IE bug used as virus killer

I READ YOUR ARTICLE about the one-line crash bug with mild amusement... until I thought maybe the thing could be used to curtail the hammering my hobby webserver gets from Nimda and Code Red infested machines. After a bit of noodling the best approach, I decided to sub the oneliner for the ErrorDocument files for 400, 404, 405 and 501 errors on my default virtual host, the one for plain old IP number domain requests. (Apache, btw)

Well, I think it works. Looking at my logs for the last 72 hours I see a definite difference, I get one hit per IP number instead of the 6 to 9 a day from 'near' IP numbers.

It shouldn't do any harm to the infested machines and may give their owners a clear error message that explains the problem well enough for them to realize they've been infested. It should also slow the propogation rate, perhaps to the point the worms become extinct. Oh, happy day!

CC

Subject: Become an expert using Microsoft Software

c'mon... can't be serieos about that:

quote: "How would you save CPU power when transferring Digital Video to your computer?
A) Defragment your hard drive
B) Turn on a screen saver
C) Activate your anti-virus
D) Open another program

Now I'm stuck. All those things would hinder the transfer, surely! I don't want my hard drive going bananas while I'm transferring large files around, I don't really want my anti-virus software scanning either. Another program? Opening Office is resource intensive at the best of times. So, the least CPU hungry of the options must be to turn on my screen saver, after all, how much power can Marquee take up?"

well there is always a way to dumb oneself, but this on the inq? it wasn't even funny...

if you want some real wtf-questions try some mcsa or mcse tests. i'm doing mcsa now and the first thing they told me was to learn the microsoft answers for the tests and then to forget about it, cause in real life you'll never do it like that, cause it just plain suxxors (specially things that are a lot easier to do with 3rd party software).

luagsch

Subject: Microsoft

I can't believe anyone would believe any test sponsored by Microsoft.

Dave W.

Subject: Pentium M for desktops

Finally, somebody else gets the big picture. Somebody else who actually has a chance of being heard.

I've always liked the idea of a fanless system. Why should we go through such outlandish efforts to watercool or whatnot when there are already low power CPUs avaliable? Pentium M? Notebooks only, you can't even buy a motherboard that supports them even if you want to hack together a non-standard system.

And Intel has tried to cover up that they've had this capability for some time. Take a look at the good old FCPGA Pentium III 500 E...at 13.2w power disappation, it is almost good enough for fanless cooling! And this from a chip that's built on a .18 micron process, with absolutely no power-saving enhancements like the latest batch of Pentium M.

Thermal design power of the Pentium M 900MHz? A MISERLY 7w. PERFECT for passive cooling!

Even the 1.6GHz model tops out at a lowly 24w, a task befitting the legendary quiet of the old Intel Pentium II retail fan.

Forget VIA and their poorly designed EPIA C3. That thing is just a Winchip in disguise, the sad fact is that the thing can't even play Divx movies, nor can it play DVDs without the on-board hardware decoder. I thought we outgrew those things with the Celeron 400...

If Intel would get off their duff, they might realize what a huge market they could create with QUIET and POWERFUL PCs. Powerful enough to be perfectly capable of making VIA's hyped EPIAs run home crying to momma. Pop in a performance 3D graphics card with one of those hugely popular . Zalman passive-cooler heatpipes, and you have the most efficient and quiet gaming machine on the planet.

Or hell, let's dream big here! How about ATI offering a version of their power-optimized Mobility 9600 Pro for desktop? Oh well, it was a nice idea...

Of course, this would require Intel to do a complete 180 on their marketing, and would have to convince dealers to start selling DESKTOPS as balanced packages rather than speed demons. ( ala Apple ). It could mean higher margins, hell it could be the key to turning the public back on to desktops. Add some style and a small package, pair it with a nice big LCD...sell people on the same aspects that make laptops sell so well these days. Think they have the balls to try it?

Gabe Sashkin

Don't talk to Intel. Try to convince some system builder there is a market for this, such as Dell. Intel would love to sell more of these chips, anyway they can. I agree with you. I would love to have a cool running, quiet desktop PC.

Daniel Cardenas

Subject: Crusade starts for Pentium Ms in desktops

Do it. I want a Pentium M desktop!

Email address supplied

Subject: On Michael Batt's letter about Atari

Michael said "Its name will mean nothing to anyone under 30 and is only nostalgic to those over 30."

I beg to differ. My husband and I come home from a stressful day at work and school, and we shoot aliens and save the world to relieve all our built-up angst by playing Atari's Space Invaders. My husband is 30, I am 24. I know nothing about Atari's heyday, but it sure is fun to play. Furthermore, my 16 year old next-door neighbor loves to come over and play Atari games with me. She keeps begging her mother for an Atari and thinks it is SO COOL. She says she'd rather have it than an xBox. (Take THAT, Microsoft!)

There are people who do brisk business scavenging the market for old Atari games and consoles.

Michaela Stephens

I was the Atari rep in Oregon and Washington from 1976 through 1983. It was a hell of a ride and made me a millionaire. I knew Nolan and Joe Keenan very well.

Around 1984 My company replaced Atari with Amiga and produced a good ride for about two years. Other lines we sold to replace the Atari revenue included: Electronics Arts, Panasonic laptops and dot matrix printers, Maxell floppies, Intel co-processers and memory boards , and SMC (arcnet and ethernet) to name a few. I lost Intel in 91 and replaced them with Cyrix, MediaVision, Infocus and Jensen speakers.

I closed my company in 2000 when business disappeared. I am the only manufacturers represenative in the US that represented Casio, Atari, Panasonic, and Intel. It was a wonderful ride.

Richard Reeves

Subject: RIAA an undemocratic, unelected, overpowerful regime

One reason people dont buy music anymore is the fact that some people refuse to be ripped off.

When CD's first came out music on vynyl was available for about £5 and profit margins were small. I used to buy music 50 or 60 albums a year on spec but not anymore.

With modern hi-tech it costs very little to produce a CD - I could probably make 10k cds and post them to people for about £5 each and still make a good profit. So I'm going to pay the music industry £10 to try and tell me what to buy?

When will the bands realise that its the recording industry thats ripping them off.

Tom

It just goes to show that even the Hollywood Elite are whining about the ethics of the generation, they have spent Billions creating.

It is so sad that so many can not look beyond entertainment. Will the CIQ (collective intelligence Quotient) of mankind continue to suffer due to organizations like RIAA?

Oh! I almost forgot...How long will good people allow themselves to be punished for the actions of a few not so good people?

The above puddle is for pondering.

tuwali

Subject: Not Only Clear Channel

It is not only Clear Channel which we need to worry about. We also need to worry about Cumulus and the combined effect that two such companies can create. My home is near Corvallis, Oregon, between Albany, Brownsville and Eugene, Oregon, (population about 250,000). You can drive between Albany and Eugene in 30 minutes. Virtually all of the music or talk radio stations in this area are owned by either Clear Channel or Cumulus. You see, with the 35% rule in effect, given that many radio/TV stations are dedicated to religious programming, or are Public Broadcasting, state-owned or owned by educational institutions, including high school districts, it is easily possible that the 70% of the stations which can be owned by these two organizations amounts to every single radio/TV station which is not religious or operated by public broadcasting or an educational institution. Such is the case in this area.

Clear Channel owns KMTR TV 16 KLOO AM 1340 KLOO FM 106.3 KFLY FM 101.5 KPNW AM 1120 KODZ FM 99.1 KDUK FM 104.7 KRKT FM 99.9 KRKT AM 990 KEJO AM 1240

Cumulus owns KUGN AM 590 KSCR AM 1320 KUJZ FM 95.3 KZEL FM 96.1 KEHK FM 102.3 KNRQ FM 97.9

As I said, this is pretty much everything on the dial. And if you want to create your own radio or TV station, well, lots of luck. You'll be competing with large companies which are funded by the stock market, which own the radio programming automation software, and which own everything else already on the dial. Plus, they are heavy campaign contributors and can control all the legislation. Lots of Luck to anyone who wants to be in the media business. There's virtually no way you can possibly succeed as a business in this business.

The decision of Cumulus to build a stronghold in Eugene has much to do with its purchase (1999) of Broadcast Software http://www.bsiusa.com/ This software is in use at all of Cumulus' radio stations and allows them to automate virtually all of the programming at their stations. Mimicing Clear Channel's use of its stations in making use of talk radio to promote the right wing view, Cumulus typically adds right-wing morning show boy/girl talkers to the mix for the illusion of a locally-produced effort. The funding for buying new stations is typically money raised in the stock market, of course.

Here's a great local story on this.

And so the radio is filled with right-wing government propaganda, and the same old boring music over and over again ad nauseum. It's truly a wasteland, and it looks much the same to me as a garbage dump (the "programming") overrun with vultures (anyone who listens to it and accepts it as "the way things are supposed to be").

Gene Mosher

Subject: Microsoft intros Anti-Trustworthy Computing

It's like selling rat poison as ice cream. It looks like ice cream, smells like it and even taste like it but once eaten ...

Keep up the good work.
Sven

What about those who like Microsoft software? (I get a kick out of the fact that so many people who tell me "I hate Microsoft!" are running Windows) Don't get me wrong, I like Linux, but most distros are still too user-unfriendly for the masses. (Not the masses of computer enthusiasts, but actual masses.) Furthermore, those security features, as you mentioned, could very well be well received and just may be adopted because the customers like the features such as Trustworthy computing that StarOffice, OpenOffice, etc. cannot offer.

Should Microsoft be punished if 90% of the users choose Microsoft? Should Linux and OpenOffice be held afloat even if only a very few percent of people want to use them? Could it be that part of Microsoft's success is because many people like the product, even with it's flaws, because the alternatives are not as attractive?

Chris Kozlowski

RMS calls it "Treacherous Computing", which in addition to being a good jibe, is
also precisely true. The computer that grandma buys, thinking that it will
serve her and help her communicate with her grandchildren will instead betray
her, force her to watch flashing adverts, and refuse to let her talk any of her
grandchildren who have not bought the latest Microsoft e-mail and e-phone
software. Then it will threaten to shut down and keep all of her home movies
locked unless she upgrades.

Hm. Seems like Microsoft has already accomplished all of this without the help
of a new hardware module.

I guess the difference is that *currently*, one of the grandkids can come over
on the weekend and set her up with an OS, web browser, e-mail agent, word
processor, etc., that will serve her and still allow her to communicate with
Microsoft consumer units. After the Treacherous Computing initiative goes into
effect, she will no longer have this option.

Z

Subject: World Wide Web Consortium endorses soft SOAP

You wrote:

"SOAP version 1.2 has been released as a recommendation and includes a messaging framework, adjuncts and a primer.

"The W3C XML protocol working group has released the standard today, said Berners-Lee."

Incorrect, I'm afraid.

SOAP 1.2 has been released as a *Proposed* Recommendation, the step before a Recommendation.

That means it is still not a standard of any kind, just a "candidate standard". Anyway, SOAP 1.2 is different enough from SOAP 1.1 - which everyone has been using for years - that great care will be needed in its introduction.

For a start, the Web Service Interoperability Organization (WS-I) - set up with great fanfare last year to, er, publish guidelines and profiles that help users maintain consistency and interoperability among Web services - has chewed up a whole year on a preliminary "basic profile" for SOAP 1.1, WSDL 1.1 and (I think) UDDI 2.0 or something like that.

Amusing, since Web services were touted as the solution to interoperability problems. Now it turns out that, as soon as enough extra features are added to make the damn things useful, they turn out to have just as many interoperability problems as CORBA or any other standard. (Not that Web services are a standard yet, of course).

Tom Welsh

Subject: Red Hat and Fujitsu to boost mission-critical Linux

NOW if some of the Linux **desktop** suppliers would realize that small Biz user's will also PAY for a QUALITY O/S and QUALITY software to run on Linux, there would be a huge migration away from Microsoft crap and into Linux. To achieve this goal however the Linux desktop O/S must be extremely secure and offer a means for new user's to effortlessly import existing documents and data files generated on crappy MS based software apps. No doubt Microsoft's sales would drop to nothing within a year or two. End of conversation.

Regards,
Randy Hubbard

Subject: Microsoft and Best Buy accused of scam

I'm pretty sure this isn't something either MS or Best Buy is actively forcing on people. What makes me suspicious was that the clerk, at least according to Kim, just scanned the disc and tossed it in without a word. I've shopped at Best Buy locations quite a bit. Due to some unusual circumstances a few years ago when they were clearing out the Sega Saturn games I managed to shop at every Best Buy that then existed in Southern California. (A longer I'll divulge on request.)

Like extended warranties these ISP subscriptions are incentive driven items. Best Buy also carries packages for broadband service that are fully rebated to the consumer and consist of little more than instructions on how to get service from the provider. The employees get small bonuses for sweetening the sale with these kinds of things. It sounds like an individual clerk tried to scrumptiously score some quick cash by slipping in the disc in a way that would get him fired if his manager were aware. Kim would be well advised to pursue that angle. It may not get his money back but there is some satisfaction to be had in justice.

Eric

I notice in the article that the person involved used a 'debit' card and
not a " credit " card ... I thought that debit cards could NOT be used in the
manner described - to pass along account info and to create a situation of
more than one deduction from your account ( just like cash ) - such as monthly
payments ... that's a question for the banks as well I guess ...

Cheers
Richard

Up until recently I worked at a Best Buy as a printer sales rep for one of the big inkjet manufacturers. Actually, I still work there on occasion.

While I never saw anything like what your story described actually happen at my location, I believe it could have happened somewhere. Best Buy employees were heavily pressured to push MSN subscriptions to people, either the "free" trial period or with an instant in-store credit with the purchase of a 2 year contract.

Even though I was not a Best Buy employee, sometimes managers would threaten to have me removed for not pushing all the various add-ons, like extended warranties and MSN subscriptions. So clearly there was pressure from above to sell a certain number of MSN subscriptions. Don't get me started with the extended warranties: "yes, our printers are well made, and here is Best Buy's performance service plan that will cover it when it breaks after the manufacturer's warranty." Or with selling extra ink: "the ink cartridges that come with the printer are only 1/3 to 1/2 full, so you need to buy more now." Of course in almost all cases this isn't true, as not even HP uses starter cartridges anymore.

Interestingly, I see that Best Buy offers several different ISP services now, not just MSN. Apparently they didn't sell enough of the MSN contracts.

Anyway, if Mr. Kim says he was ripped off, I would tend to believe him.

Email address supplied

I encountered somewhat similar tactics when I bought my laptop. The BB salesperson was very aggressively promoting msn, even when I told him I had broadband ( MSN wasn't available on broadband then) and I told him I'd swipe XP off it and install linux !

He still kept pushing ! Either m$ had his balls in a jar or his job apparently depended on it, or something.

Vasu

Subject: The falling-out

Greetings once again from the seriously-soggy South-Eastern bit of the USofA;

'Praps you could shed more light on the details of your falling-out with the hapless Eva G. Shurely fences can be mended? Wired over? I am distressed that such animosity is present between such otherwise reasonably intelligent persons...

Please, all the dirte please -

I am holding my breathe awaiting all,

Jerry

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