[OT] MacDefender

[stephen barncard]

Touched a nerve. Sorry for the soapbox.

Actually most mac users are USED to seeing these cheezy popups which always
lie and the ads usually refer to Windows (the links are zip files that fail
harmlessly).

Most mac users are informed enough about this stuff to ignore it anyway.
 The fact that there was ANY mac virus would be a red flag and send me to
google to find out if anyone had already seen this.   Most times, I would
find out this was old news and scores of reports about this 'virus'.   It
still requires the user to 'click on something' - to participate. So Surfer
Beware.

This looks like something that some clever kids did to 'see if they could'.
The giveaways were the odd UI and colored buttons. Anyway, if you've
downloaded and installed this thing, then you get what you deserve. Any app
I'm going to install or buy will have to be investigated first before I let
it touch my hard drive.

a. Do they have a website? Is it cheezy or well formed? It take time and
money to make a real site for a product. It involves professionals and
effort. *Snakes and Alligators* *(thanks to Jim Ault for his term for net
criminals)*  that do this don't care about the fine details - they're just
looking for suckers.

b. Do they have a 'shopping cart' and other products? Support?

c. are there independent, legitimate reviews of the product?

Virus protection is just not needed at all on most macs if one just
practices safe computing habits and use a firewall. I usually have 3-4
machines running all the time here - no viruses since 1999.

I find it absurd that Windows users still have to put up with that annoying
McCaffee crap on install.(and how the hell do you remove it forever?)

 I don't like going through the hassle and time of another Windows install,
then being greeted by another app that's asking for protection money.

 Virus protection should be the job of the Operating system, not some
outside outfit.  How do I know that 'outside outfit' isn't making  the
viruses themselves?  Isn't that how organized crime works in the
neighborhood? Who decided McCaffee was going to be 'the one' ?

On 19 May 2011 06:13, Richmond Mathewson <richmondmathewson at gmail.com>wrote:

> Dangerous sh*t:
>
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13453497
>
> --



Stephen Barncard
San Francisco Ca. USA

more about sqb  <http://www.google.com/profiles/sbarncar>