Auto-update software...

["Scott D. Yelich" <scott () SPY ORG>]

On Tue, 12 Sep 2000, Lincoln Yeoh wrote:
> But forget all that, the more relevant issue here is - does the software
> actually do all that the original poster claims? Does it snarf passwords?
> Has anyone else verified that?

To me, the relevant issue is all these stupid programs that contantly
remind you to either register or "upgrade" to the latest version.  For
instance, one of the real-player upgrades -- you could select the "free"
version on each page up until the one just before where you got the
software, and the server would *always* select the commercial version
for you... so, after selecting free and filling out all the garbage
forms, one *might* not notice that the selection had "changed" to the
commercial version.

I'm really annoyed at software that seems to have to be "updated"
frequently... I'm sure there would be a major outcry if something really
annoying were to happen, but it seems like this is only a matter of
"when" .. not "if".

Another thing is shareware -- that's almost becoming a dirty word in  my
vocabulary.  It's necessary to replace many components or add to the
lacking components of winblows just to be able to work -- yet, one needs
a matrix or dates just to be able to start up a computer.  I live by
suspend -- even though windows 98 just can't seem to run for more than a
day or two without losing its mind... and then the inevitable reboot
takes 30 minutes to get back to where you were.

Again, just an example... I'm sure everyone has thought about it: XYZ
popular app company gets cracked and some wily cracker puts some nasty
code in some "auto-update" section... even when the first unsuspecting
user auto-dls this, the code will be running... no need to click on an
attachment.  How long will it take for this to be noticed?

To me, the PC, with winblows, is becoming a "black box" ... it just
"magically" does stuff.  It just magically does a lot of truly EVIL
stuff and the general public isn't aware of what's actually going on.
How soon after gore becomes president will tipper try to get some secret
software onto everyone's pcs to monitor their morality?

How do people adress this?  I'm about to go dual -- not dual boot, but
dual PC.  One PC is for real use/work/etc... and another is for net use.
The "real work" PC will never get connected to the net.  Ever.  The net
PC should never have real information about "me" on it... then I won't
really care too much if some place is tracking that I prefer abcnews.com
over cnn.com or hate cnn.com because of akamai.net's so broken it's
silly.

Scott