Famille Du Pentium

Thirty years ago, Bill Gates wrote a letter to the Homebrew Computer Club, accusing them of theft.  In this letter, Bill asks:

What hobbyist can put 3-man years into programming, finding all bugs, documenting his product and distribute for free?

Thirty years later, he has his answer:

– Linus Torvalds and another couple hundred
– Andrew Tridgell and another couple dozen
– Larry Wall and another couple thousand
– Marc Andreessen and who knows how many
– Repeat for several thousand other open source projects…

This is why people should simply not download anything off the ‘Net.  These guys have a blog entry that is, essentially, dedicated to taking apart spyware and malware from software you can download free from the internet. 

It starts innocently enough – download that cute puppy wallpaper or screensaver free HERE!  During the install routine, there is a dizzying and confusing array of windows popping up.  You just click through all of them.  

 Spying is the least of your worries.  The wittless ramblings of some poor schmo is of little use to them.  They change your system settings.  They even redirect you to different sites when you try to visit reputable online vendors.  Sometimes they infect you with viruses and rootkits. 

I like visiting these sites.  I run Mozilla on Linux.  Windows malware doesn’t do very much damage to my computer :).  You should read the blog, and be sure to avoid these sites. 

In my younger days, I used to, uh…. use… yeah, let’s say use 😉 DEC-10 systems running TOPS-10.  This was my learning ground when I was a kid.  Now, Paul Allen has ressurrected some PDP-10’s & 11’s over at PDP Planet.  You can even request a PPN!  Just follow the links to "Community…"