      \_ It does exist, struck several major companies a
                         couple of weeks ago and was written up in every
                         major newspaper.
                         \_ bullshit.  the "view my mail and get virused" virus
                            doesn't exist anywhere but in a lab.  Show me the
                            URL which says this particular "virus" hit any real
                            companies.  You can't because it hasn't.
                                -never seen a virus
                         \_ the newspapers lied.  it's all part of a u.s.
                            government conspiracy to discredit microsoft,
                            a great american freedom-loving company.  besides,
                            i don't read the newspaper.  -never seen nothing
                                        Shouldn't this be signed "Bill"? _/
                                        \_ Which Bill?  G. or C.?
                   \_ Some AV companies claim they're anonymously sent code in
                      email is not the same as "the sky is falling!  reading
                      email can spread herpes and get your daughter pregnant!"
                      When I see the code which might take advantage of a
                      previously patched bug I'll believe it.  Even then, it's
                      nothing more important than crashing an NT machine by
                      telnetting to it's wins name port and typing stuff
                      (fixed in SP1).  If you don't patch (for *any* system)
                      you get raped and you deserve it.

11/4    orcad sucks.  if anyone here works for orcad, screw you.  i could
        have written better software on my apple ][e in junior high.  the
        commands are non-intuitive, the documentation sucks, the silly
        little toy cad program that comes with it sucks, the online help sucks,
        and it's unstable.  if you wrote this crap, your a dumb jerk, if
        not, use cadence or something and save yourself.  i had to say that.
        \_ All hail Optimus Prime.
        \_ I wrote OrCAD when I was in 6th grade on my Apple+.  Thanks for
           helping to pay for my college education.  I have enough spare cash
           that I can buy you a dictionary and grammar checker if you'd like.
           Writing OrCAD and loving it!   --not yermom
           \_ i just looked at the cadence website, and they bought orcad,
              so now the enemy is everywhere.  life sucks. stopdriving cars!
                \_ Yeah, I made a killing on the cad thing.
                   \_ you're a buttknoker.  i'm going to write bad software
                   on my hp48gx and make your dumbass use it to design
                   circuit boards, and you'll be sorry.  stopdriving cars.
                        \_ What's a "buttknoker"?  I don't work anymore since
                           selling orcad out to cadence.  All I do is play
                           games, have sex, edit the motd, and travel around
                           the world on my various yachts and jets.
                           \_ i'm going to write a yaght and jett virus on
                              my hp28s and upload it to your ass. stopdriving
                              cars. buttwhompass turncicle.

9/28    /csua/tmp/aspo/utdemo338.exe
        \_ It has a virus.  Thanks.
           \_ You are a disease.  Meet the cure.
         \_ uhhh, no it doesn't
            \_ Get a new virus scanner.  It has a virus.  Anyway, it's stupid
               to run some random .exe from a random fool's account when the
               original file is available from known sources on the net.
                \_ I did.  It doesn't.  (Not to mention that I dled it from
                   one of the offical dl sites and if it had a virus you
                   would be hearing all over the net about it.)  I put it
                   up cause yesterday it was damn hard to get a copy.  If
                   you don't trust it get another copy somewhere, but that
                   copy is virus free.  -aspo
                   \_ Look it's obviously a troll since the poster insists
                      on calling it "a virus" twice instead of naming it.
                        \_ *LAUGH*  Thank god you're not working in the IT
                           dept at my company.  "He didn't tell us which one
                           so he must be lying.  Go ahead and load it up on
                           the corporate mail server!"  *LAUGH*  God damn, if
                           that isn't the dumbest thing to hit the motd in
                           the last 3 days.
                   \_ It's obvious to *you* it's a virus.  Only an idiot would
                      copy it from your account, instead of a known source on
                      the net, which you're not.  If you're wrong and it does
                      have a virus, who suffers?  I do.  You can't honestly
                      claim it's %100 virus free.  Only that the one or two
                      outdated checkers you're using don't know about it.

4/30    CIH author In-Hao Chen (initial CIH if last initial first) arrested
        in Taiwan.
        http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/technology/zdnet/story.html?s=n/zdnet/technology/19990429/19990429303
        What's funny is that he had already warned fellow students not to
        spread the virus last year, and the university already knew what he
        did and gave him a demerit.  -- yuen

3/30    Wouldn't it be strange that someone smart enough to write such a
        "cool" virus as Melissa is stupid enough to not remove any ID from
        the file?
        \_ How do you know the ID belongs to the melissa creator?
           \_ Exactly, that's my point.  But the FBI seems to think otherwise.
                \_ It's the FBI and CIA!  How can they possibly be wrong?
        \_ any moron could have written that virus, and any dufus now can
           modify it from source code to wreak more destructive havoc.  MS
           will pay for gaping, obvious holes in Office 97 macro security.

3/29    My parents are getting all paranoid about this new email virus so
        they refuse to check their emails now.  How does this Melissa virus
        work? I figure that if you're not stupid enough to double click on
        the Word icon then you're pretty safe.  Is that true or does it
        execute by itself.

3/29    Why is CMU making such a big deal out of this new email virus?
        \_ because they can.
        \_ Yet another reason why email that is not 100% pure flat ASCII
           is a BAD IDEA.  All that javascript, MIME, and attachments are
           unnecessary.  uuencode/uudecode works for me man!   -old hack
        \_ because it's a macro "virus" in a Word document.  Half the people
           in IT are at least wary when they get an .EXE attachmt from someone
           they don't know.  However, this one will appear to be sent to you
           by one of your close friends, and it will be a Word doc (list.doc).
           If you open the doc (and if you have macro security on it says
           this doc has macros do you want them to execute), executes VBA
           code that installs the virus on your NORMAL.DOT
           template, then uses MAPI calls to take your Outlook/Outlook
           Express address book, using the first 50 e-mail addresses to send
           out list.doc again to your 50 friends and associates on your net
           connection, with the line:
           "Here's that important document you wanted ... don't show anyone!
           ;-)"  Now ain't that a trip?  It was first reported last Friday,
           and has spread like wildfire since then.
           \_ why the fuck would you open a document that had an
                introduction like that?
              \_ cuz the From: header says it's from your ol pal from college
                 that you haven't heard from in a while (it'll really have
                 their e-mail address up there), you figure he/she sent
                 the e-mail to the wrong dude, and you're just so curious
                 what your bud is up to
                \_ anyone dumb enough to use microsoft products for email
                   deserves what they get.  -Anti-Microsoft bigot

7/14    Big report from CDT to the FTC about spam. http://www.cdt.org
         - seidl

6/3     DIGITAL ENTERPRISES IS CHALLENGING COMPUTER HACKERS to
        defeat its anti-virus technology.

           The Gaithersburg, Md-based company says virus experts
        have tried unsuccessfully for more than 2 years to defeat
        its V-Card Anti-Virus System. It's inviting hackers to come
        to its headquarters through mid-July to try their hand at
        loading a true virus (Trojan horses and bombs don't count)
        onto the system. The computer must be rendered non-bootable
        and files must be non-recoverable while V-Card is operating.
           The company will reward the triumphant hacker with $5000.
         \_ what the hell operating system is it running on?
            [and as a side note.. it probably could be done...
             it would just most likely require $10,000 of research :) ]
         \_ Was this the same company that had once offered a all-expenses paid
            trip to Tahiti if someone cracked their computer system remotely,
            and took out ads with their computer's phone # in it? <grin>

Is someone (else) working on emacs_19 and/or lucid_emacs for soda?
Can he/she/they send me mail? --psb