Comments on: Boing Boing gets a big shovel, spreads BS

By: Boingin mah time cube

Boingin mah time cube — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 05:36:39 +0000

Watch out for that shovel, it will be welded to the front of the webserver. Then the server will use its spyware to control its wheelchair to ram it into its enemies! A truly destructive tactic, one of which we should be wary.

I would like to shovel the obfuscation off the Cubic Truth. Only then will we become aware of Time Cube.

By: christopher baus

christopher baus — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

Boing Boing annoyed me enough that I unsubscribed. It is turning into a political forum.

By: Eirik Solheim

Eirik Solheim — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

This is even more scary that the Microsoft – Claria story itself! BoingBoing seems to be as thrustworthy as an average TukTuk driver in Bangkok. Not good.

By: Jacob Kaplan-Moss

Jacob Kaplan-Moss — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

Not to distract you from the boing-boing-bashing — fun, isn’t it? — but I should point out that they did in fact print a correction pretty damn quickly.

Conveient to ignore that fact, eh?

By: Ed Bott

Ed Bott — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

See my update, Jacob. The original, uncorrected story is still live at Boing Boing, and the “corrected” version is still wrong.

By: Chook

Chook — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

I too unsubed from Boing Boing a while back. They are the techy version of Current Affair. Which probably explains why they are so popular.

By: Stan Krute

Stan Krute — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

Gator/GAIN/Claria is still a producer
of spyware/adware.

Just yesterday I spent an hour removing
their crap from two clients’ computers.

They can paint themselves with all the
PR that money can buy … but they’re
still purveyers of scum.

– stan

By: Ed Bott

Ed Bott — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

Stan, I haven’t said one word in defense of Claria. Quite the opposite. There’s plenty to criticize using the actual facts instead of fantasy, which is what appears in the Boing Boing story.

By: Joseph

Joseph — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

I took a class from De Long at Berkeley. He wrote on the chalkboard alot and strangely would lick all the chalk off his fingers and eat the chalk. It was weird. My classmate and I speculated that he was just hungry. Either that or he really loved the taste.

By: Stan's Good Twin

Stan's Good Twin — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

Stan? Come back home. You need your medicine. Please! Mom’s worried.

By: John

John — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

So why did MS update the Windows’ antispyware app so that it advises users to ignore Gator spyware anyway?

By: Ed Bott

Ed Bott — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

MSAS detects the GAIN adware components and then assigns Ignore as the recommended action. It also detects the attempt to install the software and gives the user the option to block it.

Apparently, sometime early this year, Microsoft changed this classification for several prominent adware makers. Follow the link in my 7/10 update to read why Microsoft says they did this and to get my reaction.

By: Sam Murphy

Sam Murphy — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

Can’t wait to hear the slashdot commentary when a few irresponsible bloggers get sued up the kazoo.

By: Stan Krute

Stan Krute — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

Hi Ed

You noted:

> I haven’t said one word in defense of Claria

Umm, yes and no. It’ this phrase that
triggered my post:

> Reasonable people can argue that that’s a bad decision

I don’t agree. Gator/Claria STILL puts out
scumware. I’m in the trenches every day
removing it. Microsoft deciding, under pressure
from one or more well-funded producers of such
crap, to not recommend it’s removal, is sad/silly/pathetic/choose your own adjective.

Your 7/10 update gets a bit closer to reality.

– stan

By: Stan Krute

Stan Krute — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

Hi Ed

> I haven’t said one word in defense of Claria

This is the sentence that triggered my post:

> Reasonable people can argue that that’s a bad decision

I must disagree.

Claria/Gator still produces scumware.
People have to pay me to take it off
their systems. Add/Remove Programs does NOT
do it.

C/G has hired a former FTC
lawyer as their “privacy” front man, used
that connection to somehow get installed on
the Homeland Security advisory team, and
pushed Microsoft into having the MS software
not immediately nuke the GAIN crap. Money may talk,
but it still can’t walk.

Microsoft yielding to their delisting pressure is pathetic. I can’t imagine
a reasonable argument justifying the change.
Look forward to hearing one if you think you’ve
got it.

– stan