sburkart

Oh yeah, I've had "Up Here (Swim 2001)" by Aunt Pat stuck for days. Haunting song, such beautiful singing, they almost didn't need a band for that one. Free d/l is HERE

Got it. Dig this: I got put on the defensive a bit in this thread (for sure "socially irresponsible" hit a nerve), and I've been called lucky. In retrospect, I have to admit that I have been lucky that my (in)actions didn't cause me to be socially irresponsible.. Your scenario above is plausible. The fact that it (or something like it) never happened in 14 years is irrelevant, though it is remarkable. I've had a number of other plausible scenarios brought to my attention, the worst case being a really rude bug of some years ago that fatally attacked BIOS. Most of it would not have been prevented solely by deleting e-mails. WFFC suggested Avast, and I d/l'd and ran it last night. As I've been lucky and diligent, the initial scan returned zero infected files. It hasn't done any of the crazy shit that IT pros at Einstein warned me occurs with McAfee or Norton, but I had a couple interupted d/l's today that I don't know the cause of so that will bear watching. What is left is to offer a sincere apology, and to try to make it up to you guys in some small way. Let me see.... what could I do.... what I could I say... Got it! (Ahem) Gee guys, I'm sorry, this is the FIRST time anything like this has ever happened to me!

I have been mistaken; that is a most excellent link you gave us there, W. As far as I know, this is the first firm in the biz to offer consumers SOME of the kind of protections the virus-scanner industry have been using to protect temselves all along. Again, as far as I know, the following is un-precedented in a consumer offering (and a free one at that!) From the Avast site product description: That bit alone, and the fact that the home version IS free, updates included, is enough to make me think Avast won't be around for long before one of the biggies comes along and swallows it whole. We'll see. Anyway, thanks for the link. I'm gonna try it out and if it does its thing and doesn't unduly bog down XP it'll be a keeper. It seems to be the only way I'll lose the "socially irresponsible" tag.

Wow, you mean somebody spoofs a message from a trusted source and then that source actually confirms the message and attachment? That would be plain un-lucky- and a bit of a stretch- but I think you know that. Note: My techniques have not failed me once since before most of you guys knew what the internet was. Now please explain to me how my system would be afforded more protection for having used a virus scanner that cannot detect the same? As DOD computers are classified as weapons systems, I don't expect that you have many issues such as these. I would hope not anyway. Now go to your bosses and ask them why they don't allow foreign nationals routine access to DOD desktops, but they do allow code written by those same potential evil doers to run on those same machines? Bill Gates is handing over the code to his OS to the feds, I'll give you a hundred dollars for every virus-scanner firm that has offered to do the same. BTW, a salute to you in these times; I am ex-USAF, Langley AFB TAC HQ in another life. Supply squadron, of course. LOL!

I don't do religion. I do know of a lot so-called professionals who've bought into the religion of so-called anti-virus schemes. Care to be more specific? Sounds like a lot of hokum to me. I've got gigs of intellectual property on this machine and I aint a bit worried. I don't have a dishonest bone in me, and no amount of pride would lead me to lie to you: if I get socked or blindsided by something in the future that causes me anywhere near the kinds of problems you think I'm inviting myself you'll read it here first. There is no such thing as luck in these matters. My machines have had the same "vulnerabilities" as any one elses, technically, any avoidance has been due to intelligent useage, period. Admit it: if you IT guys would do more to educate users you wouldn't have nearly the number of problems (infections) as you do. I guess there's a certain logic to it, but I'd fire your ass in a minute if you didn't do (or insist on having done) everything in your power to protect MY company. But then again, I wouldn't blindly leave security issues such as these solely to IT guys... Well, if you'd gone to my sig link you'd see THOSE actions aint likely on MY part. You guys have got game when it comes to quotes. Try this: DO NOT OPEN UN-CONFIRMED E-MAIL ATTACHMENTS!!! Just once, broadcast THAT message across your network, I dare you. P.S. If you have read this P.S. your PC is now infected! Booga booga booga! LOL!

Yeah maybe not, but I am still LMFAO!

Umm, EXACTLY! What you're not understanding of my POV seems to be this: Any virus scanner WILL NOT PROTECT you from a virus of which it has no knowledge, but people ACT like they do, specifically, they will open any damn e-mail attachment that comes their way, and of course, there's a BLASTER or some other idiotic worm or virus that makes it's way through a LAN or WAN. Your scanner did not protect you from their stupidity, and they did no favors for a whole slew of others. We here are all familiar with ALTitude awareness. Let's view this as ATTitude awareness, okay? I DO NOT rely on a AAD to save my dumb ass from my own stupidity, and I DO NOT rely on virus scanners for much the same reason. Your view holds me socially irresponsible, as I am a potential vector. Bull. The vectors are people who rely on devices to protect them from their own laziness. Lucky? I will refer you to previous posts. My method is to not open UNCONFIRMED e-mail attachments from friends or associates. Very easily accomplished; there is NOTHING I can't wait to open before I get a confirmation that it is legit. This method is extremely effective, and it's a damn sight tighter security measure than relying only on software, and has been for a long long time. It aint luck. The other day I recieved the latest worm four times in less than an hour. Would any scanner have detected it? I don't know, but DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE seems to have worked... I too have seen the very same thing: people who rely on devices or software to do what they could or should have done (more effectively) themselves. Those lines (and others) are what lead me to believe you are still totally missing my point. YOU and others like you are as irresponsible as you would paint me to be, you just don't see it. Go ahead, rely on your virus scanner (the one YOU KNOW doesn't recognize new viruses) and open whateverthehell attachments you want, I don't care, because when your infected system sends me an e-mail attachment I will delete it. That site is brilliant, you can't have gone through the whole thing and missed that. Yes, it IS possible, but it is not likely. There are many people in IT who know a little about a lot; many of them suffer, or more accurately, make others suffer, from their own False Authority Syndrome. (See that so-called hoax site.) Some of 'em even think that you can get a virus from reading e-mail! Good times, baby, and if you don't get the reference I aint at all surprised. Listen Kev, I know for a fact that there are probably many things that you could teach me about skydiving but in my view, on THIS issue, well, you can't win the arguement. Reliance on virus scanner = maybe getting NEW virus Reliance on self = not getting any virus since 1989. Clearly, I view the latter as the preferable choice, as do all the people in my address book. I think you just may have.

It IS odd...for a reason. See this

I do not buy into the faulty iogic that I must run a virus scanner that must be updated to protect against virii it knows nothing of until the time of the update (the industry standard model, correct?) The latest worm was sent to me four times, I deleted it four times, end of story. As to your other scenarios (websites, open ports etc), what can I say? This machine or its brethern have been tooling around the internet on and off by themselves 24/7 for YEARS, I've d/l'd thousands of files of all types and in that time NADA. No virus protection, no virus. Hey, maybe it's Karma? Seriously, if I were of a typical sheeple bent I would surely be loath to go online sans virus protection of any kind, what with all manner of IT professionals telling me of the threat that my (in)action poses, but given my years of personal experience I can't cop to being THAT stupid and clueless. Either can these guys That is a great quote. As for social responsibilty:

Sheesh, I had no idea. I used to think I was weird, but I can't hold a candle to some people.

On a crash the Amiga OS would give you a couple of different flavors of "Guru Error Message", and some crashes could be downright Technocolor explosions, truly awesome compared to anything the big machines did. If you had little RAM the rule was "Save early, save often." Those were the days...

Read again. No scanner, no update, no virus. Let me add that I also run AdAware once a week. And this machine is online whenever * Windows Update (auto) * Seti@home or * Folding@home have needed it to be, 24/7 since XP was released, and 24/7 from when '98 SE was released. On top of that, I only this week enabled the XP firewall, and have always run the "dreaded" Outlook for mail. Nobody has ever gotten a virus mailed to them from my address book. I agree that the key is being diligent in opening attachments to e-mail, and disagree wholeheartedly with buying into anti-virus schemes, especially those that have to be periodically updated and upgraded. It comes down to this: be smart and buy into any anti-virus scheme you can afford (and update it diligently), or be intelligent and don't open un-confirmed e-mail attachments. Pretty simple, no? Now, if I wanted to get really paranoid I could Telnet into my account and use ELM or PINE and delete anything that looked suspicious before even running Outlook, but why bother? The next virus this system gets will be its first, whereas I've seen the opposite of those using anti-virus schemes. What happened to them? Immaculate infection?

I can see how these things infect networks, but do you guys honestly believe everyone should be running anti-virus software? IMHO on an isolated home-machine all one has to do is NOT open e-mail attachments and keep the OS updated. I'm not looking for someone to cause me problems here, but I've never run any virus-scanner and I've never gotten a virus, though I have read of tons of people who use such software whose machines have gotten infected anyway. I don't get it.

I have... One company I worked for had a theatre/studio dimming system (control voltage) that was based on the Tandy RS/whareverthehellitwas PC; I believe WHYY/TV (Philly PBS) had one too. Just a step up from the Oz. Here I have XP and Suse Linux Pro 7.1 on seperate partitions, and I'm within spitting distance of five expanded Amiga 500's and a Mac Performa 400.

...not that I was looking. Funny piece, can't quite figure how a search of "buying testicles" returned his page. http://www.jlawson.com/not-f1/soyouwant.html And no, I am not looking to buy testicles. I was looking to sell...like this guy... http://www.network54.com/Hide/Forum/thread?forumid=71442&messageid=996930284&lp=1027718329 There's a penis museum in Iceland? There's a penis museum in Iceland. Must..avoid...Iceland... Anyway, yes, I was looking to sell, but only for the $75k for ONE that I was told I could get. See, I want the fully articulated Vector 3 and all stainless hardware and a Skyhook, and selling one may be the only way I can afford it AND a main and reserve. Maybe that's what these guys were doing: http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_452760.html? Must...avoid...Africa... Anyway, it's hopeless. Turns out nobody wants, uh, antiques. --oo

Sheesh, maybe i should have said "scams." This latest is made to look like it's from CitiBank, and though the page it links to looks like the real deal, it is in fact a walks like a duck, swims like a duck clone which the bank says it is aware of. Poll: you think I spotted this as a scam because: a) It talked like a duck 2) I don't have a Citibank account --oo

Ah, straight from the Strange folder in Favorites: http://www.mysteries-megasite.com/main/bigsearch/mystpl-1.html http://www.planettribes.com/allyourbase/ http://home.san.rr.com/repapyob/links.htm http://www.clickoftheday.com/ http://www.freedomship.com/ http://www.furthurnet.org/ http://www.clydelewis.com/ http://corporeal.com/shirts.html http://www.halfmoon.org/ http://www.sodaplay.com/ http://www.taiwanon.com/ http://info.astrian.net/jargon/ http://www.thesmokinggun.com/ http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/audio/5a15 http://www.snopes.com/ http://www.villette-numerique.com/main.php?pg=0&lang=en&vr=f Next silly question please. --oo

I believe (

I'm surprised no one has mentioned: Main lift web adjuster. If it exists, of course. I don't remember ever looking at the web in there, or anyone telling me to... --oo

Much like the eBay spoof, this one relies upon sheer stupidity on the part of the recipient. --oo Important notice We have just charged your credit card for money laundry service in amount of $234.65 (because you are either child pornography webmaster or deal with dirty money, which require us to layndry them and then send to your checking account). If you feel this transaction was made by our mistake, please press "No". If you confirm this transaction, please press "Yes" and fill in the form below. Enter your credit card number here: Enter your credit card expiration date: Contacts: Phone: +5982 902 5627 Fax: +5982 902 3114 E-mail: [email protected] ICQ: 156746629

Ouch. Are you sure that aint Pete Townsend?

Another thumbs up for the SportRX. They can't do REALLY strong RXs', but they did mine and I've got the worst eyesight you've ever seen. Or not.

Man you're quick! I missed a space and fixed it immediately, but you beat me. I need sleep, and you should be doing nightjumps or something.

Not my cup of tea, but somebody might like this Media Player skin: Media Player skin --------------------

Yes they were. The show also featured a CRW 50-way diamond that was busted on the last (bottom) slot, if that jogs your memory. That's either the result of a typo or skydivers messing with the wuffo production company.