Go die in a fire, Internet.
Over the past week or so, I've been cleaning off Kevin's laptop computer of all my junk. I've been uninstalling programs I don't use; I've been removing pictures and uploading them to my photobucket. One way to ensure that a computer works properly (I believe) is to totally expend the rechargeable battery, and then recharge it, to give the battery longer life. This concept is probably an urban legend, but I was going to do it anyway.
So, under the battery management screen, a suggestion says a way to conserve battery power is to disable the wireless radio. Since I want to expend the battery as quickly as possible, I turn on the radio. Lo-and-behold, there is an unsecured wireless network near Kevin's house. I think to myself, "Great, we can now surf the internet faster than dial-up speeds." So, after turning on the wireless radio, I unplug the computer from the wall, and start surfing the net. I was having fun.
When Kevin comes home from work, I let him know the good news that we can now go online through the wireless internet much faster than the speeds he has now. He was happy. I was pleased. Until...
...Until I clicked on something that I shouldn't have. I just wanted to watch a movie trailer. I clicked on the movie trailer, and I got a message saying I needed to install the proper ad-on. That was my big mistake right there. This ad-on was malicious. Suddenly, I mean suddenly, there is these pop-up ads -- ads that were designed to look like a legitimate Windows system error balloons -- that simply would not go away. Also, the browser would open up by itself and direct me to this page asking me to dowload -- get this -- anti-spyware and anti-adware programs. No shit.
This problem didn't stop there. The attempts of this trojan horse was so relentless it crashed Kevin's laptop. It literally opened up the browser, to the same "please buy this anti-spyware or DIE" page hundreds of times. It also disabled the task manager window. It even replaced the wallpaper with a hotlink to the same said anti-spyware site. Kevin's laptop was jacked-up.
Kevin was not pleased with me.
So...I relented and took the laptop to a local PC repair business in another part of Urbana. Of course, I really didn't have a choice. This program absolutely wouldn't let me do anything else without trying to force me to download programs I didn't want. The pop-ups would appear every thirty seconds. Whenever that program opened the browser, the page it was trying to load was so over-wrought that it would seriously lag the whole computer.
Talking with the PC repair people, they said they knew exactly what I was talking about, and it was most likely a trojan horse. I feel that after I submit this LJ update, I'll be going to wikipedia to see what a "trojan horse" is, since I am so clueless about those things.
I really don't see the use in using incredibly malicious tactics in trying to advertise for a product. In this situation, it was that no-name anti-spyware program that I kept being redirected to constantly. If I was a business trying to advertise for my product, it wouldn't do me any good to be so abusive and intrusive. Wouldn't that drive customers away from my product? I would think so, but apparently that concept did not happen-upon that company that designed that trojan horse.
Naturally, this is the most severe example of advertising that is on the internet. Some no-name company felt the need to force unsuspecting people to download programs that they simply don't need or want. (Of course, that is advertising.) On top of trojan horses, there are pop-up ads and banners. For the most part, pop-ups can be blocked, but not all the time. With Internet Explorer, I have the pop-up blocker turned all the way up, and still, pop-ups still beat the blocker from time to time. It boggles my mind. For some reason I experience those incidences at dictionary.com.
Banners, on the other hand, can be suppressed by ad-blocker programs. Unfortunately, I don't know anything about those. Since I cannot "suppress" banners, I have no choice but to view them. It interests me that banners are everywhere, but they don't know who I am. They are funny when they let me know that there are "singles in my area," but the banner shows some nubile, pouty young lady. Hey sister, I'm gay, and I live with a partner.
You know, I am all for capitalism and commerce, but ads that cannot be avoided, and intrusive programs that cannot be uninstalled or ignored, just irks me. Where are the ad-free spaces? Even LiveJournal sold-out when it discontinued its "basic" service; a service that gave its users the option of an ad-free space. In protest, I scaled-back my "plus" account to a basic account, just so LJ cannot make money off of me.
Is this why ARPANET was declassified?
The Interent =
⊕
So, under the battery management screen, a suggestion says a way to conserve battery power is to disable the wireless radio. Since I want to expend the battery as quickly as possible, I turn on the radio. Lo-and-behold, there is an unsecured wireless network near Kevin's house. I think to myself, "Great, we can now surf the internet faster than dial-up speeds." So, after turning on the wireless radio, I unplug the computer from the wall, and start surfing the net. I was having fun.
When Kevin comes home from work, I let him know the good news that we can now go online through the wireless internet much faster than the speeds he has now. He was happy. I was pleased. Until...
...Until I clicked on something that I shouldn't have. I just wanted to watch a movie trailer. I clicked on the movie trailer, and I got a message saying I needed to install the proper ad-on. That was my big mistake right there. This ad-on was malicious. Suddenly, I mean suddenly, there is these pop-up ads -- ads that were designed to look like a legitimate Windows system error balloons -- that simply would not go away. Also, the browser would open up by itself and direct me to this page asking me to dowload -- get this -- anti-spyware and anti-adware programs. No shit.
This problem didn't stop there. The attempts of this trojan horse was so relentless it crashed Kevin's laptop. It literally opened up the browser, to the same "please buy this anti-spyware or DIE" page hundreds of times. It also disabled the task manager window. It even replaced the wallpaper with a hotlink to the same said anti-spyware site. Kevin's laptop was jacked-up.
Kevin was not pleased with me.
So...I relented and took the laptop to a local PC repair business in another part of Urbana. Of course, I really didn't have a choice. This program absolutely wouldn't let me do anything else without trying to force me to download programs I didn't want. The pop-ups would appear every thirty seconds. Whenever that program opened the browser, the page it was trying to load was so over-wrought that it would seriously lag the whole computer.
Talking with the PC repair people, they said they knew exactly what I was talking about, and it was most likely a trojan horse. I feel that after I submit this LJ update, I'll be going to wikipedia to see what a "trojan horse" is, since I am so clueless about those things.
I really don't see the use in using incredibly malicious tactics in trying to advertise for a product. In this situation, it was that no-name anti-spyware program that I kept being redirected to constantly. If I was a business trying to advertise for my product, it wouldn't do me any good to be so abusive and intrusive. Wouldn't that drive customers away from my product? I would think so, but apparently that concept did not happen-upon that company that designed that trojan horse.
Naturally, this is the most severe example of advertising that is on the internet. Some no-name company felt the need to force unsuspecting people to download programs that they simply don't need or want. (Of course, that is advertising.) On top of trojan horses, there are pop-up ads and banners. For the most part, pop-ups can be blocked, but not all the time. With Internet Explorer, I have the pop-up blocker turned all the way up, and still, pop-ups still beat the blocker from time to time. It boggles my mind. For some reason I experience those incidences at dictionary.com.
Banners, on the other hand, can be suppressed by ad-blocker programs. Unfortunately, I don't know anything about those. Since I cannot "suppress" banners, I have no choice but to view them. It interests me that banners are everywhere, but they don't know who I am. They are funny when they let me know that there are "singles in my area," but the banner shows some nubile, pouty young lady. Hey sister, I'm gay, and I live with a partner.
You know, I am all for capitalism and commerce, but ads that cannot be avoided, and intrusive programs that cannot be uninstalled or ignored, just irks me. Where are the ad-free spaces? Even LiveJournal sold-out when it discontinued its "basic" service; a service that gave its users the option of an ad-free space. In protest, I scaled-back my "plus" account to a basic account, just so LJ cannot make money off of me.
Is this why ARPANET was declassified?
The Interent =
⊕