David Kelsen

Month: July 2008

  • I Hate Email Campaigns that make YOU look like an IDIOT!

    Recently my wife recieved a well intentioned email from a friend who forwarded a message because she was genuinely concerned. Here’s the message:

    From:xxxx@xxxxx.com

    Sent: July 22nd, 2008

    To: xxxx@xxxxx.net

    Subject: Virus notification

    This is true!

    >>>
    >>> Hi All, I checked with Norton Anti-Virus, and they are
    >>> gearing up for this virus!
    >>> I checked Snopes (URL above:), and it is for real!!
    >>> Get this E-mail message sent around to your contacts ASAP.
    >>> PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AND
    >>> CONTACTS! You should be alert during the next few days. Do
    >>> not open any message with an attachment entitled
    >>> ‘POSTCARD FROM HALLMARK,’ regardless of who sent it
    >>> to you. It is a virus which opens A POSTCARD IMAGE, which
    >>> ‘burns’ the whole hard disc C of your computer. This
    >>> virus will be received from someone who has your e-mail
    >>> address in his/her contact list. This is the reason why you
    >>> need to send this e- mail to all your contacts. It is
    >>> better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the
    >>> virus and open it. If you receive a mail called’
    >>> POSTCARD,’ even though sent to you by a friend, do not
    >>> open it!< /FONT> Shut down your computer immediately.
    >>>
    >>> This is the worst virus announced by CNN. It has been
    >>> classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever.
    >>> This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is
    >>> no repair yet for this kind of virus. This virus simply
    >>> destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital
    >>> information is kept.
    >>>
    >>> COPY THIS E-MAIL, AND SEND IT TO YOUR FRIENDS. REMEMBER: IF
    >>> YOU SEND IT TO THEM, YOU WILL BENEFIT ALL OF US Snopes
    >>> lists all the names it could come in.
    >>>

    Truth:

    No one actually checked with Norton, CNN never broadcast anything about it, and Microsoft never classified it.  But that’s not to say that there isn’t some truth in it.  In fact, this is partly true.  Most of the body of this message emanates from a hoax beginning around the year 2000 (see http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/virtualcard.asp ).  As you will see if you follow the link.  However, there is a virus that began spreading last year using “You’ve Received a Postcard from a Family Member” as the bait, (see http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/postcard.asp ) Please do follow that link to see the variations of this virus.
    If infected it will not “burn” your hard disc, but that’s not to say it’s not harmful.  In fact, it wouldn’t need to burn your hard disc if it had complete and total control of your machine.  Most likely it would lodge itself someplace where you wouldn’t find it, and call on your machine (again without you noticing anything, other than sluggish performance) to carry out DOS (Denial-of-Service) attacks on unsuspecting websites and ISP’s.  Or worse still, install a keylogger on your system to capture every keystroke you make.  If that scares you, I apologize, but all is not lost.  If you’re worried now, than go to http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ for a FREE online virus scan.  Be forewarned, this scan can take anywhere from 20 mins to 2 hours depending on your machine, but it’s totally worth it.  Trend Micro has been around for several years, updates constantly and the free online scan doesn’t install any clunky software on your machine.  If you do a lot of web-surfing, start getting pop-ups or if you feel like your computer is really slow (this could actually be a number of things we don’t have time to go into) then check in on Trend Micro once a week or so for a cleaning.

    Dave

  • Gene Simmons is Irrelevant

    If there was any doubt that Gene Simmons was irrelevant, the following article from Afterdawn.com should clear up the confusion.  Record companies have been manipulating the public for decades.  A recent example includes a scam by Capitol Records.  Coldplay will be auditioning bands to open for them via YouTube videos for this summer’s tour (Rolling Stone – June 26th, 2008).  Have you heard the phrase “Giving up your first born”?  If you sign up and agree to the Contest Rules, you are essentially giving up all rights to your submission (read this). So if you finally wrote that Million dollar song, guess what, it doesn’t belong to you anymore.  Of course the onus of this little trick is on you, if you don’t read the fine print, it’s your own damn fault.  But there are plenty of other examples where record companies were not so forthright in the practice of their trade.  Record companies need to die, maybe not all of them, but there are several that are infected with the virus known as g.W_ep (greed with extreme prejudice).  And for an artist(?) like Mr. Simmons to defend that model shows exactly where his priorities lie.  Read on:

    “Last November Afterdawn.com reported that Gene Simmons, founding member of the rock group KISS, had gone off on Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead and college aged pirates, going as far as to call Radiohead “idiots” and saying “Every little college kid … should have been sued off the face of the earth,” for their unauthorized downloading of course.

    Gene Simmons is Irrelevant

    He has followed his last tirade with some new comments, this time again blaming NIN and Radiohead but more importantly, the music fans. “The record industry is dead,” Simmons notes “It’s six feet underground and unfortunately the fans have done this. They’ve decided to download and file share.” He then insisted that the aforementioned bands were “contributing to the demise of the record industry” by using new intelligent sales models that apparently he does not approve of.

    When asked why KISS had not released a new CD since 1998’s ‘Psycho Circus’, Simmons added that “there is no record industry around so we’re going to wait until everybody settles down and becomes civilized. As soon as the record industry pops its head up we’ll record new material.”

    Of course, he neglects to note that at every turn the “dead” music industry continues to push consumers away, using the RIAA watch dog to sue children, grandmothers, and even deceased members of society while failing to confront the real problems the industry faces.

    It is also important to note that Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails’ “idiotic” experiments have raked in millions of dollars for the bands, with little overhead and more importantly, no revenue sharing with the labels. They gave the fans what they wanted, and the fans responded. What a crazy model no?”

    Lastly,

    Music fans have been sharing music since there was music to share.  Some marketing analysts might even consider this behavior a form of free advertising.  Historically, the RIAA has sued or lobbied against any form of recordable device or media.  Why…, g.W_ep, of course.  Their stance is that if you buy a record or CD, but want to hear the music you just purchased on a cassette player, than you need to buy the tape as well.  Enough is enough.

    Downloading songs from the internet has and should change how music is distributed.  Imagine this, what if musicians/artists/bands relied on live performance for the majority of their income.  As if their talent and ability were the driving force behind their success instead of knowing someone or buying your way into a deal. Don’t get me wrong, awe-inspiring talent exists, but explain Milli Vanilli to me.