BadToad said:
Look, either you want to take the piss out of me and slag off my experience when you have no idea what I do or you want to be my friend. Which is it?
Well I'm just trying to slag and counter the things you said about my experience and generalisations as to what I couldn't possibly know. But I would love to "kiss and make up" as it were, and drop our argument and just mutually acknowledge that we both know a lot about what we're talking about.
lubidog, that has nothing much to do with OS security, that has to do with user security (which you may not have been in control of).
lubidog said:
I have no idea what goes on under my keyboard, and don't want to. Why should I? I use my lptop for the purposes I bought it-I didn't buy it to learn how it works.
I get very unsettled when I hear something like that. Obviously, you don't and shouldn't need to be a Computer Science Major to use a computer, but they are incredibly powerful with huge potential, and things that many people trust their livelihoods with (your eBay account, businesses, credit card billing, etc.). Believe it or not I'm not about 'bashing n00bs' or flaming people. I'm about telling people how to be more in control of their computers so they don't get screwed over by something they
own.
I only know it's better cos you guys told me. Why should people know that internet explorer is SO bad? Why should I know that activeX is awful?
Because you're doing financial transactions with it! You're putting your money on the line with something that you're not sure of how it goes about its business. Would you rather store your money in a dollar-store safe under your bed, or in a National Bank that has a protection plan? Like I said, it's your own livelihood, and some people are being haphazard with it. That what a lot of people are trying to get across when others see them as flaming newbs or whatever. Your machine could get zombied, your information stolen, and worse -- how could you not make yourself research into how to protect your investment?
So before you shout down my neck about being a moron, I'm as careful as a non nerd can be! It's just very easy to get spyware! The people that write this are serious criminals. Iignotus, you could be done, probably not by the above scam, but you could. Anyone could. Even Bill Gates!
You have to be
more careful. It's the responsibility you need to take when you're using a computer. Just because nearly every house in the U.S has a computer doesn't mean that it's targeted to pedestrians. That's one misconception that many people have going on to a computer -- that they are safe when dealing with things like their money. With some people, it's like they're getting in a car without knowing how to drive well (which happens too often as it is). And of course anyone could get duped, but not only is the scheme you mentioned really quite basic and easily avoidable if you know the proper precautions (honestly! it really is! I'm not saying that to make you feel stupid), but the more that you know about your computer, the safer you are.
The point of people like me, with my mindset at least, is to try and help those that aren't as safe as they can be. Sometimes it comes off wrong because we get frustrated trying to tell people things that they either think they know all about, or things that they simply don't understand. Sometimes it comes off wrong sheerly out of personal zeal. But I can say personally that my intentions are much more on the side of trying to help people than to make fun of them.
Just to clear up my original post regarding the topic: I don't care what you all
think my intentions are, It was the best advice he got up until that point, as fact always is. It is his fault for having his computer fuck over that badly, as one or two viruses/worms generally don't do something that devestating. And he also clearly (to me) wasn't formatting his hard drive, he was just re-installing windows, which does nothing but re-install some executables and dlls. It doesn't patch his system, it doesn't remove viruses, it doesn't do anything. It's a common newbie mistake, something that I've guided people through doing properly dozens of times.
c0ncept said:
no. my definition of hypocrite is someone whose every post in this thread contains an insult complaining that he's being insulted.
Learn complaint versus retort, please.
and as for this, could you possibly be any more elitist? Hmmm...?
Just drop it guy, stop trying to get quick shots in. He is technically right. However, the purpose is not to sit back and laugh at people who get screwed over by criminals, it's to help them. And I disagree with "getting themselves into trouble", but you can't throw caution to the wind.
