MESSAGE
| DATE | 2004-09-19 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir Secretary NYLXS
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [hangout] Big Oppurtunity for the Ready Free Software Enterprise Desktop
|
I found this today on page 1 of the Sunday Business Section in the NY
Tines today, with full color graphics and everything.
I read it will ripping some CD's and listening to the ballgame from the
MLB site, and listening to some .ogg files of Peggy Lee.
This article might be the clue stick for some underinformed individuals
that read this list causually. Who knows? Either way, its a huge
$$opputunity for someone with our enterprise ready desktops. I see Novell
pitching hard it's enterprise ready SuSE desktop solutions...
The rest of the article is at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/19/business/yourmoney/19gator.html Have
a good Sunday everyone. I got a date to catch...
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Barbarians at the Digital Gate By TIMOTHY L. O'BRIEN and SAUL HANSELL
Published: September 19, 2004
Jeff Crosby
Graphic: A Service With Ads Attached
Topics Alerts Computers and the Internet
Dan Krauss for The New York Times Jeffrey McFadden, Claria's chief
executive, says, "Consumers find value in relevant advertising."
ARSTEN M. SELF, who oversees a children's computer lab at a youth center
in Napa, Calif., spends about a half-hour each morning electronically
scanning 10 PC's. He is searching for files and traces of code that
threaten to hijack the computers by silently monitoring the children's
online activities or by plastering their screens with dizzying - and
nearly unstoppable - onslaughts of pop-up advertisements.
To safeguard the children's computers, Mr. Self has installed a battery
of protective software products and new Web browsers. That has kept some -
but by no means all - of the youth center's digital intruders at bay. "You
would expect that you could use these systems in a safe and sane way,
but the fact of the matter is that you can't unless you have a fair
amount of knowledge, time to fix the problems and paranoia," he said.
The parasitic files that have beset Mr. Self and other frustrated
computer users are known, in tech argot, as spyware and adware. The
rapid proliferation of such programs has brought Internet use to a stark
crossroads, as many consumers now see the Web as a battlefield strewn
with land mines.
At the same time, major advertisers and big Internet sites are
increasingly tempted by adware's singular ability to display pop-up ads
exactly when a user has shown interest in a particular service or product.
"Adware has its place, but to grab market share I think a lot of companies
are doing things that make consumers feel betrayed," said Wayne Porter,
co-founder of Spyware-Guide.com, a Web site that tracks adware and
spyware abuses. "I think we're at a very important inflection point that
is going to decide how the Internet operates."
The exact definitions of spyware and adware, like many things in the
ever-changing world of the Internet, remain open to debate. But spyware
generally refers to programs that reside in hidden corners of a computer's
hard drive and record confidential information like keystrokes, passwords
and the user's history of Web site visits. Some of the most insidious
versions have to be installed on a computer by someone other than the
user - maybe a jealous spouse or lover.
Adware, for its part, marries old-fashioned highway billboard pitches to
online distribution and the possibility of immediate response. Adware
vendors range from fly-by-night operators who hawk pornography and
gambling, wherever they can, to more legitimate companies like the
Claria Corporation, which tries to aim its ads at the consumers deemed
most likely to respond, based on their surfing habits. Claria alone has
about 29 million users running its adware products on their computers,
according to comScore MediaMetrix, an Internet research firm. That
compares with 1.5 million users in early 2000, according to the company.
Some spyware creeps onto a computer's hard drive unannounced, often by
piggybacking onto other software programs that people download or by
sneaking through backdoor security gaps in Web browsers when consumers
visit certain sites. In other cases, consumers technically agree to
download the software, but critics say that the disclosures are hard
to find.
FOR all the differences between spyware and adware, their impact on
computers is pretty much the same: screens transformed into digital
versions of Times Square, and overburdened PC's that operate much more
slowly as they struggle with random and uncontrollable processes prompted
by the hard drive. Small wonder that consumers are throwing up their
hands in despair.
"From what consumers are telling us, they feel like their computers are
being taken away from them," Mr. Porter said. "We have some consumers
saying it makes them hesitant to use the Internet at all because of what
an annoyance it has become."
Reliable data about the booming adware market is scant, but consumer
complaints have become frequent and vociferous. Privacy watchdogs like
the Center for Technology and Democracy in Washington have called for
closer regulatory scrutiny of the industry. Legislation seeking to
protect consumers from abusive adware and spyware has been introduced
in Congress. One state, Utah, has even outlawed the installation of any
software without users' consent.
more avaiable at the URL above
Ruben
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__________________________
Brooklyn Linux Solutions
DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
http://fairuse.nylxs.com
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because it's either fair use or useless....
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