Dave Beauvais' Web Site

As I contemplate the purchase of a house, I’ve been giving some thought to what kinds of furnishings I’ll need to make into my home. For my dining room table, I think one of these will suffice. I have no idea how much they cost, but I suspect I won’t be getting one anytime soon with my current job.

Okay, I just saw a commercial for a razor called the Schick Quatro Midnight. The commercial implied that it would keep your face stubble-free into the evening — far longer than other razors can. Um, how does it accomplish this, exactly? Are they magically cutting the hair off under your skin so it doesn’t reach the surface as quickly? Must be some pretty raw faces out there if that’s the case.

Sorry, kind of a pointless post, but I wonder about these things.

This is a screenshot from a system I had to clean of spyware a few weeks ago at work. (Click the thumbnail for the full-size image.) You’ll note that not only does the system have three different spyware search toolbars installed, its home page has been hijacked, and it’s also running DateManager and PrecisionTime from the assholes at Gator Claria Corporation. Before I could make this screenshot I had to remove some other spyware in order to get the system stable enough that Explorer (and Internet Explorer) wouldn’t crash on startup.

Thank you, Microsoft, for making it possible for garbage such as this to install itself via Internet Explorer with little to no help from the unsuspecting user. That’s very kind of you since so many people are out there who would otherwise be unable to install this wonderful software. And an extra special thank you goes out to all the companies who are creating the garbage; I appreciate the job security that you provide me with!

I have nothing more to add to this SecurityFocus column than “amen.”

Internet Explorer sucks. Firefox rules!

Mike Healan of Spyware Info fame is becoming my hero when it comes to fighting spam and spyware. More on that in a couple minutes, though.

If you’ve never had to perform a spyware exorcism on a PC, consider yourself lucky. If you have, you know what a major pain in the ass the process has become recently. I’ve run into systems at work which required three different removal programs and nearly an hour of my time to clean completely. It’s a waste of my time and department resources, a waste of the users’ time, and it’s only going to get worse unless something is done soon.

I feel the greatest fault lies with the companies developing and spreading this software. They are rapidly blurring the line between spyware and virus by designing their software to actively resist removal and even polymorph to avoid detection by spyware removal tools such as Spybot Search & Destroy and Ad-aware. I’m sorry, but any software which comes back after being “uninstalled” or otherwise removed is a virus. Software which installs itself and runs using the name of a legitimate program to avoid being noticed during a cursory glance through a task manager is obviously hiding something — there is no legitimate reason for a piece of third-party software to be named “C:\Windows\SvcHost.exe.” (more…)

This is a list of the various electronic organizers and PDAs that I’ve owned over the years. (Hey, judging from some peoples’ forum post sigs, some folks are interested in this kind of stuff for whatever reason! )

List updated 2004-10-25 (more…)

Alright, this one goes out to all the idiots out there who seem to feel compelled to open and run each and every damn e-mail attachment they receive. Stop it! Stop. It. If you open and run an infected e-mail attachment, you personally are responsible for the thirty-seven infected messages that have shown up in my mailbox in the last two hours.

Get a virus scanner, keep it updated, and use it. They’re not that expensive, and some are even free. Most importantly, however, is to simply stop opening every attachment that comes your way simply because it’s there. The virus authors are relying on stupid people to do stupid things and the fact that these things spread so quickly around the world proves that there is no shortage of people who should be prohibited from operating a computer. I’m sorry if that sounds elitist and snobbish, but this crap must stop.