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Eliot Spitzer takes on spyware again

Tuesday, April 11th, 2006, by Fred (, No Comments »
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Eliot Spitzer is an ass, a scourge on capitalism who doesn’t mind littering his path to Albany with the hollow, zombie-eaten corpses of employers providing good jobs to Americans. But even a clock smashed with a hammer is right twice a day.

New York’s attorney general, Eliot L. Spitzer, sued another Internet pop-up advertising company, accusing it of secretly installing malicious programs on personal computers and sending ads through “spyware” that is already installed.Spitzer said Direct Revenue has installed millions of pop-up programs that also monitor the Internet activity of users. He asked a state court to stop the practice.

Prosecuting fraud is a legitimate use of the power of the AG. Spyware relies on secrecy, subterfuge and fraud to exist and spread. Lawsuits are unlikely to stop spyware, but every little bit helps.

[via Ace]

Compu-Promo

Wednesday, March 15th, 2006, by Fred (, No Comments »
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Pictures of old computers + Lileks = projectile liquid incident

univac_ii.jpg

It’s the Univac II. Says the 1969 headline: “Modern computers are replacing the Univac II – but they don’t have character.” In what sense, exactly? Have the new compters been caught stealing from the office coffee fund?Here’s the rather confusing story, appended to the back of the photo:

“When someone says there are ‘several lethal doses’ of electricity flowing through the wires, Univac II commands even more respect.”

How many doses do you need? Even the most sociopathic programmer doesn’t want to kill everyone in the IT department. Just that fargin’ icehole manager who wants him to reprogram the machine so it talks like the one in “The Forbin Project.”