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trishran
Skeptic Friend
USA
196 Posts |
 Posted - 08/05/2005 : 21:34:11
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I'm watching Dateline NBC right now [9:25 pm PST]. They are doing a show about porn spam. Yes, if you click on a spam, you can get up to 15 windows of content from a spam company - but that's true of non-porn spam, too.
Dateline literally showed a close-up of a woman saying, with anguish in her voice, "I can't believe nobody will protect me."
It's called a "delete key" lady!
Anyway, they're tracing back from porn spam to see who runs them. Sure, why not? Do it with regular spam, why doncha? I get waaay more of the latter. What I object to is that they are sensationalizing it - this is the "wild west" stage of the internet - there's no laws - "blasted with porn" - "animal sex is just data?" - "it's very much an cat & mouse game". And of course, they are trying to find the people associated with a site called "Spunk Farm" which features women and farm animals.
Come on, in this world of computer viruses, shouldn't you be careful about opening emails from people you don't know?
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Siberia
SFN Addict
Brazil
2322 Posts |
Posted - 08/06/2005 : 07:43:55 [Permalink]
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Yes. But spam is the least of my concerns.
It's not nice when a Trojan Horse is automatically downloaded into your computer, just when you click an apparently harmless link, and starts flooding your browser of choice with porn favorites, porn starting page, porn popups until your machine crashes. And you have to format it to get rid of it.
True story. |
"Why are you afraid of something you're not even sure exists?"
- The Kovenant, Via Negativa
"People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs."
-- unknown
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trishran
Skeptic Friend
USA
196 Posts |
Posted - 08/07/2005 : 18:33:57 [Permalink]
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| Yes, but it is the nature of the spam program, not the content that is the problem. Dateline NBC was making it sound like the problem was that it was dirty pictures, not the time and aggrevation that any Trojan Horse causes. |
trish |
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Dry_vby
Skeptic Friend
Australia
249 Posts |
Posted - 08/07/2005 : 18:48:27 [Permalink]
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Spam in porn, porn in spam.
Two methods to get trojan viruses galloping around your hard drive, and they both support each other like shit and stink. |
"I'll go along with the charade
Until I can think my way out.
I know it was all a big joke
Whatever it was about."
Bob Dylan
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Maverick
Skeptic Friend
Sweden
385 Posts |
Posted - 08/10/2005 : 01:52:26 [Permalink]
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| People never learn. If they did, there would be almost no trouble with spam, trojans and viruses anymore. A lot of trouble would be gone if they installed a firewall, antivirus and anti-adware, and if they patched their OS often, and used common sense when surfing the net. |
"Life is but a momentary glimpse of the wonder of this astonishing universe, and it is sad to see so many dreaming it away on spiritual fantasy." -- Carl Sagan |
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trishran
Skeptic Friend
USA
196 Posts |
Posted - 08/10/2005 : 18:52:54 [Permalink]
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Maverick Said: People never learn. If they did, there would be almost no trouble with spam, trojans and viruses anymore. A lot of trouble would be gone if they installed a firewall, antivirus and anti-adware, and if they patched their OS often, and used common sense when surfing the net.
This is what I'm saying. At a time when we are fighting a war whose start was justified by outright lies, an administration official outed an undercover spy as a vindicative response to her husband, and the multiple examples of election "errors" all of which were in favor of Bush in the last election [especially in Ohio and Florida, the latter state experiencing its second series of presidential election hijinks], a network TV news show goes after porn-spam that an individual can easily avoid with firewalls and by not opening email from people who you don't know." The whole WMD/spy scandal/election tampering series of events are not things that an individual can counter alone. |
trish |
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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard
USA
3834 Posts |
Posted - 08/12/2005 : 13:01:20 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Siberia
Yes. But spam is the least of my concerns.
It's not nice when a Trojan Horse is automatically downloaded into your computer, just when you click an apparently harmless link, and starts flooding your browser of choice with porn favorites, porn starting page, porn popups until your machine crashes. And you have to format it to get rid of it.
True story.
My brother got one that dialed 900 porn numbers every time he connected to the net, IE whenever he booted the computer. AOL's protection which they promote in their latest ad clearly is BS.
I now have him using Firefox and AVG virus protection. I kept telling him AOL was a stupid choice.
I don't want 'protection' per se but I fail to see why the mega spammers can't be prosecuted. There needs to be a do not spam list just as there is a do not call list. After all, they are mostly selling stuff so the idea they can't be traced is BS. Unless some one spams without the sellers consent (like a prank), all those product/service sellers could be prosecuted or at least regulated if free speech is the issue.
And while we're at it, maybe we should kill those idiots that respond to spam and keep the spam going. |
| Edited by - beskeptigal on 08/12/2005 13:02:49 |
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mike alexander
New Member
11 Posts |
Posted - 08/12/2005 : 16:17:34 [Permalink]
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I know. JUST DON'T OPEN THE DAMNED MAIL!
Let's be fair here, though. Most people using their computers and the internet have absolutely no idea what's going on under the hood. I mostly don't. It was just this year I learned there's something called a 'registry' and that it's important, although I can honetly say I have no real idea why. And my wife had not been able to open her e-mail for weeks, until by complete chance I found her TEMP file (well, one of the many TEMP files) was full and that stops you from opening new messages. Not that the OS said anything,and the guy at the service provider said to make sure your TEMP file is empty, but didn't mention there are SEVERAL different TEMP files, and it's so nice the system SAVES all that stuff in the first place, so if you ever want to reread wskABBF.tmp why, it's just RIGHT THERE!
I mean, last night I spent a pleasant couple of hours uninstalling and reinstalling my Norton firewall and antivirus, which had somehow gotten itself corrupted, and despite slowly and carefully following the instructions as exactly as I could, it took THREE tries to download the Live Update until the machine was satisfied. And when you call for help, you get someone who will helpfully ask if you autogyrated your POP3 into your MOM4 using your ActiveX (is that for soft-core porn? Do I need Active XXX for the hard stuff?)and whether your Linux Java is set to Maxwell House or Folgers-
WHACK!
Thanks, I'm feeling better now.
I'm not a total idiot, but most of this stuff is a complete puzzle to me. I download and run Adaware and SpyBot and Spyware and Norton but it's all point and shoot, with not much understanding of what's going on. It seems to me that if I want to keep my computer pristine I will end up spending more time on maintenance than actually USING the thing.
And don't even ASK about my adventures getting an update of Internet Explorer for Windows 98 so I could run a new program that doesn't need Internet Explorer. Feh. |
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trishran
Skeptic Friend
USA
196 Posts |
Posted - 08/15/2005 : 14:31:19 [Permalink]
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I understand about computers having serious problems due to infiltration by bostile programs - my sister in law couldn't send email for months [and even after, I would get spam with her name in the return address] I'm not saying don't investigate or prosecute people who intentionally do bad things to the computers of others.
What I most objected to was the sensationalizing of the Dateline program - making it sound like the worst part is that porn is breaching the walls of suburban homes, the full-face close-up of a woman saying, with strong emotion in her voice, "Nobody wants to protect me" as if she were in physical danger. I'm sorry. Problems with computer programs that invade computers by the millions are irritating, and can cost you money, but are not a danger to life and limb, like starting a war with false claims of WMDs which has resulted in thousands of deaths among both our troops, and among the people we were supposedly "saving".
It looked to me like Dateline was exaggerasting the problem to look like tough and aggressive reporters, while issues that really deserve such treatment are not being investigated by Dateline. Where was this kind of aggressive journalism when the Ohio elections were showing consistant "flaws" in favor of the GOP and none in favor of the Dems? Or when WMD/Iraq-9/11 claims were being floated? It's easy to be highly critical of something that everybody who owns a computer hates. |
trish |
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mike alexander
New Member
11 Posts |
Posted - 08/15/2005 : 15:41:42 [Permalink]
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| Oh, I agree completely. And given the sheer amount of erotica out there on the web, I can't help but feel that a whole lotta people are covering their faces and peeking between their fingers. |
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trishran
Skeptic Friend
USA
196 Posts |
Posted - 08/15/2005 : 15:49:44 [Permalink]
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| Well said |
trish |
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Valiant Dancer
Forum Goalie
USA
4826 Posts |
Posted - 08/17/2005 : 08:50:46 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by mike alexander
Oh, I agree completely. And given the sheer amount of erotica out there on the web, I can't help but feel that a whole lotta people are covering their faces and peeking between their fingers.
Reminds me of an old joke/possible real life event.
A little old lady called the BBC to complain that the signal for one of the BBC channels was being hijacked and a pornographic movie was playing. She complained about the three hours of the stuff she was "forced" to watch.
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Cthulhu/Asmodeus when you're tired of voting for the lesser of two evils
Brother Cutlass of Reasoned Discussion |
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mike alexander
New Member
11 Posts |
Posted - 08/17/2005 : 14:22:47 [Permalink]
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Or the other little old lady who called the police to complain about the teenagers walking past her house whistling dirty songs.
Or the third little old lady who called the police to complain about people skinny-dipping in the lake across the road. The next day she calls again to complain the people are still doing it.
"But we made them move a half-mile downshore," the cop said.
"But I can still see them in my binoculars," she replied.
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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard
USA
3834 Posts |
Posted - 08/18/2005 : 12:52:54 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by mike alexander
.....I mostly don't. It was just this year I learned there's something called a 'registry' and that it's important, although I can honetly say I have no real idea why. And my wife had not been able to open her e-mail for weeks, until by complete chance I found her TEMP file (well, one of the many TEMP files) was full and that stops you from opening new messages. Not that the OS said anything,and the guy at the service provider said to make sure your TEMP file is empty, but didn't mention there are SEVERAL different TEMP files, and it's so nice the system SAVES all that stuff in the first place, so if you ever want to reread wskABBF.tmp why, it's just RIGHT THERE!
I mean, last night I spent a pleasant couple of hours uninstalling and reinstalling my Norton firewall and antivirus, which had somehow gotten itself corrupted, and despite slowly and carefully following the instructions as exactly as I could, it took THREE tries to download the Live Update until the machine was satisfied. And when you call for help, you get someone who will helpfully ask if you autogyrated your POP3 into your MOM4 using your ActiveX (is that for soft-core porn? Do I need Active XXX for the hard stuff?)and whether your Linux Java is set to Maxwell House or Folgers-
WHACK!
Thanks, I'm feeling better now.
I'm not a total idiot, but most of this stuff is a complete puzzle to me. I download and run Adaware and SpyBot and Spyware and Norton but it's all point and shoot, with not much understanding of what's going on. It seems to me that if I want to keep my computer pristine I will end up spending more time on maintenance than actually USING the thing.
And don't even ASK about my adventures getting an update of Internet Explorer for Windows 98 so I could run a new program that doesn't need Internet Explorer. Feh.
Mike, don't you have teenagers? That's how I keep the baby maintained. To my son the stuff is a breeze. I know I could do all the same stuff but with the time involved to keep up, there's no need. I just let Mikey do it. (My son's name is Mike BTW if I hadn't said so before.)
I will say I was completely surprised how little my little brother knew about internetting. He has a successful business and does a lot of invoicing, etc., on the computer. But recently I found he was using AOL, eek, and worse he'd gotten such a bad infection he had to re-format his hard drive. The virus caused his computer to dial 900 porn numbers whenever he was connected to the net. He ended up taking the computer to a friend to fix as he couldn't figure out what to do. Mikey's helping him now too.  |
| Edited by - beskeptigal on 08/18/2005 12:58:17 |
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rickm
Skeptic Friend
Canada
109 Posts |
Posted - 08/18/2005 : 17:41:14 [Permalink]
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And of course it was the evil Canadians sending out the spam links to "Spunk Farm" via e-mail.
Ya see, our plan is to get Americans all flustered over spam e-mail, then while you are not expecting an invasion, we will strike, and make all Americans Canadians EH!
The biggest problem is that they'll sell a computer to just anybody. My mother is one who should not be allowed to own a computer. I told her to pray to god that he may protect her pc. I wonder if god's veil of protection covers personal computers.
I can see the adds now at future shop.
Holly crap I just noticed the virgin mary in the clouds of my desktop wallpaper. Oh wait, i'ts just clouds. |
How can I believe in God when just last week I got my tongue caught in the roller of an electric typewriter?
-- Woody Allen, Without Feathers, 1975 |
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soda_farl
New Member
43 Posts |
Posted - 08/18/2005 : 19:08:15 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by rickm
And of course it was the evil Canadians sending out the spam links to "Spunk Farm" via e-mail.
Ya see, our plan is to get Americans all flustered over spam e-mail, then while you are not expecting an invasion, we will strike, and make all Americans Canadians EH!
The biggest problem is that they'll sell a computer to just anybody. My mother is one who should not be allowed to own a computer. I told her to pray to god that he may protect her pc. I wonder if god's veil of protection covers personal computers.
I can see the adds now at future shop.
Holly crap I just noticed the virgin mary in the clouds of my desktop wallpaper. Oh wait,
i'ts just clouds.
Perhaps society would be better served if the underlying dynamics of porn and their impact upon society would be examined. For instance the mindset that allows porn to flourish, facilitates the trafficking of women and children. It would not be possible for the purveyors of porn to have successful commerical operations sans the dehumanization of humans. Typically, women and children involved in the porn industry have been the victims of sexual abuse, so to attempt to trivialize porn and its impact upon society is to turn a blind eye to the further victimization of the voiceless and the powerless in our society. |
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