Back in 2004 I got so frustrated because my system picked up so much of this crap it actually made it inoperable. I mean, I actually couldn't even get the OS to load properly anymore on boot up, so, in essence, without resorting to a reformat of the hard drive and reinstall of the OS and all applications, I was screwed. Yes, Windows ME, fortunately, does have the System Restore capability but the "infection" occured prior to that first avail backup date. I was fucked. That problem actually still exists on the Samsung hardrive sitting in my desk drawer. It was the HD originally equiped with the system I am currently running...Mildred 9. Oh, that reminds me, I think I forgot to tell you that I recently swaped out the Mildred X components in this tower case and installed Mildred 9. I always had this capability since January when I got back to Florida and had all components of Mildreds 9 and 10 but I was too chicken to do the swap. (Hardware upgrades can be a dog when working with used product without manuals or diagrams...it's like building a hobbyists model sailing ship without the instruction sheet!) I bought and built (barebones) Mildred 9, but that was back in 2001. Mildred 10 (X) was a free gift from PMA, so I had nothing on it. They were going to toss it in the junk heap.
Well, the current situation is this:
I picked up (somewhere) a really tenatious hijack-ware. It will "hijack" my browser (IE) an average of every 6 hits and redirect it to one of their ad sites...usually for Free gift cards or some shit like that. If I try to close out, it won't let me. If I click on the "close window" link, it opens up 3 more and with dial up they take minutes, not seconds to open. So this issue is componded by the fact I am dial up. In '04 when I last had issues like this I was broadband and it disabled my system by seeming "escalating" in intrusiveness. If I closed windows, it opened more...if I chose to by pass the links they presented to me, it seemed to slow my system more. If I ran adware elimination tools, it seemed to still live on like the fucking cockroaches they are and they would even be more aggressive.
Much of this experience may be imagined, but the tanacity of this nasty issue is not.
The problem is so intrusive, it makes me want to avoid logging on to the Internet at all. And, people, I am a seasoned "Netizen". I am not a nubie thinking this is just the way it is and giving up on it. This is not the way it should be and it is not the way it was just a few years ago. This is a new and viscious challenge. It is perhaps a coincidental irony that the rise of spyware and adware inrusions on our computer systems came at a time when we, as a nation, also became enrapped in the consequences of global terrorism. Because, folks, this is akin to electronic terrorism. Congress does some "just for show" bullshit about it, and the software industry "seems" empathetic by offering adware and spyware "elimination" solutions but these solutions are 1) after-the-fact (that is once you know, and have been inconvienienced or worse by one of these nasty devils and 2) will offer a "solution" that "might" (no guarantee) eliminate this intrusive program from your system...but this will usually be for a fee. And the whole issue is label like it is some "virus" or "treatable" condition...as if they know that it won't go away but we will try to keep it at bay. Huh???? Well should we treat terrorism and kidnapping and murder as "infections" that we must periodically treat as they spring up? This is software, folks..it exists only in a tightly defined universe. Why can't we get a proper handle on this?
It's ironic I work for the biggest security software company around and I am plagued by these issues.
Do you not think that the big security (Anti-Virus/Anti-Spyware) companies are not putting out the very incidious hijacking and and tracking software out there in order to increase sales?
"Hi I'm from Phillip-Morris...you want to stop smoking?"
"Great...Let me get you signed up in our "Clean Air" group now at a very reasonable fee."
(WOW...They got the customer coming and going!!!)
Well, the current situation is this:
I picked up (somewhere) a really tenatious hijack-ware. It will "hijack" my browser (IE) an average of every 6 hits and redirect it to one of their ad sites...usually for Free gift cards or some shit like that. If I try to close out, it won't let me. If I click on the "close window" link, it opens up 3 more and with dial up they take minutes, not seconds to open. So this issue is componded by the fact I am dial up. In '04 when I last had issues like this I was broadband and it disabled my system by seeming "escalating" in intrusiveness. If I closed windows, it opened more...if I chose to by pass the links they presented to me, it seemed to slow my system more. If I ran adware elimination tools, it seemed to still live on like the fucking cockroaches they are and they would even be more aggressive.
Much of this experience may be imagined, but the tanacity of this nasty issue is not.
The problem is so intrusive, it makes me want to avoid logging on to the Internet at all. And, people, I am a seasoned "Netizen". I am not a nubie thinking this is just the way it is and giving up on it. This is not the way it should be and it is not the way it was just a few years ago. This is a new and viscious challenge. It is perhaps a coincidental irony that the rise of spyware and adware inrusions on our computer systems came at a time when we, as a nation, also became enrapped in the consequences of global terrorism. Because, folks, this is akin to electronic terrorism. Congress does some "just for show" bullshit about it, and the software industry "seems" empathetic by offering adware and spyware "elimination" solutions but these solutions are 1) after-the-fact (that is once you know, and have been inconvienienced or worse by one of these nasty devils and 2) will offer a "solution" that "might" (no guarantee) eliminate this intrusive program from your system...but this will usually be for a fee. And the whole issue is label like it is some "virus" or "treatable" condition...as if they know that it won't go away but we will try to keep it at bay. Huh???? Well should we treat terrorism and kidnapping and murder as "infections" that we must periodically treat as they spring up? This is software, folks..it exists only in a tightly defined universe. Why can't we get a proper handle on this?
It's ironic I work for the biggest security software company around and I am plagued by these issues.
Do you not think that the big security (Anti-Virus/Anti-Spyware) companies are not putting out the very incidious hijacking and and tracking software out there in order to increase sales?
"Hi I'm from Phillip-Morris...you want to stop smoking?"
"Great...Let me get you signed up in our "Clean Air" group now at a very reasonable fee."
(WOW...They got the customer coming and going!!!)