Windows is everyone's problem

August 24, 2004 - 11:00am — bmann

Mitch Ratcliffe says: Windows gives me a lot of big problems

Talking about malware/spyware on Windows, Robert Scoble says the problem is horrific out there. Luckily, Scoble is someone that is passionate about fixing this.

I'm realistic -- most of the world runs Windows. But for my immediate business contacts, friends, and family, I have a pretty clear line: if you want my help, get a Mac. Part of this is because I no longer run Windows anywhere. And this is problematic -- I don't see what's happening on the other side of the fence, I'm not exposed to a wider range of ideas, and I certainly don't keep up with all the ins and outs of security and support issues like I used to.

The whole technology/computer industry could get a lot farther ahead with some of these issues behind us.

Comments

September 6, 2004 - 4:06pm — bmann

I'm stilling reading reports

I'm stilling reading reports of this from all over the place. It really does make me sick to my stomache that this has to be dealt with. Technology as a whole is my chosen profession, and junk like this, well, just wrecks it for everyone.

The item I read today was from Eric Albert:

Why does anyone put up with this? I've wasted a whole weekend trying to get this computer back into a usable state. I don't understand why this isn't Microsoft's problem to fix. I've had to track down a variety of loosely-documented and not-necessarily-reputable third party tools, starting with Ad-Aware and Spybot -- each of which only sometimes works, has an awful UI, and is slow -- and there's simply no single trustworthy source out there with all the information I'd need to fix this. Nobody else could do that job as well as Microsoft, but they don't seem to be interested in providing a complete solution. I can't even begin to imagine how anyone who isn't a programmer manages to keep a Windows system secure. And this is on a computer that now has XP SP 2 installed.
Out of Cheese: Why does anyone put up with this?

Like Eric, I just can't recommend Windows to anyone because of this.

Aside: putting a comment on an "old" post like this makes me try and think of different ways to make it work. I don't want bring this topic to the forefront again by making a new post, but I do want to notify people that there's some more stuff here they may want to look at.

I guess one solution would be a comment feed. With Drupal, we have the tracker. For UrbanVancouver I made some edits to the tracker.module and created a recent posts feed.

August 27, 2004 - 1:59am — GSoo

whatever. living in multiple

whatever. living in multiple universes, I don't see much difference between them. same rules apply. A little care goes a long way. Funny how no Windoze system in this amateur's reach has ever been compromised and blown to bits by worms or bots. Perhaps I'm just lucky... not.

August 27, 2004 - 4:27am — gfair

Yeah, but you aren't an amate

Yeah, but you aren't an amateur in anyone's definition but your own. Amateurs are the ones I deal with every day, even the guys who claim they are IT gods still say "Gee, but this one fooled me, it had your logo and everything" (Spoof email, $5000 wiped out of a bank account).

Amateurs are the ones that write "It had ebay.com, so it came from you, give me my money back."

Amateurs are the ones that write "It looked so real, it had your disclaimer at the bottom and everything."

Amateurs write "Every time I surf eBay I get your pop-up ads, STOP SPAMMING ME NOW."

Now there are many things Greg to indicate that you are no amateur at Windows or technology for that matter. You listed a bunch of open/free source programs for Windows that 99.99% of Windows users would never have been able to guess, for one. The fact that your computer isn't infected with Spyware, viruses relaying Spam and a guy watching your keystrokes and nabbing passwords to all your online accounts means that you are far more knowledgeable than a lot, either intrinsically or because you have had enough experience to know what will tighten Windows, and what won't.

I deal with the amateurs every day, as do most retail software/service companies that involve technology somehow. I'd bet the breakdown is 85% with no knowledge, 14% with half a clue, 0.8% that think an IP address points to a house so why the f*$k isn't eBay going to arrest Bill Smith of 90230 Bellingham Washington (aka Vladislav Radic, Russian Mafia, Internet Cafe, Moscow, 13V 9W4), and 0.2% of people who actually contribute significantly to our knowledge base with their semi-annual email to us.

You aren't an amateur. When 80% of Spam comes from compromised computers, of which yours are not a part, you are no amateur. When you know about an MP3 client for Windows other than Winamp and iTunes, you are no amateur.

None of us on this list are amateurs, by the very nature that Boris's blog tends to attract leading/bleeding edge learners and tech-savy folks, and you are posting on it. ;)

I can't account for interpretation of language without facial reactions, but this post was meant in good faith, whether or not you were indeed using the term "amateur" tongue-in-cheek.