I've recently spent an inordinate amount of time trying to clear malware off of the PC that the kids use. Let me rephrase that - I've spent this time trying to clear one particular piece of "adware": Lop.com (aka Open Search Web, aka a bunch of other names). It seems that this amazing piece of junk just won't go away. Ad-Aware doesn't do it, Spybot Search & Destroy doesn't do it. Day after day it sits there spamming get-rich-quick-you're-a-winner and various adult popups, inserting toolbars and sending who knows what information back.
I've run Lop.com's "separate universal uninstall program" numerous times, only to have the reinfection occur minutes, hours or days later.
Which of course means that the application which is distributing this mess as a trojan is still doing it. Unless the "universal uninstaller" is re-infecting the machine. I'm not sure yet. It feels a little like one of those whack-a-mole games.
At this point I've resorted to uninstalling every application that I'm not absolutely, 100% certain I trust. This means no shareware, no demos of any app, etc, etc., since the "adware" is inserted as a trojan.
Really now. This is insane. Like everyone else I guess I'd grown gradually accepting of the frustration and time needed to keep a PC clean of malware. Having spent quite a bit of time working exclusively on my PowerBook lately though, my mind is now boggled. I guess I've just lost my patience.
In related and timely news:
"The infamous ìMad as Hell ñ Switching to Macî series, written by computer security expert Winn Schwartau, will come to an end Tuesday, September 13 when the 17th installment is published on the Security Awareness Blog."
Good reading, at the Security Awareness Blog.
Edit: It seems Norton Anti-virus detects Lop.com and claims to remove it. Hopefully this is the last I've seen of it...
Every so often a piece of software comes along that shows off just what you can do with a Macintosh.
CoverFlow is an app that lets you browse your (iTunes) albums based on album artwork:
Artwork is pulled from a variety of different sources, including two different online sites as well as iTunes itself. But it isn't just the artwork that makes this fun: the animation used during navigation is...entrancing.
Coverflow is available as a technical demo (it works wonderfully well for me), at http://www.steelskies.com/coverflow/HomePage.html
I understand that iBooks are pretty nice and saying that this is a cheap price would be a big understatement, but really now.
CNN.com - Panic ensues in rush for cheap laptops - Aug 16, 2005:A rush to purchase $50 used laptops turned into a violent stampede Tuesday, with people getting thrown to the pavement, beaten with a folding chair and nearly driven over. One woman went so far to wet herself rather than surrender her place in line.
(Via CNN.com)
