Symantec's Norton Internet Security is gone forever from from my laptop. Norton's list of sins is long but the highlights include enormous resource hog and a large drag on connectivity speed. Symantec grated on me even farther when I renewed the subscription 31 days early last year only to find the clock was reset to one year. That cost me 31 days ( Read more... )

While looking backwards through these posts it has come to my attention that I've never linked the list of XCP contaminated music CDs. So without further fanfare, here it is:

Complete list XCP loading music CDsKeep in mind that this is not a complete list of all the music CDs that bear more then just music. As this story unraveled itself it became ( Read more... )

Over the last couple months you've read my ranting and raving about Sony's incredibly short sighted attempt at digital rights management. The lesson learned from that debacle is there are companies operating without a clue or care about how their actions affect their customer's security or their computers. Nor do they seem to be overly concerned ( Read more... )

Andrew Kantor is becoming one of my favorite writers and columnists. His latest column for USA Today deals with proposed legislation that would put the FCC in charge of just about anything with video or audio outputs.
If this was law a few years ago, the entire digital music movement would have been stopped in its tracks. See, the RIAA fought tooth ( Read more... )

Because of those never-to-be-sufficiently-damned-scum-sucking-bastards at Sony I've attempted to disable the autorun feature on the CD-ROM in this Windows XP machine. I did so using the Computer Associates Registry Patch and verified manually that the value of autorun is set to Zero.

But still, the damn thing autoruns everything I feed it. Any

While out and about doing some shopping the opportunity to check on the CD stocks at several retailers presented itself. For the most part, retailers have flushed the vast majority of the contaminated back to Sony. The nice lady at the Best Buy on Apalachee Trail in Tallahassee said they "pulled them all" early last week ( Read more... )

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer did some checking and discovered music CDs containing the XCP malware is still on the shelves.BUYER, BEWARE. Spitzer's office dispatched investigators who, disguised as customers, were able to purchase affected CDs in New York music retail outlets -- and to do so more than a week after Sony BMG recalled the ( Read more... )

Symantec, McAfee, et al in bed with Sony's DRM?

While trying to assist a friend with the exorcism of the Sony XCP Trojan, I went to my trusted anti-virus / firewall company, Symantec, to see if they have a removal tool. They do have one on this page dedicated to the Sony XCP problem. However, the fine folks at Symantec don't seem to think there's ( Read more... )

Last Sunday I stopped for munchies on the west side of Jacksonville, FL. While sitting there eating, what did my eyes behold?


( Read more... )

This heartfelt and most sincere message is for the managers, administration and board of directors of Sony BMG Music Entertainment...

YOU

BASTARDS!!!That just about sums up my feelings for the low life, scum sucking, bottom feeding, sons of bitches (with apologies to bitches everywhere) at Sony that made a conscious decision to infect Windows and ( Read more... )