__/ [ The Ghost In The Machine ] on Thursday 10 August 2006 04:00 \__
> In comp.os.linux.advocacy, Roy Schestowitz
> <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> wrote
> on Thu, 10 Aug 2006 00:15:50 +0100
> <3636879.uAioE10Jso@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
>> __/ [ The Ghost In The Machine ] on Wednesday 09 August 2006 20:00 \__
>>
>>> In comp.os.linux.advocacy, NoStop
>>> <nostop@xxxxxxxxxx>
>>> wrote
>>> on Wed, 09 Aug 2006 10:43:42 -0700
>>> <ebd6kt4e2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
>>>> On Wednesday 09 August 2006 02:43 am, Roy Schestowitz had this to say in
>>>> comp.os.linux.advocacy:
>>>>
>>>>> Microsoft to pay for Vista and Office delays
>>>>>
>>>>> ,----[ Quote ]
>>>>> | The reparations, which will probably as involved and expensive as the
>>>>> | 1919 Treaty of Versailles, will be for those who signed up for volume
>>>>> | licensing programmes and were negatively affected by the delays of
>>>>> | Windows Vista and Office 2007.
>>>>> `----
>>>>>
>>>>> http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=33555
>>>>
>>>> MickeyMouse should be financially rewarded for delaying the release of
>>>> Fista. The longer Fista stays away from the Net, the better for the
>>>> computing community. In fact, all these toy operating systems should be
>>>> banned from Net access.
>>
>>
>> As radical as it may sound, I agree. I even said it before. There are over
>> 5 million zombies out there, according to Microsoft. Some would even argue
>> that tens of millions of machine, if not a hundred, have been compromised.
>> Not all of them are spewing SPAM yet, but they sit in a cracker's hand,
>> ready to clog up the Net by using all the available bandwidth capacity.
>>
>> Let the user complain to their software provider. When the O/S is ready to
>> cope on the Web, then it can be made legal to use again.
>>
>>
>>> OK, I'll bite. How? :-)
>>>
>>> Best I can do is a backprobe from the ISP. If the ISP
>>> detects an open port such as 445 which shouldn't be open
>>> (the T&C would be *very* clear on this), it would disable
>>> the line connection, severing the link (this would be
>>> layer 2 of the OSI). The user would then have to walk
>>> with a technical type to clean out his machine -- or the
>>> ISP could simply mail out a Gentoo Livedisc, with a little
>>> letter explaining what and why. :-)
>>
>>
>> That's exactly is what I did on a few occasions. Student gets disconnected
>> and sobs. Repeated disconnections get the student fined heavily. Student
>> receives Ubuntu CD.
>
> As long as he also gets a letter why, and a short list of how to install
> the product on his PC, that might work to some extent for students. :-)
> Not sure regarding businessmen or others, but one has to start
> somewhere. :-)
True. Everyone receives instructions, but people like to take shortcuts. It
reminds me of something that I read recently. Users are not stupid. They are
not lazy, either. They are /efficient/. It's a sarcastic way of defending
the users who ask for support without RTFM'ing.
>>> Of course a less intrusive solution is to simply block
>>> the port upstream.
>>
>>
>> This could prevent viruses from spreading locally, but what about people
>> who connect to different network, catch an infection and then spew out
>> SPAM using standard mail protocols? Blacklisting UIP's is the worse one
>> can do because you hurt some genuine people.
>
> An interesting problem, that. I was thinking incoming; you're thinking
> outgoing, which is probably a far worse problem.
Yes, I was thinking outgoing. *smile*
If you police these Windows zombies which spew out SPAM, the problem will
solved once and for all. But you will always have some careless Internet
cafe maintainers in remote areas. So Windows is rather hopeless, even if one
cares enough to patch. Otherwise, assuming Linux walked this Earth, you
would only need to deal with salespeople that are sharks...... and a few
dumb spammer wannabies who create an account on Yahoo/MSN/Google and then
send self-promotional messages to random address which they believe exist.
As for incoming mail, that's an issue of absorption. Somebody from a
different NG has led to her Web host biting millions of SPAM per month. This
leads to increased hardware costs, which affects everyone.
>> Not that SPAM ever averted hurting the
>> innocent.
>
> ?
>
> Are you referring to "averred" (affirm positively), "avoided", or
> "everted" (turn inside out or outward)? "Avert" isn't intransitive;
> it must take an object.
Poor choice of words. I'll take the blame.
avert
v 1: prevent the occurrence of; prevent from happening; "Let's
avoid a confrontation"; "head off a confrontation";
"avert a strike"
> I'll admit I'm going to have to analyze the spam in my inbox (I've got
> tons of the stuff, all innocuous to Linux, of course) to see what
> parts are legitimate (I'm still subscribing to the WinE email list),
> what parts adverts, what parts junk adverts, what parts fraud-clicks,
> and what parts outright malware (though the best I can do regarding
> the last is identify known encoded zipfiles).
SpamAssassin is still doing a splendid job, at least in my case (others argue
that it has weakened). But I needed to pay for extra storage space
yesterday. My retention span for SPAM won't last for long with my current
quota.
Best wishes,
Roy
--
Roy S. Schestowitz
http://Schestowitz.com | SuSE GNU/Linux ¦ PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
run-level 5 Jul 20 12:15 last=S
http://iuron.com - help build a non-profit search engine
|
|
