ArseTech wrote:
In its race to catch up with Google, Microsoft is reportedly looking at buying a company with a controversial and checkered history: Claria. According to the New York Times, there is a US$500 million offer on the table, despite a large amount of internal debate at Redmond about the wisdom of picking up the company formerly known as Gator.
Gator is an abomination of a program, it is for all intents and purposes a trojan that eats away at your system resouses and sends your personal information to its owners. Were we in a saner country I've close them down, charge the owners with idenity theft and toss them in for ten to twenty years in ram them in the ass prison. NY Times, subscribers only
"A cult is a religion with no political power." -Tom Wolfe Pardon me for sounding like a dick, but I'm playing the tiniest violin in the world right now-Dalton
[img=right]http://hem.bredband.net/b217293/warsaban.gif[/img] "Either God wants to abolish evil, and cannot; or he can, but does not want to. ... If he wants to, but cannot, he is impotent. If he can, but does not want to, he is wicked. ... If, as they say, God can abolish evil, and God really wants to do it, why is there evil in the world?" -Epicurus
Fear is the mother of all gods.
Nature does all things spontaneously, by herself, without the meddling of the gods. -Lucretius
They could even manage to sell it to clients.
"Do you have too much free time? You don't know what to do this evening? For only 15$ we will mess with your computer and you will be able to have fun for hours while trying to fix it"
So is Gator now going to come pre-installed with Longhorn?
"Stop! No one can survive these deadly rays!"
"These deadly rays will be your death!"
- Thor and Akton, Starcrash
"Before man reaches the moon your mail will be delivered within hours from New York to California, to England, to India or to Australia by guided missiles.... We stand on the threshold of rocket mail."
- Arthur Summerfield, US Postmaster General 1953 - 1961
And, of course, people will claim that the fact that Linux lacks the computer-exploding feature is yet further proof that it's not ready for the desktop.
"Stop! No one can survive these deadly rays!"
"These deadly rays will be your death!"
- Thor and Akton, Starcrash
"Before man reaches the moon your mail will be delivered within hours from New York to California, to England, to India or to Australia by guided missiles.... We stand on the threshold of rocket mail."
- Arthur Summerfield, US Postmaster General 1953 - 1961
Maybe they will work on the resource issues and get a proper updating system in it (Gator updated via Microsoft Updates )
Microsoft is normally very good with their privacy policies and their security and code stability has only improved since the Win9x days.
But yes, this is fucking evil.
"Okay, I'll have the truth with a side order of clarity." ~ Dr. Daniel Jackson.
"Reality has a well-known liberal bias." ~ Stephen Colbert
"One Drive, One Partition, the One True Path" ~ ars technica forums - warrens - on hhd partitioning schemes.
Drooling Iguana wrote:And, of course, people will claim that the fact that Linux lacks the computer-exploding feature is yet further proof that it's not ready for the desktop.
/linux_user *cackles
ah.....the path to happiness is revision of dreams and not fulfillment... -SWPIGWANG
Sufficient Googling is indistinguishable from knowledge -somebody
Anything worth the cost of a missile, which can be located on the battlefield, will be shot at with missiles. If the US military is involved, then things, which are not worth the cost if a missile will also be shot at with missiles. -Sea Skimmer
George Bush makes freedom sound like a giant robot that breaks down a lot. -Darth Raptor
ggs wrote:Maybe they will work on the resource issues and get a proper updating system in it (Gator updated via Microsoft Updates )
Microsoft is normally very good with their privacy policies and their security and code stability has only improved since the Win9x days.
But yes, this is fucking evil.
Well, currently I have xp and windows explorer keeps trying to access 207.46.248.249 (which resolves to sa.windows.com) but I have my firewall blocking it. If they set it up so that the spying uses the windows update conection I will not be able to block it without disabling windows update.
In saying that, I expect gaming under linux to have taken off before I find games that need a version of windows later than xp (I only switched to xp from 98 this year)
bilateralrope wrote:
Well, currently I have xp and windows explorer keeps trying to access 207.46.248.249 (which resolves to sa.windows.com) but I have my firewall blocking it. If they set it up so that the spying uses the windows update conection I will not be able to block it without disabling windows update.
Thats Windows updating the local search stuff, it only gets doesnt send any personal info at all.
Also outbound blocking software firewalls give a sense of false security. Any application running as Administrator can nuke them, and take control of your net connection.
"Okay, I'll have the truth with a side order of clarity." ~ Dr. Daniel Jackson.
"Reality has a well-known liberal bias." ~ Stephen Colbert
"One Drive, One Partition, the One True Path" ~ ars technica forums - warrens - on hhd partitioning schemes.
bilateralrope wrote:
Well, currently I have xp and windows explorer keeps trying to access 207.46.248.249 (which resolves to sa.windows.com) but I have my firewall blocking it. If they set it up so that the spying uses the windows update conection I will not be able to block it without disabling windows update.
Thats Windows updating the local search stuff, it only gets doesnt send any personal info at all.
Also outbound blocking software firewalls give a sense of false security. Any application running as Administrator can nuke them, and take control of your net connection.
What exactly do you mean by 'updading the locak search stuff' ?
I use my linux box for any data I need to keep private.
