Sort of OT, but relevant.

[Andrew]

The latest nasty "add-ons" from Kazaa and company:

http://slashdot.org/articles/02/09/27/084209.shtml

The main point is that a large number of client programs were distributed with a program that replaces the "affiliate links" when buying something online.  Amazon.com was affected, along with others.  So, while someone might click on my link to buy a movie, the program switched it to make Amazon.com think that Morpheus (a file sharing program company) should get the credit.

Honestly, I am not in this for the money (the site is currently in the red, mainly because I refuse to take pop-unders or pop-ups).   The site does cost a good bit to keep though.  In October I expect to see about 850K hits from about 250K visitors and  transfer over 200 GB of data.  Non-pop banner ads suck as far as income goes, so the main thing keeping me in (semi) balance is the affiliate agreements.  I noticed a slump in the Amazon.com ones this quarter, which means a little more than usual is coming out of my pocket.  I am thinking that the t-shirts will offset this some (about $3 per shirt goes to support the site), but I am just on the cusp of breaking even on the shirts overall at present.  They were paid for up front.

Anyway, this worries me and it is definitely fraud.  It violates the affiliate agreements and Amazon has already dumped Morpheus.  Coughing up some cash to keep the site going is in my budget, but if I lose a really large chunk of the movie sales I am in trouble - it will become a untenable position.

For those interested, Ad Aware is a good program that detects and deletes spyware and other stuff like this:
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/

Sorry for the booster speech, but this worried me.  In other, unrelated news, I thought tomorrow was going to be a day for woodworking and catching up on the site.  At about 1430 today a tasking came in for a funeral tomorrow.  The location is about 2 1/2 hours away, so it looks like I am booked (and I am senior, so presenting the flag is my burden - it never gets easier).  Maybe on Sunday...

[John]

That sucks! I haven't used any of those programs, but I was thinking of trying KazaaLite. Anyone know if this affects that version as well, or was that among the crap they removed?

[Squishy]

Please, everyone: Andrew is absolutely right about using Ad-Aware. It's part of my daily computer start-up, actually. I would recommend a firewall, as well, such as the free Zone Alarm, which will alert you to programs trying to "report back" without your knowledge.

I have found spyware hidden in my registry after using Windows Update; Zone Alarm detected a program attached to my Lexmark printer trying to access the Internet; I discovered Outlook Express generating "snapshots" of my Favorites/Bookmarks, mail, and History.

Zone Alarm's also good for cutting off Internet access without disconnecting, which is damned handy when caught in Pop-Up Hell.

The more of us fight this sort of crap, the sooner it ends.

[Susan]

I wouldn't recommend Zone Alarm, that program is a beast and can cause alot of conflicts, even frustration with running certain applications. And when trying to remove it , it completely cut me off from the internet until i ran my computer in safe mode to delete all known (and uknown) files associated with it) since uninstalling it..still leaves it all over your computer to wreak havok. I use the Tiny personal firewall program, I like to be able to have more control, and I hate programs that lock their meaty hooks onto my computer. That's almost as bad as spyware.

[raj]

I like Ontrack's system suite 4. (www.ontrack.com) It's got a firewall (I haven't seen any conflicts yet, and it's caught RealMedia phoning home as well as that Gator program.)  It updates farily often, plus you get a much better filemanager than Windows' (I get no commision for this)

[nshumate]

Diet Kaza is great for preventing the Kazaa spyware and scumware; you start it before starting Kazaa, and it keeps you safe.

(Death to Bonzi and his buddies!)

Nathan

[John]

>plus you get a much better filemanager than Windows'

 Not to put down your choice, but the best file manager I've seen is Windows Commander;

http://www.ghisler.com

[John]

>plus you get a much better filemanager than Windows'

 Not to put down your choice, but the best file manager I've seen is Windows Commander;

http://www.ghisler.com

[raj]

No offense taken, WC does look real good too.  I may download & play with it too.

[John]

>WC does look real good too. I may download & play with it too.

 I've been using it for quite a while now and I'd be lost without it. The default config with the big fonts looks kind of clunky, but once you customize it a little, it looks a lot better. About the only bad point is that the commands you can add to the button bar are limited. I couldn't get redirection to work (I wanted to be able to click a button and have it create a text file listing with the contents of an archive), so I had to resort to writing a small batch file and then having the button execute that. You also can't assign hotkeys to the commands you add to the button bar and there doesn't seem to be any way to have it process multiple files, one file at a time. It just feeds all the selected names to the command at once.