[Leaplist] Slightly OT: We're not dealing with amateurs here.

[Hank Lambert]

...so you're saying Micro$oft is bad? (Joke). I had mixed feelings about 
Micro$oft until I started doing IT work. When you maintain many clients 
who all run Micro$oft software, it really sinks in just how bad their OS 
really is, and how horribly bloated all of their software is. When their 
is a bad virus outbreak, and people's computers are damaged, their 
response is usually that their systems must not have been fully patched, 
which is why everyone should use automatic updates. Anyone using 
automatic updates on their Micro$oft computers must not have been 
damaged yet from their broken updates that will BSOD your OS. I have, 
and it hurts!

It baffles me how the world creates a standard, and then Micro$oft will 
break the standard and it's ok; and if you don't like it, too bad. 
Frontpage is a classic example. The code it creates is far outside the 
standard, but yet the Internet is flooded with sites that run from that 
poorly designed code. As long as you run Internet Explorer, their slow 
and dangerous browser, the Web pages will display correctly because they 
compensate for their own poor code. And what about their refusal to play 
nice with the .odt community? In what other industry would this type of 
behavior be tolerated?

An even bigger eye-opener is that the Micro$oft mentality is bleeding 
into other software manufacturers. Symantec's new corporate anti virus 
program breaks other third party programs, and they refuse to help us 
get the problem resolved (actually they refuse to acknowledge it's their 
fault). Another example is Symantec's purchase and destruction of 
Veritas's Backup Exec. Before Symantec purchased it, it was a rock-solid 
backup solution. It was difficult to set up on complicated jobs 
sometimes, but once you learned it, configuration and troubleshooting 
wasn't bad. It's performance was also outstanding. With the release of 
11d, Symantec's first release after purchase, it is the most unstable 
program out there. They have completely broken the software, and have 
yet acknowledged that there is a problem. Their answer is to deleted the 
jobs and re-create them. Maybe not a horrible solution if you have one 
backup server and only have to do it once, but if you are administering 
servers on multiple sites, are using autoloaders, and you have to a few 
times a week, it is no longer an acceptable solution.

I could go on and on, but I don't believe it's necessary in this forum.

Hank Lambert
KB4MTO
Certified Geek




pberry2 wrote:
> Steve Litt wrote:
>   
>> On Friday 11 January 2008 01:35, John Simpson wrote:
>>     
>>> On 2008-01-10, at 0247, Phil Barnett wrote:
>>>       
>>>> Only here because we'll have to deal with it in our everyday lives...
>>>>
>>>> http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&t
>>>> axonomyName=security&articleId=9056378&taxonomyId=17&intsrc=kc_top
>>>>         
>>> amateurs... meaning the talented but misguided authors of the rootkit,
>>> or the "geniuses" who write anti-virus programs which don't bother to
>>> check boot blocks?
>>>
>>> viruses have been installing themselves in boot records for YEARS...
>>> why is it news when a rootkit starts doing it?
>>>
>>> shame on you, symantec, mcafee, AVG, kaspersky, sophos, and all of the
>>> rest.
>>>
>>> and shame on you, microsoft, for writing such a shoddy excuse for an
>>> "operating system" to begin with.
>>>       
>> Correct me if I'm wrong, but couldn't I write a similar rootkit for Linux, 
>> always assuming I could trick the user into running it as root the first 
>> time?
>>
>> I could write a Linux program that:
>>
>> A: Installs the binary badguy program in some inode or blank part of a disk
>> B: Puts a jump to the badguy program in the code part of the boot block
>>
>> The badguy program implements the rootkit, or at least a way to get in without 
>> a password, and then acts as a bootloader for whatever was loaded by the boot 
>> block before the infection.
>>
>> I'm not saying Windows is a good OS, but I'm not sure the existance of a boot 
>> block rootkit proves Windows is shoddy.
>>
>> SteveT 
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>>
>>     
>
> Steve:
> Sometimes we give people who have evil intentions the benefit of all the
> compassion and doubt that is possible for a nation of people who seem to
> try to adhere to Christian standards.
>
> Our Justice System will coddle pedaphiles, holding them the 'innocent
> until proven guilty" on their second or fifth heinous criminal enterprise.
>
> The same holds true for Microsoft, and others, who prey upon the
> innocent, in effect stealing from all of us.
>
> It is nice of you to try to insert some 'balance' in the argument that
> Microsoft is not inherently evil, and has been the base provider of all
> that is evil on the Internet.
>
> I call it as I see it, and the root of all evil on the World Wide Web is
> the greedy, stomp-on-the-smaller-guy-monopolist Microsoft Corporation
> who promotes, or, at the very least tolerates, over a Million Microsoft
> Virus/Worms/bots/rootkits/exploits for more than 30 years!
>
> You and I know that if Microsoft Corporation made automobiles, hammers,
> or hairbrushes, OSHA would be all over them for the problems caused by
> their products.
>
> Why give Microsoft a 'pass' when the products obviously are the biggest
> POS scam-con game on the planet?  Shoddy?  Planned obsolescence and poor
> competency are the goal of Microsoft!
>
> There is no other explanation, unless one does believe that Microsoft
> was integral in voter fraud on a national scale, in collusion with Diebold!
>
> The 'badguy' is Microsoft, because Microsoft products are full & open
> invitations to crack and to break into the systems and networks of
> innocent persons and the 'competition'.
>
> Microsoft is EVIL and will corrupt your wife and children!  When a thief
> enters your abode in the dark of night, he is there to kill you.  Deadly
> force must be exercised.  Microsoft must die.
>
> Run away to GNU/Linux, where warm, loving penguins will party with you,
> and offer good times in a safe environment!
>
> I am converting evil to good, one computer at a time, with the LiveCDroms.
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>